Help Topics

What's new in HMIServer

2011-03-17: Release 22.

The changes in this release are all related to supporting a new program for creating HMI web pages called HMIBuilder.

The demo web page has been re-created using HMIBuilder.
The HMI Javascript libraries have been updated to support HMIBuilder.
The documentation has been revised to reflect the introduction of HMIBuilder. The documenation on creating web pages has been removed as this is now part of the help system for HMIBuilder. A new section has been added providing an overview of the features of HMIBuilder. The result of this change has been a reduction in the overall size of the package.
The demo simulator clients (used only to drive the demo web page) have been revised to reflect minor changes in the demo web page.

2010-12-03: Release 21.

Combined Packages

All HMIServer versions are combined into a single package. This still has separate executables, but it shares as many files as possible which reduces download size, saves disk space, and eases software development. This single package still contains Modbus/TCP and SBus in client and server versions.

New Monitoring and Control Interface

The monitoring and control interface has been upgraded to an all new version. This uses may features from the new MBLogic system, including:
Continuous background updates with fresh status information.
The HMI configuration display can be sorted by columns.
The system can be shut down and the configuration can be easily reloaded through the web interface.
A list of all available HMI web pages is displayed on the status monitoring system, allowing the user to easily see what HMI web pages are present.
The style and appearance of the status monitoring system has been updated to provide an improved appearance.
The new status monitoring system requires that Javascript be enabled and a compatible browser be used. Most modern web browsers will work, including Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Epiphany, and Midori.
The old system monitoring web pages are still available. The new main status page may be accessed via a link on the old page.

Misc

The system libraries used have been updated to newer versions to keep them in step with the MBLogic soft logic automation platform.
There are minor changes to the system start-up messages and run-time error messages.
Revised some web response MIME types to application/json.

2010-07-24: Release 20.

This is a minor release to patch the HMI demo web pages to get around a bug in certain web browsers when updating tank columns on very complex web pages. The problem affects some versions of Apple Safari and Google Chrome on some platforms. If this problem affects you on your own HMI web pages, contact the MBLogic project for information on how to change your web page until Apple and Google are able to release a fix. Firefox and Opera are not affectd by this browser bug.
A minor change was made in HMIServerMBC and HMIServerSBC to remove handling for HTTP "HEAD" requests. This function was not useful, and was not present in the HMIServerMBS and HMIServerSBS versions. There should be no evident change in behaviour.

2010-07-05: Release 19.

This release is primarily concerns minor changes to support specific user requests. There are no new major features and if you have an existing installation and are not experiencing any problems there is no reason to upgrade.

HMIServerMBS and HMIServerSBS

Modified data calculation routine to allow backwards compatibility for Python 2.4 to satisfy a user request. Thanks to Chris Kearns for this patch.
Changed header parsing routine to get rid of errors on Mac OS/X.

HMIServerMBS Only

Improved Modbus message error handling.

All (HMIServerMBC, HMIServerMBS, HMIServerSBC, HMIServerSBS)

Improved handling of invalid JSON data in HMI libraries.
Added another HMI demo web page (hmidemo2.xhtml).
Updated the CSS and themes in the status pages and documentation.
Improved the demo support simulation routines to make them more robust.
Fixed source code documentation errors in ModbusTCPMsg and HMIModbusConfig libraries (thanks to Martin Odiard).
Backported HMIConfig changes from latest release of MBLogic to HMIServer. This has better detection of corrupt configuration files.
Simplified and improved the MS Windows batch files for starting the system and demos.

2010-05-21: Release 18.

Prior to this release HMIServer was part of the MBTools package. Now it is packaged separately. If you are looking for MBAsyncServer, MBPoll, or MBProbe, they are still released in the MBTools package, along with several new programs.

HMIServerMBC - HMIServer with Modbus/TCP Client

The documentation has been updated to make it the same as the new SBus versions pf HMIServer.

