What's new in QuickOPC 2017.2

See also: Versions; Previous version: What's new in QuickOPC 2017.1

Internal version number: 5.51

Key changes:

Targeting

• Operating systems: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64) with SP1 is no longer supported.
• Development tools: Visual Studio 2017 added to the list of primary development tools.

Technology

• Microsoft Code Contracts are no longer used. The actual checks on public surface APIs remain in place.
• The product is now developed mainly with Visual Studio 2017.

Component Improvements

• The OPC UA components are now based on OPC Foundation .NET Stack 1.03.342.
• OPC UA security policy Basic256Sha256 is now supported.
• Improved type inference logic with OPC UA writes and ValueRank-s of ScalarOrOneDimension, Any, or OneOrMoreDimensions. The component now uses the value to be written as a hint for the resulting type rank.
• New parameter: UAClientEngineParameters.DebuggerDetectionOverride. Allows to enforce the behavior as if the debugger was or was not attached. Useful for troubleshooting scenarios having to do with OPC UA session keep-alive or lifetime mechanisms.
• Added a TypeConverter to UAIndexRangeList, with ability to convert from strings (either with or without surrounding square brackets). This allow e.g. the users of Live Binding or Connection Explorer to simply type in the index ranges, instead of having to go through the collection editor.
• Improved error checking when parsing OPC UA index range lists (disallow negative indices).
• Improved error messages when parsing OPC UA index range lists. The messages now consistently contain specific information about the offending input.
• When more OPC UA sessions display a notification asking the user to accept or reject a certificate, the requests are now presented in parallel.
• OPC UA endpoint domain check warning, and a certificate check validation warning, if they happen on the same session, are now presented in parallel.
• Improved OPC UA interoperability.

Instrumentation

• New log entry: An information log entry added when OPC UA subscription has been successfully created and checked. The subscription's ID, revised publishing interval, and keep-alive and lifetime counts are recorded. (Some event IDs have been renumbered in relation to this).
• When the directory-based certificate store is used, the OPC UA engine now logs the resolved directory path of the application certificate.

Tools

Connectivity Explorer

• Many more automatically managed columns are now created with each point type. The new columns are hidden by default, but can be turned on (made visible) by simply changing their Visible property to 'true', without having them to be manually created and configured. For example, "Server Timestamp (UTC)" and "Source Timestamp (UTC) columns are now automatically created.
• Columns in Live Data view now have Visible property, allowing them to be hidden.
• The user can now use a horizontal splitter to change the height of the node information pane height in the Point Editor - Browse. Also, some screen estate has been gained by omitting the node information label.
• The properties of Live Data view columns has been split into several categories (e.g. "Appearance" and "Data"), making it easier to find and modify the information needed.
• The event records are now internally captured right from the program start. When the user makes the Event Records window visible, events captured earlier are already present in the window.
• Filtering events in Event Records windows made more user friendly by displaying just the event names in the check list, and not their type signatures.

Removed Parts

• Code contracts assemblies have been removed.