Arable Release Notes

Release Date: June 8, 2020

Instance affected: Production

Hostnames: arable.arable.com

Browsers: IE 11, Chrome 81/80, Firefox 74, Edge 80, Safari 13

Impact: High

Version: 8.0.0

Release Overview

Arable Web 8.0.0 is a major release introducing the concept of growing seasons for GDD calculations; a new alerts function, sent via SMS and voice calling; as well as a new embedded BI analytics feature, now in beta.

New Features

• A new embedded BI feature has been introduced in Arable Web, on the Analytics tab. In this beta release, the Analytics dashboards are authored by Arable, based on universal customer needs we have identified around NDVI, and currently available to all customers. There are other, private dashboards in development for select customers to serve their specific needs. All dashboards are published to a team so that all team members can review and discuss. Views can be customized using controls to select a time range or device/location, as shown in the NDVI example dashboard. Users can also drill down or up by clicking on individual bars in the graph.
• The activity log in Arable Web is updated to provide filtering options for alerts. Alerts are by default shown in date order, with the latest first. A filter button is provided that allows users to see weather, device or account alerts only. Users are automatically subscribed to device alerts (e.g., location updates) and account alerts (username, phone number, password change), and can opt in to weather alerts via the Account tab (Web) or the Settings page (Mobile). The weather alert subscriptions in this release are associated with all locations the user has access to; a future release will allow subscriptions tailored to individual locations. Weather alerts are still focused around heat spikes and frost events, as in the previous release; however, a new feature in this release is the option for the org admin to set custom thresholds via the Account tab (Web) or the Settings page (Mobile). Default thresholds remain 36°C and 2°C, respectively. While the subscriptions in Arable Mobile refer to Mobile push notifications, this release enables SMS and/or voice calling as other alert channel types in Arable Web. Note that for SMS/voice alerts to work, it is important to ensure that a phone number has been set on the Account tab (Web) and that SMS/voice calling are provided in your country (see info modal on the Account tab in Arable Web for details). There you will also find the phone numbers from which Arable will send SMS/voice alerts. It is recommended that you add these numbers into your phone contacts in order to avoid ignoring the alert calls. It should be noted that the SMS/voice alerts are shown in English language only in this release. The same applies in the My Alerts history log. The numbers are also listed here:
  
  Country, Number, Type, Features
  Canada, (+1) 2262424095, Mobile, SMS & Voice
  United States, (+1) 4085974095, Mobile, SMS & Voice
  United States, (+1) 9858821170, Mobile, SMS & Voice
  Netherlands, (+31) 97010241085, Mobile, SMS & Voice
  Spain, (+34) 921030030, Landline, SMS
  UK, (+44) 7451287146, Mobile, SMS & Voice
  Poland, (+48) 732100810, Mobile, SMS & Voice
  Mexico, (+52) 5549998223, Mobile, SMS
  Mexico, (+52) 8144450550, Mobile, Voice
  Brazil, (+55) 1131643357, Landline, Voice
  Brazil, (+55) 11953259278, Mobile, SMS
  Australia, (+61) 488884095, Mobile, SMS & Voice
  France, (null), (null), SMS & Voice
  Germany, (+49) 15735985392, Mobile, SMS
• A new growing seasons feature has been added to allow users to define a start and end date for the calculating Growing Degree Days (GDD). The GDD calculation will use the temperature settings °C or °F already set up on the Account tab (Web) or the Settings page (Mobile). Users select the appropriate crop type and varietal on the Seasons tab in Arable Web; this selection will determine the standard values used for base and high temperature thresholds, which are shown below the crop type field. Users also have the option to define their own set of growth stage thresholds on the Seasons tab, which will populate the GDD count for the current growing season on the Map page. On the Graph page in Arable Web, users can use the Time feature to select which growing season to graph, and they can compare GDD count and growth stage status across Mark devices with similar growing seasons. The Plant tab in a device’s location details page shows an additional GDD graph, which indicates the selected crop type and growth stages. Future releases will add GDD backfill and forecasting based on remote sensed data; enable GDD alerts based on set growth stage thresholds; and allow for data export using the growing season as a selector.
• On the Graph page, Leaf Wetness now includes both condensation and precipitation. New model updates are presented in the associated backend API release notes.
• Precip, ETc and CWD values have increased to a granularity of 0.1 mm to more closely align with the similar granularity already available in inches.
• On the Graph page Time feature, users can select up to 8 locations to compare across a single measurement. This can be done at this time for all measurements except GDD and soil moisture.
• There are now direct links in a device’s location details dashboard to both Graph-Time and Export features; when using this link, the location selector is then prepopulated with the device’s information.
• There is now a version number available as a tooltip if the user hovers over the Help tab in the Arable Web main menu.
• A new Arable loading GIF was added in Arable Web that is aligned with the one used in the Arable Mobile.
• Google Analytics tracking is enabled to help Arable Customer Success better understand and support users in the Arable Web application. There are still a few pending events that will be added after the release in the area of new Main and Settings tabs, quicklinks on the location details page, and activity notifications by category. In this release, events were implemented for:
  
  Teams Page (24 events tracked)
  Analytics Page (3 events Tracked)
  Seasons Page (32 events tracked)
  Settings Page - Alerts (11 events tracked)