HMIServerMBS - HMIServer with Modbus/TCP Server

The documentation has been updated to make it the same as the new SBus versions pf HMIServer.

HMIServerSBC - HMIServer with SBus Client

NEW. This is the first release for this program.
This provides the same features as HMIServerMBC, but supports SAIA Ether SBus instead of Modbus/TCP.

HMIServerSBS - HMIServer with SBus Server

NEW. This is the first release for this program.
This provides the same features as HMIServerMBS, but supports SAIA Ether SBus instead of Modbus/TCP.

2010-02-10: Release 17.

The documentation for building HMI systems has now been integrated directly into the main on-line help system. The PDF versions are no longer distributed.
Button masks have been added to the HMI system. These allow (in conjunction with a new function in the HMI Client Display Library) push buttons (and other inputs such as selector switches) to be enabled or disabled according to the value in the data table.
All HMI SVG clip-art (widgets, SVG objects) have been updated to give each individual file its own gradient definition where this is required. This means that SVG templates no longer have to define any required colour gradients. These will be automatically imported with the geometry. Duplicate definitions will be automatically merged by Inkscape.
The provided HMI SVG templates have been updated to remove the common colour gradient definitions (see the previous point).
As a result of the colour gradient change, file managers in operating systems that know how to handle SVG files will now show the correct colour of each piece of SVG art as part of the file icon.
The pump rotors have been rotated 90 degrees so that the rotor colour is visible in the file manager. This does not affect their use or operation.
The initial data for strip chart lines has been modified to make positioning easier when designing a strip chart. This does not affect their use or operation.
The HMI Client Protocol Library has been changed so that run time errors caused by incorrect parameters are ignored and the scan is not aborted.
Minor corrections have been made to CSS files to remove warnings.
The HMI demo has been updated to reflect the new features.
The on-line help system has been modified to allow additional nested file directories. This should not have any effect on the operation of the system.

2010-01-16: Release 16.

Minor Bug Fix in HMIServer!

IMPORT!: A problem was fixed in configuration file parsing which was affecting users attempting to implement support for protocols other than Modbus. The standard ConfigParser library was forcing all option names to lower case (e.g. "Example" to "example"). This has been fixed to preserve the orignal case.
This affects the configuration file "mbhmi.config".
Check your configuration file to ensure you are using the correct (lower) case for the standard options in your configuration. All standard options for HMIServer are already supposed to be in lower case. The option is the parameter on the left side of the equal sign. For example, with "addrtype=coil", "addrtype" is the option name and it must be in lower case. Parameters to the right of the equal sign are not affected.
If your configurations followed the examples in the documentation and used lower case for all options on the left side of the equal signs, you should not be affected by this change.
A future version of HMIServer will be adding form based editing for configurations and will likely depend on this change.

New Features in HMIServer:

This is a major new release which has completely revised how HMI client web pages are developed to make it simpler and faster.
It is now possible to develop the SVG portion of the HMI using the Inkscape drawing editor.
The SVG control objects for the HMI have been repackaged into individual files allow drag and drop SVG web page development. More than 500 SVG clip art files are provided.
Inkscape can also be used to draw completely custom graphic designs which can then be animated using the standard library.
Standard template web pages are now provided which can be used as is with minimal change to act as containers for the SVG. This eliminates the need to develop your own customised web page.
The standard web pages can still be customised for colour and other similar factors by changing just a few options in a style sheet.
Application configuration (other than making the SVG drawing) has been moved to separate configuration files outside of the web page, making configuration much easier.
New protocol library features make monitoring communications time outs and signaling the presence of alarms much easier.
Extensive step by step documentation is provided detailing how to develop an HMI web page using Inkscape with the new templates.
Documentation for HMI editing in this release is in PDF files accompanying the package. An upcoming release will provide a new program which will improve the process still further and all documentation related to creating HMI web pages will be moved to the on line help version of that program.

2009-12-16: Release 15.

HMIServerMBS - NEW!

