What's New in the v9.4 Canvas Help

The v9.4 Canvas Help includes many documentation updates to describe the new features and enhancements contained in the latest Canvas release.

Changes to the v9.4 Canvas Help

The following documentation items have been added, removed, or revised in the Canvas Help.

Canvas (general)

• Alarm Notifier — An optional real-time informational banner that displays along the top of any Canvas screen or object viewed in Canvas View and Canvas View Lite is now documented. The global settings requirements of the feature on the Backstage view are also documented.
• Command-line interface for Canvas applications — The topics describing the CLI have been updated:
  • Starting Canvas from a Command Line
  • Starting Canvas View from a Command Line
  • Starting Canvas View Lite from a Command Line
  • Find and Replace from a Command Line

• Color Palettes — This feature allows you to create a custom color palette to override the default point state definitions for background color and foreground color for any point type.
• Hyperlinking Screens — Revised the mode descriptions for the Hyperlink method
• Layers — A Layers pane and a Layer property is now documented. Layers are used to show, hide, and edit multiple controls on one layer without affecting controls on another layer. Layer visibility can be controlled at runtime via the AddLayer, HideLayer, and ShowLayer methods on the Screen object.
• Navigation by Facility — This feature allows you to navigate to a specific screen by selecting a CygNet facility. The alarm notifier and the search box also use the navigation by facility to launch screens with related facilities. The global settings requirements of the feature on the Backstage view are also documented.
• Running Screens — Documented the new run mode and load time popup, which is available when previewing screens
• Relative Facilities — Reorganized this section into its own chapter and added new topics on Examples and Design Considerations.
  • A new property, Order in type, is available to capture the facility attribute used to represent the order in type (facility ordinal) when configuring a relative facility definition within a definition set. This attribute can be different between definitions and will be configurable at the individual definition level. Order in type has been added to the screen, and all controls and objects that support relative facility links.
  • A relative facility link tester is now documented, which includes a relative facility definitions diagram.
• Screen load time — added a note about screen load time improvements
• Scripting in Canvas — Reorganized the scripting topics into a single section
• Sending Exception Report — Described new exception reporting feature
• Sending Feedback — Updated feedback submission topic

Canvas View Lite

• Canvas View Lite — Documented this new application

Canvas Controls and Objects

• All controls — The following new features are now documented:
  • Nudge support is documented for all controls. Use the up, down, left, and right arrow keys to nudge a control by 1 pixel. Arrow moves a control by 1 pixel. Ctrl+Arrow moves a control by 10 pixels. Ctrl+Shift+Arrow moves a control by 100 pixels.
  • Horizontal resize mode and Vertical resize mode now support a Proportional resize option.
  • The Loaded event (The Loaded event is called when the control is rendered and ready for interaction.) is now documented for all controls.
  • The MouseEnter and MouseLeave script events are now documented for all controls.

    • The Mouse Enter event is called when the mouse pointer enters (moves over) a control.

    • The Mouse Enter event is called when the mouse pointer enters (moves over) a control.

