Alert 3.6 REV 1

ALERT 3.6 revision1, what’s new

The revision 1 of ALERT 3.6 version integrates many software improvements and optimizations, correcting a few defects present in the previous versions: optimization of the display, redundancy, links with data servers …
This version also proposes interesting new functionalities

 

• AlertMobile
  “AlertMobile” functionality enables very simple managing of supervision applications embedded in Windows Mobile compatible mobile phones. Optimizing data exchanges with mobile phones, this option enables use of SMS for transmission of animation dynamic data on screens. This solution consequently offers advantages in terms of simplicity (a simple GSM modem is needed), security (no intrusiol), covering and battery life.
  The mobile phone operator can control his application via different supervision screens described in XML file. Each screen can display the status of a functional sub-system of the application. The screen updating requests are transmitted by SMS, WIFI or 3G to ALERT w(ich transmits back the requested data coming from supervised applications (via DDE, OPC, mediators, message processor, …). In the same way, the operator can trigger commands remotely or adjust parameters.
  
  
• GSM modems management
  The GSM modems management has been modified. The configuration of the operator supplying the SIM card integrated in the modem is now made at the concerned communication port level. It simplifies the configuration of the calling numbers for sending of SMS (one selects the operator corresponding to the called number and no more to the used modem). Managing of several GSM modems with different subscriptions is now also possible.
  The functionalities of the GSM driver have been extended: possibility to demand an acknowledgement for the sent SMS (with call acknowledgement option on receipt of acknowledgement of receipt).
  
  
• Operator import
  The import function has been improved. It is now possible to import variables and operator files. Each imperted property can be defined by one or several columns of the import file.
  The import commands are directly accessible from the supervision and on-call management tree.
  
  
• Dynamic import filters
  The dynamic import concept enables definition of supervision conditions of the alarms in ALERT: no need to previously define a list of variables to supervise.  The configuration of the dynamic import is limited to the definition of the criteria of the dynamic creation of the alarms.
  These criteria are determined by the configuration of import filters defining the conditions and properties of the alarms created dynamically from expressions defining properties associated with the supervision data (type, category, priority, terms, localization …). This enables, for instance, validation of alarm creation according to its priority and localization. It is thus also possible to define the transmitted message by concatenation of terms associated with this alarm and the group to call according to the localization of the alarm.
  This functionality has been integrated to several interface modules with supervision data: message processor, OPC AE and certain mediators (Citect, Wizcon).
  
  
• External files saving
  ALERT enables saving of the whole configuration data, with all the attached configuration and saving files (logs, histories …).
  The possibility to save additional files external to ALERT proper configuration (files attached to supervision, Jericho or Net’Sentinel configuration …) existed in the previous versions but has been extended in this version. The interface is more ergonomic and it is possible to automatically restore the external files at their original places, without additional copy.
  
  
• Derogation and mask programming
• It is now possible to program an on-call derogation period in advance (cancel of calls for a group or call forward to a team explicitly designated) or alarm mask by defining a date or beginning and end hour for the derogation or mask period.
  
  
• Manual scripts
  The message processor scripts can now be manually triggered on request (menu command) to execute certain treatments (alarm test, operator file importation …).
  
  
• Polling option according to the on-call status of the station
  In normal redundant mode, the two stations permanently supervise their own supervision data (redundant database or even database). In certain case, it is useful (or more efficient) to limit the links to the active station. A new option allows supervision links only with the active station.
  
  
• Forcing of variable type
  A variable type (character or numeric chain) was automatically determined by the type of reference value used to evaluate the event condition. If this value was numeric (beginning by a numeric character), the value was numeric type declared.
  This automatic designation, which was most of the time useful, was sometime incoherent. To avoid such incoherence, the variable type is now configurable (numeric by default).
  
  
• Client  functionalities extension
  So as to guarantee a better compatibility in service or terminal server mode, the client/server functionalities of the software have been extended. The following functionalities are now accessible from client stations: current call follow-up, call acknowledgement, control of the links with supervision.
  
  

Alert 3.6

ALERT version 3.6

The 3.6 version of ALERT software, beyond the refreshing of its user interface and some new interesting features, implements important structural evolutions which extends its internationalization capabilities (Unicode, multilingual management) and increase its capacities (number of manageable tags and users).
The main new features given by this version are the following:
• Management UNICODE (-> Chinese version)
• Extension of the multi-language management
• Synoptic visualization of alarms
• Call overview

• On-call schedule management
• User duty schedule
• User availability management
• Control state of connection of the data servers
• Alarm synthesis
• Improved management of service messages
• Vocal announcement of alarms on client stations
• Management of RSS feed for alarms
• Extension of the maximum number of tags and users
• New communication drivers

• UNICODE management (-> Chinese version)

The ALERT software has been entirely revised to be compatible with the UNICODE standard (extension of character encoding from 8 bits to 16 bits). This important evolution allows all existing languages to be supported, for data input and message display, and for the translation of the user interface in idiomatic languages or in languages based on a non Latin alphabet (Chinese, Russian, Arabic…). For this occasion, the user interface of ALERT, already available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch, is now proposed in Chinese (Mandarin).

