Public Release Notes

From JMARS Wiki

[edit] Release 1.14 - June 30th, 2009

This is a major release, providing dozens of new features all over JMARS and closing over 50 issues:

• A new Map Scalebar layer nicely illustrates the scale of the map.
• The map and stamp layers have several beautiful new colorizing options.
• Huge performance improvements have been made in the stamp layers.
• A new Filtering tab in the stamp layers allows dynamically redrawing matching shapes as e.g. the solar week is dragged throughout the year.
• Shape layers may now be saved to session files.
• The shape layer can now import and export csv point files.
• The shape layer now works with styles in a more intelligent way, allowing easy styling, saving and reusing styles, and choosing what columns styles come from.
• The shape layer has a significantly more powerful column editor. It allows auto calculating column values with each shape's center latitude, center longitude, line direction, polygonal area, shape perimeter, or the min/max/avg/stdev of pixels from a selected map.
• And a host of bug fixes, interface improvements, and minor new features. Enjoy!

[edit] General JMARS Changes

• Each layer's alpha slider now has 'opacity %' tooltip to show the 0-100 degree of opacity for that layer.
• Added memory meter to the right of the main frame status bar. It is disabled by default, the View/Memory Meter menu option toggles it on.
• Column selection dialog that appears over various JMARS tables when right clicking on the column headers should now appear directly over the table.
• The menu options to 'Load Layers...' and 'Save Layers...' now properly show directories.

[edit] Map Scalebar

• This new layer is a simple map scalebar overlaid on the map, with controls to set color, width, ticks, and the user can drag it around to the desired location.

[edit] Map Layers

• Can now load color stretcher palettes from an image file like a gif with an internal color palette, or from 256 pixel images where the pixels are a color ramp.
• Added two Davinci colorize() color ramps, and a common XV color ramp to the color stretcher.
• New default colormaps 'TES Colormap', and 'TES Daily Colormap' added to the color stretcher for the map and stamp layers.
• Must now have a numeric layer loaded to start drawing profile lines.
• Cleaned up custom map upload dialog so the labels are clearer, and the defaults are now the typical -180 to 180 lon, -90 to 90 lat.
• Several stability improvements when retrieving the list of maps from the server, and uploading custom maps to the server.
• Cleaning cache now also cleans up the lists of maps available on the WMS map servers.
• Fixed some stability issues in how the map layer gets the list of maps from the server.
• Fixed issue with the map layer's grayscale operator endlessly rescaling layers with NaNs in them.
• Fixed several map layer exceptions that could happen in rare cases.
• Fixed HSV Composite issue on Intel Macs reported by Vicky Hamilton.

[edit] Shape Layers

• Shape layers may now be saved to session files or JMARS Layer Files. The contents of the untitled collection are saved, the list of files to reload on restore are saved, various settings of the layer are saved, and the current styles are saved. Table settings are planned to be saved in a future release.
• The Features menu has a new 'Edit Column...' option to open a better column editor. The editor is used to add/remove columns, set up auto-calculated columns, and to optionally force recomputing calculated columns. The auto columns currently available are center longitude, center latitude, polygonal area, perimeter of shape, line direction relative to north, and map sampling that calculates the min/max/avg/stdev from any numeric map under each shape.
• The Features menu has new menu options to edit, save, select, and remove styles. The editor allows the user to choose either global values (e.g. all lines are drawn with a thickness of 2 pixels) or to get style values from a column (e.g. all label text should come from the 'comment' field. Built-in styles include minimal style columns when you want all shapes drawn the same way, and all style columns, the default, which mimics the old shape layer behavior.
• Now bundling the Dune Fields shapefile with JMARS; to load it, add the shape layer, and choose 'USGS Dune Fields' from the File menu.
• Added simple csv point file format to the shape layer. To e.g. move shapes from excel to the shape layer, export as csv with longitude and latitude columns. If the latitude is ographic or the longitude west-leading, add header comments like so:

