Latest Release

1.7.1

April 6, 2023

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What's New

Reflow Version 1.7.1

This release includes major updates to History charts, the Alarms system, Building maps, and more. It also includes bug fixes and minor updates to other systems.


Alarms

  • Alarm Sounds
    • Alarm consoles can now have sounds configured per class under the Alarms > Alarm Console > Alarm Sounds menu
    • Each of the 11 sounds has been created or curated by our team to be pleasant yet attention grabbing in any environment
    • Sounds will be played when the console refreshes and a new alarm record is transitioning into a fault, offnormal, or alert state


  • Dynamic Row Styles
    • Find these options in Alarms > Alarm Console > Table Styles & Columns
    • Alarm table rows can be styled based on source state (alert, fault, offnormal, normal) or acknowledgement status
    • A color can be selected for each state/status and separate options for the row border, background, cell text, and action button can be toggled to use this color
    • The icons that appear in the Ack State column for acked/unacked records can now be customized


  • Consoles can now be set to display the active alarms page by default
  • The Alarms configuration menus have been reorganized to accommodate the new features and options



Histories

  • Charts
    • Multiple Y Axis Support
      • Charts now display Y-axes on both the left and the right side of charts when values with differing unit facets are displayed
      • The primary Y-axis (left) is chosen based on which history was added to the chart first, the second history added with a differing unit facet will set the secondary axis and all other histories with differing facets will add additional options to the secondary Y-axis
      • Y-axes can be swapped by clicking on the axis label
      • Hovering over a Y-axis label will isolate the histories associated with it in the chart
    • Hovering over a legend item will isolate the corresponding history in the chart




  • History Index Page Group Filtering
    • The filter menu now deselects child groups when a parent group is deselected
    • While this new behavior feels better and makes more sense to end-users in the Reflow view, it will make it impossible to select parent groups without also selecting their children when using multiple tags in Niagara History Groupings. To account for this, a new Strict Group Picker option has been added to the Histories Index Page config. When enabled, this will return the group filter its pre-1.7.1 behavior.
  • Display names will now be shown instead of history names for remote histories that have a display name set



Buildings

  • Building Index Page
    • The building map configuration options have been reorganized in the configuration menu
    • Automatic counts for floors and devices on building cards and map popovers can be overridden in the new 'Device and Floor Counts' options
  • Maps
    • Map Marker Styles are now available in the Building Index Page configuration
      • Marker styles allow you to set custom icons and colors for map markers; styles can be applied to buildings and groups
      • Building groups have a new 'Child Marker' style setting that allows you to set the default style of all markers for the group's children
      • The default options for map marker colors have been moved to the 'Default Marker Style' in the new Map Marker Styles menu in the Building Index Page
    • Groups can now have map markers
      • Markers will zoom to the group and display a popover card when clicked; both options can be toggled off in the group's configuration
      • A group's children can be hidden on the map when the group's marker is visible; this can be restricted to specific zoom levels allowing you to take a cluster of buildings and display a single marker for only the group until the user zooms to the specified level
  • A Map Marker menu option has been added to each Building's configuration; this can be used to set marker style and precise location information for buildings in one spot




Equipment

  • Devices can now be served by multiple devices. Up to two parent items will be shown in the device's title - when more than two served by parents are selected, a dropdown menu will appear instead




  • The Status Point property can now be set when remapping devices; a remap warning prompt will now appear when changing the Status Point of an Equipment Type on the Point Template



Dashboards

  • Building Map Card
    • The buildings that appear on this card can be filtered in the card configuration
  • Toggle Card
    • A new "None" option has been added for true and false actions. When this is selected the card will no longer be clickable by the user on the dashboard and will no longer display a pointer cursor
    • A new "Require confirmation" option has been added to display a customizable confirmation modal before an action is ran when the card is clicked
  • History Sparkline & Chart Cards
    • The styles for charts have been updated for these cards when they are used in a custom page with dark mode on
  • Table Card
    • Untitled/blank columns are now supported



