All Platforms and Modules


  • Launched a status page so that customers can quickly find detailed outage information, at http://status.synovia.com, listed by platform and module.


To see a video introducing the new status page, go to 2018.07 Status Page.


Silverlining


  • Added the ability for customers with 3000s, 3030s, or VPODs installed in vehicles that support the Seat Belt message to receive Seat Belt Fastened and Seat Belt Unfastened messages.
  • Fixed an issue that was still sending erroneous Max Speed alerts even after last release's fix to not send notifications for these events if the number of satellites is lower than 8.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the time zone offset to not be set to its default of 0.
  • Fixed a bug with the Work Monitor that listed some employees twice but others not at all.
  • Fixed a bug that was preventing data from being processed from a vehicle if it was sent in more than two weeks late. (This is rare but could occur if a vehicle ended its route with no cell service and then sat in a garage for an extended period of time or had the LMU removed for some time.)


Comparative Analysis - Silverlining


  • Changed the way we're calculating stop coordinates if there are more than two waypoints between stops, using the closest one to the stop to determine the coordinates.
  • Fixed an issue that was causing some students to be missing from the nightly imports, due to limits in packet processing.


Synovia Site (https://login.synovia.com)


  • For customers with MDTs, added the ability to create inspection templates for the MDT via the new MDT >> Inspection Setup screen, which has three tabs: Templates, Groups, and Items.
  • For customers with MDTs, added the MDT >> Defect History screen, which enables users to view all the defects found and entered on the devices by drivers during an inspection (listed by vehicle name).
  • For customers with MDTs, added reports that will display inspection results.
  • Added the ability for customers with 3000s, 3030s, or VPODs installed in vehicles that support the Seat Belt message to receive Seat Belt Fastened and Seat Belt Unfastened messages.
  • For TAA customers, added a new tab to the System Administration >> Vehicles >> Edit Vehicle screen, Driver History, which will show which employees punched in on the vehicle, with what job type, when, and where.
  • For customers with MDTs, fixed an issue with sending messages from Synovia to the vehicle MDTs in that searches for recipients weren't returning vehicle names.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the time zone offset to not be set to its default of 0.
  • Fixed a bug that was listing inactive vehicles in the search results in Vehicle History, when it should return only active vehicles.
  • Fixed an issue with searching for vehicles on the Fleet Tracking screen with a different case than the actual vehicle name (either uppercase or lowercase) that would produce an exception.
  • Fixed an issue with the Fleet Tracking screen that was sometimes switching to an unsecure site (http: instead of https:) when using the Satellite or Weather Radar layers.
  • On the map screens, changed the preferred speed type to display in the Location Details pop-up from the Premium data (which comes from ALK Maps) to the Link data (a customer-specified speed), if it exists. Also removed the speed type altogether if its data is "N/A."
  • On the map screens, updated the refresh rate of the Traffic Incidents layer to be the same as that of the Traffic layer (every five minutes).
  • Updated the reports to the latest version of Izenda.
  • On the Schedule tab of Reports, fixed an issue that occurred after clicking the Reset button: Values no longer appeared for the Created By and Recipient(s) drop-down lists.
  • Fixed a bug with scheduling reports that wouldn't display any users in the All User dialog box to send the report to.
  • Fixed a bug that showed HCTB and CA reports to customers that don't have HCTB or CA.
  • Fixed a bug that wouldn't save a new zone speed rule that had a start time of midnight.
  • Changed the default start and end times for new zone speed rules to be 12:00 a.m. and 11:59 p.m.
  • Fixed an issue that was sending out alerts on the wrong days; for example, alerts set up only for Saturday and Sunday were being triggered and sent out on Friday.
  • Changed student stop time values from a 24-hour format to specifying a.m./p.m., as other time values are displayed in Synovia.
  • Fixed a bug when adding a new user with opting to email the user their credentials: The Custom Message dialog box would appear but wasn't optional; its Send button would be grayed out unless the creating user added their own message for the new user. Now a custom message is optional.
  • Fixed a bug on the Groups >> Assign Vehicles screen that would select (and remove or assign) all the vehicles in a group when the column filter was used, not just the actually selected vehicles.
  • Added a column filter to the Groups >> Assign Vehicles screen for the Primary column, with the option Select All.
  • Fixed a UI error on the Add/Edit Vehicle screen that made the Save button invisible.
  • Fixed a bug that was causing the Favorites category to expand and collapse itself.
  • Fixed a bug that was preventing data from being processed from a vehicle if it was sent in more than two weeks late. (This is rare but could occur if a vehicle ended its route with no cell service and then sat in a garage for an extended period of time or had the LMU removed for some time.)
  • For consortium customers, changed the site to redirect to the main page when a user changes customers.
  • For consortium customers, changed Favorites to show only the starred screens of the selected customer.
  • For consortium customers, changed Work in Progress to show only the tasks of the users of the selected customer.
  • For consortium customers, changed search results to show only data for the selected customer.
  • For consortium customers, changed the Settings screen to display only changes for the selected customer.
  • For consortium customers, changed the Hardware screen to display the modifications made to the column order by a user for all the customers.
  • For consortium customers, fixed a bug that was preventing the options from being updated in Vehicle History when a user changes customers.
  • For consortium customers, fixed issues with the Assign Vehicles screen erroring out when the user changes customers and not opening for All Vehicles.


