VirtualVP Copyright © 2005-2006 SoftWx, Inc. All rights reserved. version 1.1.4 (Nov 24 2006) While every endeavor is made to produce a reliable program, I provide no warranty of any kind. A trial version is available so you can try the software and determine it works for you and meets your needs. This program is copyrighted, and may only be distributed by the author. Support Contact support@softwx.com Product Website http://www.softwx.com/weather/virtualvp.html ******************************************* RELEASE NOTES ** THIS IS A BETA RELEASE ** **************************************************************************************** While I try to ensure that beta versions run well before releasing them, be aware * that they are BETA versions, and may contain bugs and partially completed features. * If this is not acceptable, you can download and use the latest stable release (v. 1.0.3).* **************************************************************************************** **IMPORTANT**: If this is the first time you have installed VirtualVP, you should read the User Guide or at least the Quick Start Guide before trying to connect. Using VirtualVP requires that 3rd party freeware drivers be installed on your computer, and that VirtualVP be configured to match the configuration of the driver(s) you choose to use. VirtualVP is distributed as shareware. A fully functional 15 day trial version is available so you can try the software and see if it fits your needs. To use the software past the trial period, look on the website for information on paying to register. The cost to register is $30. When notice of payment has been received, you will be sent a personal serial number and registration key. There is a form within VirtualVP for entering the registration information. Once you are a registered user, you are entitled to free updates. You will not be asked to pay to upgrade to new versions. I will fix bugs that are reported as quickly as possible. If you encounter a problem, before reporting it, check the website for a new version. If there is one, look at the release notes to see if your problem has already been identified and fixed. IMPORTANT: If you send a bug report, attach the following files to your email: archiveCache.dat, virtualvp.ini, console.txt, and log.txt These files will greatly assist me in determining the problem quickly. KNOWN BUGS AND ISSUES Occasionally a very small memory leak of ApdDataPacket will be reported when VirtualVP closes. This only happens if VirtualVP had to forceably reset a "stuck" socket connection. Other memory leaks should be reported. VERSION HISTORY v. 1.1.4 Beta Nov 24 2006 Fixed bug that sometimes caused virtual ports to not get reopened if console connection was lost and then quickly re-established. v. 1.1.3 Beta Nov 19 2006 Added code that will continue attempting to reconnect to the console after an interrupted connection. Added option to reset the Davis USB driver (in case you have the USB data logger) if the connection is interrupted. This can recover connections lost because of driver failure. Fixed bug in the code that detects broken connections. v. 1.1.2 Beta Nov 5 2006 You can now double click on the tray icon to show the VirtualVP main window when it's minimized to the tray. Fixed a bug in the shared timer dispatcher code. Updated support email and website links in the About VirtualVP window. VirtualVP now remembers the sort order preference for the Alerts page. Fixed bug in minimeze at startup option (it didn't work at all before). Fixed memory leak displayed when closed by StartWatch. v. 1.1.1 Beta Sep 24 2006 Fixed bug where "Protect Console" settings for TCP/IP connections weren't being saved. v. 1.1.0 Beta Sep 24 2006 Bug Fixes Fixed some bugs and inefficencies in the low level timer code. Fixed bug that caused excessive numbers of registrations reminder message boxes. Features Made the main form use a tabbed display with multiple display pages. Added the Status display page, and made it the default page. Added the Alerts display page. Alerts will be used to display messages that would have been displayed in message boxes in previous versions. Added blinking red dot in tray icon to indicate there are alerts to read. Added the date to the time display on the Activity page. Added Settings menu item to control the update frequency of the Status page. Less frequent updates use less CPU. Added Settings menu item to turn off animation of the console traffic arrows between the console and VirtualVP on the Status page. Turning animation off uses less CPU. Optimized the code so it releases most windows display resources and skips the display update code when the program is minimized to the tray. This reduces the resource and CPU footprint of the program while minimized. Removed the reception display from the status bar. The purpose of VirtualVP is communications, not the display of console or weather data. Avoiding expansion outside this focus improves the robustness of the program, and will also make the eventual migration of VirtualVP to a Windows service application easier. Added 4 more virtual console slots. The first four are dedicated to serial communications via virtual COM ports, and the second 4 are dedicated to TCP/IP communications. This is part of the eventual migration of the TCP/IP communications to a normal server architecture where a single port can serve multiple connection requests. Changed the Communications Settings dialog to support the 4 + 4 virtual console change, and also attempted to simplify the dialog. Also added configuration tips. v. 1.0.3 Apr 30 2006 Fixed bug in virtual console command parameter parsing and forwarding v. 1.0.2 Apr 16 2006 Extended the trial period from 15 to 30 days Added an option to control Fast Looping (fast gets loop data every second, normal gets loop data every 2 seconds) v. 1.0.1 Apr 7 2006 Made improvements to opening and closing of socket connections Added code to detect some permanent error states in socket connections and restart the connection when that happens Added menu to main form to allow manually restarting virtual console connections Fixed a bug in reception percentage calculation when there are no stations connected to the console