2023.5 Release Highlights

After last month’s large release, the 2023.5 Fuuz platform release is a little quieter, but there are still some significant new features. Here are the major highlights:

In-App Gateway Updates

The past several releases have included significant enhancements to the Fuuz IIoT platform and our Device Gateway, and this release is no different. One of the common requests we heard from IT administrators was that they wished it was easier to know when the Device Gateway needed to be updated, and to apply those updates when they were available; this month, we’re releasing a new set of features for the Device Gateway service to address those concerns!

The Device Gateway will now automatically check for updates on startup, and hourly after that; users can also manually check for updates in the settings page:

When updates are available, the system displays a notification bar.

Users can then click the “Install Update” button in the notification bar that appears to install the update in place, which automatically downloads the updated gateway and restarts the application.

Users can install updates from the notification bar.

Users can also update the gateway from the settings page, where it will display a notice that an update is available.

Users can also install updates from the system screen.

The Integration team is currently working on a very similar feature for installed drivers; keep your eyes out for that one next month!

Schema Designer Model Linking Enhancements

Over the past several releases, we’ve made a series of improvements to the way relations are created between models in the schema designer. Previously, individual fields were linked together to create relations, which required a lot of fiddling and quite a few steps; now, you simply drag a link from the header of one model and drop it onto another to create a relationship.

Linking data models to create relationships.

Once two models are linked, the system will display a dialog asking you to fill out some information on the relation they want to create: the type of relation (one to one, one to many, many to many, etc.), an optional relation prefix, and whether the relation is required.

Data model relationship dialog.

When you submit the dialog, the schema designer will automatically create the link, properly named relation and back-relation fields, and any supporting ID fields or models - no fiddling required!

Models linked with the new system.

More Highlights

TCP Server & Client Drivers

In the April release notes, I highlighted a new HTTP Server driver and indicated that it was the first in a class of new “server” drivers. The May release includes the second driver in that set: a TCP Server driver! This driver operates in a very similar fashion to the HTTP Server driver, except that it exposes a lower-level TCP server; data sent to this server is relayed up to a Fuuz data flow as a Base64-encoded string, either through direct data flow execution or through device driver subscriptions.

To pair with this server driver, this release also includes a TCP Client driver, allowing the Device Gateway to connect to TCP sockets hosted on servers inside the local network and write data to them. These drivers together allow for flexible handling of TCP-controlled devices.

Role Home Screens

This month’s release includes a feature we’ve had on our list for a while - the ability to set a home screen on a role. This allows administrators to configure the screen users see when they first log in to their Fuuz tenant, or when they navigate home by clicking the Fuuz logo in the upper left corner.

Fuuz Home Screen Configuration

If a user has more than one role assigned, switching roles will also switch the displayed home screen.

Switching roles switches the displayed home screen to match.

This feature finally allows administrators and app developers to create or choose a relevant screen to be the landing page for their users!

Full Release Notes: 2023.5.0

Data Team

Schema Designer

• Added read-only display of system generated indexes to data model form

• Updated model header linking to prevent duplicate fields

• Updated model header linking to allow dropping anywhere on a model

• Added validation to ensure the id field on schema is not updateable

• Improved schema designer filter panel to reduce space taken by filter options

Security

• Updated non-editable fields on user tenant form to be read-only display fields

• Corrected several incorrect link targets on tenants screen

• Added userApiKeys relation to the UserTenant system data model

Core APIs

• Added indexes covering changedAt and changedByUserId to data change capture collections to improve query performance

DevOps Team

Monitoring

• Enabled system-wide Application Performance Monitoring (APM) tools for testing

Framework

• Updated core HTTP server library to Fastify V4

Integration Team

Device Gateway

• Corrected links to Fuuz screens in device gateway service UI

• Added device gateway-level ping function to test connectivity between the gateway and other hosts

• Implemented in-app updates for device gateway installations 

  

• Updated behavior of device actions in the gateway UI to better align with user expectations

• Updated gateway service UI to display backend warnings and errors in UI message manager and notifications

Device Gateway Drivers

• Updated gateway service file driver to carry over positional read logic present in legacy gateway

• Added TCP Client driver

• Added TCP Server driver

Integration Service

• Updated log levels to reduce log noise from integration service

Data Flow Nodes

• Corrected an issue with wildcards in the device subscription node

Orchestration Team

Data Flows

• Added a module field to data flow forms and module/module group filters and columns to the data flows table

Data Flow Nodes

• Marked transition node as deprecated

Scripting Language

• Updated $momentTz bindings to the latest time zone definitions

Miscellaneous

• Added a column for webhook URL to the Webhooks screen

• Added a Sample Request action to the Webhooks screen

User Interface Team

Components

• Fixed an issue causing the visual query builder to fail to reload from an existing query

Screen Designer

• Updated screen dialog system to leverage widget flag also used for screen widgets

• Updated form element types to render a relevant input type for the Default Value field

Framework

• Added Home Screen configuration option to roles to determine what screen renders at the base URL

Miscellaneous

• Updated visualization types screen to display visualization preview image and make descriptions easier to read

QA Patch 2023.5.1

• Corrected an issue that could cause data change capture records to have stale audit fields

• Corrected an issue with clearing date inputs

• Updated script sandbox to address a security vulnerability

• Corrected an issue with HTTP server error serialization