To see a video of some of these new features, go to 2018.07 Synovia Updates.


Comparative Analysis - Synovia


  • Changed the HCTB Settings screen to save only the changes made on the current tab when the user clicks the Save button.
  • Fixed how School locations are imported on the Mapping screen.
  • Fixed a bug that was preventing vehicles from loading on the Entity Mapping tab of the Mapping screen.
  • For customers with the AVL-School Arrivals license enabled, added AM Bell Time and PM Bell Time fields to the Add/Edit Location screen (for School locations).
  • Fixed an issue that was producing an exception when users tried to add yards to view in the Yard Monitor.
  • Fixed a bug that was preventing addresses from being displayed for actual stops in PvA by Stop.
  • Fixed a bug with launching the Itinerary Details screen from Fleet Tracking.
  • For consortium customers, fixed a bug that was preventing data from appearing on the PvA by Stop screen, Substitutions screen, and live monitors.
  • For consortium customers, fixed bugs on the HCTB Settings screen when the user changed customers of an exception appearing and repeated Minimum Radius drop-down list options.
  • For consortium customers, fixed a bug that produced an error when trying to create a message on the HCTB Messaging screen.
  • For consortium customers, fixed a bug with the Students screen that was displaying a blank Properties tab.


Time and Attendance


  • Created a new, more efficient process for assigning schedules that allows schedules to change when routes do, using a new System Settings Schedules tab. The new procedure works by assigning a driver to a route and using the import's routing information to populate the driver's (or bus monitor's) schedule. In addition, the schedules can be padded for extra time (such as if a driver performs pretrip and posttrip inspections) by adjusting the master templates by job type.
  • Added validation to entering an effective start date on the Assign Punch IDs screen that won't allow the Update Effective Start Date button to be clicked if no punch ID is assigned yet and that won't allow an ID to be saved with a start date later than the end date.
  • Added an Add Date Stamp to File Name option to the Scheduling tab of Export Time, which, if selected, will add the date and time to the export filename.
  • Added the Daily Rounding Rule values to the Time Card screen.
  • Added the ability to use special characters such as angle brackets in header names for a Generic export.
  • Added the ability to generate an absence file for the Individual Shifts export and change the field mapping.
  • Removed the Regular Hours per Day drop-down list from the Work Day tab of System Settings and made 8 hours the standard workday across the board. FTE was designed to handle any discrepancies instead.
  • Made the Date Format export setting work for any Generic export so that customers can set their own date format in fields such as Punch In Date, Punch Out Date, Time, and Date.
  • Changed validation that wouldn't allow an absence to be entered for both the AM and PM time periods if the customer is using attendance events to be just a warning to the user.
  • For Chrome users, fixed a bug with the focus not being shifted to the next field when the user presses the Tab key on the Time Card edit screen.
  • Fixed a bug with the Sync to Schedule function not working for employees who don't have the same schedule each day.
  • Fixed a UI issue that was placing the Save button in the wrong spot when editing an existing rounding rule (by the Rounding Policy Name field instead of at the bottom of the expanded rule).
  • For consortium customers, fixed a bug that would allow a shift to be created for an inactive employee ID using the TAA Portal.
  • Fixed an issue that was producing an Object Reference error on the Employees screen.


To see a video of some of these new features, go to 2018.07 TAA Updates.


Here Comes the Bus


  • Fixed a bug that wasn't including day variance when reporting student data to Here Comes the Bus.


Micronet A317 MDT


  • In Synovia, added the ability to create inspection templates for the MDT via the new MDT >> Inspection Setup screen, which has three tabs: Templates, Groups, and Items.
  • In Synovia, added the MDT >> Defect History screen, which enables users to view all the defects found and entered on the devices by drivers during an inspection (listed by vehicle name).
  • In Synovia, added reports that will display inspection results.
  • Fixed a bug on the MDT-7P that was causing the app to crash after several scans.
  • Fixed a bug with an icon that wouldn't appear on the MDT-7P's Navigation screen.
  • Made the Volume and Brightness sliders smaller because drivers would run into the Android buttons on the right of the device when maximizing them, which would close the app.