Help Topics

What's new in MBLogic

2011-04-16:

This is a bug fix release only! There are no new features.

This fixes a bug relating to displaying platform stats when operating on ARM processors.
The documentation has been updated to remove references to Python 2.5 support. Python 2.5 support was maintained for Debian Stable, now that the current Debian stable uses Python 2.6, support for 2.5 will not be tested for or maintained.

2011-03-17: Release 25

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

HMIBuilder Support

The demo web page has been re-created using HMIBuilder.
The HMI Javascript libraries have been updated to support HMIBuilder.
Replaced the HMI Javascript libraries with updated ones 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.

Other Changes

Modified the client configuration parsing routines to remove embedded new line characters. This allows the use of line continuations in configuration files without affecting the resulting data. This fixes a problem reported by Ray Fritzel.
Updated the platform stats reporting to provide better display of extended stats. Also, disk size is now reported as "binary gigabytes" (rather than decimal values).
Added direct data table access for genserver.
Added a limit (100) to the number of alarms and events which can be displayed in alarm and event history web page. This is to avoid overloading the web page with massive queries.

2011-01-27: Release 24

This is a minor release mainly covering bug fixes.

Generic Clients:

Corrects some faults caused when a generic client write registers that exceed the value +32767 to Modbus system table.
Resets the statistical table of each command when any of its registers exceed the value +32767.
Incorporates a new type of error: error frame (frameerr).
Allows the detection of new Hart devices, when one of them is replaced, changing their long address (while maintaining the same short address).

Communications:

The sample RSS template was left out of the last release. It is included now in this version.

2011-01-07: Release 23

This a a major release with many new features.

Generic Clients:

A new generic client for SAIA Ether SBus has been added.
Performance has been greatly increased by reducing the communications overhead between the generic client and system generic server (approximately 100 times faster). Very large shared data tables are now practical.
There are now no limits imposed on the size of the shared data tables which are mirrored between the generic clients and the system server.

Communications:

A new ERP protocol has been added which is based on the HMI protocol. This is intended for simple ERP/MRP access to the system data table. This allows restricted access to selected HMI tags. Tags can be be made read only or read-write.
A read-only version of the HMI protocol has been added. This allows for read-only HMI access on a separate port from the regular HMI server.
An RSS feed has been added which allows selected events to be monitored via a standard RSS reader.

HMI Changes:

The HMI protocol version string has been updated to "2009-12-16". This should have no effect on existing applications.
Alarms and events now run on a fixed time schedule independently of HMI polling.
Alarm history and events are now logged to a database. This database is used to restore the alarm history and event buffers after a system restart.
An alarm history and event query web page has been added. This allows the user to select alarm history and event records by various criteria from the alarm and event database and view them on a web page.
Events now trigger on negative to positive transitions only. The previous method triggered on both negative to positive, and positive to negative transitions. The new method results in fewer event messages, fewer spurious messages, and it also made the new history and monitoring feature possible. It was not possible to solve these problems without changing the way that events behaved. Check your application to see if this affects you!The old behaviour can be emulated if necessary by adding new events. Most users however should be happy to see that messages no longer trigger on both transitions.
Event and alarm history serial numbers are now derived from on database record numbers, rather than from a system initialisation time stamp. Since the event and alarm serial numbers were not supposed to be relied on as significant values, there should be no effect on existing applications.

Status Inteface:

Various minor user interface improvements, including sorting client information alphabetically.
Some minor bugs in the form based configuration system have been fixed.
A new "platform statistics" page has been added. This shows information about the computer system which the server is running on. The information displayed will depend on the operating system used. This information can be useful in managing systems after they are installed.

Miscellaneous:

System restarts and shutdowns are now much faster. The system now monitors generic clients to see when they have stopped rather than just waiting a fixed time delay.
Documentation has been updated.

2010-11-20: Release 22

This a a major release with several new features.

