PingPlotter Cloud Changelog

05-15-2023

Improvements

Improved performance for Quality Monitor for accounts with a large number of traces.
Improved sample count column load time in the session browser.
Added a new item to the Target Screen share menu, which allows exporting aggregated and group data to CSV or Excel.
Optimized images on agent's download page.
Can now save filters on various management grids in the UI.

Fixes

Slight UI tweaks to the Create Agent modal.

04-15-2023

New Features

Added the ability to resubscribe to Cloud in app.
Implemented Agent Multi-Select with agent batch management actions.

Improvements

Significant overhaul to algorithms used by Insights. Also updated links to documentation from Insights.
Improved speed of IP geolocation and ownership look-up on the Quality Monitor page and Agent Management page. Can sync target lists between agents, delete a target from all agents, etc.
Added the Quality Bar graph back to the Insights Event view.
Updated the IP info on Summary & Target screens to include ownership details and geolocation.
Updated wording in Alerts sidebar for clarity and reduced some excessive margins in the UI.

Fixes

Fixed some flakiness experienced when pausing and resuming traces on offline agents.
Fixed a bug with Reset & Restart on the Target screen.

03-15-2023

New Features

Custom fields for Agents on the Quality Monitor page and the Agents page.

Improvements

Made Agents page remember filters, column size, etc.

Fixes

Fixed an issue in 2FA emails not correctly showing what client IP requested to turn 2FA on.
Fixed a bug in the Agent CSV/Excel export, including some irrelevant back-end fields.
Silenced some various connection errors that were unintentionally showing errors.

02-25-2023

New Features

Linux agent update released.

Improvements

Updated download experience when installing agents.
Improved CPU usage of web app when can't log into Cloud page.
Added a method to reset and restart only on the agent, preserving history of data.

Fixes

Bug fix for sorting on numeric columns in trace grid.
Fixed an issue with Linux agent not correctly being able to trace IPV4 when IPV6 was disabled via Linux Kernel.

01-15-2023

Improvements

Updated the sidebar options and experience.
Back-end improvements for reliability and increased data storage capability.
Improved compression of responses for faster load speeds.
Improved error messages for failed network calls.
Improved logic for auto-expansion and auto-collapse of Sidebar.
Small performance improvements to Insights.

Fixes

Fixed various font and display issues in the Alerts panel.
Fixed spacing issues on Welcome/Dashboard page.
Fixed a lock-up on the Manage Sessions page.
Fixed an issue with submitting error reports when using Sidekick.
Fixed a timeline graph label issue.

12-15-2022

Improvements

Subscription upgrade and downgrade pages were overhauled.
UI and UX tweaks throughout the application.
Added a configuration value for Packet Loss % Scale. (Scale is shown in PL Axis label.)
Patched Microsoft.Data.SqlClient due to severe security flaw.

Fixes

Fixed our silent log-in refresh.

11-15-2022

New Features

Quality Monitor released. Allows at-a-glance monitoring of a large amount of agents and traces. Has a Quality bar showing transitions between Good (green), Fair (yellow,) and Poor (red) network quality. The definition of quality can be tweaked to your use-case.

Improvements

Replaced the library used for drawing images in our "Send Email" alert. This was leading to unreliability (crashes) and performance issues.
Improved Timeline Graph float-over.
Improved options and style for all timeframe drop-downs.

Fixes

Fixed an issue where we weren't saving the Timeline Graph container position correctly.
Bug fix for some intermittent-loading spinners in various places.
Fixed an issue with display of location information for Agents.
Fixed some issues selecting trace rows.
Corrected Timeline Graph scale setting.

10-04-2022

New Features

Agent Page Redesign- makes it even easier to create and deploy Agents with a step-by-step guide, and tips on when to use an Agent Template instead.

Improvements

Increased accuracy of Auto-Answer mode for Sidekick Chat.
Improved refresh speed when an agent is created, deleted, or updated.

Fixes

Prevent Trace Grid context menu from clearing the selected targets when right-clicking.
{{HistoryData}} variable in "Send an Email" alerts wasn't actually sending any data.