Fixed a bug that allowed redundant commands to get queued up when the console is being particularly slow to respond The time period used for the displayed reception was 1 minute instead of the 2 minutes stated in the manual. It's now 2 minutes. Fixed bug in shared timer that sometimes prevented the very first timer set from firing (i.e. the splash box would stay up) Fixed bug that didn't include the virtual console name in log entries if the console was connected via TCP The log.txt error log will now include warnings as well Added code to clear the error log file when it reaches 250Kb in size to prevent it from growing forever Changed the defualt configuration to use virtual COM ports COM16 to COM19 instead of COM11 to COM14 Removed the code in the Communications Settings dialog that checked which COM ports were available (dialog opens faster now) Added new feature that lets you direct a virtual console to protect the console from changes by not passing on commands that would change or clear data within the console Added code to get the VP console's internal settings and write them to a console.txt file Added code to periodically analyze and repair the archive mirror to help insure it is consistant and matches the console's archive Fixed a bug related to COM port flow control settings Fixed a bug that prevent NACK responses from the console from be propagated back to the client weather program v. 1.0.0 Mar 12 2006 Added User Guide and menu item under Help for opening the Guide Added Release Notes menu item under Help for opening the Release Notes Reorganized the Communications Settings dialog Fixed bug that caused infinite retries when a connection to the console was successfully made, but nothing on the other end responds Added Connection status icon to status bar Added Reception information to the status bar Now use hardware flow control options on serial port connections to be compatible with some virtual port drivers v. 0.2.3 Release Candidate 1 Added ability for Virtual consoles to accept TCP/IP connections in addition to COM port serial connections Added ability to disable unneeded virtual consoles (saves resources) Added ability to auto-create virtual com ports using HW_VSP, with VirtualVP handling the creation and configuration of the HW_VSP ports Renamed the COM Port settings dialog to Communication settings, and rewrote it to support new connection features Reduced potential for missed sensor data (>2.5 seconds between Loop packets) when commands are sent to the console that take a long time to complete The main form and the activity window now remember and open at their last position and size If the screen resolution has been reduced since the last time VirtualVP was run, and the last position of the window is now off-screen, the form will move itself into view Dialogs that open centered on the main window will make sure no part of the dialog runs off the screen, and will adjust their position so they are fully visible if neccessary Improved Connect and Disconnect failure messages Fixed bug that sometimes would cause the virtual consoles to stop responding if there was a long period of inactivity Double clicking on the message in the status bar now clears the message Fixed minor resource leak (wasn't releasing tray icons on program close) v. 0.2.2 Beta Added software registration Made further improvements to communication timing and command sequencing (retries and times >2.5 seconds between loop packets should be very rare now) Fixed bug in archive reading that caused an unneccessary command retry Fixed bug in splash screen that caused memory leak if application was closed before splash screen closed Shortened the length of time the splash screen is displayed Fixed several bugs and made improvements in connect/disconnect handling Changed what a virtual port sends back when the console doesn't respond to the passed through command (used to send a NACK, now sends nothing) Made virtual port receipt/response log messages for wakeup commands be verbose messages instead of info Fixed bug that sometimes caused archive retrieval from console to fail at the top of the hour Improved handling of archive retrieval retries (no more infinite retries) Added short term caching for more console commands (improves performance by reducing demands on console, especially when client weather programs resend a command) Fixed bug that sometimes put packets in the cache even when the packets were NACKs or bad CRCs Added additional error checking code to more gracefully handle bad data (especially illegal conversions of text to numbers) Fixed bug that sometimes caused file opens to fail v. 0.2.0 Beta (Feb 18 2006) Made VirtualVP a system tray application, displaying a tray icon (green background when connected, yellow when disconnected), and minizing to the tray Added popup menu for tray icon Added new program icons Lots of testing and fine tuning communication timing and command sequencing to console to minimize the chances of a missed loop packet as much as possible Made further refinements to the log and main screen messages Fixed some bug in connecting and disconnecting Fixed a bug that occurred when the program was run without there already being an archive cache file Fixed a bug that wrote to the archive cache at startup even when the archive to disk option was not set Implemented the Auto Connect at startup feature Added a minimize to tray at startup feature v. 0.1.3 Beta (Feb 11 2006) Added support for SETTIME console command Added display of warning, error, and bug messages to status bar Removed debug information from messages displayed on main screen and logs Added time to display of messages on main screen Added beta version expiration v. 0.1.2 Beta (Feb 10 2006) Added support for DMPAFT command, including mirroring of console archive data in VirtualVP as well as on disk Added support for most console commands Added about box Added ReadMe.rtf file, and enabled menu item for viewing it from VirtualVP Improved the efficiency of communications with console, which should greatly reduce the chances of missing any live sensor data Simplified the COM settings dialog Added display of virtual com port numbers on main screen v. 0.1.1 Beta Initial beta version