Important changes in Reliance 4.2.0

2011 | Reliance SCADA

Warning on directory changes

When using Reliance 4, various kinds of information are saved to files. For example, the Reliance Design development environment saves changes to a visualization project to files in the project directory, the runtime software logs historical data, alarms/events, and debug information, saves user settings, etc. As a result of the default settings in previous versions of Reliance 4, most files were stored in folders in the Reliance 4 installation directory (most often C:\Program Files\GEOVAP\Reliance4). However, storing files in folders under the Program Files directory has turned out to be inconvenient, since the user does not always have the necessary permissions to create or modify files in these folders. It usually happens in the following situations:

The user is not a member of the Administrators group
The User Account Control feature (UAC) is active; as a result, only applications launched using the "Run as administrator" command have write permissions to the Program Files directory and its subdirectories (it applies to Windows Vista and later Windows operating systems)

In Reliance 4.2.0, the default directory settings have changed in order to prevent the issues caused by insufficient write permissions.

The directory changes are summarized in this table.

The changes mentioned above apply to a clean install of Reliance 4.2.0. If a previous version is upgraded to 4.2.0, the directory settings configurable through the Environment Options dialog remain unchanged.

Starting with the version 4.2.0, Reliance modules (development environment and runtime software) don't require to be run "as administrator" which might have bothered the users of previous versions. As a result, Reliance modules may not have write permissions to the Program Files directory and its subdirectories. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that visualization projects be located in a directory accessible for writing for the user under whose account Reliance modules run.

Starting with the version 1.0.6, Reliance 4 Library is installed to a different location (the default installation path has changed). In the previous default location, under the Program Files directory, issues might have occurred while trying to modify pictures or add new ones. Due to this change, it is necessary to check the Picture Library directory option (and alter it if needed) in the Environment Options dialog. This check must be performed only if Reliance 4 of version earlier than 4.2.0 was installed on the computer. When a clean install of Reliance 4.2.0 is performed, the directories are preset correctly.

All modules

Introduced a new memory manager
Introduced new environment variables to be used in relative paths: $(UserDocuments) that represents the directory containing the current user's documents and $(PublicDocuments) representing the directory containing documents that should be accessible from different user accounts
Environment options: changed the default paths for projects, project backups, library and log files
Added logging system information at program startup

Reliance Design development environment

"Welcome" window: added a command for restoring a project from a backup
Design window: added possibility to display the grid on top of the components
Export for Remote Users Wizard: added the "Publish configurations" option that conditions generating the Web page containing the list of configurations; moreover, if this option is inactive, the links to configurations will be encrypted
Export for Remote Users Wizard: optimized exporting objects that cannot be connected to computers via the Project Structure Manager (pictures, actions, real-time trends and their series): only objects really used in the configuration are now exported
String Manager: added the "Translate by Google" command for translating strings by Google's free online translation service
String Manager: added possibility to edit text through a multi-line editor
Data Structure Manager, Device Manager: added possibility to import multidimensional arrays and import array elements as separate tags
Added possibility to define alarm/event groups, assign the groups to alarms/events, and automatically notify selected users via E-mail or SMS messages when an alarm/event occurs, ends or gets acknowledged

Runtime software

Added further program languages (Greek, Slovak)

Reliance Server, Reliance Control Server

Added possibility to run a selected script when a request is received from a thin client (e.g. request to connect, disconnect, log on a user)
Report viewer on server Web pages: revised the user interface (avoided using frames)
Report viewer on server Web pages: added possibility to display a limited number of records in order to prevent the data server from overloading

Web Client

IP camera components: added displaying the camera's image right inside the component (the update interval can be configured through the "Options" dialog); added possibility to control the camera (pan, tilt, zoom and focus) if it is supported by the camera; added possibility to transfer the camera's image and commands through Reliance's data server
Alarm/Event Viewers: added possibility to enter a note related to an alarm/event
Added support for the Data Tree component
Added further program languages (Greek, Slovak, and Polish)

Communication drivers

SMS: added support for additional methods of SMS message encoding (Data Coding Scheme): 8-bit encoding (convenient for data transfer) and 16-bit encoding (Unicode text)
SMS: added support for sending multipart SMS messages

Reliance OPC Server

Released the first public version - for further information, click here

Help and documentation

Added the "License Key Utility" manual
Custom application interface of the Web service: added an example written in Java and for the Android platform

Installation program

added a shortcut to Reliance Remote Control Center to the Start Menu

To view the complete list of changes, click here.