Pages

  • Pages that use a building's sub navigation now use that building's hero content by default. This includes the hero image background and tint settings. This behavior can be disabled with the "Use Building Hero" switch in the Page Layout options of custom pages



Floor Plan Builder

  • A new macro 'Insert labels for missing equipment' has been added. Running this macro will insert labels for any devices associated with the floor that do not already have a label on the floor plan



Misc

  • Reflow will now monitor activity to stop the Niagara auto logout prompt from appearing when working in the Config View
  • Location pickers now display other building and group markers on the map as gray pins
  • Hyperlink pickers now support linking to the 'Active Alarms' page on a Building Alarm Consoles



Bug Fixes

  • Equipment
    • Room names now appear correctly on building equipment and floor plans when using a room slot that is in a containing folder on a device
    • Custom room names for devices on the equipment index page now properly override the room name slot if it exists in the device
    • Room names properly appear on device rows in equipment type summaries when viewed in table mode
    • Fixed an issue where deleting an equipment group type could leave the devices in the configuration, counting against license limitations
    • Point dropdown lists that appear when mapping Niagara points to Reflow device points are searchable again
    • Title content on device graphic pages now properly wraps above an embedded Niagara view instead of being cut off
  • Dashboard
    • Alarm Display Cards no longer retain references to deleted Alarm Consoles
    • Gauge cards no longer display zero values incorrectly when the lower limit is not zero
    • Niagara Point cards with a height of 'half' no longer stretch inverted titles to the full width of the card
  • Histories
    • Enum and Boolean style text will now center based on the visible width of the bar instead of the total width. This makes it easier to see the data when zooming into enums/Boolean charts
    • History dashboard cards and featured histories now properly carry custom colors over to chart pages
    • History names now display properly when choosing custom colors on history dashboard cards and featured histories
    • Boolean and Enum charts no longer appear to show data for future times in the range
    • History charts linked to from the Hyperlink Picker will now properly load
    • Fixed an issue where duplicate custom colors would cause charts to revert to default colors
    • Custom colors on History Chart Cards with comparison data now display correctly
    • Contextual Ranges - this data will now always appear as shaded diagonal lines when filled
  • Buildings
    • Updated configuration menu badge text for Buildings > Building > Histories to include the count of histories when filter by source is selected
    • The building status indicator now properly appears in building sub navigations on desktop/tablet
    • Groups no longer display as disabled buildings in the Building Markers list of the Building Index Page configuration
  • Schedules
    • The Schedules Index Page in the Reflow View will no longer appear blank if the Reflow Config View has never been opened
  • Alarms
    • The Source column on the Alarm Sources table will properly hide when toggled off
    • User interface elements in the sources table now respond properly when the most recent record for a source has been acknowledged
  • Floor Plan Editor
    • Fixed an issue that was preventing size and position properties from appearing when multiple elements were selected
  • Misc
    • Custom pages with links to other custom pages that have been deleted no longer appear blank due to permissions checks
    • Fixed a bug in custom global navigation options for user profiles where a "Delete Subnavigation" button was improperly appearing



Reflow 1.7.0 - 02/20/2023

This release includes major feature updates for Histories, Equipment, Schedules, and the Reflow Config user interface. Additional features, performance improvements, and bug fixes are included for nearly every Reflow system​


Histories

  • Enum and String Charts
    • These series types are no longer limited to tables and can now be plotted independently or alongside numeric and Boolean series types
    • When plotted with numerics, enum and string data will display at the bottom of the chart below the x-axis. When comparing with previous time ranges, the data from the previous range will appear at the top of the chart along the top x-axis