This is a new version of HMIServer which supports Modbus/TCP server.
Other than acting as a Modbus/TCP server rather than a client, the other features are the same as the existing version of HMIServer.

HMIServerMBC

This is simply the existing Modbus/TCP client version of HMIServer with a minor change to the name.
The package and directory names have been changed to reflect that there is now more than one version of HMIServer.
The documentation has been updated to allow for common documentation to be shared with other versions of HMIServer.

2009-10-27: Release 14.

This release concentrates on HMI improvements. This includes the improvements which were previously released with HMIServer, as well as many new improvements. MBLogic and HMIServer are being released simultaneously with the same HMI features.
The demo web pages have been upgraded with improved artwork and new features.
The documentation has been updated to show new artwork and additional HMI library functions.
The HMI demo web pages include a "help" section to explain the details of each demo.
New HMI graphics samples have been added for things such as selector switches and 7 segment LED displays. This includes changes to the standard Javscript libraries.
Push buttons, pilot lights, numeric displays, etc. have all been upgraded with improved artwork.
The HMI SVG now uses "xlink" statements to allow references to SVG "libraries" (which are still part of the web page). This avoids the need to cut and paste SVG XML for each instance. Instead, a simple reference to the library is used. This makes creating HMI web pages easier.

2009-09-25: Release 13.

There are no new features in this release. This is a bug fix release only.
This release fixes a bug in the Modbus/TCP server involving an incorrect message length calculation which may have affected some users when used in combination with some functions on some clients.
If you have not experiencing any problems, there is no need to upgrade.
Thanks to Brandon McLean for finding this problem and providing the information necessary to solve it.

2009-09-23: Release 12.

HMIServer

HMIServer now uses the standard Python JSON library if it is present. (This was added to the standard Python library in version 2.6). It falls back on the old bundled library if the standard one is not present. The installation instructions no longer refer to installing SimpleJSON.
The demo HMI web pages now automatically detect the address and port they were loaded from (by using a standard Javascript feature). This simplifies writing web clients and eliminates the need to hard code this configuration. This is described in the documentation. Existing user created web pages should not be affected by this change.
The standard HMI Javascript libraries have been moved out of the "hmipages" directory and into their own directory called "hmilib". If you are upgrading an existing application, be sure to not copy the old Javascript libraries with your web pages. These files are: "json2.js", "libhmiclient.js", "libmbevents.js", "libmbhmi.js" Don't copy these files from your old version to the new one. If the old libraries are present in the "hmipages" directory, the new version will continue use the old libraries. You HMI web pages will continue to work, but you won't be able to take advantage of new features. In addition, future versions may not be compatible with old libraries.
The demo web pages have been upgraded with improved artwork and new features. A new demo web page has been added to show different page layouts. These may be used as user application templates.
The documentation has been updated to show new artwork and additional HMI library functions.
A new documenation section has been added explaining the features of the demo web pages.

2009-06-26: Release 11.

HMIServer

The changes from MBLogic have been backported into HMIServer for compatibility reasons. This involved breaking the extended data type support out into a separate module.
Improved on-line documentation. Added a web page on Modbus basics. Improved the page on configuration
Corrected comments.

2009-05-28: Release 10.

HMIServer

The alarm and event zone systems have been modified to separate the alarm zones and event zones. Existing web clients will need to be modified to maintain compatibility. This should be a simple change. This is a change in the Javascript libraries and not the server itself, so unmodified client web pages will still work with the new server provided the old Javascript libraries are used. See the documentation, or the new clients demos for details.
The configuration and HMI protocol handling code has been changed to make integration of new protocols easier. This should only affect developers adding new protocols.
HMIServer now supports extended multi-register data types such as 32 bit integers, single (4 byte) and double (8 byte) precision floating point, and strings. See the documentation for details.
New HMI widgets have been added. These include simple strip charts, numeric data entry keypad, numeric increment/decrement device, and text data display (for string data).
The demo client has been updated to use the new HMI widgets.
The configuration status display now shows a value of "None" for any values which do not apply to that data type. Previous versions showed numeric defaults.
The documentation has been greatly expanded (doubled in size).
The demo simulator has been updated to support the demostrations of the new HMI widgets. This is used for the demo only.

