Differences

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--- current [2019/09/03 15:13] – James Sentman
+++ current [2019/11/08 15:40] – 9.4.24 James Sentman
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-=====XTension Version 9.4.23=====
+=====XTension Version 9.4.24=====
-Released: 9/3/2019\\
+Released: 11/8/2019\\
 \\
-Download: [[https://www.machomeautomation.com/files/xtension/xtension_9.4.23.zip|XTension v9.4.23 (build 1010) 9/3/2019]]\\
+Download: [[https://www.machomeautomation.com/files/xtension/xtension_9.4.24.zip|XTension v9.4.24 (build 1012) 11/8/2019]]\\
-zipfile md5 = [[tech_notes:md5|7dec642f97cf2b479934e6a42b1c1ffe]]\\
+zipfile md5 = [[tech_notes:md5|76e7d1c75f90e61b1b68fc4e1ebeea14]]\\
 \\
-Download for Catalina: [[https://machomeautomation.com/files/xtension/xtension9.4.23.dmg|XTension 9.4.23 Notarized (build 1010) 9/3/2019]]\\
+Download for Catalina: (awaiting notarization, as soon as I get that sorted out I will post the disk image)\\
 **NOTE!** not all plugins are included in the Catalina build. Please see the Catalina note below for more info.\\
 \\
@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 **Mac OSX Mojave** has changed the requirements for scripting of other applications. You MUST force any script to run that contacts a different application when you upgrade and click “OK” when it asks for permission or your scripts will silently fail when they run later. See the [[tech_notes:mojave|Mojave Support Page]] for more info.\\
 \\
-**Mac OSX Catalina** As of this moment I do not recommend that anyone update to OSX Catalina since it is still in beta. I am supplying a Notarized dmg version of XTension that will run on Catalina. The regular zip file release and any previous release version will likely not run at all. Please see the [[tech_notes:catalina|Catalina Support Page]] for more info. Not all plugins are Catalina capable at this time.
+**Mac OSX Catalina** As of this moment I do not recommend that anyone update to OSX Catalina. I am supplying a Notarized dmg version of XTension that will run on Catalina. The regular zip file release and any previous release version will likely not run at all. Please see the [[tech_notes:catalina|Catalina Support Page]] for more info. Many plugins are Catalina capable at this time, probably some you want to use. Please do not update your XTension machine to Catalina at this time.
 \\
-====9.4.23 Change Log====
+====9.4.24 Change Log====
-  * NEW: added the “force http1” parameter to the [[dictionary:more:loadurl|Load Url]] command. The default is HTTP 1.1 which does a lot of more complex communication liked chunked transfer and specific encodings that simpler IOT or older devices may not be able to handle properly. If you have problems talking to such a device you can now force the Load URL command to use http 1.0 and not do any of those things.
+  * NEW: added “reset low battery flag” contextual menu item to the unit lists. If you have a unit that has a stuck low battery flag for whatever reason you can now reset it manually. If the low battery flag is actually coming from the interface it will reset itself as soon as the next command from the device is received though.
-  * Added a “hidden” debugging command to the plugin interface. The 'tell xUnit “name” to logDebugData()’ has been implemented forever for units. It is now implemented for plugin interfaces as well so you can do a ’tell xInterface “name” to logDebugData()’ to get log output of all its current low level configuration data. Neither of these is any use to anyone in the normal course of events but I may ask you to run those commands to gather more info for me in the event of a problem.
+  * NEW: added xtUnit class applescript parameters for the newer Group properties. You can now set the following parameters for Groups, they will have no effect if you try to use them for a non-group unit. They are read/write so you can query them or set them from another script.
-  * Change to the Vera plugin to check for very small responses from the Vera. There seems to be a state the Vera can get into where it returns something that might be valid, but contains no data. This may catch that situation and get the communications going again. Or the problem may have nothing to do with this. It’s so far been impossible for me to reproduce so I haven’t been able to gather any more info on this yet.
+    * xtGroupBehavior
-  * FIX: The new [[supported_hardware:arduino|Arduino]] plugin was incomplete in the last release and accepted only incoming unit updates but could not send changes from XTension to the remote device. This is fixed and the plugin will provide two way updates just like the original version did.
