TrendMiner 2023.R3.0

14th of November 2023

The 2023.R3.0 release contains the following new functionality and improvements:

Innovation Highlights 

• Context view conditional formatting: Gantt – Context Gantt views now support conditional formatting, allowing users to view the status of a particular event.  The application of this capability in Gantt view allows users to visualize event states alongside relative durations and times of occurrence.
• Complex conditional formatting in ContextHub – Context grid and Gantt views now support complex conditional formatting, configurable with AND/OR expressions.  This enables users to visually identify event states of interest that are defined by multiple context field values.
• Version-specific user documentation – Help Center documentation will now only show documentation relevant to the version the user has installed, ensuring clear and up to date help for each user.

Application Enhancements

• Homepage – upon opening TrendMiner, users are now presented with a home screen including quick-click options to pick up where they left off with recent or favorite views, dashboards, and notebooks.   Admins also have the option to configure custom messages on the homepage to all users on an installation via ConfigHub.  This may be used to broadcast information about upgrades, outages, events on-site, or company contact information to TrendMiner users.
• Edge Manager – IT admins now have easy access to more diagnostic metrics including CPU usage, time synchronization settings, and uptime in an improved interface.  Technical configuration, including upgrades, will be completed via the new Edge Manager rather than ConfigHub or Appliance Manager. 
• Scatterplot performance – Multi-scatter and single scatter plot performance has been improved, resulting in faster plot rendering. 
• Pipeline overwriting – MLHub pipelines can now be overwritten so that DashHub Notebook tiles can be more easily updated.
• MLHub kernel upgrade – Upgraded Python version (3.11) and latest Python packages in MLHub.
• GE Proficy Support – TrendMiner now supports GE Proficy 2022 and Proficy 2023, in addition to Proficy 9.1.

Bug Fixes 

• Numeric Mismatch – Context sync has been repaired to ensure numeric context fields are updated when they are changed in an external system. 
• Scatter plot update – Scatter plots now update correctly when switching axes while a drawn area is visible.  
• “Unsaved changes” label in ContextHub – some filter combinations in ContextHub resulted with an erroneous “Unsaved changes” label on the title bar.  The label now reflects saved changes as expected. 
• Fixed an issue where monitors could become system-disabled due to an incorrect tag accessibility check. In rare cases, the tag accessibility failed, even though the monitor was healthy. Improvements are implemented to avoid such scenarios.  

Known Limitations 

• Conditional formatting for the Gantt would not consider any changes propagated through the use of live mode. To see the updated coloring users would have to refresh the chart. 
• Embedding TrendMiner in external applications is limited to Microsoft Teams. Extensions to improve this functionality and make it more robust coming later. 
• External content tiles in dashboard need cookies to properly load all content (and be able to login when required). 
• Scooter values may change when zooming in after adding the scooter. This is because scooters currently interpolate the data points on the chart. 
• When calculated tags are deleted, they cannot be created with the same name again. 
• After renaming a calculated tag linked to a context item, the component of the context item is not updated correctly. 
• The action displayed on the right-side panel of ConfigHub when a service is restarted, is no longer visible. 

Patch Release Updates

We release patches periodically. To receive email updates on important TrendMiner patch releases, subscribe via ​​this link​​.

Synopsis 

Conditional formatting for the Gantt chart in ContextHub 

The conditional formatting feature for the Gantt chart in ContextHub allows users to format the color of bars on the Gantt chart based on a set of defined rules. Multiple rules can be configured and arranged by drag and drop to form a rule hierarchy, where the topmost rule would be taking precedence.  

When a bar on the chart satisfies a rule, the color of the bar will change respective to what color was defined in the rule. 

Complex conditional formatting 

The conditional formatting functionality in ContextHub has been enhanced to support definition of complex rules based on multiple conditions. Users can now define multiple conditions within a rule and use them to form an expression that suits their needs using AND/OR operators and brackets. 

Homepage 

The new home page is designed to enhance user experience by providing quick access to recent items, favorites and various forms of support, including a direct communication channel with TrendMiner experts. An option for administrators to promote a message to all users of TrendMiner has also been added. 

Version specific user documentation 

The end-user documentation has been updated and now provides the possibility to show version specific information. When clicking on information icons within the application, the documentation pane will only show information applicable to the currently installed version. 

Additional functionality includes the options to minimize the help center, while being able to browse to other menus in the application as well as the option to maximize the help center side panel. The latter is useful to inspect the embedded screenshots in more detail.  

Note: The Chat with us link and the Report a bug links are no longer accessible through the Help center They can still be accessed by clicking the question mark in the top menu bar.

Overwrite MLHub pipelines 

This feature allows users to update DashHub Notebook tiles output. Instead of saving a new pipeline and editing the DashHub notebook tile afterwards, expert users can now overwrite existing pipelines directly when publishing a notebook in MLHub.

When overwriting a pipeline, any dashboard using this pipeline will be automatically updated.

MLHub Kernel Upgrade 

In this release we introduce a brand-new kernel with an upgrade in Python version including the latest updated Python packages. 

• Python version: 3.11.2 

The inclusion of the latest Python packages ensures that users have access to the most up-to-date tools and libraries, allowing expert users to develop and execute code with greater precision and reliability.

For the future, the TrendMiner team is further investigating a more sustainable way to access the latest packages and libraries independent of TrendMiner updates.

Deprecation notice: 

The previous kernel named "Python with Visualization Libraries on Kubernetes" is now marked as deprecated. This kernel will still be available temporarily for backwards compatibility. We encourage all users to transition to the new kernel to take advantage of the updates.

Please note that in subsequent releases, the older kernel will be completely removed.

We recommend that users review their existing scripts and make necessary changes to accommodate for the updated kernel specifications. While we understand that making adjustments may take some effort, these changes will ensure that scripts remain functional and optimized in the long run.