Services Portal 2.6 Release Notes

These release notes describe the new features and enhancements for Services Portal applications (QTRACS, Performance Monitoring, Trailer Tracks, Fleet Mapping, GeoServices, and Administration) in Services Portal 2.6, which released in the U.S. in the summer of 2015.

For previous release notes, click here.

System Requirements and Upgrade Information

Supported browsers

Services Portal applications (QTRACS, Performance Monitoring, Trailer Tracks, Fleet Map, GeoServices, and Administration) are supported fully on Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 8, 9, 10, and 11. You may experience minor display issues in MSIE 8.

Firefox and Chrome are tested and supported.

No other Internet browsers are tested.

Clear browsing history

It is recommended that you clear temporary Internet files (browsing history) before you log in for the first time after the upgrade. The browsing history delete utility is found on the browser’s TOOLS menu or on the INTERNET OPTIONS pop-up window, GENERAL tab. In Chrome, click the Customize and control Google Chrome button and click History, then click Clear browsing data.

Vehicle Direction/Heading Indicator

A vehicle’s direction or heading is indicated with an arrow pointing in the appropriate direction as part of the position information. Previously this arrow was displayed even when a vehicle was stopped or the ignition was off even though the vehicle was not moving and therefore had no direction to indicate.

Now the direction/heading indicator is no longer shown if the vehicle’s speed is zero. In this way the vehicle’s direction will only be shown when the vehicle is actually moving and not when it is parked or idling.

Historical data will not be converted and this change only applies to vehicle position data starting in Services Portal v2.6.

Updated Canadian Province Codes

The Services Portal and its applications now supports all the current Canadian province codes. These updates specifically include recognizing NU for Nunavut Province, changing NF to NL for Newfoundland, and changing PQ to QC for Quebec. These changes affected two areas: Landmarks and Text & Macro Messaging (TMM).

These changes only apply to the following applications: QTRACS, Performance Monitoring, Trailer Tracks, Fleet Map, GeoServices, and Administration. All other applications have not been changed at this time; therefore, it is recommended that integration customers not drop support for the old codes but just add support for the new codes.

Landmarks

As part of the Services Portal 2.6 upgrade all existing customer and system-reserved cities and towns in these provinces are undergoing a one-time conversion to change the province portion of their addresses to the new province codes. After the conversion the UI will reflect the new province codes only. This includes both the landmark addresses and proximity references throughout the UI.

This change will also affect ESS transactions, specifically the <stateProv> element commonly contained in <proximity> reference elements. After the conversion the element will reference the new province codes. Integration customers must ensure that their integration can handle the new province codes.

TMM

The new province codes are also now supported in forward macro messages. Customers that have defined forward macros with the State Code (#19) field type can send the new province codes from both integration and the UI. However, the old codes will remain supported indefinitely so no change is required. The new province codes have been supported in return messages for some time so there will be no change to return messages.

Integration Enhancements

Several enhancements have been provided for Performance Monitoring integration in Services Portal v2.6. These enhancements allow for more efficient integration to be written in regards to Performance Monitoring management. The table below lists the new web services available for Performance Monitoring.

Web Service Name Description
Create Vehicle Management Group Allows integrators to create a Performance Monitoring vehicle management group.
Create Driver Management Group Allows integrators to create a Performance Monitoring driver management group.
Get Vehicle Management Group Allows integrators to retrieve a vehicle’s Performance Monitoring management group.
Get Driver Management Group Allows integrators to retrieve a driver’s Performance Monitoring management group.
Get Vehicle Parameter Type Allows integrators to retrieve a vehicle’s parameter type.

In addition to the above web services, the Performance Monitoring Performance Data transaction (t.4.01.0) now also contains an odometer reading and timestamp correlating to the end of the extract period.

Vehicle Directory

The Vehicle Directory in the QTRACS application has been modified to support field testing of a new mobile platform referred to as OTIS in the UI.

  • The Services Portal has been changed to support devices in the 0108nnnnnn range so that vehicles can be created and equipped with devices in this range and retrieve settings and parameters for the OTIS device.
  • The search filter in the vehicle directory now includes OTIS under device types. Vehicles equipped with an OTIS Device will still use the standard MCP image in the vehicle directory but without a number.
  • All OTIS devices are equipped for Enhanced Cellular Communication in Canada. Canadian OTIS devices are always considered enabled but U.S. OTIS devices are only considered enabled when explicit notification has been received.
  • All applicable web services have been updated to support the OTIS device UA range and the OTIS device is conveyed within ESS transactions with a <mobileType> of 9, which is an element of the <equipment> object.