New Status and Monitoring Features:

Form based editing for comfigurations. This allows the configuration files to be edited and saved to disk using the web interface. Most user configuration errors are prevented by the structure of the forms. Any remaining errors are reported as error messages when the form is saved. This includes communications, hmi, and soft logic IO configurations.
The server and client configurations are now stored in separate files.
The system can be restarted via the status interface "control" page. This allows a system to be shut down and automatically restarted. If a server configuration is changed, a complete restart is required for the change to take effect.
Some minor cosmetic improvements in the control page.
Added feature to list HMI web pages on the "control" web page. This includes file signatures and links to the pages themselves.

New Generic Clients:

Two new generic clients have been added - Modbus/RTU and HART. These are beta (experimental) and may be subject to future change.

Bug Fixes:

The polling times for TCP clients had been displayed on the status system as seconds, while the column title was msec. This has been corrected to show the values in milliseconds.
Detection of generic client start failures has been improved.

2010-09-16: Release 21

This a a major release with several new features.

Status and Monitoring Features:

Soft logic ladder diagrams will now display the real time status of contact and coil instructions. Ladder monitoring can be continuous, single scan, or off.
The IL editor has been updated and improved.
The configuration displays for the HMI and soft logic, and the cross reference data may now be sorted dynamically by selected headings. This allows searching for values by sorting on the appropriate data column.
Instruction cross references are now automatically sorted by subroutine name.
Some items are now located under different menu headings to reflect the new additions. The data table monitoring is now under "monitor data". Ladder display is now under "monitor data" as it can optionally display live data. The old "monitor" is now under "system".
The display order for double and triple rung items (counters, shift register, etc.) have been reversed so that the top of stack items are at the bottom. The reason for this is the top logic line is actually the bottom of the stack, and visa versa, so the ladder display now more closely matches the order of the lines in the IL display. This should reduce confusion when comparing the two representations.

HMI

The HMI now has animated pumps (smooth animation) and flashing lights using SVG animation. SVG animation is new and this feature may not work properly in all browsers (due to browser support or bugs). At the time of release, it works in Firefox, but requires Firefox 4. It works in the latest version of Opera. It does not work in Chrome 6 due to a bug in Webkit (this likely also affects Safari). The bug prevents animations from restarting once stopped. A bug report has been filed with Webkit.
The MB_PilotLightStat HMI function has been fixed to ensure that it works as documented. The function did work as shown in the demo and examples. The change ensured that it would work if used for other purposes as well.

Soft Logic

The soft logic system has added real time clock in the system data registers. Note, the day of week is different from how the Click defines it.
A minor bug has been fixed for up/down counters. The bug would cause a logic fault if an incorrect number of parameters were provided.
Down counters now set their status bits when the current value is less than the preset. This brings them into conformance with the Click PLC. MBLogic tries to be similar to the Click PLC, but strict conformance is not guaranteed if it does not make sense to do so. However since this was a basic PLC feature this was judged to be a bug and fixed accordingly. Check your programs to see if this affects you.
Counter data values can now be set directly using COPY instructions. Prior to this, the counters kept an internal copy which could not be affected by direct manipulation of the data table (CTDx addresses).

Other

The documentation has been updated and expanded to cover the new features, and to improve the descriptions of some existing ones.

2010-07-24: Release 20.

