What's new in Reliance 4.7.2

May 18, 2016 | Stepan Drzka

The previous official version of the Reliance SCADA/HMI system (version 4.7.1) was released on May 20, 2015. After almost a year, Reliance 4.7.2 is out with some new features and enhancements. The major changes are summarized below.

Windows 10

4GB RAM

SSD

System of access rights

Alarm/event colors

Combination of various trend types

Special internal tags

Many new script functions

Project in SQL

Converting visualization windows to a different resolution is easy

Combo Box with a dynamic item list

Window template in Container with an indirect link to a structured tag

Maatrix

Project restoration at the end-user site

Tired of confirming dialog boxes?

Smart Client

Windows 10

The Reliance system has been tested and is fully supported on Windows 10. This means that, beginning with Windows XP, all Windows versions are supported.

4GB RAM

Reliance is a 32-bit program. Standard programs designed for the 32-bit version of Windows cannot handle addresses larger than 2 GB of RAM. Reliance 4.7.2 can handle addresses up to 4 GB of RAM when run on the 64-bit version of Windows. See LARGEADDRESSAWARE.

SSD

In Reliance 4.7.2, we have improved the way some files are stored on disk. Now, the number of writes is minimized. We have also added detecting an SSD at project startup. More details can be found in this technical article.

System of access rights

The system of access rights has been revised. Compared to Reliance's previous versions, the number of access rights is no longer limited to 30. It is now unlimited.

Alarm/event colors

In previous releases, alarms/events were displayed in different colors depending on the alarms' status (red, yellow, white). You can now configure colors in order for alarms/events to be displayed according to their status and/or type. This can make the orientation in the alarm/event viewer much easier.

Combination of various trend types

The Chart type property can now be configured at the level of trend series. This means you can combine, for example, a line chart and a bar chart in a single trend.

Special internal tags

The list of special internal tags, which was introduced in version 4.7.1, now has the following new data types:

• Date
• Time
• Date/time
• Project start date/time
• Project uptime
• Random value
• Sawtooth wave
• Sine wave
• Free disk space
• Memory used by program
• Program CPU load
• Program version
• Project name
• Main project file
• Project directory
• Logged-on user
• Current program language
• Current project language
• Connected thin client count
• Server status (redundancy)
• Last script run
• Last run script date/time
• Current device's physical tag date/time
• Current device's historical data date/time
• Current device's valid physical tag count (%)
• Computer
• Active window
• Serial number

Many new script functions

Performing bitwise operations directly in VBScript was neither easy nor fast and, what is more, could lead to hazardous conditions. As a result, the following functions have been introduced:

• RSys.GetByte
• RSys.GetWord
• RSys.SetByte
• RSys.SetWord
• RTag.GetByte
• RTag.GetWord
• RTag.SetByte
• RTag.SetWord
• RSys.ShiftLeft
• RSys.ShiftRight
• RTag.ShiftLeft
• RTag.ShiftRight

These functions perform bitwise operations natively.

Another new function – RSys.ExecAction – allows performing a predefined action directly from scripts. The RSys.ExecActionAndWait function performs an action and waits for its completion (e.g., when it is necessary to wait until
a dialog box is confirmed).

The RSys.ExecApp function, which is intended to run an external application from a script, has been available for a long time. If you, however, need to run an external application from a script and wait for its completion, you can now simply use a new function named RSys.ExecAppAndWait.

New objects named RConst and RProj and new methods named RProj.GetObject and RProj.GetObjectList have been added to the Script Manager. They allow access to some properties of project-defined objects.

For example, you can create a script that will retrieve the list of tags defined within a device (e.g., "BoilerRoom1"), loop through the list, and set the value of all tags whose names begin with, for example, "Param_" to, for example, 10. The functions are very general and, therefore, intended for widespread use.

Project in SQL

In some cases, it is required to interconnect the Reliance 4 system and another information system to which project definition (i.e., the list of all objects, such as devices, tags, and alarms/events, with all their properties) is available. Therefore, the possibility to export the project to an SQL-based database so as to access the project in other information systems has been added to Reliance. If this option is active, the project is automatically exported at startup.

Converting visualization windows to a different resolution is easy

It may happen that your visualization project's windows will have to be converted to a different resolution. For this purpose,
a new wizard (Scale Windows and Components Wizard) is available in version 4.7.2. It allows you to proportionally change the size and properties of windows and components in a desired ratio (scale factor). The ratio can be entered either as resolutions (current and target) or as percentage.

Combo Box with a dynamic item list

The Combo Box component is usually used to select an item from the predefined list. Previously, the item list was always static. Beginning with version 4.7.2, it can be specified by a tag of type Array of String, so it can change during runtime as needed.

Window template in Container with an indirect link to a structured tag

Window templates in a container and structured tags are a powerful tool for creating applications containing multiple instances of the same unit (group of objects). Up to version 4.7.1, it had been necessary to have a separate Container component for each pair window template–structured tag. Beginning with version 4.7.2, you need to have only one container with a window template and to dynamically control the container's link to a structured tag (using a string-type tag whose value controls the name of the structured tag). The template's contents can thus be changed during runtime by setting the name of the structured tag.

Maatrix

Reliance 4.7.2 has support for connecting to the Maatrix emergency communication service for the purpose of notifying users of alarms/events. For details, read this technical article.

Project restoration at the end-user site

A new method of project restoration – Restoration at end user – is now part of the Restore Project from Backup Wizard. This method is used in situations where a systems integrator is updating a project (at the end-user site) to which some changes have been made by the user (e.g., user passwords have been changed or new users have been added). If you choose this option, only files stored in the backup file will be restored except for the files defining users, trends, and reports.

Tired of confirming dialog boxes?

Reliance 4.7.2 allows you to disable a number of confirmations so that they are no longer displayed.

If you wish to display them again, simply activate the Show option in the Environment Options dialog.

Smart Client

Reliance Smart Client now allows configuring trend properties. The settings are saved to a user profile on the server.

Beginning with version 4.7.2, it is possible to change the scale of visualization windows (zoom) even in the responsive mode. By long tapping on the touch screen within a visualization window, a slider for changing the scale appears.

The Pipe, Scale, Clock components and vector components are now displayed using inline SVG. This optimizes the amount of transferred data and there is no distortion when scaling.

The above are only selected new features. The full change log is available on this page.