v2.2 Release Notes (Final)

New Optional Viewlets

1. Alarm Viewlet - Displays, charts and manages AX alarms. A wide range of functionality is provided including ability to set polling intervals, adjust alarm color codes based on severity, in-viewlet alarm acknowledgement, ability to configure and save filters. (#919)
2. Wind Generation Viewlet – A new sustainability focus viewlet to enable the visualization of power generated by one or more wind turbines. Similar to the Solar viewlet, this viewlet allows visibility of grid offsets, CO2 avoidance and reports for instantaneous performance as well as over user selectable timeframes. (#1216)

Major Features

1. Virtual Trends – This new feature allows users to change units or create new trends dynamically in PeriscopeConfig. The idea is that a user could be trending kWh but want to convert it to BTU without having to touch AX. They are now able to choose "BTU" and Periscope creates a new "virtual-trend' (since we know the unit scalar) which will then be usable in Periscope as if it were a normal AX trend. In addition, the user is able to provide custom scalar values to convert to a unit we may not have. For example, their scalar could be a custom mathematical equation like [x *15 + 32] which would multiply the trend by 15 and add 32. (#844)
2. New User Type for Kiosks – Added a new "Kiosk User" account type to the Standard, Guest and Preferred Guest types of users. The Kiosk user will be the most restricted and will allow unattended Kiosk operations without undesirable user interaction (CSV Downloads, Popups, etc.) (#1220)
3. Copy Dashboard Utility – When adding a new user to Periscope, a new utility allows the ability to copy the user's dashboard and use it to clone the dashboard to new users, thus greatly improving the speed in setting up new users with a default view. (#1147)
4. History Groups – A major new feature that enables users to group and roll-up their trends by unit type, zones, owners, building types, etc. The solution uses History Groups and metadata (tags in AX) to create multiple hierarchies of these trends. The Periscope design closely resembles the AX Metadata Browser. The value that Periscope adds will be the ability to roll up to any level in the hierarchy (saves time). (#1123)
   • Utilities in this feature include the following:
     • Enhanced ability to define, manipulate and visualize the History Group functions. (#1146)
     • Ability to easily add, edit and delete History groups. (#1143)
     • Drag and Drop support enabling the ability to dynamically move trends into other levels of the hierarchy using Drag and Drop ease. (#1144)
5. Guest and Kiosk User Configuration Utility – Add new utility to greatly facilitate the ability and speed to create and edit Guest/Kiosk User Dashboards by a Super User. (#1102)
6. Kiosk Manager – Added ability to pause Kiosk mode for a user selectable time when user interaction is detected. For example, when a user touches a particular viewlet when in Kiosk mode, the rotating Kiosk will pause to allow the user to view the selected Viewlet, then resume after a selected delay. (#1101)
7. User Manager Utility – This new feature allows a super user to Add/Edit/Delete users from the AX system. This utility is a new panel in the Accordion on the Location tab of PeriscopeConfig and populates with a list of existing AX users. (#1018)
8. Tab Icons – This feature adds user configurable icons to Periscope tabs. In addition, this allows users to remove the label in some instances (alarm tab could just be a single Alarm icon, no label). (#985)
9. Colorized Orb on Baseline and Weather Normalization Viewlet – This adds a color graphic "Arrow Orb" to the Baseline Viewlet, enabling "at a glance" determination of "better" or "worse" conditions for a selected data set. Utility is provided to allow user to select whether up/down is good or bad. (#983)
10. Smart Chart "Drill Downs" – This feature allows a user to start with a broad overview and drill down into problematic areas. The initial viewlets in this enhancement include the Pie Chart, Ranking Chart, and Utility Performance Index. A typical a user would note which areas are least efficient and then add and configure another more granular viewlet to look more closely at the problem. (#689)

Viewlet Updates

1. Ranking Viewlet - Users can now provide a baseline to display on the Ranking Viewlet
2. Focus Viewlet Sizing – This design improvement enables a focus viewlet to fill an entire tab. This saves real estate above and below the viewlet as well as reduces the number of layers in the UI. (#735)
3. Weather Normalization - Thermal Orb added to Weather Normalization viewlet to show calculation of losses or gains. Quickly shows the user whether you're saving on energy usage, year over year, or not. Includes an up/down arrow along with % saved or overage, along with total KWh delta (in red or green). (#795)
4. Point Table Legends – Ability to display Location, Point Name or Location / Point Name in table header (#1222)
5. Solar Viewlet Enhancements – Includes a number of enhancements to the Solar Viewlet, including overall design to accommodate aggregated site data as well as additional functions to improve usability, calculated savings and other features requested by our clients (#868, 1217)
6. Utility Performance Index – Added ability for mouse-over tooltips to "stick" when maximized. (#863)
7. Line Chart Viewlet Enhancements – The Line Chart has been redesigned to enable faster drawing when tasked with retrieving vast amounts of data (10K points or more) from Niagara histories. (#1215)
8. EV Viewlet – The ability to select a "Custom" time range has been added. In addition, the user can now export data to a CSV file for more detailed analysis, using the standard viewlet "Gear" control. (#1190)
9. Digital Totalizer Custom Icons – The user can now add a user specified custom icon to the Digital Totalizer by specifying a specific URL. (#1105)
10. Green Tips – Numerous enhancements to allow a larger number of Green Tips to be displayed on a rotating basis. Also added localization to Green Tips to display GT in the language specified in the "Locale" selector. (#1063)
11. History Line Chart – The History Line Chart has been updated to dynamically roll up data based on the number of points selected. This improves performance and allows large spans of data to be displayed at once.

Other

1. Periscope Version Update Notifications – New notifier logic to inform end users when a later version of the application is available (#1228)
2. Info Popup Validity Check – Periscope now checks to ensure that a user configured InfoPopup has been correctly configured with a valid Image URL. (#1188)
3. Copy and Paste Usability – Added new user icons for Copy and Paste functionality in the Share Viewlet dialog so users don't have to know the associated Windows "control" commands. (#1183)
4. MetaData Editor Enhancements – Added new title and filtering ability to this new feature in PeriscopeConfig. (#1145)
5. Trend and Point Pickers "Quick Search" – Added ability to filter "as you type" for laser fast searching when looking for specific data variables to add to a viewlet. Particularly useful in large installations with thousands of points and trends. (#1141)
6. Guest User Functionality – Based on client inputs we have limited certain functions while in Guest User mode, including the ability to move and resize viewlets in a Guest Dashboard. (#1104). In addition, the Guest user can now Export data (CSV/PDF/Image) if desired. (#982)
7. Viewlet Delete Confirmation – Periscope now warns the user before deleting a viewlet to prevent the accidental removal of an existing viewlet. (#621)
8. 3.7 Support – Periscope now supports Niagara AX 3.7. These changes are also available in Periscope 2.1.17 and greater.
9. Sustainability Viewlet Scaling – Solar, Wind, and EV viewlets automatically scale to fit the dashboard size.
10. Improved PeriscopeConfig Discovery efficiency – Trends tab has been optimized to handle large databases in much shorter times. (#1365)