This a a major release with several new features.
A new feature called "expanded register map" has been added. This expands the holding registers to 1 million (1 048 576) registers. Most sub-systems can support the additional address range natively.
The Modbus/TCP server has been modified to allow using the Modbus message unit ID (UID) to access the expanded register map. This feature is turned *off* by default, so existing users should not be affected. Unless you are sure you need this feature, you should leave it turned off.
The Modbus/TCP clients now have the ability to specify the unit ID in their request messages on a per-command basis. That is, each command can set the UID individually. This allows the use of UID with serial bridges.
The web based system control and monitoring interface has been updated to support the new features.
The documentation has also been updated to reflect the new features.
There are several minor improvements and bug fixes in the display of error messages on the user interface.
The source of a problem in updating tank columns on some HMI web pages when viewed with some web browsers has been discovered. This is a bug in the Webkit rendering system in those web browsers, and the information will be forwarded to Apple and Google for them to fix their problem. The demo web pages have been patched to work around the problem. If you are experiencing a similar problem, contact the MBLogic project and you will be given instructions on how to make a temporary fix in your own HMI web pages until Apple and Google are able to release fixes. This only affects certain very complex HMI pages with some versions of Apple Safari or Google Chrome. Firefox and Opera did not have this problem.
This is a notice that it is currently planned to eventually remove the MBRest web service (a Modbus-like web protocol operating over HTTP) from MBLogic and replaced with an easier to use protocol. Contact the MBLogic project if this will be a problem for you. The MBRest web service does not support the new expanded register map, nor are there any plans to add this feature to it.

2010-07-02: Release 19.

This is an important new release with numerous changes.
A new sub-system called "generic clients" is present. This feature is intended to allow the addition of serial protocols and other custom extension modules. The generic client system is complete, but is considered experimental at this stage and may be subject to minor changes.
The user interface system has been completely replaced with a new system. The new user interface uses "AJAX" principles to provide "live" status, faster interaction, and more features. ¹
The communications error reporting has been revised to simplify how the errors are reported in the data table and also to make them more general so they will be compatible with other protocols. Reporting of errors via the web based monitoring interface has been greatly expanded and improved.
The Linux version has significant new performance improvements which allows for larger applications, or reduced CPU usage on existing applications. This is not enabled on the MS Windows version.
The Nevow libraries are no longer required to be installed (the new user interface does not use them).
The soft logic scan rate has been changed from an abosolute target to a delay between scans. This should have no significant effect on normal soft logic programs.
Changes to the soft logic scan rate will now take effect immediately without restarting the system.
Soft logic starting and error handing has been improved.
The detection and reporting of errors in configuration files has been improved.
The system can now be shut down via the web based monitoring system.
Servers now calculate and report connection information as either the number of current connections, or the request rate. This permits monitoring of connections to the servers from other clients. The connection information is reported via the web based monitoring interface.
The documentation has been updated.

¹Note: The Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) web browser does not work with the new user interface as it is missing certain essential features which are present in other more modern web browsers. Use any modern web browser such as Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, Epiphany, etc. If you attempt to use MSIE you will be able to view a limited, static version of the main system monitoring page. The other user interface features however will not be available.

2010-03-13: Release 18.

This release is just an update to the installation documentation for MS Windows to account for changes in how a new version of one of the third party libraries is packaged.
There are no new functionality changes.
There is no need to upgrade if you have an existing installation.

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.

2010-01-16: Release 16.

Minor Bug Fix!

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 files "mbhmi.config", "mblogic.config", and "mbserver.config".
Check your configuration files to ensure you are using the correct (lower) case for the standard options in your configurations. All standard options for MBLogic 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.
This does not affect the client command names in the "mbserver.config" file. These can be any case and the case will be preserved.
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 MBLogic will be adding form based editing for configurations and will likely depend on this change.

New Features:

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.

2009-11-07: Release 15.

This release adds minor updates to the soft logic system. The COPY instruction has been improved for faster performance. It is now uses the faster copy method in more cases, and it has improved error detection.
A copy of the Nevow library is now packaged with the MS Windows version for convenience. This is the original version from the Nevow web site which has been repacked in a "zip" file for easier unpacking. Linux uses are advised to still use their distro's package manager to obtain and install Nevow.

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.
MBLogic now uses the standard Python JSON library for HMI communications 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.
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.

2009-09-08: Release 12.