2009-05-18: Release 9.

HMIServer

Fixed a bug in the date display for the HMI for the protocol time stamp. The conversion to UTC was incorrect. This would show in the demo web page when displaying errors on the "System Status" web page.
A new function has been added to the HMI Client Display Library. MB_NumericFloatDisplay provides the display of numeric values while allowing the number of decimal places to be specified. The demo web page has been modified to use this function when displaying the tank levels. Documentation has been added to the corresponding help web page.
The demo HMI configuration has been modified to show the use of scaling. The tank levels on the HMI demo web page have been used to display this feature. Scaling is an existing feature. This just adds a demonstration.
A sample has been added to the demo HMI web page showing how to create an illuminated push button using existing features. This is PB5.
A sample has been added to the demo HMI web page showing how to create an increment and decrement graphical object. This controls the pump speed. This is located next to the "Reverse" push button and is controlled by clicking on the up and down triangles.

2009-05-09: Release 8.

HMIServer

HMIServer has a number of internal changes to make supporting new protocols easier. This should not affect users. The following details the code changes.
Removed redundant code for hexadecimal data type from HMIAddr. This type was obsolete and not supported.
Removed a redundant import from HMIAddr.
HMIAddr was modified to move all Modbus related features from this module, and to have all data table read and write functions operate on complete blocks of data (instead of each address one at a time). This allows other protocols to be supported (at a later date), and will eventually allow for more efficient Modbus communications.
ModbusClient was modified to support the above changes. The block read/ write functions now take place inside ModbusClient.
HMIConfig was modified to move all Modbus related features from this module. This will allow for the eventual support of other protocols.
A new module "HMIModbusConfig" was added. All Modbus related configuration operations are now deligated to this module.
Most Modbus references and names have been changed or removed from various modules to reflect that the system is no longer centred around Modbus.
The web documentation has been updated to remove most Modbus references. This included changing a menu label from "Modbus Data" to "Field Device Data".

2009-04-14: Release 7.

HMIServer

HMIServer has been changed to support a new alarm format. "libmbevents.js" and "libhmiclient.js" have been changed to support the new alarm format.
The demo client web page and the documentation has been updated to support the new alarm format.
Active alarms are now a summary state rather than a continuous history. This results in a simpler and more understandable alarm display. Alarm history is still displayed for inactive alarms.
Alarms and events now have "zones". Zones allow a client to only request those alarms and events in which it is interested. The configuration file format has been changed to support this. Alarms and events require "zone" definitions.
The new alarm system is not compatible with the old server, Javascript libraries, or client web pages.
Fixed DST/GMT time format display bug in client and server.
The protocol identifier in the HTTP header was changed from 'cascadas' to 'Cascadas' to fix a Safari 4 related problem. Safari was 'helpfully' capitalising this. This is now capitalised by default to be consistent with other header strings.
Documentation was updated.

2009-03-15: Release 6.

HMIServer has been modified to support asynchronous client communications. The main changes were to libhmiclient.js, along with some minor changes to the demo web pages (hmidemo.xhtml, mindemo.xhtml).
"HMIClient" in libhmiclient.js now requires an additional parameter to select either synchronous or asynchronous communications.
"UpdateDisplay" is now called automatically by "SendRequest" and should not be called manually.
"CommsWatchDogTimeOut" has been added to enable detecting loss of communications.

2009-03-04: Release 5.

HMIServer has been added to MBTools. This is the first release for this package. It provides a web based HMI to any device equipped with a Modbus/TCP server. This package was developed from the old MB-HMIDevServer, which had no communications ability. HMIDevServer is now obsolete and replaced by this new package.