Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- current [2019/09/03 15:13] – James Sentman
+++ current [2020/03/22 15:45] – 9.4.28 James Sentman
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-=====XTension Version 9.4.23=====
+=====XTension Version 9.4.28=====
-Released: 9/3/2019\\
+Released: 3/22/2020\\
 \\
-Download: [[https://www.machomeautomation.com/files/xtension/xtension_9.4.23.zip|XTension v9.4.23 (build 1010) 9/3/2019]]\\
+Download for Mohave and Earlier: [[https://www.machomeautomation.com/files/xtension/xtension_9.4.28.zip|XTension v9.4.28 (build 1019) 3/22/2020]]\\
-zipfile md5 = [[tech_notes:md5|7dec642f97cf2b479934e6a42b1c1ffe]]\\
+Download for Catalina Only: [[https://www.machomeautomation.com/files/xtension/xtension_9.4.28.dmg|XTension v9.4.28 (build 1019) for Catalina Only 3/22/2020]]\\
-\\
-Download for Catalina: [[https://machomeautomation.com/files/xtension/xtension9.4.23.dmg|XTension 9.4.23 Notarized (build 1010) 9/3/2019]]\\
-**NOTE!** not all plugins are included in the Catalina build. Please see the Catalina note below for more info.\\
 \\
+**NOTE: the catalina download is a notarized disk image file but does not contain the entirety of the plugins as not all are updated to run on Catalina yet. See the Catalina note below or more info. Please do not use this image on a 10.14 (Mohave) or earlier version, use the zip file above.**
 ====Important Info====
 **Minimum System Version** for this release is OSX 10.10\\
 \\
-**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. Changes in Catalina have disabled several of the older plugins and the newer ones are not fully tested with it yet. As of this moment I do not recommend running Catalina on your house server. I don’t see any advantages and there are many potential issues not just with XTension. I can provide an Apple notarized DMG file of the subset of plugins that do work properly if this is something that you need. Otherwise do not update to Catalina yet for your house server.\\
-\\
-**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 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.\\
-====9.4.23 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.
-  * 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.
-  * 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.
-  * 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.
-  * 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.
-  * 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.
-  * 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.
-  * 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.
-  * 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: 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: 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.
-  * 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.
-  * 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.
+====9.4.28 Change Log====
+  * NEW: The Return Of Alexa! This version has newer plugin versions that can get around the recent changes that Amazon added to their Alexa firmware. **There are several install requirements and configuration changes that are necessary before they will run.** Please have a look at the the [[supported_hardware:alexa|Original Alexa Plugin page]] and the new [[supported_hardware:alexasudo|Alexa Sudo page]]. The changes from Amazon make it impossible to run more than one instance of an Alexa plugin on the same machine and so I have also [[supported_hardware:alexapi|ported the code to the Raspberry pi]] so that you can run as many on those devices as necessary if you need to share more than the allowed 20 unit limit.
+  * NEW: The first pass at a Catalina capable RFX plugin for the newer RFX devices. This plugin is in alpha at the moment and incomplete. It does not try to transmit and does not yet support the lighting device types. It is limited to receiving the receive only sensors from Oregon and others. Please do not actually convert your existing plugin to this yet as things may change. Please do disable the current plugin and create a new one using the new plugin to test it. See if the devices you have are properly received and that new units are created in XTension. If you see any errors in the log when receiving them please forward those log entries to me. If you have other problems please also email me that. I will be adding support for the lighting and other transmit capable devices soon.
+  * NEW: Added the [[supported_hardware:serverevents|Server Events plugin]] for receiving unit updates or events from a standard HTTP Server Events Stream.
+  * Icons in the Select Unit Icon window are now always presented in alphabetical order.
+  * FIX: The [[supported_hardware:tplink|TP-Link plugin]] now better recovers from a connection error or a refused connection to devices that might refuse a connection once in a while due to their own internal issues or dropping temporarily off wifi. It is still a little chatty with error messages while this happens as I’m still collecting more info to fully understand why they sometimes refuse connections while everything appears to be working fine. I will reduce the logging in a future version.
+  * FIX: The xBee plugin will not get shutdown for failing to return pings on very quite networks. Previously if you didn’t receive or send at least some command every few minutes XTension would think the interface had hung up and would restart it.
+  * FIX: Fixed a problem that cause the master log window to not be restored if you had quit the program with a log filter set to an interface or plugin instance.
+  * FIX: Fixed a timing problem with the [[supported_hardware:databasesharing|Shared Databases]] new 2 way sharing of Unit Properties that could cause changes to bounce back and forth forever if you changed a unit property and then changed it again before the ack had bounced back to the originating server.
+  * FIX: Another issue with shared databases if you set a unit property from the on propertyChanged event those messages could also bounce back and forth forever. This is now properly supported.
+  * FIX: Fixed a problem in the [[supported_hardware:hue|Hue plugin]] that would cause many errors to be written to the log if a remote control device or keypad was not fully configured and was returning invalid button numbers.
+  * FIX: Fixed a problem in the [[supported_hardware:hue|Hue plugin]] that could cause it to stop receiving changes to lights made from other clients of the hue hub. The polling of both lights and sensors should be reliable now. Additionally the last beta version still had the problem with sensors not being reliably polled. This is fixed for the release version.
+  * FIX: In all plugin configuration and unit configuration windows and dialogs the tab order of controls will be correct, or at least sensible, regardless of the order they are created in within the plugin configuration files. Some of the plugin setup windows were actually tabbing backwards which has always driven me crazy but I’ve never gotten motivated to fix. If you see windows in XTension that still have incorrect or non-sensical tab order please let me know.
+  * FIX: Fixed a potential issue with sending emails that could cause timeouts to be logged instead of the email being sent.
+  * FIX: Fixed a minor issue where the transmitted packet count was not updated for a shared database connection.
+  * Added support for radio button groups in the plugin configuration windows.
+  * Added support for the barometer/temperature/humidity Oregon combo units to the Legacy RFX device plugin. The nomenclature for these is confusing and when I move all the existing RFX plugins to legacy status it will be more clear. Here I mean the currently supported plugin for the older RFX devices which was not able to receive these particular sensors.
+  * Changed the plugin interface for the current RFX plugin for the legacy RFX devices to not offer to receive the newer RFX device protocol. The two devices are now served by 2 separate plugin.
+  * Added the ability for a custom column in a unit list to also look into the lower level database of the unit for it’s value. You just need to use the actual database key rather than the name of a unit property. This will be of limited usefulness to the majority of you but has already come in handy for me in debugging things.