  • Boolean Charts
    • Boolean series now display in a manner consistent with the new enum and string designs, along the bottom of charts
    • The previous behavior of shading the entire chart to indicate true values can be re-enabled by going to the Histories > Chart Defaults configuration and turning on the 'Classic Boolean Style' option
  • Out of Range data
    • When data for a selected time range is not available in the series but past data for the history exists (indicating a change hasn't occurred in the selected time range), Reflow will chart the past value for the series
    • This interpolation on the chart is indicated by lighter, striped bars for Booleans, enums, and strings, and dotted lines with striped fills for numerics. Hovering over the series in the chart will indicate the time of the last write on the data tooltip
    • This feature can be toggled on/off under Histories > Chart Defaults > Contextual Ranges configuration
  • History Sources
    • When browsing histories in the Reflow View, cards and rows on the History Index Page now display the history's data source - the Niagara device/station that hosts the history.
    • The source display can be turned off with the 'Show Source Names' option in the Histories > Histories Index Page configuration
    • A 'History Sources' dropdown has been added to the filter pane when browsing histories on the history index page and selecting histories when creating charts




  • History Index Page
    • Sparkline previews now use the time range specified in the Histories > Chart Defaults configuration
  • Performance Optimizations
    • History Groupings support has been heavily optimized to reduce history list load times when history groupings are present in the station
    • Local Cache: History names, groups, and sources are now cached in browser so that future page loads are extremely fast. If histories, history groupings, or sources are modified on the station after a user has loaded the histories page in a session, they must refresh their web browser to see them. The Local Cache can be turned off in the Histories > Global Settings configuration
    • Station Cache: History names and groups can also be cached on the station. This will dramatically improve first load times on stations with 10,000 or more histories
      • The cache will be served to users for the time specified in the duration property, after which a new cache will be regenerated the next time a user requests history data
      • If the Station Cache is enabled, histories and groups added after it has been generated will not appear until the cache is regenerated either automatically after its duration or manually in the Station Cache configuration
  • Histories Config
    • Due to the increasing amount of History options, the Featured Histories, History Index Page, Chart Defaults, and Global Settings properties have been moved to their own configuration menus in the Histories configuration
    • History Picker
      • A new option has been added to filter by source (Niagara device/station that hosts the history)
      • The selected items can now be cleared using the 'Clear' button in the bottom left corner
      • The number of selected items and the 'Selected only' check box has been moved to the bottom left corner of the modal window

Equipment

  • Summary Export - an 'Export CSV' button has been added to equipment type summary pages
  • Custom durations are now supported in point actions that include a duration option
  • Equipment Config
    • Points Template Virtuals Support - equipment type point templates now support auto-detection of Niagara virtual points
    • A new option called 'Ignore Device Type Restrictions' has been added under Equipment > Graphics Settings > Additional Options to unrestrict the types of components that can be selected as Reflow devices. When this option is active, any Niagara Nav Node can be selected as a Reflow device. Use caution, selecting incompatible components for devices may cause device pages and other content to have issues loading and/or behave unexpectedly

Schedules

  • Schedules can be reordered in the configuration list; this order will be used in the Reflow View on Schedules pages
  • Schedule Groups
    • Schedules can now be organized into groups
    • Top-level groups appear on the schedules index page and link to a separate page displaying child groups and schedules under it
    • Groups configuration and schedule order is global; it applies to all schedule index pages including building schedule pages




Dashboards

  • Toggle Card - This new card toggles any Boolean point when clicked. The value display and color, icon and icon color, and the action that runs on click can be customized for true and false states independently




  • Niagara Point Card - Custom durations are now supported on Niagara actions which include a duration option
  • Weather Cards - Current Conditions, Forecast, and Map cards now support hyperlinks

Niagara Component Selection Improvements

  • Clicking the search icon next to Niagara component dropdowns in the Reflow Config will launch a newly designed modal




  • Address Bar
    • A new bar appears at to top of the modal, it supports copying and pasting ORDs including those to folders, devices, or other containers/components
    • When an ORD is entered that is not a valid selection, the tree will navigate to the ORD provided so that a valid component can be selected
  • Favorites
    • ORDs and searches can be added to Favorites using the star icon in the Address Bar
    • Favorites data is stored for each Niagara user on the station file system in the file:^reflow/favorites folder
  • History
    • A history of each search and selected ORD is available for quick access by using the View History link from the Address Bar
    • History data is stored locally in the web browser and never sent to the station
  • Keyword Search
    • When a non-ORD is entered in the Address Bar, Reflow will search your station for Niagara components whose names match the search query
    • Searches can be further refined using keyword:value syntax. Supported keyword options include is, not, slotpath, type, parent, and display. Additional options and examples can be found in the Reflow Documentation
    • While typing in the Address Bar, the picker will automatically show matching Favorites and History entries in the drop down