• Extension of the multi-language management

The multilingual management introduced in version 3.5 of the software has been revised and extended to be completely operational in this new version. This functionality allows:

• sending messages and alarm consultation in the respective language of the recipient operators,
• switching the interface completely to another language, including labels and displayed messages
• simultaneous utilization of the user interface in different languages from client stations

• Synoptic visualization of alarms

A new functionality of alarm supervision has been integrated to generate and animate HTML synoptic views of the supervised installation, for a better visual control and a graphical localization of alarms detected on the installation. This functionality includes the supervision server module (derived from Visual Access) for the animation of synoptic views, the Web browser plug-in to display the synoptic views on the Alert screens (server and clients) and the VAEdit synoptic editor to edit the synoptic views.
This functionality is particularly interesting when the installation does not integrate a SCADA application.

• Call overview

A call overview functionality has been added, allowing the call cycles triggered by an alarm to be supervised in real time (to know who is warned) or later controlled (called groups, operators and numbers, call reports). Reports on call cycles can be printed. This new functionality, attached to the data base export option, requires that option to be activated.

• On-call schedule management

The scheduling now distinguishes between preprogrammed periods (initialized from the on-call program of the corresponding group) and periods forced by direct assignment of a team at a given date. The preprogrammed periods are displayed in a light color. The modifications of a group program directly affect the preprogrammed periods of the group schedule. The forced periods remain unchanged, except if one forces the reinitialization of the schedule (button « Copy program »). In the same way, the definition of public holidays directly affects the preprogrammed periods for the corresponding days. When a team is forced in the schedule, it can be removed to be replaced either by the preprogrammed team (choice program) for the corresponding range, either by no team (choice no team).

• User duty schedule

For each operator a duty schedule can be defined to program off-duty periods and substitutions, according to the planned unavailability periods of the operator (vacation, training, trip…).
This schedule can be defined from a weekly programming (week + public holidays) and calendar (forcing of periods over some calendar days). It can be read either as an on-duty schedule (on duty periods), or as an off-duty schedule (off-duty periods).

• User availability management

Various service statuses can be defined giving in real time the availability status of each operator to be called for alarms. By default, two statuses are predefined: “available” and “unavailable”. Additional statuses can be defined (“Meeting”, “Intervention”…), with the possibility for each status of specifying the precise availability status of the user: available or not to treat the alarms, only available as relief user (called if no other active user of the group can be reached) or for important alarms, available to receive service messages.

• Control of the connection status of data servers

The connection status of each data server can be controlled from an external application by DDE or OPC by reading the "status" variable attached to each server. This variable can be self-monitored by ALERT to automatically trigger an alarm when a data server is disconnected.

• Alarm synthesis

The alarm status of a functional group (presence of an alarm in the group) can be controlled from an external application by DDE or OPC by reading a "status" variable attached to each functional group. This variable can be self-monitored by ALERT to generate an alarm synthesis of the tags assigned to the group.

• Improved management of service messages

The function of message diffusion has been improved:

• selection of the recipient operators: possibility of filtering by station and by group, possibility of limitation on the on-call and on-duty operators,
• possibility to specify the media to be used for sending the message (fax, email, SMS …).

• Vocal announcement of alarms on client stations

Alarms can now be notified vocally on each connected client station (according to a specific option for each client station).

• Management of RSS feed for alarms

A functionality of RSS feed management has been introduced to exploit the possibilities offered by this new technology. This functionality makes it possible to transmit the current state of alarms present on the installation via FTP protocol to an external Web server as a XML file compatible with RSS 2.0. It is then possible to subscribe to the feeds corresponding to the generated XML file from any RSS reader (Google, Yahoo, Internet Explorer 7...), in order to be automatically informed of the present alarm state on the supervised installation. To be implemented this functionality simply requires an outgoing Internet access.

• Extension of the maximum number of tags and users

The identifiers of the objects "tags" and "users" have been extended from 15 bits to 24 bits, deferring their theoretical limit to a little more than 16 million.

• New communication drivers

New drivers have been developed and are integrated into version 3.6 of the software, in particular:

• Driver “Winpager”: transmits alarms and messages to a Windows paging emulator. Alarms are displayed on the screen of the receiver and can be acknowledged. They can also be announced vocally, with option of repetition.
• Driver « Exstreamer » to broadcast vocal messages (alarm and service messages) on a public address system through the TCP/IP network. Each subset of the public address system can be directly addressed to diffuse specific messages by area (place, workshop …).

Alert 3.5 Rev 3

The version 3.5 revision 3 new features

The revision 3 of the version 3.5 of the software proposes the following new new features:

• Transfer of alarm calls to another group

Thanks to this new new feature, an operator dealing with alarms can, to treat some alarms, require the intervention of another operator group, either in support (need for a complementary competence) or in substitution (impossibility of processing the alarm at the level of the group).

History of temporary alarms

Alarms declared as temporary (created at the alarm time then automatically deleted when the alarm is reset and acknowledged) are now recorded in the alarm history when the “database export” option is activated. This allows history of all alarms, including deleted alarms.

