TopView® version 7.2.1 Release

TopView® version 7.2.1 Release

February 6, 2024

OPC/SCADA ● OPC A&E ● PI ● SQL Events ● SQL Lookup ● MQTT ● PerfMon

See the release notes for a full list of changes included in this version

Notification: Support for WhatsApp Messenger (Android, iPhone, iPad, and Desktop)

TopView now supports outgoing and incoming messages for WhatsApp users. WhatsApp is a free, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging service used by over 2B people in more than 180 countries.

Support for WhatsApp in TopView is through a 3rd party service/API that has a single, fixed cost per month. The current cost (2024) is $40 USD/month. There is no per-message cost.

  • If enabled, users can reply to a received message to acknowledge the alarm by clicking a link in the received message
  • TopView can query incoming chat messages using the API (to the cloud) without requiring messages to be pushed to the TopView machine

Notification: Support for Pushover (Android, iPhone, iPad, and Desktop)

TopView now supports outgoing push notifications to iOS, Android, and Desktop through a third-party application/service called Pushover. Pushover users can also (optionally) acknowledge messages to acknowledge the TopView alarm.

Pushover is a hosted service where users can create an account that is associated with any of the above platforms and receive notifications on all of them simultaneously. Each platform can be acquired by each user for a one-time cost per platform (in 2023 this cost is $5 USD). A free 30-day trial is available.

Pushover does not have a cost per message or a subscription cost for access to the messaging API implemented by TopView. There is an optional subscription service called Pushover Teams which is detailed here Pushover: Pushover for Teams. Note: this is not related to Microsoft Teams.

TopView Alarm Acknowledge:

  • Received Pushover messages can optionally allow the user to acknowledge the alarm through an [Acknowledge Notification] button that appears in the message

SCADA Connect

SCADA Connect is used to import SCADA alarms into a TopView Engine configuration

  • Updated UI and options for the steps “Install for HMI” and “HMI Sync”
    • HMI Sync (alarm tag import): updated UI for AVEVA Intouch, AVEVA System Platform, GE iFIX, and Rockwell FactoryTalk View SE A&E
  • Tag name filter: added support for wildcards
  • FactoryTalk: option to retrieve Chinese alarm messages in addition to English
  • System Platform: option to store the results of GRAccess (retrieved alarm descriptions and priorities) for future HMI Sync sessions

Web Configurator

  • Users that have read-only permission to a configuration can now be granted edit permission for specific Tag Groups. Users with edit permission for a Tag Group may edit settings for that Tag Group and any tag that is a member of that Tag Group.
  • Password requirements for new users have been updated
  • Settings added: Health, Heartbeat, Logging, Pushover, WhatsApp

Configurator: Import dynamic tag properties

Some alarm tag properties may be available as a separate tag. Example: the alarm message of alarm tag ABC.InAlarm is available by reading tag ABC.AlarmMsg.

Although TopView may allow you to reference the separate tag in the alarm tag property, you can now read in the current value of the separate tag and store the value as the tag property. Supported import properties: alarm tag description, alarm message, and priority.

MultiTech rCell SMS modem: Throttle query for health information to improve modem performance

Some calls into the modem for health information (e.g. did the last message send fail) may require significant resources on the modem device, especially when called frequently. This can result in a modem that is slow to respond, or in some cases, unresponsive. Multiple updates in this release are designed to reduce the frequency at which TopView will make health calls into the modem to improve overall modem performance. See the full release notes for details.

Notification Acknowledge Receipt: Send to all who received the alarm notification

Email, SMS, and Messaging notification recipients can optionally acknowledge alarms. The sender of the acknowledge message can receive a receipt message about the success or failure of the acknowledge attempt.

When escalating or sending a notification to multiple people, a recipient of the notification who did not acknowledge the alarm was previously unaware that the alarm was acknowledged by a different recipient.

The settings for the acknowledge receipt now contain an option to “send the receipt message to all who received the alarm notification message”

Secure Acknowledge: Rolling window

Email, SMS, and Messaging notification can allow alarm acknowledge through a reply message that contains the sent acknowledge code. If “secure acknowledge” is enabled, each alarm acknowledge code is unique.

In previous versions of TopView, an incoming secure acknowledge code would only acknowledge the alarm if the unique code matched. If an alarm was triggering multiple times and sending multiple notifications, the user was only able to acknowledge the alarm with the most recent unique acknowledge code.

A new Global Option allows the user to set “rolling window” for secure acknowledge codes. The rolling window specifies a period of time where any previous secure acknowledge codes for the alarm will also be accepted.

See the release notes for a full list of changes included in this version