#polar_radius=3396.2
#equat_radius=3376.19
#longitude_direction=west

• Loading multiple shape files at once should now happen much more quickly on systems with multiple CPUs and/or CPU cores.
• Loading large shapefiles should leave the rest of JMARS more responsive than it used to.
• Shape rendering now updates the display more steadily during very long renders.
• Added jmars.config parameter 'shape.chooser.path', that may be set to 'home' (file chooser defaults to the user home directory) or 'working' (file chooser defaults to the working directory JMARS was launched from.)
• Fixed issue where selecting overlapping features was not always picking the one on top.
• Fixed several issues with the status color not always updating properly.
• Fixed shape layer file chooser not remembering the last file provider used, and now defaults to ESRI shapefiles. The new jmars.config key 'shape.filefactory.default' contains the provider to default to next time the file chooser is opened.
• Fixed several undo errors that caused the wrong changes to sometimes be undone.

[edit] Stamp Layers

• Added feature to sample THEMIS BTR images onto a chart.
• New feature, still a work in progress, to rapidly filter stamp outlines using slider controls.
• Right clicking in the longitude filter when creating a stamp layer has a 'MainView' option that automatically crops the layer to the main view at the time the data is loaded.
• Can now use much larger lists of image IDs when filtering by product ID.
• Significant performance improvements to image rendering, particularly when working with large numbers of images.
• The table of rendered images is much more responsive when working with many images.
• Greatly improved stamp selection performance when working with many stamps.
• Improved behavior of stamp nudging when reprojected near the poles.
• Improved memory management.
• Changed the 'copy selected stamps to clipboard' to separate stamp ids with a newline instead of a space.
• Fix for rendering HRSC images which cross the prime meridian.
• Fixed stamp layer briefly showing wrong fill alpha when panning the view.
• Fixed weird stamp behavior when nudging stamps in a polar projection.
• Fix to prevent stamp table from reseting to the left when rows are selected.

[edit] TES Layer

• TES data loading now avoids some cases of loading data that wasn't needed.

[edit] Groundtrack Layer

• Fixed groundtrack layer issue with very old time ranges.

[edit] Release 1.13 - December 16th, 2008

[edit] Core Changes

• No longer using gradient paint in the M/P buttons in the layer manager.

[edit] Stamps

• CRISM stamps can now be rendered.

[edit] Release 1.12 - October 29th, 2008

This release adds spectral analysis with the TES instrument, THEMIS derived products in the stamp layer, bookmarking of favorite places, significant performance improvements, closes a number of issues, and much more.

[edit] Core Changes

• New 'Places' menu lets you bookmark and return to favorite planetary locations; organize with labels; edit/remove by right clicking on a place.
• New 'Save Layers...' and 'Load Layers...' options in the File menu allow reloading groups of saved layers without restarting JMARS.
• New 'Cache Manager' option in the Help menu lets you to see how much cache JMARS is using, and clean it while JMARS is running.
• JMARS session files now correctly restore the M and P checkboxes in the layer manager.

[edit] Map Layer

• New multi-segment profiling feature allows drawing as many connected line segments as you like, and the chart will show the samples from the first point to the last.
• The Map Layer's chart tab is only present when the user asked for at least one numeric plot.
• Map layer runs much faster on older systems or large displays.
• Can now refresh the available maps while JMARS is running; in the Advanced Map Dialog, right click on a server and choose 'Refresh Maps'.
• Grayscale stage now ignores the background value when doing a linear stretch on numeric maps.
• User can now specify / override the ignore value to use when doing a linear stretch.
• The map and chart views now both show a cue of the mouse's position along the profile line in the other view.
• You can now specify a custom map name different from the name of the file you are uploading.
• The custom upload file chooser will now remember where it was last used, which is helpful when uploading many files.
• Can now save maps created from the mosaics layer in JMARS sessions.
• Maps are now upsampled within JMARS rather than requested from the server far above the resolution of the data, providing a huge speed boost when zoomed in far beyond the resolution of the data.
• Tile downloads will now wait as long as the user waits, or 10 seconds, whichever comes last, so if the server appears to have stalled, a slight pan will usually wake things up again.
• Fixed issue with perfectly horizontal profiles not showing results.
• Fixed issue when restoring session file with deleted map.
• Fixed issue with the numeric chart always including y=0 in the view range.
• Fixed issue with the numeric chart only allowing ppd selections < 32 ppd if the profile line was drawn before the chart was actually seen for the first time.

