Saturday, February 27, 2016

Wonderware SmartGlance Android BETA now available!

Hi there folks,

We are super excited to continue the momentum of refreshing our lineup of the Wonderware SmartGlance mobile apps.

We first released the completely redesigned Wonderware SmartGlance iPhone app last quarter of last year and now today, we are giving you a chance to peek into our progress as we re-launch our Android app.

We've made the BETA process super easy.

Make sure to view this post from your Android phone and then click on the URL below to download the BETA app.

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.schneiderelectric.smartglance.beta

Here are a few quick Q&A items to help:


  • What is being released today? 
    • The Wonderware SmartGlance BETA app for Android
  • What Android O/S is required?
    • Version 4.0.3 and above are supported.
  • When will the official release be made available?
    • We are targeting end of the first quarter this year (2016) if all goes well. The official release date is dependent on a number of factors but subscribe to this blog to be the first to know of the exact date.
  • What will happen to my existing Wonderware SmartGlance app?
    • During the BETA, nothing. You will be able to download the BETA app of the new version side-by-side, coexisting with the production released version of the existing SmartGlance app. 
  • What credentials do I need to log into the BETA app?
    • Use the same credentials that you have to the existing production released Wonderware SmartGlance app. In other words, there is nothing special needed other than a regular Wonderware SmartGlance user account. Download the existing SmartGlance app to register or alternatively, you can also register now from our Wonderware Online service at https://online.wonderware.com.
  • How do I provide feedback on what I like/ don't like/ wish you would do?
    • We are very keen on hearing your feedback. Please write to us using the email feedback at wonderware dot com (no spam, OK?).
    • You can also visit our Wonderware Online website and sit down with us for a live interactive chat at https://online.wonderware.com. No registration required to start chatting. 
  • I can't find a feature in the new app that exists in the old app, what happened?
    • Well, that depends:
    • (a) At this time, we are inviting you to the BETA which means it is a work-in-progress and therefore it is possible that we simply have not developed it - yet. Have a snack and check back later in case we pushed out an update with the feature.
    • (b) We had a meeting, and that feature didn't make the cut. The Wonderware SmartGlance team is hard at work making sure that the new version is not only bringing forward what mattered most, but also to leave behind what wasn't providing the "wow" factor based on customer feedback and anonymous usage data. 
    • (c) We're working on doing it better, in a slightly different way. Sometimes, taking a walk-about and re-thinking things yields not just a better mouse-trap but a better trap altogether. Stay tuned for coverage on what's new and up and coming from this blog as we get closer to the release date.
  • The BETA process has me stuck? How do I get help?
    • If you have any issues with getting the BETA version of the app from the Google Play app store, try doing a "long-press" on one of the introductory links in the landing page and open with "Google Play Store". 
    • If you need help with anything else, reach out to us as described above.
That's it. Let us know your feedback on your experience getting started, what you think of the progress to date so far and of course - your thoughts and comments on the new look and feel overall.

-Saadi.


Wonderware Online February 2016 Update


Hi folks,

During the first half of February, we released a significant update to the Wonderware Online offering available at https://online.wonderware.com.


 Wonderware Online @ https://online.wonderware.com

I'd like to take a moment to highlight some of the new key elements.
  • Revised landing page with a cleaner look and quicker access to get started.
  • Live chat windows in key locations to help users reach out to us for immediate feedback.
  • Focused log in page with immediate data collection highlights, recent content and dashboards.
  • New concept of data tiles to quickly access previously saved data sets quickly and graphically.
  • Ability to now both save custom keywords and then search content by those same keywords to easily find related content.
  • Interactive guided walk-through tutorials so that users can explore the features of the site themselves.
  • Drill-down from tag spark lines to full resolution trends
  • Full-screen toggle option to maximize trends and other graphical elements for large screen displays.
  • Custom date ranges for tag time lines.
  • Support for Wonderware Historian Tier-1 replication to Wonderware Online. Now Wonderware Online can be both a primary Historian (Tier-1) and optionally, a Tier-2 replication Historian (for configurable levels of both raw and aggregated data from one or more Tier-1 Historians)
  • Dashboard functionality to quickly group multiple saved tag collections into one single page. Can be auto-generated based on keywords. 

New Landing Page

The new Wonderware Online landing page
A fresh clean look with emphasis on taking action. Click the "TRY IT NOW" button to immediately launch into a demo account.