09-05-2022

Improvements

Summaries and Agent Summaries automatically open the Timeline Graphs for 5 most recently created targets by default.
Changed the default alert condition to use Quality Score Thresholds.
Gray out "Start Trace" button until a destination has been added to the target bar.
Updated placeholder for Feedback widget and Support Tickets modals.
Improved messaging when there's not enough traces left to start pending Sidekicks.
Only show connection errors when there is an unresolved error.
Agent name is clickable in the "via" title on Target pages.
Change username on the left sidebar to "Account" with a float for the username.
Moved the "Logged in with Temporary Password" message below the user dropdown.
Added "Fit Columns to Data" method to column dropdown.
Added "Help Center" to all pre-July 2022 accounts.

Fixes

Fixed an issue where the Trace Grid context menu would leave the row unselected after right-clicking.
Fixed an error that would be thrown if a new user was created where certain properties couldn't be set correctly.
Fixed a bug with the "Show/Hide X Timegraphs" option in the Trace Grid context menu.
Fixed double scrollbar issue on Summary Screens.
Fixed an issue where LiveShares couldn't actually be live.

08-01-2022

Improvements

Better messaging for expired/deleted LiveShares.
Added export to Excel feature to User Grid.

Fixes

Fixed LiveShare "Home" button so it doesn't render a blank page.
Fixed an issue where Admin users could reove their own permissions.
Fixed an issu where multiple All Targets Summaries were being created.
Fixed an issue where new account creation was failing.

07-05-2022

Improvements

In-App Onboarding - new users now have the option to go through a short onboarding process to get them started.
Help Center - the new Help Center, located at the bottom left, houses resources to teach you how to use PingPlotter.
Sidekick Sharing - create unique links to your Sidekick data that you can share with others. Customize each link to have it's own set of permissions: Viewer, Contributor, Owner.
Sidekick Auto-Answer - use Auto-Answer mode to blaze through the Sidekick Chat and find answers faster.

Fixes

Fixed an issue where LiveShares weren't being updated correctly.
Fixed an issue where selecting "New Target" from dropdown menu would get stuck on a loading page.

06-06-2022

New Features

IPv6 support for Linux Agents - start tracing to IPv6 addresses from your Linux agents.
More Agent Metadata - added ISP, Country, Region, and City fields to Agent Details.

Improvements

Only show events that some amount of poor or fair quality in a Sidekick Analysis.
Sidekick "Expert Search" lists events that were not included in the initial search.
Added 24 hour view for Sidekick events.
Show "typing" animation in Sidekick Chat while the server is being updated.

Fixes

Fixed grids to better handle null values in fields.

05-02-2022

New Features

Guided Troubleshooting for Sidekick - a new and improved Sidekick experience with an entirely redesigned User Interface. We walk you through configuring the Agent, collecting data, analyzing that data, and solving your network issue. Check out the PingPlotter Sidekick Getting Started Guide for more details.
Export to Excel - export any grid to a spreadsheet with the click of a button.

Improvements

Updated to new grid library.

Fixes

Fixed an issue where the dropdown menu was visible in the Snapshot PNG.
Fixed an issue where "Manage Account" was hidden.
Fixed the calendar dropdown so it's not covered by the modal.

04-04-2022

New Features

Alert History - view the entire history of your alerts by using the View All button in the Alert Log widget. Filter the column headers to drill down into events.

Improvements

Show error messages in trace Grids instead of leaving it empty for targets that throw an error.
Default grids to sort by Name and allow it to be changed.
Added basic functionality for bulk actions on agents.
Switch to dotnet6 on all projects.

Fixes

Issue where performing a Reset and Restart on a target would remove it from a Summary.
Fixed an issue where inaccurate gray periods would show on the Timeline Graph.
Change "Unknown Settings" to display "Default Settings."
Adding a new column to a new column resizes the grid to make it fit.
Fixed an issue where you couldn't Reset and Restart a target if the target limit was reached.
Filtered out templates as being offline Agents in the Agents widget.

02-24-2022

New Features

"Download" Button — This button is on the agents page right next to the "Agents" header and will download a spreadsheet of what you're seeing in the grid.
"Last IP" — A column to show the last IP logged in is now on the agent list grid. If you have the "ipdata" flag turned on, the agent will export the ISP and the location of the agent's IP.

Improvements

Double-clicking on a grid column resize handle will automatically resize that column to fit the content in the column.
More consistent use of PingPlotter theme colors throughout the application.
Improved User Editor — Permissions are now controlled by check boxes. And "all" and "none" permissions make it easier to set up a user.
If the connection to PingPlotter.com/cloud goes down, a "Reconnecting" display will appear rather than error messages.
The "Error" pop-up message will pause if you float your mouse over it, giving you time to review the message and submit a ticket. It will also pause if you switch away from your browser window so the message is available when you return.