The main new feature in this release is on-line editing for the soft logic system. This consists of a web based integrated IL editor which has been added to the status monitoring server.
The help system has been integrated into the status monitoring system. Help is now accessed via the status monitoring system instead of using a separate server. Web browser bookmarks in existing applications may need to be updated.
The previous system help server is now available for user created web pages for application specific web pages. These can be equipment manuals, procedures, etc.
The HMI and soft logic IO reload operations have been moved to their respective status configuration web pages. This is intended to accomodate future changes.
Numerous internal changes have been made to accomodate both the on-line editing and revised help system. These internal changes should not be user visible however.
Documentation has been updated.
The system now uses the package release number as the software version number (e.g. Release 12).

2009-07-20: Release 11.

The main new feature in this release is the soft logic program can now be displayed in ladder format as well as in IL.
The IL display option has been revised to match that used for ladder.
Soft logic data table address cross reference has been added.
Soft logic instruction cross reference has been added.
The status system has been revised to accomodate the addition of ladder and cross references. This involves minor changes to the menu and page heirarchy.
The help pages for the status system have been revised to incorporate the new changes.
The main help pages have been revised to show the ladder representation for each instruction, and to add ladder examples for each instruction.
The main help system has been changed so that the documenatation for each instruction is split into separate pages (one page for each instruction class).
The additional help files will cause a noticable increase in the size of the downloaded package.
The soft logic system was extensively revised to accomodate creating ladder diagrams. This should not cause any user visible changes to the soft logic instructions or performance.
The soft logic demo program has been revised to demonstrate the new features.

2009-06-20: Release 10.

Added extended data types to the HMI and soft logic systems. This adds the ability to read and write 32 bit integers, single and double precision floating point, and strings. These extended data types are spread over several system data table addresses, so they are still compatible with Modbus and other typical PLC type protocols. However, the HMI and soft logic systems can automatically assemble several registers into the extended types. This is managed through the HMI and soft logic systems, and does not require any special programming in the HMI web client (web page) or in the soft logic (PLC) program.
Copied the new HMI features from the previous release of HMIServer into MBLogic. These include simple strip charts, numeric data entry keypad, numeric increment/decrement device, and text data display (for string data).
The configuration status display now shows a value of N/A for any values which do not apply to that data type. Previous versions showed numeric defaults.
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 HMI documentation has been greatly expanded.
The demo client, soft logic program, and configurations have been updated to use the new HMI widgets.
The size of floating point values which the soft logic system will accept has been increased from 3.5E37 to 1.5E307.

2009-05-18: Release 9.

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.
The help web page attached to the "About" help menu was missing in the last release. This has been restored.

2009-04-26: Release 8.

Selected soft logic data table values can now be automatically backed up to a database and restored when the system restarts. This is enabled through the soft logic I/O configuration. Existing soft logic I/O configuration files must be updated to incorporate the new parameters whether this feature is used or not. The soft logic configuration display web page has been updated to incorporate the new parameters.
The status summary report web page has been improved. As well as reporting 'Ok' and 'fault' conditions, it will also report 'warnings'. If a user attempts to load an invalid configuration or soft logic program while the system is running, the status summary page will display a warning state. This indicates that while the new configuration or soft logic program was rejected and not being used, it is also not correct. The default warning colour is yellow.
The soft logic COPY instruction has been optimised and is now approximately 5 times faster when copying constants or registers of compatible types.
The implementation of the decimal math exponent operator has been improved which may result in marginally faster program load times. There should be no user visible change in behaviour.

2009-04-14: Release 7.

The HMI system 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.
The internal system data table has a new format. This has no direct effect on its operation. This is intended to allow easier integration of non-communications related features (e.g. soft logic). It also results in a slightly reduced (8% in the demo) system overhead (CPU load).
The soft logic system has two new soft logic data table address ranges, XS and YS. These are signed integer equivalents to XD and YD (which are unsigned integer). These are intended to allow easier copying of data between the system data table (which uses signed integers) and the soft logic data table.
The soft logic demo program has been updated to reflect the new features.
Documentation was updated.