[edit] Stamps

• Redesigned the filter dialogs and the 'Rendered' tab to be more functional.
• Added support for rendering THEMIS BWS, PBT, and DCS derived products.
• THEMIS and MOC stamps can now be filtered by band.
• Higher resolution versions of CTX and MOC-NA are now available.
• HiRISE images are now linked directly to the UofA IAS Viewer.
• Added greatly improved HRSC stamp rendering.
• Added simple browse pages for CRISM and HRSC stamps.
• Stamps are now rendered in tiles for better feedback and performance.
• Improved performance when fetching stamp outlines and rendering large images.
• Fixed MOC stamps now always being oriented correctly.
• Fixed table columns being reset when changing stamp filters.
• Fixed several performance and stability issues in the stamp layers.

[edit] Nomenclature Layer

• Fixed Nomenclature Layer's "Select All" button not selecting all feature types.

[edit] Release 1.11 - June 20th, 2008

This release improves THEMIS stamp filtering, adds stamp layers for HiRISE, CTX, MOC WA, and HRSC, removes many limitations from the custom map feature, and fixes a variety of performance and memory issues.

[edit] Stamp Layer Changes

• Can now filter THEMIS stamps on many, many more scientific values such as incidence angle, solar longitude, and surface temperature.
• New stamp layer for HiRISE images (up to 8192 ppd.)
• New stamp layer for CTX images.
• New stamp layer for MOC wide angle images.
• New stamp layer for HRSC image outlines.
• Fixed several out of memory errors

[edit] Custom Map Changes

• Can now provide the lon/lat bounds of maps in simple file formats such as PNG.
• Can now supply an ignore value for grayscale maps where the background should show through.
• Multiple custom maps can be uploaded at the same time.
• Custom maps are now reorganized on the server for much greater tile cutting of large maps.
• Server will optionally send an email when the map is ready (useful for really large uploads.)
• User authentication is now more secure
• Fixed out of memory errors when uploading _really_ large custom maps.
• Local cache is automatically cleaned when a custom map is deleted or replaced.

[edit] Map Layer Changes

• Fixed issue with map layers breaking in reloaded JMARS sessions.
• Fixed issue with HSV and RGB composite maps failing in some cases.
• Improved approach to downloading map tiles from the map server, boosting numeric map performance in particular.

[edit] Known Issues

• Some percentage of the MOC stamps are not in the right place, due to some geometry handling issues. We are working to fix the several causes for this.

[edit] Release 1.10 - March 18th, 2008

[edit] Core Changes

• Improved JMARS startup time considerably.
• The 'help' option jumps directly to the JMARS help website.
• Added new 'View Log' feature to help users keep track of problems from session to session, and to let users look at the JMARS command line output when there isn't a command line.
• Added new 'Report a Problem' feature to let users easily send the JMARS support team simple problem reports that include any errors that have been occurring.

[edit] Map Layer Changes

• Map layers now appear as soon as they are picked from the menu, and have a title of 'Loading...' until the server starts sending data.
• Fixed drag and drop in the Advanced Maps dialog so the first click can initiate the drag.
• Numeric maps in the 'Add New Layer' menu now have a new 'Contour' option that should make contouring those products very easy.