Buildings

  • Histories can be assigned to buildings based on their source using the new 'Selected Sources' option in the Filter Method property. Multiple sources (stations/devices) can be chosen
  • Schedule Groups can be assigned to Buildings by selecting the 'Schedule Group' option in the 'Schedules Source' property
  • The Floor Plans and Equipment widgets on Building landing pages can now have custom titles; these options are under the Building > Page Layout configuration
  • The tint effect used on floor plan photos can now be disabled in the Global Floor Settings; when this option is disabled a custom text color can be used
  • The drag to reorder experience for buildings and groups in the Buildings list has been improved

Floor Plan Editor

  • When selecting multiple Label elements whose binding types share the same Reflow device equipment type, you can now select a point and apply it to all selected labels
  • Custom durations are now supported in the "Run Point Action" action for Niagara actions which include a duration option
  • Added the 'Hide Navigation Arrows' property to the Global Floor Settings. When enabled, the next and previous arrows will be hidden on floor plans in the Reflow View

Pages

  • The drag to reorder experience for pages and groups in the Pages list has been improved

Bug Fixes

  • Navigation
    • Fixed an issue that could prevent the addition of new items in Dropdown navigation items in sub navigations
    • Fixed an issue with custom Sub Navigation rendering in the mobile menu
    • Hyperlinking from Label navigation items set to type 'Niagara Point' in Sub Navigations now works as intended
    • Pages with custom Sub Navigations now override the Building Sub Navigation when linked to from floor plans
    • Fixed an issue that was preventing schedules from loading in some hyperlinks
    • ORD and Web navigation items now properly display in Dropdown navigation items
    • Special characters can now be used in custom chart names in the Hyperlink Picker
  • Equipment
    • Fixed an issue where choosing an external point could cause the points list to become unresponsive when the same ORD was selected for multiple points
    • Subscribed points that no longer exist on the station (i.e. removed after being added to Reflow) will now fail more gracefully
    • Equipment groups now properly show all equipment when type ordering has been set
    • Clicking 'Select All' while filtering devices in equipment type lists will now select all of the filtered devices instead of the entire list
    • Device count cards and summary grid/table titles now properly respect the Equipment Type's 'Pluralize Name' setting
  • Histories
    • Histories that are unreachable or have no data now display a message stating such instead of an empty table
    • Histories search queries now match against both the raw history name and the formatted name displayed in Reflow when the "Format History Names" option is enabled
    • Histories from multiple sources with the same name are now visible as separate series on charts
    • Custom colors set on dashboard cards now apply to the proper series when viewing the full chart
  • Floor Plans
    • Floor Plan Mobile Zones now display the correct colors when RGBA values are used instead of hexadecimal
    • The "Run Point Action" option on floor plan elements in the mobile view now invoke their corresponding N4 point action
    • Fixed issue where tapping on zones when the 'Highlight Zone on Hover' option was enabled could cause Safari on iOS devices to crash
    • Point Action menus no longer hide when selecting a duration outside of the bounds of the original menu from the dropdown. This behavior was only observed in the redirect/servlet view
  • Schedules
    • Fixed an issue where links to a specific Schedules would redirect to the main Schedules page
    • Trigger schedules now properly display on the Schedules page
  • Misc
    • Dashboards - Device Summary cards will now properly show selected/custom summary views
    • User Profiles - Fixed an issue where restrict new content wasn't allowing you to route to equipment
    • Building Groups that are children of other Building Groups can no longer be deleted if they are not empty
    • Alarms paging now properly works with non-English locales
    • Fixed an issue where Boolean values in Histories would sometimes not be recognized as such in non-English locales
    • Building Maps - Map markers now properly show the Alarm status color on marker pins

Past releases

Information on new features and bug fixes in past releases of Reflow can be found on the documentation website in the Change Log.

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