Or Click SIGN UP in the top right corner to register in just a few moments.

Or type in your existing credentials and click the LOG IN button to see your data

Or engage with us via the live chat window.



New Log In home page

New Log In home page

Right after logging in, we now show you "tiles" from your recently saved content sets. This gives you immediate access to content that matters to you so that you can quickly start reviewing key metrics.






New keyword search capability

Keywords now appear in the search results

Now search easily by keywords to quickly surface saved content sets that contain your matching keywords. When saving a content set, aka the "Save for later", sprinkle one or more keywords to logical tag or group your saved tile.








Interactive guided walk-throughs


Click  the "Show Me How" tab to take a tour

We are very excited to launch this new interactive walk-through feature which helps anyone and everyone take a self-guided tour of Wonderware Online and some of its features. To start the interaction, click the "Show Me How" tab found on the top right hand side of your browser. 





Step by step interactive guided tour

Then follow the prompts step-by-step to explore Wonderware Online. Remember, the tutorial moves at your pace. Look for the next action being requested of you to step through it. Let us know what features you would like to learn more about and we'll create more of the same.







Drill-down from tag spark lines

One of our newest visualizations is the Status Board.

The "Status Board" visualization

The Status Board view allows anyone to glance at relevant key performance metrics (KPIs) from a distance easily and quickly. Combine this view with large screen displays or HD TV's to keep everyone on the "shop floor" or "board room" in sync at all times. 

Take it a step further by maximizing the full-screen feature by clicking the small outlined square box in the top right corner of the visualization.


Click the tag spark line to drill-down for deeper analysis

Wonderware Online is also a great investigative tool as well. Use the ability to drill-down into a higher fidelity trend for any one of the KPIs to perform root-cause analysis and deeper analysis on tag patterns, trends and outliers. 

Click the "spark line" trend to see additional details and then follow through with a click drill-down to the details.


Full resolution trend from the Status Board KPI view

This is the full resolution trend from the KPI above.














New extensive and configurable custom time line ranges to more precisely and quickly explore tags over time. Simply click on any one of the pre-configured and conveniently suggested time ranges or specify your own.







Full Tier-1 and Tier-2 Support

The most significant update overall to the solution in this release. Wonderware Online is capable of being both a primary Historian (Tier-1) and a secondary Historian (Tier-2) at the same time to all of our customers. 

If you only have an HMI such as our market leading, award winning InTouch HMI, then start reaping the benefits of digitally capturing your process variables and asset KPIs into a world-class Historian by using Wonderware Online as your primary system of record. 

However, if you already have an on-premises Tier-1 Historian, now you too can securely unlock the value of your historized process and operational data to your teams, employees, supply chain partners and OEM suppliers. You can even aggregate multiple Tier-1 historians across regions or sites into one consolidated centralized historian for across the board reporting and analysis. 

Tier-1 On-Premises Wonderware Historian
with new replication option to Wonderware Online

From a Tier-1, on-premises Wonderware Historian, simply configure a new "Replication Server" normally as would be done otherwise. Select "Replicate to Wonderware Online" as the destination replication server. 









Wonderware Online "Publisher" screen

Proceed to authenticate yourself against the Wonderware Online service.














Provide a name for the grouping of tags about to be replicated to Wonderware Online.











Mix and match both on-premises Tier-2 Historians with Wonderware Online as a Tier-2 hosted solution in the secure Wonderware Cloud as needed. Wonderware Online simply appears as a standard replication server like any other (if more than one have been defined, which is supported).

Note: The on-premises Tier-1 Wonderware Historian must be version 2014 R2 SP1 or higher.



New (auto-generated) Dashboards

New Dashboard screen made up of  previously saved "tiles"

As previously stated, you can now pluck tags from an intelligent search, plot them onto any one of many visualizations available and then save them as a "tile" for later reference. When saving the tile, you can also add keywords similar to twitter hashtags to logically categorize your tile sets.

After you save one or more personalized tiles or content sets, you can dynamically create a dashboard made up of one or more tiles that contain certain keywords. In the example shown here, this dashboard was automatically generated with all saved tiles that had the keyword "Water" in it. To create a dashboard, simply type a keyword in the intelligent search in Wonderware Online and then click on the resulting data set keyword under the #Keywords search grouping.


Looking ahead

Whew! That was a good update for February. Stay tuned to this blog for what's next in the coming weeks.

-Saadi.