Last updated on April 29, 2017

6.1 Release Notes

Release Information

Appspace 6.1 is a major release that contains various new features, platform optimizations, enhancements, and bug fixes. This version is for both Appspace Cloud and On-Premises.

The 6.1 on-premises build released on April 29th 2017, includes all items across 6.1-ac releases to date.

What’s New

Enhanced Device Registration Options

We have introduced new ways for you to register your media players with Appspace. These new options streamline device registration, both in the cloud and on-premises and make the life of an administrator much easier.

In Appspace 6.1 we have added:

• Registering a device using a claim code

  A unique six-digit code that simplifies the registration of a single media player for cloud accounts. Enter the code into the Appspace console, and we take care of the rest.

• Registering a device using a policy file on the network

  A zero-touch, bulk registration of media players. Good for both cloud and on-premises.

• Registering a device using a local policy file

  Register your media player by simply plugging in a SD card or USB device.

Other Enhancements

• General optimizations and performance improvements.
• General improvements to the card editing features and styling options in Announcement, Facebook, and Data Table cards.

Appspace 6.1 On-Premises Specific Improvements

Note

This major on-premise build will include all items across 6.1-ac releases to date. For a comprehensive view of all items that are included, please refer to previous release notes.

• Updates to the Channels user interface:

  • Added sort option for Channel content.
  • Updated channel group view with library channels placed at the top.
  • Provided linking to channel items in the Channel Group:
    • Playlist Channels now link to the library folder.
    • Live Channels now link to the Channel edit under Live Streams section in Configuration,
    • Sign Channels link to the appropriate sign in Signs.
  
  

• Instance migration built into the installer. A fresh install of Appspace will use a recovery file, that will be restored according to the previous server where the recovery file was created during the migration.

• User interface rebranding updates to align on-premise user registration pages with cloud.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-3051 - If a user is added to more than 50 user groups, all of which have their content library enabled, then only the first 50 group’s libraries will show when the user goes to the Library.

Updates

6.1-ac.1

Resolved Bugs

• AP-11511 - Unable to remove a user group from the user group membership in Users.
• AP-11466 - When User A assigns his theme to User B, the theme disappears from User A’s theme listing, in Cards.
• AP-11891 - The sync status of a player indicates “Out Of Sync” in Networks, although the Interactive App is already being displayed via the device.
• CT-35 - Data Table Card: When custom color is picked for text background, the default blue color is shown instead.
• CT-50 - Data Table Card: Unable to change to the selected theme after changing the Header/Cell styling.
• CT-89 - Data Table Card: Unable to set the table cell background to transparent.
• CT-110 - Facebook Card: List View text displays issues such as overlapping, cropped, or size change.
• CT-117 - Announcement Card: Logo is not shown in the first Announcement card in a playlist with more than five cards, on Samsung SSP and Cisco IEC devices.
• CT-118 - Facebook Card: Post time is not displayed if the custom text has a large font size.
• CT-119 - Facebook Card: The ‘f’ logo within the placeholder is not centered, on Samsung SSP and Cisco IEC devices.
• CT-121 - Announcement Card: Text are cropped or overlap when font styles are changed.
• CT-135 - Facebook Card: Facebook feed does not load on Samsung SSP and Cisco IEC devices.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-2365 - Dynamic Media content does not update on Cloud.
• AE-2548 - The Alerts feature only syncs the first 50 or visible groups, when there are a large number of groups created.
• AE-2566 - Uploading content in a sign takes longer than it should, and when successful, the content order in the playlist is distorted.

6.1-ac.2

Resolved Bugs

• SIGN-540 - Dynamic media does not update on the cloud server.
• SIGN-541 - The status of the Public URL in a sign does not change from “Updating” to “Ready”.
• SIGN-542 - The RSS feed in a RSS Viewer widget updates after the set refresh time, but does not refresh after a day.

6.1-ac.3

Resolved Bugs

• AP-11931 - RSS Card: Support for internal RSS feeds, by adding an “ignore error” message after RSS feed validation.
• AP-12048 - The Alerts feature only syncs the first 50 or visible groups, when there are a large number of groups created.
• SIGN-581 - Tag rules on Playout Properties do not behave correctly in a Basic sign.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-2620 - Unable to change the weather location in the Weather widget.
• AE-2643 - Imported and newly created device task templates do not appear in the list.
• AE-2644 - Device tasks templates are no longer available in Cloud.
• AE-2647 - When device tasks templates are imported, only some of the tasks are available.

