Release Notes

v2.8 (1/7/2012)

Faster. Upgraded hardware and improvements to the software framework have sped up the B3 system significantly.
Custom Targets. Targets are used to establish quantifiable consumption goals for your organizations and sites. You can now define your own custom targets - relative targets against a baseline period, and absolute targets against a set of simulated monthly consumption.
Rolling Twelve Month Average. B3 reporting now includes a new chart type to display a rolling 12 month average over time for all fuel types.
Improved Reporting.The reporting tab allows users to control the visibility of weather normalization, baselines and targets. Custom report options are retained when viewing other organizations and sites.
Natural Gas Units.Therms have been separated from CCF as a separate unit selection. For users with natural gas meters, please review your specified units and adjust if necessary.
Conversion Factors.We have made minor modifications of our internal energy unit conversion factors to match that of industry standards.
Security Updates.The site now operates under SSL. Improvements have been made in password policies and caching.

Grouping – Ability to assign custom group attributes to organizations and sites and report on them collectively
Space Type Descriptions – Online help with detailed descriptions of each space type
Annual Summary Report – ability to report on sites as well as organizations
Mapping – building linkage to Google Maps
Operation Period – updated to allow decimal precision
Negative consumption values allowed in meter editor – First step towards implementation of renewable meters
Revamped new building and new contact request forms

Energy Star ratings
Building versioning
Introduction of the B3 Control Center for site administrators
New benchmarking engine and calculation subsystem
Enhanced interface for viewing benchmark, baseline and Energy Star data both at the organization and site levels
Enhanced messaging system, including the separation of benchmark, baseline and Energy Star errors and warnings
New tabbed building editor for the inclusion of building versioning and Energy Star attributes
Change to launch methodology, including separate launch page
Aged meter reading email alert system
Account editor, allowing users to change personal information
Email template system
Real-time statistics on supporting site

B3 Benchmarking application upgraded to Silverlight 4.0 and the 4.0 .NET Framework
Print capabilities from all report screens
Print preview, including the ability to save a report out as a graphic png format
Monthly data export report with weather data from total energy dashboard

Support for wood fuel sources
Meter search tool properly deals with double-clicks on meters in the grid
Addition of (Unknown) utility company for fuel oil, propane and wood delivery meters
Save button now enabled on all editors, even when required data is missing
Save button enabled on editors when no information has changed
Disconnected meters indicated as such in the meter list with strikethrough
Organization summary and site summary display only relavant fuel types in list
Space usage and special condition factors moved into relational data structure
Formalization of energy fuel sources, consumption units and their factors
Overlapping day adjustment in consumption calculations
LoadSitesSummaries method no longer being called twice upon load
Site Excel export now sorts by % change ratio
Site export fix to baseline carbon emissions
Enhanced stretching behaviors on all reporting screens
Standardization of selection and rollover colors
Standardization of baseline reporting in summary and report pages, use of most recent 12 months from each site

New Excel export capabilities for organization summary and site level data
New meter search mode for API/DNR integration
Import of DNR region 4 data
Introduction of 'Image ID' at the meter reading level. Linkage to PDF via API SOAP link
New privilege rights system. Four new privileges - API, DNR, Full Mode, Meter Search Mode
New field 'Region' added to organization level
New field 'Site Code' added to organization level
New field 'Consultant' added to organization level, included in organization Excel export
New field 'Group' added to site level, plus new lookup table for defined groups
Group editor added to site level, editable by DNR and API only
New field 'NonBuilding' added to site level
New field 'TankNumber' added to meter level, applicable to propane and fuel oil fuel types
New field 'DemandCharge' at meter reading level
Negative total dollar amounts allowed in meter editor
Address, city, state and zip fields added to vendor (utility company)
Data owner column added to organization Excel export
New DNR space types added to master space type list
Governer put on best 12 month function to ensure the return of no more than 12 months
Ability to select data owners in admin site via drop down list
Removal of prospect label from admin site

Descriptive error message now appears for enabled users with 0 sites. (Mark Sehr reported this bug). Prior versions resulted in a cryptic WCF error message.
Increased max message site from the default 64K. Addresses Brian Millberg’s problem of max message site exceeded. Correct in web.config.
Export to Excel is now properly functioning for non-TWGAdmin folks. Prior to this version, data owners had visibility to the ‘Export To Excel’ button, but no data actually made it out to Excel.
Bug fixed in the B3 Administrator which did not retain an ‘Export’ checkbox selection without an associated ‘View’ checked. The two checkboxes are synced now similar to the Edit/View checkbox behavior.
Export checkbox added to the organization editor in the B3 administrator