2009-02-22: Release 6.

With the addition of soft logic, the package is now known as "MBLogic".
The "MBLogicEngineCk" soft logic library has been incorporated into the system, allowing soft logic (PLC) programs to be executed. The system is now a complete stand alone automation platform with networking to field devices, soft logic (PLC) programmability, and web based HMI.
The packaging has been revised. All system code has been moved to a subdirectory, separating it from the configuration files and soft logic program files. The HMI directory is in a separate directory which is in parallel to the system code directory, making it more easily accessible for creating HMI applications.
A shell script has been added to make staring the application easier.
The web based help system has been extensively revised. A large quantity of new material has been added. Page styling has been revised to make it more attractive. A new menu system has been added to make accessing the increased material easier.
The status reporting system has been revised. A large number of new features have been added. Page styling has been revised to make it more attractive. A new menu system has been added to make accessing the new features easier. Help pages for status features have been incorporated directly into the status system (these are in addition to the help pages in the standard help system).
Various minor changes were made to improve start up time. Start up time was already fairly quick before the changes, so these improvements may not be noticable.

2009-01-10: Release 5.

MBServer has been reorganised to separate its components over several different directories. This is intended to make it more manageable and to make it easier to add new features.
A new server protocol has been added to support web based HMIs. This includes a web server to serve the HMI pages, and a web service protocol based on JSON to provide the AJAX communication between the client and the server.
The new server protocol includes a new configuration file ("mbhmi.config"). This is separate from the configuration file used for the overall system configuration.
The overall system configuration ("mbserver.config") now allows a new server protocol type to accomodate the HMI protocol.
The status reporting system has been changed to accomodate the new server protocol.
The status reporting pages are now located in the "mbstatuspages" directory.
A demo web client page for the above protocol has been included. As well as being an example, this can be used as the base for creating client pages for practical applications. This includes a web page, CSS, and Javascript files. These are located in the "hmipages" directory.
The implementation of the web based help system has been changed. Previously, help pages were pre-loaded into memory on start up, and the names were hard coded into the program. With the new version the pages are loaded from disk on demand and web pages can be added or changed without altering the MBServer source code. This allows the help system to be more easily customised or added to for particular applications. Help files are now located in the "mbhelppages" directory. Any pages located there are accessable to the help system.
An empty directory called "mbsoftlogicck" has been included for future use. There should be no files there in this release.
The system now checks on start up to see if the "Twisted" libraries are installed. If they are not present, the program aborts with an error message.
The system now checks on start up to see if any of the IP ports required by the servers are already in use. If any of them are in use, the program aborts with an error message.

2008-10-24: Release 4.

A new config file format has been introduced for defining servers and clients. This replaces the old custom config file with a more standard system similar to that used by other software. It is also similar to that used in the upcoming HMI server.
Fault configurations for clients are now mandatory.
Configuration parameters are now validated more thoroughly.
Configuration errors are now reported on the main status web page.
The on-line help web pages have been updated to reflect the changes.
The excessive verbiage in the shutdown messages has been eliminated. The old messages were quite wordy, but not very informative and somewhat resembled a "crash" message.
Server connection messages on the console now report the IP address of the incoming connection.
The start-up and shut-down messages report the time.

2008-10-14: Release 3.

Imported changes from HMI server for ModbusDataStrLib, and changed ModbusTCPMsg to accomodate this. This mainly involved moving the data conversion functions Int2BinStr and BinStr2Int from ModbusTCPMsg to ModbusDataStrLib. This also fixed BinStr2Int. This function was not used by MBServer.
Upgraded license in ModbusDataStrLib and ModbusTCPMsg from GPLv2 to GPLv3 after discussion with Juan Miguel Taboada Godoy.
First release of version with MS-DOS new-line characters. This affects only how some editors would display the files.

2008-05-24: Release 2.

Minor updates.

2008-05-20: Release 1.

Initial release.