Fixes

Now you can verify that a user was actually added or deleted from an account.
Got rid of some old pop-up errors.

10-08-2021

New Features

Cloud Dashboard - easily organize and manage your data from the dashboard
Quality Score Alerts - get notified when an endpoint is no longer suitable for the selected service, e.g. VoIP. Customizable using Quality Score Definitions.

Improvements

Moved Insights Inspector window to be integrated into the Insights Sidebar.
Swapped out the MOS Score in the Insights event cards for the Quality Score.

Fixes

Fixed an issue where changing settings wouldn't apply those changes to existing sessions.
Fixed an issue where toggling the timeline graphs on a Summary did nothing.
Fixed an issue with alert masks sometimes not being applied to targets.
Fixed "index out of bounds" error when scrolling the timeline graph in certain scenarios.

09-09-2021

New Features

Insights (Official Release) - PingPlotter insights is an automated analysis tool that scans PingPlotter trace data for likely issues and offers information on possible causes and suggest action. The newly added Signal Quality score will tell you how suitable the connection was for a specific task (VoIP, Web/Email, etc.) over the given time period. Insights will tell you for what percentage of time the signal was Good, Fair, or Poor.
LiveShare - Create a public link to read-only data of a single Target and its route. Added the ability to share Insights, a specific date range, intermediate Timeline Graphs, and Focus Periods. Manage all of your LiveShare links from the new LiveShare menu in the left-sidebar.
Snapshot - Use the Snapshot button, found under the Share icon, to download a .png image of data shown in the viewing window.
Sidekick Cloud - Sidekick has made it to the cloud!

Improvements

Improved Insights' low packet loss algorithm.
Updates to Insights UI.
Added a loading indicator to Timeline Graph and smoothed scrolling left and right.
Improved session load times.

Fixes

Fixed an issue where exporting large sessions to a .pp2 file would block incoming data.
Fixed an issue where a single error would block all sessions from loading.
Fixed an issue where an error loading a Timeline graph would try to load again even if the network was down or the server was unavailable.
Fixed an issue where alert masks were causing Summaries to not load.
Fix bug where you couldn't add a new target using the "New Target" button.

06-04-2021

New Features

Two-Factor Authentication — PingPlotter Cloud now supports two-factor authentication via time-based one time passwords, adding another layer of security to your Cloud account.

Improvements

Updated the Cloud web interface to better support new TimescaleDB backend data storage.
Agent list cache can now be used if Cloud is temporarily experiencing an outage, making Agent trace history available.
Reset and Restart now creates a new session and leaves the previous session viewable. The previous session will retain the old session ID.
Updated the date format in the session browser to display the local time instead of GMT.

Fixes

Fixed a bug in the database that caused trace intervals to be incorrectly set to 0 if changed to 1 second
Made improvements to aggregation to fix a bug where sample counts would sometimes bounce on new sessions

05-03-2021

New Features

Agent Presets — Agents and Agent templates can now be assigned pre-set trace targets that begin once the Agent is installed.
Insights (Beta opt-in) — PingPlotter Insights is an automated analysis tool that scans PingPlotter trace data for likely issues and offers information on possible causes and suggested action. Insights is currently available to Cloud users who choose to opt into its beta. To opt in, select any target and click the Insights button in the top right. We welcome your feedback and look forward to making Insights the best it can be!

Improvements

The Agents screen has been updated to improve visibility into Agent activity and trace usage.
Agent trace targets can now be viewed and managed from the Agents screen. Click on any Cloud Agent to view its summary in the right panel.
Insights’ UI has been updated as part of its opt-in beta.
Insights’ analysis algorithms have been improved to better identify potential incidents.

03-31-2021 — PingPlotter Version 5.19.4 Update

Fixes

(Windows) Fixed a Common Language Runtime error impacting some users.

03-30-2021 — PingPlotter Version 5.19.3 Update

Fixes

Fixed a critical issue that would prevent PingPlotter from shutting down and periodically cause Agents to stop collecting data.