6.1-ac.4

Resolved Bugs

• AP-12070 - The GetUserToken API leaks the database connection.
• AP-12186 - Database connectivity issues prevents layout, and schedule to be created.
• AP-12187 - Connectivity leaks when calling the v1 UserService API.
• AP-12223 - Unable to assign Interactive Mode to devices.
• AP-12304 - The FileProvider.Upload logic appends data to an existing file instead of overwriting the file.
• AP-12304 - Unable to register a PC player via online registration.
• SIGN-583 - The Add Media overlay does not close after the Apply button is clicked, when uploading a video.
• SIGN-585 - Sign content does not show in the Overview and Preview tabs.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-2454 - Only 50 networks are shown in Device Tasks, although there are more.
• AE-2609 - The Link Media Zone option is not available for users that inherit permissions via user groups.
• AE-2658 - Google Calendar integration using the Calendar widget fails, if accessed directly via the Widgets panel.
• AE-2661 - When adding media to a schedule in a Media Zone, the Add media screen does not close once the media is loaded, or is extremely slow.
• AE-2668 - All players’ status indicate ‘out of sync’ and content stop displaying randomly.
• AE-2672 - The ‘http://’ prefix is automatically appended to the input data when adding a URL or webpage in the Library.
• AE-2704 - Unable to register the DMP 4400 device using the URL device registration method.

6.1-ac.5

Resolved Bugs

• AP-12358 - Connection leak in database.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-2727 - Unable to delete a user in Appspace Cloud.
• AE-2729 - Content deleted in the Library still continues to display in the sign.
• AE-2735 - When exporting players from Networks, tags not in the user interface are displayed.
• AE-2660 - List of synced contents are not displayed in the Player properties, even when player is in-sync and online.

6.1-ac.6

Resolved Bugs

• AP-12351 - Users without roles are able to access restricted Appspace features on Dashboard.
• CT-115 - The RSS card text size changes in List View when displayed on ChromeOS devices.
• CT-143 - The Announcement card preview does not generate when using 4K image backgrounds.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-2652 - Appspace Windows PC client is not listed in Networks, if registered via the wizard.
• AE-2656 - The Google Analytics feature on Appspace on-premises does not retrieve data.
• AE-2658 - Google Calendar integration with the Calendar widget fails, when accessed through the widgets panel.
• AE-2697 - The RSS card does not display images from the RSS feed.
• AE-2721 - The Facebook and RSS cards have unstable font sizes when placed in the first position in a layout.
• AE-2726 - Unable to find an existing admin user to add to player notifications.
• AE-2769 - When creating a new notification, the users listed are not from the account owner’s account.
• AE-2771 - When the second invitation to join a network is withdrawn, the user’s original account from that network is also deleted, and unable to re-invite the user.
• AE-2773 - Unable to find an existing user to add to player notifications, as only the first 50 users are displayed.

6.1-ac.7

Resolved Bugs

• AP-12381 - Cards thumbnails are not generated intermittently.
• AP-12465 - When creating a new notification, numbers instead of text are displayed in the Recipients field if the Up and Down arrow keys on the keyboard are used to scroll.
• CT-146 - In Announcement card, the background color does not change when transparency is set.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-2764 - Content Expiry does not work on the Appspace cloud server.
• AE-2770 - The network list is cropped off when changing network locations in the Networks Players page.
• AE-2777 - Content Expiry does not work on the Appspace cloud server.

6.1-ac.8

Resolved Bugs

• AP-12466 - In Networks Notification, the list of recipients is not fully displayed when viewing via Internet Explorer 11.
• PLAY-3647 - Content updated in Channels is not reflected on the player.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-2765 - DMP4310 devices do not sync content when using a SmartHub.
• AE-2752 - The order of content in a playlist randomly changes after the playlist is saved.
• AE-2755 - Changes to text in the HTML ticker widget are not updated on the media player.
• AE-2773 - Unable to add recipients to Network Notifications.
• AE-2780 - Content Producer permissions does not work correctly.

