What's new 2013-14

This page lists the feature improvements for each of the releases of the InfoEx application.

Version 3.6.0 (Jan. 22, 2014)

This release of the InfoEx application includes the following bug fixes and improvements:

• InfoEx report should now load significantly faster as the hazard charts and aspect-elevation rose diagrams are now created on the server and not on the client anymore.
• The observation entry forms in workflow have been changed to pop-up windows. This prevents users from accidentally moving on in the workflow (forward or backward arrow) without saving the observation locally first.
• The IU of workflow administration has been updated with a few improvements to make it more obvious how to add a new step to a workflow.
• The step label of the hazard assessment module now clearly highlights that there are two screen included in this workflow step.

Version 3.5.2 (Jan. 15, 2014)

This release of the InfoEx application includes the following bug fixes and improvements:

Location catalog

• To improve the navigation within the location catalog, the locations are now sorted by location type first and location name second. If a location has children, the same sorting scheme is applied to the child locations. The order of the locations types is:
  • Forecast Region
  • Operating Zone
  • Permanent Closure
  • Road
  • Rail line
  • Route
  • Ski Run
  • Av Path
  • Wx Site

NOTE	Note that the sorting is not instant when you add a new location or move an existing location. The sorting order is updated when you load the location tree the next time.

• The mountain range polygons have been adjusted to ensure that all typical locations in western Canada are associated with the proper mountain ranges for the InfoEx report.
• A mountain range button was added to the editing mode in the location catalog. This allows you to see the boundaries of the mountain range polygons used for the InfoEx reports when editing your locations.

Workflows

• The workflow navigation issues that got you stuck at the avalanche problem page after using the step labels for navigation have been resolved. You can now use the arrows and labels alternatively to reliably move back and forth within a workflow.
• The interface for managing workflows now enforces a number restrictions for workflow designs
  • The context module have been removed from the drop down list of available modules. Instead, a context step is automatically added to the beginning of any workflow that includes any steps with data submission (observations, snowpack, hazard assessment, hazard comment).
  • You can only add a single snowpack step to a workflow.
  • You can only add either a hazard assessment or a hazard comment step to a workflow, but not both.
  • You can add as many report, observation and webpage steps as you like.

NOTE

Even though we strongly encourage subscribers to adjust their existing workflows to adhere to these restrictions, we do not enforce them. In other words, existing workflow that do not comply with these restrictions are still valid and can be executed. The restrictions are only enforced when you create a new workflows.

• Settings for hazard assessment module now populated properly
• The labels for likelihood of triggering on the y-axis of the hazard chart have been fixed to be consistent with AvalX.

InfoEx Reports

• The user interface for reports has been improved with the following features:
  • The list of available reports has been moved to the report menu. This is more consistent with the other menu buttons and allows you to directly access the report you want to look at without having to load the 'CAA and CAC Messages' report first.
  • The reports are listed in alphabetical order and the system reports (CAA and CAC Messages, Standard-Today, Standard-Yesterday) have been separated from the customized reports.
  • A refresh button has been added right of the title of the report to make it more convenient to refresh the current report with the latest data.
  • The management of reports (save, overwrite, delete) has been moved into a Manage button. This button is only visable to users with Operation Administrator privileges
  • The button for specifying the layout of a report (tables, table order, grouping, single page versus tabs) is now labelled Layout

Tabular reports

• The filtering by operation on individual tables has been disabled. If you want to limit your InfoEx report to a number of operations, we recommend that you do this through the location field at the top of the report. This location filter applies to all tables in your InfoEx report.
• All zero values (0) entered in numerical fields in observation entry forms are now properly showing up in the InfoEx report.
• The aspect rose is now working properly in the tab view of the tabular InfoEx report.

Map view

• The issue that any observation with an attachment had its associated location doubled is now fixed.
• Avalanche observations with a dropped pin are now showing up at the right location in the map view of the InfoEx report
• Avalanche observations that are associated with multiple locations from the location catalog are now properly plotted in the map view of the InfoEx report at the combined centroid of the associated locations.
• We added two addition layers to the AFRI section of the map view of the InfoEx report. They point at station data from the government of Alberta.

PDF report

• The single column sorting of the InfoEx report is now also implemented in the PDF reports. So any sort order specified in the reports templates (e.g., by operation) is now also used in the PDF reports.
• The hazard charts are now properly represented in the PDF reports with the correct values for the typical values of likelihood and destructive size
• If a location does not have an abbreviation defined, we no use the full name just like in the tabular report. As a consequence, there should not be any null locations in the PDF report any more.

Version 3.3.0 (Dec. 18, 2013)

This release of the InfoEx application includes the following bug fixes and improvements:

• Fixed issue with point locations showing up multiple times after editing locations
• Fixed issue with observations disappearing in the observation overview table after cancelling editing an observation
• Observations associated with location that cover multiple mountain ranges now properly show up in reports that use mountain ranges for the location filter
• The system now provides users with a system message when locations are loaded for editing
• Users are now notified that PWLs with associated observations and/or assessments cannot be deleted from the system
• InfoEx reports are now ordered alphabetically in dropdown list
• Operations in the dropdown list after the login screen (only visible when associated with more than two operations) are now ordered alphabetically.
• The dropdown list in the find functionality of the location catalog now shows all locations that match the search text
• The PDF version of the InfoEx was updated with the new 1-800 number for emergency help

Version 3.2.0 (Dec. 11, 2013)

This release of the InfoEx application includes the following improvements:

• Changed default value for interval in wx obs from 6 to 12
• Updated sort order of avalanche problems, avalanche hazard, snowpack description and PWL in standard InfoEx reports for be properly sorted by operation (FYI: You need to fix this yourself in any customized reports)
• Fixed timing issue with InfoEx report not being displayed properly
• Attachments are now accessible through pop-up balloons in map view of Infoex report
• Updated RWIS layer in map view now includes the locations of all available sites
• Added 'U' (unknown) as an additional trigger type for avalanche observations (currently not accessible in client) and allow avalanche observations without a trigger to be submitted by the CAAML API
• resolved issue related to deleting an adding users with same email address
• Fixed numerous issues in the back end of the system.

Version 3.1.0 (Dec. 4, 2013)

This release of the InfoEx application includes the following improvements:

• Attachments added to observations within workflows are now properly uploaded to the server.
• The text of comments fields in most observation types is now wrapped in the InfoEx report making it easier to ready the entire content.
• It is now mandatory to associate a location to any workflow that includes data submission (i.e., included the snowpack, hazard assessment or hazard comment module).
• The issue with the missing avalanche icons in the map view has been resolved.
• The map view of the InfoEx report is loading much quicker.
• The issues with the email delivery of the PDF InfoEx reports have been resolved.

Version 3.0.0 (Dec. 1, 2013)

This is the original release of the new InfoEx application.