Defect Fixes

• An indicator of missing data has been added to graphs on a device’s location details page to make it more easily detectable.
• The Arable Web Map view sometimes showed an old stale state if the browser tab had been left open for a long time. To correct this, we implemented new logic to refresh the page every 5 minutes if it is detected that a user is scrolling or clicking in the UI, and every 15 minutes if the page is left open but idle.
• In the Graph page Time feature, it is now possible to change the measurement while keeping the location and data selector as they are.
• The hourly file timestamp usage on the Export page has been simplified. In the hourly export, the first column is showing the pure local device time, so instead of 2020-04-30T14:00:00+0800 it now reads 2020-04-30 14:00:00. This makes it easier to parse the exported data in Excel. The second column that showed the corresponding UTC time 2020-04-30T06:00:00Z now shows 2020-04-30 06:00:00, so anyone who wants to use it can grab and otherwise delete what they don’t need. The daily export now only shows local-device time, and it is shown as a date with no hour.
• The Graph page Time feature soil moisture charts now show the depths in multiples of 4 inches.
• On the Activity page, when the user updated their phone number, an extra event for the username appeared. This is now resolved.
• Weather alerts now appear in the activity log on the Settings page.
• If for some reason a Mark device takes longer than 8.5 hours after an alert-triggering event to connect to the backend, the alert will not be sent to the user when the device connects. However, those alerts will be shown in the activity log.
• Previously, when a user selected a large range of dates and then clicked on the hourly graph, some locations showed the message “Loading…” and the graph didn’t appear. This has been resolved.
• When creating invitations on the Teams page, sometimes the user needed to refresh the browser in order to select a role. This has been resolved.
• Previously, the CSV export from Graph for NDVI did not include yesterday’s value. This has been resolved.
• Upon deletion of a team, the error message indicating that a team could not be deleted started with the title "Success" in the previous release. It has been corrected to read "Error."
• A version number has now been introduced in Arable Web as a tooltip for the Help main menu icon. This version is Arable Web 8.0.0. The first digit indicates a major feature release, second digit a minor feature release, and the third digit a maintenance release.
  
  

Known Issues

• There are some style issues in the Hourly Daily graphs for IE11 browsers that have not been resolved yet.
• The Web UI for the Map and Settings pages does not explain to the user whether GPS is missing for a Mark (e.g., that is temporarily deployed indoors). Help text is planned for a future release to tell the user to move the Mark into GPS coverage (i.e., outdoors).
• The All date selection in Arable Web Export is influenced by the local time zone of the browser. As such, for Europe and Australia the “All” dates include the day before the first reporting date, thus the Export button is grayed out. The workaround is to select dates manually.
• Wind data is currently only populated if a local anemometer is installed. A future release will also include fill-in wind data if a local anemometer is not available, as well as additional remote-sensed forecasts.
• The wind data as shown in the Arable Mobile map is the average for today. This is planned to be changed to current wind to be more actionable in a future release.
• The Mark 2 marker in the Map view may be grayed even if the device is syncing correctly. This is a cosmetic issue that will be fixed in a future release, but is not limiting use as of now.
• When a user goes to the Devices tab, devices may not be sorted correctly until the user clicks on an arrow to sort.
• To enable users to confirm successful soil moisture probe installation in real time, we plan to add Bridge status as part of the deployment message from the Mark to the backend, and have it populate in the API and UI (on the Device tab).
• Sorting by Last Sync on the Device tab may show Pending on top, regardless of sort order. This will be fixed in an upcoming release.
• Frost and heat alerts are currently triggered based on the max/min 5-minute value of the hour. A hysteresis of 2°C above the threshold has to be achieved before another alert would be triggered again. This means that one 5-min anomaly value could lead to a retriggering of the alert. An improved algorithm for the min/max temp that uses, e.g., the average of the top five 5-min values, is being assessed for an upcoming release.
• Today there is no explicit warning if a Mark that has been set to send frost alerts is failing to sync and thus not feeding the alert process in the backend. A future release will have the capability to send a notification through the same channel as the alert notification subscription if the underlying device has gone into inactive state (defined by 8.5 hours of not syncing).
• The Arable Web banner number for Active and Inactive state on the Device tab may not always be up-to-date, and the sorting by Status in the table does not always function. This will be addressed in an upcoming release.
• When an Org has 200+ devices and 80+ users, the loading of the data on the Teams tab can take longer than 5 seconds. This is being reviewed for improvements in a future release.
• A support UserID called poweruser+[TenantName]@arable.com may show up as a member of an admin team. This user only exists for Arable Customer Success to provide better support. We aim to remove this extra UserID in future releases.
• After having sent out an invitation to one or more users via the Arable Web Teams Invite feature, it is not possible to see a confirmation that the invited user has received the e-mail. They will show as “Invited” until they have accepted the invitation (user shows up in list with assigned role).
• In the Arable Web Map view, an “Untitled location” does not display the device ID it belongs to in the naming pop-up like it does in Arable Mobile. This will be addressed in an upcoming release.
• When a user creates a new team, they need to press return after entering the team's name in order to get the confirmation that the team is selectable. We will look to improve usability in future release by, e.g., adding help text.
• Currently the NDVI graph does not show any indication that a drop can be due to cloudy days. To circumvent any misunderstandings, we will add solar radiation to the same graph displayed on the Plant tab of a device’s location details in a coming release.