6.1-ac.9

Resolved Bugs

• AP-12441 - Newly added RSS feed does not display in the preview tab, after the old RSS feed is deleted.
• AP-12618 - In Channels, when accessing a channel group page, a coffee-cup error page is displayed.
• PLAY-3659 - Channels does not update correctly with Signs content.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-2691 - The PlayoutMetrics database is not being optimized after the cleanup process.
• AE-2763 - Content from user’s trial account is displayed when registering a player with user’s OMNI account.
• AE-2772 - Deleted content within a library folder or channel still remains, even after a re-sync.
• AE-2778 - Signs channel content size shows as 0KB.
• AE-2822 - API call does not function as intended after an Appspace upgrade.

6.1-ac.10

Enhancements

• Removal of the SIP Call widget.
• Appspace branding updates for all customer facing pages which include logo updates, and updates for email templates and error pages.

Resolved Bugs

• AP-11120 - An error page is displayed when a Content Administrator clicks on the “Go To Application” button on the Signs widget on the Appspace Dashboard.
• AP-12292 - In Signs, the Content Administrator is unable to view the ‘Link Media Zone’ hyperlink.
• AP-12376 - The APP1 Cloud server returns an 500 Internal Server error, when an Interactive Mode app with Channel Groups is assigned to a player.
• AP-12737 - Alerts has been modified to prevent broadcast leaks to other accounts.
• SIGN-497 - The “We’ll be right back” error page is displayed when a Content Administrator clicks the “Go to Application” button on the Dashboard.
• SIGN-517 - The Content Approval email template does not display images correctly.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-2737 - Unknown image is displayed during player startup.
• AE-2813 - Unable to export or import a sign if HTML is present in the media zone.
• AE-2814 - Network Administrator unable to see subnetworks listed when attempting to link Media Zones from a subnetwork.
• AE-2828 - The Content Approval email is not formatted correctly.
• AE-2829 - The Content Approval email does not display the playout property changes correctly.
• AE-2842 - Players do not display updated content.

6.1-ac.11

Enhancements

• Improved content creation workflow that includes:

  • A new user interface when adding, and creating content in the Library, and when users add media in a sign.
  • When uploading content in the Library or in Signs, users can now choose to:
    • Create a card - the user goes through a dedicated workflow that helps the user build a new card.
    • Upload content - the workflow has been simplified and lets the user immediately select an available library from any of their groups.
    • Adding Other Content Types - this workflow preserves the ability for users to add the other content types.
  
  

• Ability to copy content items between libraries.

  • Users now have the ability to copy content items from one library to another.
  • Users can select one or multiple content items and drag this to a folder in another library to engage the copy.
  • All attributes of a content item will be copied with the exception of allocations.
  
  

• Updates to the common library access:

  • The Public Group Library is now known as the Common Library.
  • Users can specifically target a folder when uploading content directly. Content items will not simply be placed into the Unassigned folder of the Common Library by default.
  • Administrators can now manage access permissions to the Common Library as follows:
    • Everyone can access the Common Library
    • Nobody can access the Common Library
    • Specific users and/or user groups can be granted read/write access to the Common Library
  
  

• Updated user interface for all content properties and information pages such as Summary, Attributes, Playout, and Allocations, for a better general user experience.

• In conjunction with the release of App 1.9.1, a user will be able to set the playout frequency settings of a content item in a media zone playlist. For more information regarding Playout Frequency, refer to the Configuring content properties article.

• Improvements to cards:

  • Announcement Card

    • Supports rich text for Headlines and Summary.
    • Supports video backgrounds.
    
    

  • Facebook Card

    • Supports aspect ratio on images.
    • Supports Font size settings.
    • Supports post type selection.
    • Supports movie files playback on full screen layouts.
    • Added splash screen when loading data.
    
    

  • Google Slides Card

    • Added splash screen when loading data.
    
    

  • RSS Card

    • Added splash screen when loading data.
    
    

  • Youtube Card

    • Added splash screen when loading data.

Resolved Bugs

• AP-11863 - The ellipsis in long names within a playlist appear as ‘…’, instead of ‘...’.
• AP-12399 - In the Player page, the “We’ll be right back” error page is returned when a user adds a new tag to player, and hits the ‘Enter’ key without first selecting a group.
• AP-12469 - In Alerts, The “Whoops” error page is returned when removing an Alert template from the Player Group by clicking the Remove button twice.
• AP-12848 - In Library, an error page is returned when double clicking dynamic media, which is shared from another user group library with “Read Only” permissions.
• AP-12849 - The Dashboard page is displayed as an overlay after clicking the “BACK TO HOME PAGE” button on the error page.
• AP-12859 - In Library, deleted folders do not trigger soft delete, and all contents are deleted directly.