[edit] Release 1.9 - December 8th, 2007

This is a large release that includes a lot of new functionality. The highlights? Installers, user-editable documentation, map contours, hundreds of high resolution mosaics, new global maps, and viking stamps can be browsed! New Features

[edit] Core Changes

• JMARS now has installers for Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS-X, and x86 Linux. The installers include all of the JMARS prerequisites (including Java) to make getting JMARS running and crunching data for you as easy as possible.
• The JMARS wiki is now the JMARS home page. We're working on making user registration easier. For now, if you would like to contribute (and please do!) email us at help@jmars.asu.edu so we can get your account enabled.
• Users can now contour numeric maps. This feature is not yet fully polished and doesn't provide a lot of options, but it does produce some nice results. For step-by-step instructions on creating contours, see the documentation in the wiki.
• JMARS has a new layer for browsing the hundreds of 592 ppd mosaics that the Mars Spaceflight Facility has built over the years. It presents the outlines of the available mosaics and allows you to create map layers to view just those mosaics which are useful. A great thanks go to all of those who have contributed their hard work to the community. For an introduction to the new mosaics layer, see our documentation in the wiki.
• The Viking stamps can now be browsed. Thanks to the ASU Mars Global Data Access project for making this data so easy to access.
• Users can now control the size of points drawn by a shape layer. In the 'style columns' menu, choose 'point size' and change the value to the desired width and height.

[edit] New Data

• Added a score of the most gorgeous 'Best of THEMIS' mosaics from the last decade.
• Added over 100 mosaics of the various MSL landing sites.
• Added 22 mosaics you may be familiar with from the Carr book.
• Added the Rogers/Christensen TES group 1/2/3/4 graphic and numeric maps.
• Added the 2007 Putzig thermal intertia maps.

[edit] Menu Changes

The menu has been changed to help organize all of this new data more effectively:

• Eliminated 'graphic maps' and 'numeric maps' menus. When you navigate through the menu down to the map you want, you are given all of the options for that map; when pretty graphic data is available, you can 'view'; when precise numeric data is available you can 'plot', and when both kinds of data are available you have a 'both' option for convenience.
• Maps are now categorized by instrument (the old way) and by type of information the map contains.
• The custom maps and advanced maps options were pulled up for more convenient access.
• 'TES' was moved inside the 'Spectra' menu to make room for other spectral data layers.
• Several layer names were changed for consistency.

[edit] Improvements and bug fixes

• The new map layer reads the list of maps faster and more safely.
• MOC stamp image browsing now takes the user to the global-data page hosted by ASU, since the layout is so much nicer and the images have a nice stretch on them.
• Closed bug where the shape layer would jump to the front if the mouse touched any part of the main JMARS window.
• Closed bug where user could add a new layer and it wouldn't get drawn in the correct order with respect to the other layers in JMARS.

[edit] Release 1.8 - October 22nd, 2007

[edit] General Changes

• Stability fixes to the lat/lon grid, nomenclature, groundtrack, 3D, graphical map, numeric map, and shape layers.
• Stability fixes to the smooth panning, session saving, browser launching, and logging (on Windows) features.
• A documentation effort is underway at the new JMARS wiki. Come and contribute! The wiki lives here: http://jmars.asu.edu/wiki.
• WebStart users using Windows 2000/XP/Vista can reopen session files by double clicking on them.

[edit] Map/Numeric map Layer Changes

• The graphic layer can now do HSV/IHS and RGB composites, and linearly stretch raw numeric data, on the fly.
• The numeric layer has received a major facelift; stability, resolution control, plot styling, export, and zooming have all been substantially improved.

[edit] Shape Layer Changes

• Shape layer point size can now be set with the 'point size' style column
• Fixed shape layer failing to redraw main view when re-enabling the main view toggle in the layer manager

[edit] Stamp Layer Changes

• Stamp offsets are now saved to a central database so you don't need to create a JMARS session to retain them.
• Stamps may now be filtered by longitude, greatly speeding up the layer when you are focusing on a specific region.
• Fixed issue preventing access to some of the MOC mission phases.

[edit] Release 1.7b - April 25th, 2007

• Fixed startup problem in the 3D Layer. Thank you to those who sent in good details about this issue.

[edit] Map Layer

• Added chart export (saves the lat/lon, km distance along profile line, and value of each profile to .csv)
• Typing 'clean' at the command line now cleans the image cache used by the new map layer.
• Fixed several performance issues.
• Fixed several issues that were causing instability with very aggressive use.
• Fixed several user interface problems in the Map Sources Dialog.