Versioning & Release Notes

0.6.2 - July 2026

July 2026 delivers V‑Portal 0.6.2, introducing walkthrough pages, copy/paste in the page editor, improved module error visibility, and a broad set of usability improvements and bug fixes.

What’s New?

Walkthrough Pages

• Pages can now be grouped into a step-by-step walkthrough process using the new Walkthrough Pages feature.
• A visual stepper component (VStepper) shows the current step and allows navigation between pages.
• Step conditions are defined using StateExpressions and can be edited directly in the UI.
• Hidden pages are supported within walkthroughs.
• Saving a walkthrough page now saves all linked pages and steps together.

Copy & Paste in Page Editor

• Copy & Paste buttons have been added to the page editor toolbar.
• Widgets can now be copied and pasted using the toolbar as an alternative to keyboard shortcuts.

Module Error Visibility

• A notification now appears if a module fails to load.
• The modules page highlights which modules have failed, giving users clear visibility into load issues.

Media Upload Widget

• The Image Upload Widget has been renamed to the Media Upload Widget.
• Videos are now supported, with configurable options for auto playing, looping and muting.

What’s Better?

• useNotifications is now available via the module registry, allowing modules to raise notifications.
• Module loading has been improved for reliability and performance.
• Text inputs now support state expressions, consistent with template behaviour.
• Text widgets can now be rendered without a border.
• Button states can now be edited after creation.
• The V-Portal Updater has been improved such that available disk space is checked before updates.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed popup text not centering correctly in Firefox.
• Fixed keyboard appearing on initial frontend load when web keyboard is disabled.
• Fixed edit page action buttons preventing widget modification on the side of the panel.
• Fixed incorrect spacing on the page grid background.
• Fixed the close button on page settings not being visible in light mode.

0.6.1 - March 2026

April 2026 delivers V‑Portal 0.6.1, with a new Updater interface, ARM support and general platform improvements.

What’s new?

V-Portal Updater

• V-Portal can now be updated directly from the interface.
• Other users receive real-time update notifications, preventing system actions during updates.

ARM Support

• V-Portal now supports ARM devices.

What’s Better?

• Improved DataFields system to handle concurrent modifications more efficiently.
• Enhanced Module Uploader UI with drag-and-drop support and optimized timeout handling for large uploads.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue with widgets moving across the screen when moved.
• Resolved Python issue where both the Start/Stop buttons could be disabled/enabled.

0.6.0 - March 2026

End of March 2026 delivers V‑Portal 0.6.0, focusing on usability improvements, system observability, and platform reliability.

This release introduces enhanced logging and diagnostics, a refreshed and more consistent UI, improved loading behaviour, streamlined settings and administration screens, and a broad set of frontend and backend bug fixes.

What’s new?

Enhanced Quick Actions Toolbar

• A new quick actions toolbar has been introduced to give faster access to key system information and actions:
  • Connectivity: Live Wi‑Fi status with signal strength indicators and clear offline feedback.
  • System Health: Visibility into backend connectivity, WebSocket and REST health, and frontend/backend versions.
  • Support: A dedicated support view with a QR code linking directly to documentation.

This makes system status and support information easier to access without navigating away from your current page.

Improved Loading Experience

• The application now follows a dependency‑based loading sequence:
• Core services load in a defined order.
  • Users can clearly see the overall progress.
  • A new error screen allows recovery if startup checks fail.
  • Backend availability checks are capped to avoid long startup delays.

This results in a more predictable and transparent startup experience.

Navigation Changes

• Replaced the Settings entry in the side navigation with a new Administration section.
• The Administration section now groups Manage Accounts and Modules for easier access.

What’s Better?

Logs & Observability

• Logs are now returned in descending order by default, ensuring the most recent entries are always visible first.
• The logs modal now provides more detailed information, improving traceability and diagnostics.
• Log filtering across pages is more reliable and accurately reflects available results.