Extended Sleepy Message Priority

The Services Portal now supports a new forward message priority, Extended Sleepy. The NMC will attempt to transmit messages designated Extended Sleepy up to 10 times over 72 hours. This new message priority is beneficial for the MCP50 and OTIS device since these devices do not wake up periodically to check for messages when the ignition is off.

This new message priority is supported by all MCP devices and the OTIS device but is not supported by MCT or TMCT devices. Messages sent to MCT or TMCT devices with Extended Sleepy priority will be transmitted as Sleepy priority.

Other Enhancements

Web Services Support for GeoServices Suspend Feature (74495)

In the Services Portal 2.5 release a web service was added to allow customers to suspend GeoServices notifications for a specific landmark and asset. In Services Portal 2.6 an additional web service was added that allows customers using integration to retrieve a list of suspended landmark/asset pairs for a company or for an asset.

Enhanced ESS Transaction Filtering

The Event Subscription Service (ESS) has been enhanced to allow filtering of certain transaction subscriptions, which is useful when a transaction subscription returns a high volume of transactions which may not all be desired or of interest to the customer. This new filter is available for the T.2.10 and T.2.11 transaction types only. The subscription can be filtered to include only transactions matching a specific criteria.

Customers can filter subscriptions to these transactions by Virtual Channel via the ESS UI allowing customers to avoid unnecessary publication or consumption of data from undesired Virtual Channels. This provides increased efficiency to both ESS and integrators and customers using these transaction types are encouraged to apply these filters.

Fixes

The following fixes were included in the Services Portal 2.6 release.

Trailer Tracks

  • When deleting a trailer the user is now presented with a confirmation/warning alerting the user that deleting the trailer will remove its event and position history permanently and this action cannot be undone. This warning is similar to what has been displayed in QTRACS when deleting a vehicle.
  • Fixed the system so that when Monitoring Plans are modified or maintained forward parameters are sent over-the-air only when necessary. Previously, forward parameters were sent every time a change was made even if the changes only affected host side parameters.
  • Corrected an issue with T2 units where unsupported values were being returned and causing the Mobile Unit Settings page to not load or render. Support has been added to recognize two new Terminal Power State values: Sleep Walking (7) and Phone Doze (8).
  • Edited the description of Battery Threshold in Company Settings to reflect that the setting is the minimum battery voltage when the low battery state is shown for the trailer.
  • Fixed a timeout issue with the find trailer function that prevented users from logging back in correctly.
  • Fixed an issue where requesting a CSV export from the Trailers page sometimes resulted in in the request failing and preventing the user from logging back in correctly.
  • Clicking a Cargo link on the Dormant at Landmark Query page now redirects to the Trailer list with the more options string correctly identifying the cargo state subset.
  • Improved the display of long custom trailer attributes to avoid unnecessary line wrapping.
  • Removed unnecessary/incorrect feedback messages from the banner of the Company Settings page related to resending trailer parameters.

QTRACS

  • When editing the default vehicle users no longer receive an error message if the position archiving interval is less than the default MIPR interval.
  • Fixed an issue where the map on the Messages page sometimes zoomed out too far for the initial view.
  • Fixed a timeout issue with the find vehicle function that prevented users from logging back in correctly.
  • Users can now select entities with an embedded space and a leading space. Previously, there was an issue where the text box would not fill properly on the Reassign Vehicle Message Groups page.
  • The correct report run time is now displayed in the Message export.
  • The Device Config page now properly reflects stored values for beep parameters in the drop down lists when editing the default vehicle settings.

Performance Monitoring

  • Corrected the definitions of Moving Time and Driving Time in the footer of the Combined Analysis report.

GeoServices

  • Searching for landmarks in Nunavut (Canada), Columbia, Peru, and Venezuela now correctly finds landmarks in that province/country.

Administration

  • Edited the Delete User confirmation window to inform the user that once deleted, User IDs may never be re-used or re-activated. The User also now has three options when deleting a User: Delete User (Permanent), Lock Out User, or Cancel.

Miscellaneous

  • Users are now correctly redirected to the Services Portal home page after logging back in when receiving a timed out error from the Reports popup.

Previous Releases