We are gearing up for the next release, and with 3 months' worth of development it's a cornucopia of new features.
If you join the Beta Test team (see previous post here) you should see either v54 (if your device has Android 2.3.X) or v55 for everyone else. If it rolls out smoothly in Beta, this will be the next public release.
Features
!- Minimum rev for the main app is now Android 3.0 (SDK 11). According to Google, will exclude 10% of the active downloads (3500+ to date in just under 12 months). I got in a muddle with inconsistent menu settings (Android platform fragmentation), and this was the easiest way out. But for those of you on 2.3.X there is a sibling version - the differences are in the title strip and menu buttons and I can't guarantee they will work on all devices.
!- The Handover Tab now takes AP names from AirWave (if available) or the controller (assuming you have set up address and login credentials in Settings).
!- Added ‘enable’ password to SSH login… for some reason I left this out before.
!- Rewrote log email code to do it all from one button. I don’t send log files if there is nothing in them, but there are potentially 4 attachments to the email (see if you can track them all) and a Setting for the default email address (can be overridden on send). I’ve had lots of trouble with empty (length zero) files being emailed, so please let me know if you see that.
!- Cleaned up log entries just to make them internally consistent. Reduced the frequency of ‘current connection’ prints.
!- ALE now provides location as well as AirWave, but all floorplan & AP data is from AirWave. Lots of new code takes the ZMQ location subscription from ALE, unpacks the protobufs and displays the location. All the non-location information still comes from AirWave, so you must point to the same AirWave server that the ALE is pointing to or a maelstrom will ensue. (If you change the ALE address or credentials, you must exit and restart Aruba Utilities: it only sets up ALE subscriptions once.)
!- Added the Survey Pt button to Handover tab (long-click to configure). The survey results from Survey Pt button are in CSV format. This was for Frank in the Netherlands. He wants to walk around, make measurements on button-press and have an easily parsed file uploaded. Long-click Survey Pt to select a location, hit the button and it will make a measurement. Move on and repeat. When you have enough measurements, find the Email button and you will see a .csv attachment.
!- Option to call up cached floorplans for offline use. This allows you to do a site survey without a connection to AirWave. This works by saving every successfully-downloaded floorplan with its AP information: names are campusName_buildingName_siteName. You can ensure sites are collected by unchecking the Track My Mac setting and filling out the one immediately below it with the MAC address of a target on the floor you want. Aruba Utilities should communicate with AirWave, find the site id from the target's location, and download the floorplan.
!- Improved site survey features. There’s a new site survey option when ALE is configured, that captures the touched location (assumed to be ground truth) and the last/current ALE location so you can track the differences. AirWave site survey produces its own text file (could be made CSV if anyone is interested).
!- Red and yellow thresholds (dBm) are settable. This was a request from Chad Moreland, at LTI Data in Virginia. I cleaned up the settings in general, so they look different.
!- Support for metric and imperial-dimensioned floorplans. It assumed feet before and some things did not work if the floorplan was in metres.
!- ‘Expert’ command set in Controller tab (thanks Shawn). This fires off a set of commands that our experts find useful. Some commands require the MAC address of the client or the name of the associated AP and these are parsed automatically. The log (it's the Controller Tab log) is emailed as an attachment.
!- Fixed for portrait mode. The display no longer flops when the device slips.
!- Open last Tab option. This new Setting ensures that when you re-start the app, it shows you the Tab you had open.
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To-do’s
- Ping is inconsistent in timing.
- Need to revisit Aperf. It’s simplified in this version, can be streamlined more.
- I’d like to try the Aperf against the controller iPerf server when I get a chance. Or maybe someone in the field can have a go?
- Think about more ‘expert’ commands and perhaps import some AirRecorder code.
- More work needed on ALE APIs. The current code takes short cuts and uses existing VisualRF lookups to cover gaps.
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