• Some controls — The following new features are now documented:
  • The Focus method (The Focus method sets the focus to the control to allow further operations.) is now documented for the Alarm Grid, Button, Combo Box, CygNet Grid, Edit Box, Object Container, and Search Box.
  • The Order in type property is now documented for the Chart, Detail, Donut, CygNet Grid, Linear Gauges, Object, Object Container, Screen, Shape, Sparkline, Text Tool, Tile View, Value Indicator, and View. See below.
  • Text style and Text weight and Tooltips have been added to all single point value controls (Detail, Donut, Linear Gauges, Shape, Text Tool, and Value Indicator), see below.
• Alarm Grid — The following new features are now documented:
  • A new Use default columns button now available when configuring columns
  • Color palette overrides are documented for Background color, Border color, and Text color
  • All columns types can be configured to sorted numerically
• Button — The button is now CygNet-aware and the following new features are now documented:
  • Point configuration, dynamic text, hide if invalid tag and Suppress data retrieval
  • Order in type for all points that support relative facility links
  • Color configuration, including blinking
  • Color palette overrides are documented for Background color, Border color, and Text color
  • Date and time formatting, value formatting
  • Image sizing and resizing
  • Layer configuration
  • Context menu and tooltips
  • Mouse cursor selection
  • Font size, Text style and Text weight
• Chart — The following new features are now documented:
  • New Date range configuration options are now documented
  • Several new chart series types have been documented: Bar, LineArea, Spline, SplineArea, Step, StepArea
  • Hover mode is now documented to highlight a series and fade others
  • Order in type is now documented for all series that support relative facility links and the chart itself
  • Live updating is now configurable for a chart in run mode
  • Live updating can be enabled and disabled in run mode
  • A chart's date and time range is now configurable in run mode
  • Non-CygNet or custom data is now supported in a series via the Data source > Script option. The related Delay Loading property is also documented.
• Combo Box — The following new features are now documented:
  • Background color and Text color
  • Text style and Text weight
• CygNet Grid — The following new features are now documented:
  • Color palette overrides are documented for Background color, Border color, and Text color
  • Order in type is now documented for all columns that support relative facility links
  • Auto range options for the x-axis and y-axis are now configurable for the sparkline in the history column, plus minimum and maximum values for the y-axis
  • All columns types (except History columns) can be configured to sorted numerically
• Detail — The following new features are now documented:
  • Color palette overrides are documented for Background color and Text color
  • Order in type is now documented for single points that support relative facility links
  • Other new properties: Text style and Text weight and Tooltips
  • Auto range options for the x-axis and y-axis on the sparkline are now configurable, plus minimum and maximum values for the y-axis
• Donut — The following new features are now documented:
  • Color palette overrides are documented for Background color, Text color, Ring color, Empty ring color, and Marker color
  • Order in type is now documented for single points that support relative facility links
  • New value marker: Marker height, Marker width, Show value marker, Marker color
  • Changes to the source and configuration of the Lower value bound and Upper value bound
  • Other new properties: Display alarm ranges, Text style, Text weight, Tooltips
  • New methods: SetLowerAndUpperValue, SetLowerBoundValue, SetUpperBoundValue
• Image — The image is now CygNet-aware and supports image changes based on the point state or alarm condition of the associated point. The following new features are now documented:
  • Point configuration, dynamic text, hide if invalid tag and Suppress data retrieval
  • Image resolution mode: point state or alarm condition
  • Order in type for all points that support relative facility links
  • Date and time formatting, value formatting
  • Layer configuration
  • Context menu and tooltips
  • Mouse cursor selection
  • Font size, Text style and Text weight
• Linear Gauge (Vertical) — The following new features are now documented:
  • This is control now called the Linear Gauge (Vertical)
  • Color palette overrides are documented for Background color, Text color, Empty bar color, and Bar color
  • Order in type is now documented for single points that support relative facility links
  • The Show left scale property is now called the Show secondary scale property
  • The Show right scale property is now called the Show primary scale property
  • The Text property location has changed: The horizontal linear gauge displays the text label centered along the bar. The vertical linear gauge displays the text label centered under the bar.
  • Other new properties: Text style and Text weight and Tooltips
  • Click event added to both linear gauge tools
  • Changes to the source and configuration of the Lower value bound and Upper value bound
• Linear Gauge (Horizontal) — This new CygNet-aware gauge control is now documented
• Navigator — This new navigation control is now documented
• Nested View — The following new features are now documented:
  • Order in type is now documented for the CygNet connection that supports relative facility links
  • The Nested View control was previously called the View control
• Object — The following new features are now documented:
  • Added a topic to describe Configuring an Object
  • New layout grid properties are now documented to allow customization of the layout grid in design mode: Grid color, Grid height, Grid width, Show grid, Snap to grid, and Snap to items
  • Order in type is now documented for the CygNet connection that supports relative facility links
• Object Container — Order in type is now documented for the CygNet connection that supports relative facility links
• Object Viewer — Added an entry in the Glossary, clarified the description in the Object topic, and added it to the All Properties topic
• Screen — The following new features are now documented:
  • Added a topic to describe Configuring a Screen
  • Color palette property is now documented
  • New layout grid properties are now documented to allow customization of the layout grid in design mode: Grid color, Grid height, Grid width, Show grid, Snap to grid, and Snap to items
  • Order in type is now documented for the CygNet connection that supports relative facility links
  • Unique name property exposed in UI and documented, used to create a uniquely-named assembly if the screen has a scripting component
• Search Box — This new CygNet-aware navigation control is now documented, including how to script a custom search
• Shape — This new CygNet-aware organizational control is now documented
• Sparkline — The following new features are now documented:
  • Background color
  • Date range configuration options
  • Live updating is now configurable for a sparkline
  • Order in type is now documented for the point series that supports relative facility links
  • Auto range options for the x-axis and y-axis are now configurable, plus minimum and maximum values for the y-axis
• Tab Control — This new navigation control is now documented
• Text Tool — The following new features are now documented:
  • Color palette overrides are documented for Background color, Border color, and Text color
  • Order in type is now documented for single points that support relative facility links
  • Other new properties: Font size mode, Suppress data retrieval, Text style, Text trimming, Text weight, Text wrapping, and Tooltips
  • Click event added to text tool
• Tile View — The following new features are now documented:
  • Color palette overrides are documented for Detail Background color and Detail Text color
  • Order in type is now documented for points that support relative facility links
• Value Indicator — This new CygNet-aware visualization control is now documented