J9 Automation Engine - Version 0.17, New Thin Client Touch Screen Viewer apps, Fixes, Enhanced SDK Options

[johnnynine]

Version 0.17 is now available for download. Please be aware that the v0.15 & v0.16 beta expires very soon so please upgrade.

This version introduces a new Remote Touch Screen Protocol which paves the way for new thin client touch screen viewer applications on non-Windows devices. New Touch Screen Viewer Lite thin client PC and PocketPC applications which use this new protocol are included in this installation as well as driver enhancements, fixes, and SDK enhancements.

If you are a developer interested in creating a thin client touch screen viewer app for a different platform please see the Remote Touch Screen Protocol documentation.

For a complete list of changes, please review the Change History.

Touch Screen Viewer Lite Applications
* The new Touch Screen Viewer Lite application for Windows PCs is a light weight thin client application recommended for use when connecting from the internet, from a portable usb flash drive for use anywhere you go, or on slower pc's.
* The new PocketPC Touch Screen Viewer Lite application replaces the previous PocketPC application as it is faster and supports more user interface controls.
* The new Touch Service is a network distributed service which provides touch screen interface display data for the applications supporting the new Remote Touch Screen Protocol.
* For documentation of the different Touch Screen Viewer applications please see the documentation.

Device Driver Changes
* New enhancements and fixes have been applied to the J. River Media Player, Nuvo Grand Concerto, Host Monitor, SMTP and W800 device drivers.

Device Driver SDK
* The device driver SDK has received numerous new features as well as a few interface name changes.

Thanks for all the great user feedback and user provided device drivers. If you are a .net software developer and are interested in a free software license, please see the Device Driver Development Incentive Program.

Johnny

[johnnynine]

Version 0.17.0.1 is now available for download. Please be aware that the v0.15 & v0.16 beta expires very soon so please upgrade.

If you installed version 0.17, it is highly recommended that you upgrade to 0.17.0.1.

Thank you everyone for your feedback on version 0.17. This release patches several bugs and improves the Boolean and Image List touch screen controls.

Touch Screen Builder
* The Boolean control can now be associated with a boolean device property, which does NOT require any scripting and automatically toggles the property value when clicked.
* The Image List control now supports binding to a boolean device property which supports binding.
* The Device Property Binding panel's device list and property list are now sorted alphabetically.
* Fixed an issue that caused adding a newly added Boolean control to have an invalid name.
* Fixed an issue which caused the Text Macro Editor to incorrectly format macros.
* Fixed an issue which cause the Image List Device Property Binding panel to show properties with values which are not enumerable.

Touch Screen Viewer(s)
* Fixed an issue that caused the Boolean control to sometimes not show the correct text and image at first.

Touch Service
* The touch screen definition cache is now cleared every 30 seconds.
* Fixed a potential threading issue when refreshing controls.
* The touch service now refreshes all control display values every 60 seconds.

Device Support
* Fixed an issue in the Insteon driver that cause it to not set the light level properly for received Dim/Bright commands.

Configuration
* Improved the performance of the rules editor table drawing.

Johnny

[johnnynine]

Version 0.17.0.2 is now available for download. Please be aware that the v0.15 & v0.16 beta expire very soon so please upgrade.

This is a quick release with a few more bug fixes and enhancements based on user feedback.

Configuration
o Rules which are associated with deleted devices can now be reassigned to a different device.
o Rules which are associated with a driver that no longer exists (rare) can now be deleted.
o The Rules Report now shows more details about Whenever Filters.

Touch Service
o Fixed an issue that caused the control refresh timer to not be disposed.

Touch Screen Viewer
o Improved the performance of the boolean control toggling an associated boolean device property.
o Improved the performance of the offset button control offsetting a bound numeric device property.

Touch Screen Builder
o Fixed an issue that prevented dynamic properties (such as global variables) from being associated with a Boolean control.
o Fixed an issue that caused the Boolean control to not display text or an image when designing.
o Fixed an issue that caused the Boolean control to attempt to toggle an associated readonly property value.

Johnny

[johnnynine]

There appears to be a memory leak in the version 0.17 line. You may notice that the Driver Service is using much more memory than it needs. If you are experiencing this issue please let me know what drivers you are using as it will help determine the root of the issue.

We are looking into this and will have an update soon.

Johnny

[mustangcoupe]

here is a quick list

UPB
Media
image
NOAA Weather (2 but dont know why LOL)
ELK
W800
net caller ID
HTTP(WEB driver)
time and date
Timers (2 and still dont know why I did that)

[johnnynine]

Mustang, if you can... I recommend the Weather Channel driver over the NOAA driver. It provides more weather data than NOAA.

Johnny

[johnnynine]

Version 0.17.0.3 is now available for download. Please be aware that the v0.15 & v0.16 beta have now expired so please upgrade.

This release addresses few stability and memory issues in previous 0.17.0.x releases.

Configuration
o If a network error occurs when saving a device or rule, the error details are now shown.

New Windows Performance Counters
o Added a counter for the number of current connected Touch Clients.
o Added a counter for the number of currently running scripts.

Reliability and Diagnostics
o Added more exception handling to the Touch Service.
o If an error occurs in a script the log message now better identifies which script was running.
o Fixed a memory leak in the Touch Service.
o Fixed an issue in the Touch Service that could cause it to crash after a client disconnected.
o Fixed an issue that caused the CPU to max out for several seconds after a Touch Client disconnected.
o The TcpCommunication object in the SDK now immediately detects client disconnections.

Johnny

[mustangcoupe]

Are these changes only to the server side of things? or the client also? and if the client also does it effect the lite client?

[johnnynine]

Are these changes only to the server side of things? or the client also? and if the client also does it effect the lite client?

Most of the changes were to the server components however you will need to upgrade all the components with the exception of the lite clients. The older PocketPC Viewer and the lite PC viewer should work even if you don't upgrade them, however they did receive an important change so I would recommend it.

Johnny

[johnnynine]

Version 0.17.0.4 is now available for download. Please be aware that the v0.15 & v0.16 beta have now expired so please upgrade.

This release addresses a major bug in the Touch Screen Builder application.

Touch Screen Builder
o Fixed an issue that caused an error after clicking OK in the Inner Touch Screen control properties window.

Touch Client
o The mouse cursor is now displayed as the wait cursor when the application is communicating with the server.

Johnny