03-23-2021 — PingPlotter Version 5.19.2 Update

Fixes

Fixed “UNIQUE constraint failed: Comments.ID” error, which affected some users with persistent comments
(Windows) Fixed an issue in which the Windows Service was unable to shut down in certain scenarios (especially on Cloud Agents)
(Web UI) The Web UI will no longer display “ArgumentNullException obj can not be null” during CloudConnect Controller sessions sync.

03-03-2021

New Features

Agent templates - When creating a new Agent, you can now choose to have the Agent name automatically generate based on details derived from the Agent device (such as the machine name)

Improvements

An Agent's last public IP address is now listed in the Agent Details panel

Fixes

Reduced the number of popups that were showing errors when re-establishing identity credentials

03-01-2021 — PingPlotter Version 5.19.1 Update

New Features

Updated packet generator - PingPlotter’s packet generator has been updated to improve its accuracy for sub-millisecond latencies over long periods of persistent testing.
Comments in the web UI - Just like in the platform, you can add comments to specific points in Timeline Graphs. You can also set alerts to automatically add comments under specific conditions.
Agent-based summaries in the web UI - PingPlotter Cloud Agents are now given unique target summaries, making it easier to manage traces on remote devices. In addition, you can now create LiveShare links for Agent summaries, allowing viewers to see the complete status of their network connection.

Improvements

Changed the Save Image alert to use a 24-hour time in file name instead of a 12-hour time
Improved CloudConnect Agent install process to be less confusing when deploying to remote devices
Special characters are now supported when naming an Agent through the web UI
(Web UI) Made CloudConnect Agent management easier to navigate
(Web UI) The target input history dropdown is now customizable and remembers previous entries
(Web UI) Timeline Graph scrolling is much more smooth and logical
(Web UI) Added an All LiveShare viewer page
(Web UI) Added settings for latency color scale
(Web UI) Updated control panel reactivity to work better on more screen sizes
(Web UI) Improved the Trace Graph dropdown menu
(Web UI) Improved resource usage and performance

Fixes

Fixed bugs in the Modify Summary and Route Adjustment alerts that prevented editing and creation in some instances
(Web UI) Fixed scrollbars showing up unnecessarily on the login page
(Web UI) Fixed Timeline Graph sorting so you can, you know, sort Timeline Graphs

01-04-2021

New Features

Agent-based summaries — We've added new auto-updating target summaries for each individual Agent. The Agent menu tab now has a dropdown where you can find each individual Agent summary.

Improvements

You can now create LiveShare links for Agent summaries.
The LiveShare editor has been enhanced to allow for viewing all configured LiveShare links. Use the clear filter icon next to the header in a normal summary/Agent LiveShare list screen. When in filter-free mode, Cloud shows the name of the summary/Agent the link is configured for.
Updated Timeline Graph visibility logic to share between different screens (target/summary/Agent) instead of duplicate code.
Offline Agents now appear red in the Agent selector if the Agent is offline.

Fixes

Fixed a bug that would show editable menu options when impersonating someone without those permissions.
Fixed an issue where Agent lists would sometimes take 15 seconds to populate after a page load.
If a user does not have Agent Management permissions, they can now see the Agent tab in the sidebar. Clicking the Agent tab will not open the Agent editor when clicked.
The LiveShare link editor now requires Summary Management permissions (previously links didn't show up but you could still get there manually if you knew the link ID).
Updated the static footer to show the year 2021 (normally, the footer is dynamic, but during boot-up, the whole page is static).
Several other fixes/improvements/refactorings of code for maintainability.

12-21-2020

Improvements

Added latency scale settings to Display Settings editor. This supports all the same modes as the PingPlotter platform and defaults to scale Timeline Graphs to the open graph furthest down-route. This means latency scales are (by default) the same for all target Timeline Graphs rather than having the first hop use 2ms and the final destination use 200ms (or similar). Fixed scales are also supported.
Created float-over hints in the Timeline Graph to show latency, packet loss / min / max details for a specific pixel-width of data.

Fixes

Resolved a drawing bug in Timeline Graphs that would sometimes merge two samples into one line in the graph. Level-of-detail looks better and more like the PingPlotter platform.
Fixed an issue where live updates of Timeline Graphs would break on a target screen if you closed a Timeline Graph while more than one graph was visible.

12-18-2020

Improvements

Dragging Timeline Graphs now uses the whole screen rather than just the graph area. Dragging the mouse outside of a graph will continue scrolling.