UI & Usability Improvements

• A refreshed UI introduces a more modern look and improved colour scheme.
• Local settings now use human‑readable, non‑technical terminology, making them accessible to non‑technical users.
• Collapsing the side navigation no longer triggers unnecessary page reloads.
• Dark mode side navigation colours are now consistent with the overall theme.

Table & Layout Consistency

• Pagination now correctly handles long page numbers.
• Table messages are truncated correctly to prevent layout issues.
• Card backgrounds have been removed from pages using the VTable component for a cleaner, more consistent layout.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issues where log filtering could show empty tables despite valid results.
• Corrected pagination behaviour when the current page exceeds the total available pages.
• Backend Data Fields marked as Python‑editable now apply immediately without requiring a restart.
• Fixed Pyndings issues preventing const std::string& from being correctly converted to Python.

Known Issues & Limitations

• Some backend update scenarios may still require manual intervention if external dependencies fail during the process.
• UI polish and refinement will continue as part of the ongoing UI revamp work.

0.5.2 - March 2026

The 2nd week of March 2026 delivers V-Portal 0.5.2. This release introduces a notifications system, fixes to touch-related functionality on pages, and a new quick actions toolbar!

What’s new?

Notifications

• A new component to display messages/notifications has been added
• This has been used to display certain messages and actions on different conditions, mainly:
  • Requesting control from a popup, replacing the browser-based alert
  • Error connecting to the backend, providing the ability to reload the page
  • Take Control errors, notifying the user if the request has not been successful
  • Page saving showing users that the page has been saved

Quick Actions Toolbar

• A new component replacing the Light/Dark mode theme toggle
• This component adds 4 quick action buttons that allow users to perform certain actions, including:
  • Go To Settings
  • View System Health
  • View Network Connectivity
  • Contact Support
  • Note: Only the settings button is implemented in this release

What’s Better?

• Touch controls on page editing have been improved
• Saving a page now shows a notification
• Profile panel shows full name and photo
• Requests are automatically retried if the token expires
• Control is automatically obtained on login if no one else is in control

Bug Fixes & Other Changes

• Light/Dark Mode toggle moved to settings
• Fixed unsaved changes alert after save
• Control request modal now appears above all others
• Fixed saved role visibility issue

0.5.1 - March 2026

The 1st week of March 2026 delivers V-Portal 0.5.1, with minor system changes. This release introduces password strength changes, bugfixes and increased token expiry.

Key Changes

• Passwords no longer have strict restrictions on uppercase/lowercase and special symbols. Passwords are only required to be between 8-15 characters long.
• Fixed an issue where the first login of a user meant that no Data Fields were loaded.
• Temporarily changed the access token expiry to 8 hours to reduce authentication-related issues.

0.5.0 - February 2026

February 2026 delivers V-Portal 0.5.0, focusing on user management, authentication security, and overall platform stability.

This release introduces user management, safer password reset flows, improved admin protections, stronger session enforcement, UI polish, and a broad set of backend and frontend fixes.

Breaking Changes

There are no breaking API or behavioural changes in this release.

What’s New?

Authentication & Security

• First-time login password reset flow — A dedicated first-login experience ensures users must reset their password before accessing the system.
• Backend session validity enforcement — User sessions are now invalidated immediately across all backend APIs and WebSocket connections when a user’s role or status changes.

User Management

• Create & edit user modals — Structured modals have been introduced for creating and editing users, with role-based restrictions enforced in the UI.
• User profile — Introduced a user profile section where users can update their profile details and reset their password.
• User management table (restricted access) — A role-restricted User Accounts table is now available, forming the base interface for managing user accounts.
• Force password reset via user update — Admins can require users to reset their password as part of a user update.
• Protected last-admin profile updates — The last active Admin can update personal details (name, email, profile photo) while remaining protected from role or status changes.

File Handling & Modules

• Chunked file upload service — Frontend support for chunked uploads enables reliable handling of large files with progress feedback.
• Streaming API client with auth levels — Module registry pages now support backend streaming APIs with configurable authentication levels.

What’s Better?