6.1-ac.12

Resolved Bugs

• AP-13079 - System fails to copy the expiry date, tags, and custom thumbnail of the content to the target library.
• AP-13092 - Content thumbnails are blank, when uploaded with uppercase file extensions (.JPG).
• AP-13099 - Unable to upload card in .zip format without the content manifest files.
• AP-13113 - The Update Device method takes a longer duration, due to querying devices that have no applications.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-2957 - Unable to upload content to Library, if file extensions are in uppercase (.JPG).
• AE-2975 - Unable to change media duration in Slideshow widget.
• AE-2986 - Error returned when viewing content properties.

6.1-ac.13

Enhancements

• Channel Linking in Basic signs - users can now link one basic sign channel to another, that allows content users to join the playlists of multiple basic signs together. This functionality already exists in Advanced signs.

  
  

• Appspace Supported and Community Cards categories - Appspace Supported cards are officially created by Appspace, while cards that are created by a third-party community developer are categorized as Community Cards. When a community card is installed, its themes will be disabled by default. This will prevent the themes from being displayed in the card creation workflow. To use a community template, the account administrator must enable the use of the community card through the Themes tab in Cards.

Resolved Bugs

• AP-11274 - Template thumbnail is not displayed correctly when a custom template is uploaded in Cards.
• AP-12739 - When uploading multiple card templates, the theme’s thumbnail preview is not generated.
• AP-12859 - In Library, when deleting a folder, all folder contents are deleted without warning.
• AP-12889 - In Library, a warning message is not displayed when running out of storage during a content upload.
• AP-12953 - Card thumbnails are generated incorrectly at intermittent times.
• AP-13022 - Duplicate templates appear in the ‘Filter by template’ list when selecting a card, after the default template is replaced.
• AP-13039 - When folders that have been added to a channel group are moved structurally in the library, the change is not updated in the Appspace web client.
• AP-13048 - In Library, an incorrect error message is displayed when saving a content title that contains special characters (/ : * ? < >).
• AP-13064 - In Library, the default thumbnail displays incorrectly after a custom thumbnail is removed.
• AP-13071 - In Library, when uploading other content types (webpage, rich text, and external content) which were earlier downloaded, the upload fails.
• AP-13103 - Content properties values, entered when uploading content in .zip format via Upload Media in the Library, are not saved.
• AP-13109 - Error 406 is displayed when validating HTTP web URLs during upload of content via Other > Web Page in the Library.
• SIGN-605 - Images from the “Ambient Photostream landscape” default template are missing.
• SIGN-607 - Thumbnails for dynamic media content added to a sign, are not generated.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-2693 - The Content Library fails to load when Appspace 5.8.7 is upgraded to 6.0.2.
• AE-2820 - Unable to proceed with account creation after clicking the link provided in the email from Appspace.
• AE-2904 - Content allocation is sluggish, and freezes at the loading screen.
• AE-2914 - Unable to add user or assign user groups in a particular network.

6.1-ac.14

Enhancements

• Library performance optimizations.

Resolved Bugs

• AP-11380 - Fonts, images, and logos uploaded in a card theme, are not saved and are not display in the preview.
• AP-12945 - In Library, when creating or updating content, mandatory fields can be saved with just whitespace characters.
• AP-13009 - Some accounts take more than 15 seconds to completely load the Library interface.
• AP-13042 - In Library, when switching content types in an existing Web Page content, the URL field is incorrectly populated.
• AP-13181 - Accessing the Edit tab on the Content Properties page for a Web Page content type, displays the “Error retrieving Html content” error message.
• AP-13275 - In Signs, the set schedule in Playout Properties is not saved.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-3031 - When copying card themes, standard images, backgrounds, logos, and custom fonts are not copied properly.