• Automatic saving of the configuration

The new feature of automatic saving of the configuration have been extended. The saving can contain a list of any external files. It is also possible to keep a configurable number of savings achieved periodically, allowing restoration of a configuration of several days or weeks.

• Deactivation of automatic synchronization (redundancy)

In order to facilitate maintenance operations, it is now possible to suspend the automatic synchronization of redundant stations during a configurable time.

• Management of operator unavailability

An operator can now declare himself unavailable, for example during an intervention or a meeting. In this case, the calls are no longer transmitted to him until he declares himself available again. This status means the operator is on duty, but not available to treat an alarm.   

• Dynamic management of priorities

The alarm priority can be automatically incremented when it has been set and a continuous flow of high priority alarms prevents it from being transmitted. This new feature makes the priority of an alarm relative to the time elapsed since its activation.

• Consultation of instruction file

The instruction file attached to an alarm can be directly consulted from the tag views (for tags in alarm state) and alarm table.

• Data servers

The device notion has been introduced at the level of the data servers. A device is defined as an entity capable of grouping several alarms (high threshold, low threshold, sensor failure…, for example). In this version, this notion is only used for license management (device counting instead of tag counting) and display (display of devices in the tree of data servers). An option
has also been added allowing a data server to be forced to “error link” status when at least one of its attached tags is invalid.

• PLUGIN interface

This feature of the ALERT product can now be extended by integrating additional modules. These modules are automatically loaded by ALERT and integrated to its main screen. They interact with ALERT through a new “Plug-in” type interface. So, the ALERTDATI module has been developed with ASCOM Company to propose a graphic interface for visualization and localization of alarms transmitted from personal security systems. This module allows security alarms to be received and localized on ALERT situation plans.

• New communication drivers

New communication drivers have been developed and are integrated to the new version:

• • OXEPaging driver to transmit alarm messages to DECT through Alcatel 4400 PABX. This driver replaces the old “Alcatel 4400” driver. The Notification Server gateway, which is no longer sold by Alcatel, is henceforth not necessary.

• • SNMPTrap driver to automatically transmit SNMP traps to a network management station on alarm reception.

Alert 3.5 Rev.2

New functionalities of version 3.5 revision 2

Alert version 3.5 revision 2 offers the following new functionalities:

• Ability to be started in Windows service mode. When this option is active, the software automatically registered in Windows services table. It is then automatically launched when the system is initialized and is operational even without any user session open.

• interface offering access to the whole functions of the programming interface (API).

• Extension of the data server concept to all variables, different from DDE and OPC variables (mediator variables and other variables).

• Explicit call acknowledgement option enabling to explicitly accept or refuse a call. If the call is denied, it automatically leads to call forward to a relief operator.

• New interface with vocal synthesis allowing integration of new generation synthesis engines (SAPI5).

• New communication drivers for vocal call of operators through IP network (VoIP driver, SIP compatible) and use of instantaneous voice mails (MSN driver).

Alert 3.5 Rev1

ALERT version 3.5 - revision 1

The version 3 5 of Alert had introduced a new user interface , offering a structured and synoptic view of the whole supervised application and on-call management organization.


The revision 1 of the version 3.5, by developing certain aspects of the data organization and by correcting some weakness of the original version, still reinforce the possibilities offered by this interface :

• Extension of the station concept, allowing the management of virtual stations . The organization of the data in stations meets the need to define specific subsets for the management of operators and data attached to companies or sites. With the concept of virtual stations, this logical organization is now possible independently of the organization of the data acquisition: data can be recovered through a single frontal or database and then redistributed between the various stations according to their origin.
• Identification of the DDE and OPC data servers . The tags issued from the same data server (local or distant) are gathered in a branch of the tree structure, allowing to visually identify a problem of connection with a server and to perform specific operations on a server (start/stop polling, acknowledgment ...). For each data server, it is possible to define a list of redundant servers, able to ensure the data supply in the event of failure of the main server (or of the previous redundant server in the list).
• Redefinition of the organization of the functional groups : a group can now contain at the same time groups (old grouping) and tags. This organization makes it possible to define tags in all the levels of a tree structure of groups.
• Extension of the client OPC interface for a full integration of specificities of the OPC interfaces Data Access V2 and Alarm & Event . New mediator OPC allows the static importation of the data to be supervised, while profiting from the possibilities offered by the OPC Data Access V2 specification of properties attached to a variable to retrieve automatically all information associated with an alarm (message, priority ...). This new mediator allows also the dynamic importation of alarms by the automatic creation of alarms at the time of their activation according to preconfigured filters.
• Improvement of the management of the operator call numbers : unlimited list of call numbers, customizable recovery options on the level of each number, graphical weekly schedule of the numbers to be used. Possibility of calling several numbers for the same operator (e.g. transmission of SMS + confirmation by phone call).
• Improvement of the graphical interface : optimization of display, customisation of the lists, sorting on columns, new columns (call following...).
• New contextual on-line help .

The archiving of the configuration data and the data exchanges performed during the synchronizations between the redundant stations and the server and client stations were completely modified. The archived and exchanged data are now structured in accordance with standard XML . This choice reinforces the interoperability of the software and offers a standardized access to all the configuration data of the application.

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