Authentication & Session Handling

• Backend token handling refactor — JWT token handling has been refactored to improve security, consistency, and configurability.
• Password handling refactor — Password validation, hashing, and reuse prevention are now centralised in the backend.
• Logout via backend endpoint — Logging out now explicitly clears the user session on the backend, ensuring immediate access revocation.

Platform Maintenance

• Backend support for in-app V-Portal updates — Foundational backend support has been added to enable updating V-Portal directly from the interface. This includes version checks, update execution, automatic backups, migration detection, integrity validation, progress logging, and rollback handling.

Bug Fixes

Authentication & Security

• Ensured JWT tokens use millisecond precision to prevent duplication.
• Fixed authentication race conditions during login.
• Fixed unauthorised access to protected pages via direct URLs.

Navigation & UI Behaviour

• Fixed child navigation items ignoring auth levels.
• Fixed logout routing issues.
• Fixed inability to refresh module URLs.
• Restored correct icon usage where emojis appeared.
• Fixed inability for users with Integrator & Maintenance roles to create pages.

UI / UX & Visual Fixes

• Fixed spacing issues in display data-field widgets.
• Fixed editable data-field title and text sizing.
• Fixed popup text colour inconsistencies.

Backend Stability & Performance

• Fixed backend crashes caused by rapid frontend refreshes.
• Resolved route-registry mutex blocking concurrent requests.
• Standardised streaming endpoint to /api/stream.
• Ensured dynamic socket routes respect accept-handler validation.
• Fixed module report extraction failures.
• Ensured cleanup of temporary module folders and outdated .vmod files.

Known Issues & Limitations

• Role protection is currently enforced only for Admin users. Protection of the last active user for other roles is planned but not yet available.
• Permissions are role-based only. Per-user or per-action permission overrides are not supported in this release.
• User deletion is restricted. Deactivation is the supported mechanism for removing access where audit or compliance requirements apply.

Technical Details

• Existing sessions may terminate immediately when roles or account status changes.
• Streaming integrations must target the updated /api/stream endpoint.

0.4.2 - January 2026

V-Portal 0.4.2 introduces enhancements to KPI configuration, a new installer to simplify deployments, and improvements to real-time event streaming and health checking. This release also includes multiple stability and usability fixes, particularly around Popups, Data Field handling & Numpad inputs.

New Features

1. Configurable KPI reporting windows — You can now configure KPI widget start and end datetimes via Data Fields, allowing administrators to define reporting windows without code changes.
2. V-Portal installer — A new installer is available to simplify deployment and setup of V-Portal, reducing manual configuration steps for new environments.
3. Event-streaming endpoints — Backend support has been added for hosting httplib endpoints with event streams, including a module interface that allows modules to expose event-streaming endpoints.

Improvements

• Data Field update tracking — Added a Python function to retrieve the last update time for a Data Field, improving traceability and data freshness checks.
• Consistent KPI time-period handling — Refined KPI widget time-period logic so that start and end datetimes configured via Data Fields are applied consistently across widgets.
• WebSocket liveness checks — Added a lightweight WebSocket ping endpoint that clients can use to verify backend liveness and connectivity without invoking business logic.
• REST liveness checks — Added a lightweight REST API ping endpoint that clients can use to verify backend liveness and connectivity without invoking business logic.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an intermittent issue where popups would sometimes fail to appear when triggered.
• Enabled support for decimal number input on editable datafield widgets.
• Fixed an issue causing popup images to be resized or scaled incorrectly.
• Resolved a problem where datafields did not reliably load on initial render, which could result in missing or incomplete information.
• Prevented the popup WebSocket from sending status messages on open when the user is not authenticated.
• Stopped the WebSocket from continuing to send popup data after the corresponding popup no longer exists.
• Ensured the Python service sends an initial STATUS message when a connection is made while the user is logged out.
• Updated the behavior so that the popup WebSocket connection is correctly closed when the user logs out.
• Refactored and enhanced the popup/module code to improve maintainability, clarity, and future extensibility.
• Removed an unnecessary server error that was being raised and logged, reducing noise in monitoring and logs.
• Fixed the handling of active popups during application startup so that stale or invalid popups are correctly cancelled.