ZoneMinder 1.23.0 - Release Note - Release Candidate 1(BETA)
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:09 am
I will shortly be releasing RC1 of ZM v1.23.0. The following is a list of the major fixes and features in this release.
For DVR streaming in this release, and for more features in future releases, you will need to install the Mootools javascript library in your ZM webdir. Mootools can be downloads from here and you should select all components for now, the compression type you can choose any of. You should ensure this file is named mootools.v1.11.js for RC1 only, a copy or soft link to mootools.js will be required subsequently.
FEATURE - Added optional DVR functionality (Web->ZM_WEB_DVR_STREAMING) in new CSS and Ajax based views. This allows you to pause, rewind, digitally zoom and pan on live streams and replayed events. Due to lag issues this really only works well on mpjpeg streaming and not so good with mpeg streams. This feature should be considered beta only and the streams and control may not always be reliable.
FEATURE - ZM can now optionally use a deep file storage tree to avoid the 32k limit on files per directory (Paths->ZM_USE_DEEP_STORAGE) This should only be set on initial install, changing it to a different setting will almost certainly lose all your events. There is currently no migration of events backs and forth between formats.
FEATURE - Added specific alarm file quality setting (Images->ZM_JPEG_ALARM_FILE_QUALITY) that if set to a higher quality than the regular one (Images->ZM_JPEG_FILE_QUALITY) then it is used when saving images when in alarmed state.
FEATURE - Image timestamp tokens have changed. They are now %N for monitor name (previously first %%s) and %Q for show text (previously second %%s). There is also a %f token which is the fractional part of the seconds in the timestamp.
FEATURE - Monitors can now be configured to suspend motion detection for a set number of frames if maximum alarmed pixels/filter pixels/blob counts are exceeded. This helps limit alarms caused by sudden large scale lighting changes for example.
FEATURE - PTZ control functionality is now in the form of a perl library for each protocol used by a single script rather than lots of scripts. This is easier to maintain and use and will allow support for protocols that require some state persistence between commands. Performance and responsiveness is also much improved by direct socket connections to the script.
FEATURE - Filters have been enhanced and largely rewritten behind the scenes. Little functional effect yet but makes it easier to add future improvements and manage filters generally. FEATURE - If you include the jscalendar javascript calendar (http://www.dynarch.com/projects/calendar/) in your ZM web dir in a 'calendar' subdirectory then filter date/time dialogs will use a popup calendar for easier date selection.
FEATURE - The monitor alarm colour (indicating loss of signal) is now defined on a per monitor basis. The previous setting is not migrated so you should check all your local monitors if you have changed this.
FEATURE - Users can optionally be set to be able to change their own language and passwords (Config->ZM_USER_SELF_EDIT)
FEATURE - Filters can now check for system load
FEATURE - Image/event details are now written to the JPEG file header of saved images. I'm not sure this is done in the same way as other packages however.
FEATURE - The mysql database connection port can now be specified along with the host in the format host:port
FEATURE - WML support has now been removed as deprecated.
FIX - Unprivileged users can no longer edit the zone settings, even though changes were not saved before anyway.
FIX - Fixed ffmpeg support for latest CVS builds, also added libswscale support to avoid using deprecated img_convert function.
FIX - Fixed monitor preset bug
FIX - Fixed issue with immediate action filters not working properly.
FIX - Fixed issue with incorrect line ending causing problems with some web cameras.
LANGUAGE - Added Hungarian language support
LANGUAGE - Added Romanian language support
LANGUAGE - Added Hebrew language support
Please note that a number of patches and language updates were suggested on the forums or passed to me directly and which do not appear in this list. This is generally for one of two reasons (1) when I came to apply the patch the codebase had changed so much that it was not able to be applied successfully, or (2) I managed to lose track of where updates were. If you suggested a change or language update that is not included then please resend it as it can be applied to 1.23.0 and I will endeavour to include it before the first official release.
For DVR streaming in this release, and for more features in future releases, you will need to install the Mootools javascript library in your ZM webdir. Mootools can be downloads from here and you should select all components for now, the compression type you can choose any of. You should ensure this file is named mootools.v1.11.js for RC1 only, a copy or soft link to mootools.js will be required subsequently.
FEATURE - Added optional DVR functionality (Web->ZM_WEB_DVR_STREAMING) in new CSS and Ajax based views. This allows you to pause, rewind, digitally zoom and pan on live streams and replayed events. Due to lag issues this really only works well on mpjpeg streaming and not so good with mpeg streams. This feature should be considered beta only and the streams and control may not always be reliable.
FEATURE - ZM can now optionally use a deep file storage tree to avoid the 32k limit on files per directory (Paths->ZM_USE_DEEP_STORAGE) This should only be set on initial install, changing it to a different setting will almost certainly lose all your events. There is currently no migration of events backs and forth between formats.
FEATURE - Added specific alarm file quality setting (Images->ZM_JPEG_ALARM_FILE_QUALITY) that if set to a higher quality than the regular one (Images->ZM_JPEG_FILE_QUALITY) then it is used when saving images when in alarmed state.
FEATURE - Image timestamp tokens have changed. They are now %N for monitor name (previously first %%s) and %Q for show text (previously second %%s). There is also a %f token which is the fractional part of the seconds in the timestamp.
FEATURE - Monitors can now be configured to suspend motion detection for a set number of frames if maximum alarmed pixels/filter pixels/blob counts are exceeded. This helps limit alarms caused by sudden large scale lighting changes for example.
FEATURE - PTZ control functionality is now in the form of a perl library for each protocol used by a single script rather than lots of scripts. This is easier to maintain and use and will allow support for protocols that require some state persistence between commands. Performance and responsiveness is also much improved by direct socket connections to the script.
FEATURE - Filters have been enhanced and largely rewritten behind the scenes. Little functional effect yet but makes it easier to add future improvements and manage filters generally. FEATURE - If you include the jscalendar javascript calendar (http://www.dynarch.com/projects/calendar/) in your ZM web dir in a 'calendar' subdirectory then filter date/time dialogs will use a popup calendar for easier date selection.
FEATURE - The monitor alarm colour (indicating loss of signal) is now defined on a per monitor basis. The previous setting is not migrated so you should check all your local monitors if you have changed this.
FEATURE - Users can optionally be set to be able to change their own language and passwords (Config->ZM_USER_SELF_EDIT)
FEATURE - Filters can now check for system load
FEATURE - Image/event details are now written to the JPEG file header of saved images. I'm not sure this is done in the same way as other packages however.
FEATURE - The mysql database connection port can now be specified along with the host in the format host:port
FEATURE - WML support has now been removed as deprecated.
FIX - Unprivileged users can no longer edit the zone settings, even though changes were not saved before anyway.
FIX - Fixed ffmpeg support for latest CVS builds, also added libswscale support to avoid using deprecated img_convert function.
FIX - Fixed monitor preset bug
FIX - Fixed issue with immediate action filters not working properly.
FIX - Fixed issue with incorrect line ending causing problems with some web cameras.
LANGUAGE - Added Hungarian language support
LANGUAGE - Added Romanian language support
LANGUAGE - Added Hebrew language support
Please note that a number of patches and language updates were suggested on the forums or passed to me directly and which do not appear in this list. This is generally for one of two reasons (1) when I came to apply the patch the codebase had changed so much that it was not able to be applied successfully, or (2) I managed to lose track of where updates were. If you suggested a change or language update that is not included then please resend it as it can be applied to 1.23.0 and I will endeavour to include it before the first official release.
I wanted to get in a big Thanks for the hard work! before the bug reports started coming in. 