6.1-ac.15

Resolved Bugs

• AP-13359: Card content does not display correctly in the Visual Editor, and in the Media Zone properties if aspect ratio is not set to 16:9 in a sign.
• AP-13362: In Channels, saving a playlist with the user’s group library option checked, displays the “Failed to save” error message.
• AP-13378: Player does not sync with new content, and receives an error 404 message.
• AP-13402: In Channels, saving a playlist displays “Failed to save” error message.
• SIGN-621: Deleting the player assigned to a sign, breaks the Media Zone widget UI within the sign.
• SIGN-624: Deleting a Library folder containing contents allocated to a sign causes the sign to break.
• SIGN-628: User is unable to edit “Playout Properties” page, if the user does not have the content’s user group entitlement.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-2687: The “Device is loading the channel” message is displayed on the Appspace App for Chromebox.
• AE-2711: Alerts causes 100% CPU utilization when activating or deactivating.
• AE-2842: Players do not display updated content.
• AE-2888: High CPU utilization.
• AE-2911: The layout order in a sign is not saved when updated in Layout Scheduling.
• AE-2943: Layout in a sign disappears when a tag is added to an image on that layout.
• AE-2964: Appspace IDs are still being consumed by users that have been deleted.
• AE-2973: Unable to delete user in a multi-tenancy environment.
• AE-2974: Appspace Windows PC client is not listed in Networks, if registered via the wizard.
• AE-3034: Unable to switch channels when using remote control on Edge 340 players.

6.1-ac.16

Enhancements

• Administrators will see a more detailed view of device, user, storage, and bandwidth usage in the Account section. This is in-line with OMNI subscription plan improvements being made on Saturday 25th March, 2017. Read more on our blog. >>

• Administrators can now assign the Network Administrator and Content Administrator permissions when creating a network in the Networks section of the console. Previously this was only possible in the Users section.

  Note

  These permissions will remain viewable in the Users section, when viewing a user or user group. However, it is planned that in a future release all network permissions will be managed exclusively through the Networks section.

• Support for Pass-through authentication and the Basic ID attribute, in-line with the new OMNI subscription plan:

  • Basic IDs via pass-through authentication allows you to utilize an external IdP so that users can access channels through the Appspace App on mobile devices without using Premium User IDs.

  • To use pass-through authentication, you must do the following:

    • Cloud: The account must be configured to use SSO, and the customer will need to contact Appspace Support to register their email domain with us so that we can identify and map their domain for pass-through authentication

    • On-premise: You can use either SSO or AD/LDAP and configure this within your own local on-premise environment.

      
      

  • The Pass-through Authentication option is disabled by default.

  • Basic ID users cannot access the console.

• Optimizations to the Announcement card, that includes support for polling-based messaging, on Universal Windows Platform (UWP) devices.

  
  

Resolved Bugs

• AP-9048 - Unable to delete an account in Administrator Mode.
• AP-11992 - Coffee cup error is displayed when accessing Channels from the Appspace console.
• AP-12014 - In Networks, the ‘All users’ function in root network does not display all users.
• AP-13437 - In Channels, the “Failed to save” error message is displayed when saving a playlist.
• AP-13477 - The default user group for a new user account is not consistent between on-premises and cloud.
• AP-13478 - In an on-premises multi-tenancy account, the ‘Invite user’ overlay in User is not displayed when adding a user.
• SIGN-475 - Data is not retrieved and displayed in the Content tab of the Table Listing widget, when using a data provider.

Resolved Escalations

• AE-2752 - The order of content in a Sign playlist randomly changes after the playlist is saved.
• AE-2780 - Content Producer permission does not work correctly, and is unable to edit widgets on the dashboard.
• AE-2850 - Table Listing widget does not retrieve data after upgrading to Appspace 6.0.1.
• AE-2877 - A user account has incorrect permissions after upgrading to Appspace 6.0.2.
• AE-2937 - Appspace server is slow after upgrading from Appspace 4.0 to Appspace 5.8.7.
• AE-3011 - Playout metrics report returns incorrect results.
• AE-3049 - Unable to schedule content in a sign, and the following error is returned, “Error retrieving playout properties”.
• AE-3069 - Unable to access Channels from the Appspace console.
• AE-3095 - The order of content in the Media Zone widget in a sign randomly changes after the playlist is saved.
• AE-3104 - The order of content or a layout in the Media Zone widget in a sign randomly changes after the playlist is saved.
• AE-3107 - The order of content in the Media Zone widget in a sign randomly changes after the playlist is saved.

Known Issues

• In Announcement cards, video backgrounds are not supported in BrightSign, Cisco IEC, and Samsung SSP, as these devices do not support layering on top of videos.