Update to Forio Epicenter (1.48)

#1

Hello Everyone,

We’re excited to announce our latest updates to Epicenter.

This release of Epicenter includes several new features and improvements:

  • Epicenter now officially supports Stella models, including as part of the Interface Builder.
  • The Interface Builder has several new features, including the ability to select themes, globally configure formats for charts and variables, and add logos.
  • End users can now retrieve user name information about other end users in their group. This change makes it easier for multiplayer projects to display information - for example, the names of everyone in the world who is currently online.

Complete release notes are below. As always, Epicenter release notes for this and other releases are available at:
https://forio.com/epicenter/docs/public/releases/

Happy modeling!

WILL

v1.48 Release Notes

Release Date: 4/8/2017

New Features

  • Stella Support. Epicenter now supports models written in Stella. Upload your .stmx file to your project’s Model folder, then use the Interface Builder (or Epicenter.js) to create your user interface. See the Stella page for additional information.

  • Interface Builder. The Interface Builder (Beta) includes several new features:

    • Global Settings - Themes: You can select from one of six pre-built themes for your project.
    • Global Settings - Project Defaults: You can now globally configure number formats for charts and variables.
    • Global Settings - Header/Footer Settings: You can now add a logo image to the header for all pages.
    • Support for Stella. You can use Interface Builder with your .stmx model files.

Improvements

  • When using a Powersim or Stella model, you can now ask for the variable Step to get the current step.

  • When using a Powersim or Stella model, you can now ask for the value of a variable at the current step in two ways. Previously, you could retrieve this value by using an array index of the current step (Sales[3]). New in this release, you can also retrieve this value by asking for the “point in time” of the variable: Sales.POINT_IN_TIME.

  • When arrayed variables from Powersim or Stella are returned, the format is now an object, whose fields are the subscripts (ranges) and whose values are arrayed over time. For example, given:

    <table border="1">
        <tr><td>Sales, Apples</td><td>Sales, Oranges</td><td>Step</td></tr>
        <tr><td>80</td><td>180</td><td>0</td></tr>
        <tr><td>100</td><td>200</td><td>1</td></tr>
        <tr><td>120</td><td>220</td><td>2</td></tr>
        <tr><td>130</td><td>230</td><td>3</td></tr>
        <tr><td>140</td><td>240</td><td>4</td></tr>
    </table>

a request for the “Sales” variable now returns:

     {
        "apples": [ 80, 100, 120, 130, 140 ],
        "oranges": [ 180, 200, 220, 230, 240 ]
    }

This format is easier to parse if you are looking for the values from a specific dimension of your array. See more details, including examples of requesting alternate formats (`.POINT_IN_TIME` and `.COLLAPSED_ARRAY`), on the [Powersim](https://forio.com/epicenter/docs/public/model_code/powersim/#view-update-variables) and [Stella](https://forio.com/epicenter/docs/public/model_code/stella/#view-update-variables) pages.

  • All end users can now retrieve user name information from the Member API (REST) or Member API Adapter (Epicenter.js), given the user id of another end user. Previously, only end users who were facilitators could do this. This change makes it easier for multiplayer projects to display information for end users about other end users in the group or world — for example, the names of everyone in the world who is currently online.

  • The result of calling “introspect” on a model, either through the Epicenter.js Introspection Service or the RESTful Model Introspect API, now includes additional information. Specifically, the ranges section describes the enumerated ranges used in arrayed variables. Additionally, for each variable, a new access field describes whether the variable can NEVER be set, can be set only BEFORE the run is advanced, or can ALWAYS be set.

Bug Fixes

  • In some cases, accessing information about end users who belonged to groups that had been deleted was causing an error. This has been corrected.

  • Documentation updates, including:

    • Changes to the Model Context page to answer common questions about how and why to provide model context information.
    • Additional background about channels for when you’re working with the Epicenter.js Epicenter Channel Manager.
    • A new How To article on using Flow.js to update your user interface when a model operation is called.

  • Other minor fixes for performance and stability.