+    * xtTreatAsRadioButtons
-  * FIX: The new Arduino plugin would choke on receiving a float rather than an integer from the remote device. This is fixed and floats now behave the same way that the old plugin did.
+    * xtScriptsRunWhenAutochanged
-  * FIX: A fix for the plugin API itself. Manually entered unit addresses that contained non-numeric characters might not have matched commands destined for them as the addresses were not being reliably forced to all uppercase before indexing. This now works normally.
+    * xtShowDimmableControls
-  * FIX: Fixed a regression during this alpha/beta cycle that could have caused an error to be logged when creating a new Global script. Global Scripts now can be created normally.
+    * xtShowColorControls
-  * FIX: The new alpha RFX plugin now scans all the units assigned to it at startup and fixes any addressing problems. This will fix the problem some people (and also myself) were seeing with some converted units not receiving the commands that were actually destined for them. This plugin is working well for me here and some beta testers but if you are on the fence about wanting to make the switch right now there is no need to do so unless you plan on updating to Catalina in the short term. The original RFX plugin will not be updated for Catalina.
+    * xtShowColorTempControls
-  * FIX: Fixed a regression in the last version that would have kept you from adding new Scheduled Events on a new empty database. You can now create events normally.
+  * FIX: the xtUnit class property xtFlags now includes the correct battery level, if any, reported by the device.
-  * FIX: In the last few versions the database backup window that comes up at startup when you update to a new version would open behind the load progress window. Now the load progress window is hidden during the database backup so that you can read the backup messages and see that progress separately.
+  * FIX: the xtUnit class property xtFlags no longer includes the no longer used “rfOK” flag.
-  * FIX: In the Mobile Web Remote plugin when adding a new Global Script button the global scripts in the popup menu are now always presented in correct alphabetical order making it a lot easier to find things for setting up the interface.
+  * Totally rebuilt the internal handling of unit properties. They are now more abstracted so that they will be easier to use from other scripting languages once those are available. You can still store AppleScript specific parameters like lists and records but they may not be available to other scripting systems in the future. There should be no changes for how you’re using them at all. For the moment I am maintaining the data in the original format in the database so that if you need to revert to an earlier version of XTension you can do so without losing any data. After some number of releases without any bug reports on the new system I’ll remove those files.
-  * FIX: In the Mobile Web Remote plugin when selecting a Unit for any interface element the popup list of units is now properly in alphabetical order. This wasn’t broken quite as badly as the selection of Global Scripts. The units were listed in order but with units that started in lower case sorted together but shown after those that started with an upper case letter.
+  * Change: Global Scripts now update their Last Activity date even if the script fails due to an error. Previously they would fail to update this if the script did not complete successfully.
-  * FIX: If you still have an older Vera plugin and are seeing the “Please update to the new plugin” message in the interface window that message will now properly clear itself when you actually do update to the new plugin. Previously it could stick even after you did the update.
+  * Change: Unit Properties are now sent through the Database Sharing plugins. The unit properties are synced in both directions. If you make a change on either side of the shared database connection the change will be sent to the other side. If you make a change on the receiver side while the connection is down or the interface is disabled then the receiver side will be overwritten by the data from the sender side when the interface reconnects. At this time the syncing of the unit properties is limited to Strings, Numbers and Dates. Applescript specific types like Lists and Records are not synced. This is possible to do so please let me know if you need this.
+  * The new RFX plugin for the older RFX and RFXe devices is no longer considered beta. I and several beta testers have been using it successfully now for months. Note that the newer devices are NOT yet supported by this plugin. Please make sure you’re connecting to one of the older protocol devices and that you select the Legacy protocol in the plugin setup dialog in XTension. The beta level support for that device will appear in the next XTension release.
+  * FIX: The previous rare but real occurance of the Vera, and potentially some other plugins become unresponsive is fixed. I was finally gifted a duplication of this problem by my own server after having been unable to duplicate it or figure out what was happening at all. It turns out to be a lower level system problem that hung up all networking for a short time. Not all plugins were affected, some seemed to recover just fine, others became suck in a hang down in the system. Since there was no error that could be trapped the only way to fix the problem was to implement a ping and restart system in XTension for the affected plugins. If a plugin of any type goes unresponsive for more than around 2 minutes XTension will quit it and start a new instance which does fix the problem. If the system does ever return a proper error from the networking level that will also result in the interface restarting to get itself running again.