Want to know what has changed since a previous version? This page lists those changes. You can alter the range of release notes to display if you wish.

The latest release of Simon is version 5.1.1.

• Updated the Mount service and notifier plug-in to work around an Apple bug that sometimes causes remote volumes to not unmount properly.
• Updated the Twitter service and notifier plug-in to the latest version of the Twitter engine.
• Now bundles the latest version of the iPhone report template; previously was bundling an older version that didn't work quite right.
• Fixed an issue with the RSS Feed report template, where the pubDate value wouldn't validate in some RSS feed readers.
• Fixed a bug in the Port helper that prevented it from working properly with slow servers.
• Added more logging to the Port helper to help diagnose difficulties sending text to the remote server, that solved the above issue.
• Added a hidden preference to output debug information from the helper for the Upload to Remote Server report plug-in. It can be activated by entering "defaults write com.dejal.simon2 RemoteWebDebugMode YES" in Terminal.
• Fixed a bug with setting the TestLastRecoveryDate and TestLastRecoveryTime notifier variables that caused them to output the previous recovery date and time when a recovery occurs.
• Improved the date variables to output "never" when appropriate (instead of a date in the distant past), e.g. if outputting the failure date when the test hasn't failed yet.
• Fixed a bug in the Spanish localization that prevented the Check for Updates feature from working.

• Fixed a bug with building the session script for the Port plug-in.
• Fixed a bug where a server that returns binary data could cause a Port-based test to fail, with an exception logged in the Console. The binary data is now correctly recorded as hex values.
• Added a hidden preference to output debug information from the helper for the Port plug-in. It can be activated by entering "defaults write com.dejal.simon2 PortDebugMode YES" in Terminal.
• Also added a similar hidden preference for the Ping plug-in. Activate via "defaults write com.dejal.simon2 PingDebugMode YES" in Terminal.

Monitor window:

• Changed the test scheduler to better queue the checks. When multiple tests are to be checked at once, they are added to a queue, and checked at the interval specified in the Advanced preferences (one per second by default — set to zero to always check immediately). This helps spread out the load, and provides more accurate results. The Next Check column in the tests table shows "queued manually" when multiple tests are queued via a Check Now command, or "queued" and a time interval if queued automatically when due.
• Now records and displays the Check Duration and Failures Time to one decimal place — now it'll show that a check took 0.3 seconds, instead of just rounding down to zero.
• Added a preference to use simplified status triangles, by popular request. Normally, Simon displays a green upwards triangle icon when there is a new change, and the green slowly fades to grey as time goes by. Similarly, it shows a red downwards triangle for a failure, which changes to an orange upwards triangle when it recovers, and that fades over time. With this preference, you can choose to have it simply use red for a failure, bright green for a new change, and a lighter green for success (older change or recovery).
• Fixed a cosmetic issue with paused tests. If a test was paused for a specified time interval, and it was due to resume while Simon wasn't running, the status icon was being left in the paused state until the test was next checked. It's now set appropriately.

Services, Notifiers and Reports:

• Added a Calendar notifier plug-in, that enables you to add events or tasks to iCal, or events to Google Calendar. Failure and recovery events even cover the actual downtime range. This plug-in is only available when Simon is running under Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later.
• Added a Twitter service plug-in, that enables you to monitor Twitter updates, direct messages, friends, followers, and more for changes and/or failures. For example, have Simon notify you when someone follows or un-follows you, or someone posts an update (even if you don't follow them), among other possibilities.
• Added a Twitter notifier plug-in; use it to send updates or direct messages to yourself or others via the popular Twitter service. View Simon notifications anywhere you can see tweets — on the web, in Twitterrific, or on your cellphone.
• Added Incoming Mail (POP) via SSL, Outgoing Mail (SMTP) via SSL, Mount Volume, Network Time (NTP), Port Available, SNMP Status, and TCP Port Scanner services.
• Added APC Masterswitch and Growl Change notifiers.
• Now new services, notifiers and report templates that are bundled with a Simon update are automatically added to the available ones — previously existing users would have to create them manually. It only adds them if they are new, so if you don't want any, you can delete them and they won't unexpectedly come back at the next update.
• Extended the Port service plug-in to operate as a notifier plug-in too. It is the same as for services, but includes fields for the domain, username and password.
• Fixed a long-standing issue with the Port plug-in's helper, where it could get impatient while receiving text from a slow server. It now waits for a little while if it doesn't receive what it wants, in case the desired text is on its way.
• The Ping service plug-in now supports the Smart Change Detection and Preview features. So you can now look for changes in parts of the ping output, if desired, and preview the ping session to see what is received.
• The Application service plug-in also now supports the Preview function.
• Fixed a bug with the Post method of the Web (HTTP) service, where the final form boundary was missing, which upset some finicky web servers.
• Fixed a bug with the Speech notifier plug-in, where the volume slider was only accepting zero and full volumes.
• Fixed a minor bug in the Script service plug-in, where adding a second "Success" custom result would cause it to not be deletable; now only one "Success" is allowed.
• Added iPhone and Variable Test report templates, kindly created by Joe Savelberg. The iPhone template is a simple iPhone web app to allow browsing the Simon monitoring from your iPhone or iPod touch. The Variable Test template shows all of the report variables and what they output, to assist in creating or customizing templates.
• Added the ability for plug-ins to specify a minimum required OS version, so they can leverage new technologies.

Variables:

• Added general service and notifier variables: AppDataPath, AppLanguage, AppName, AppRelease, AppURL, and AppVersion. These output information about Simon, for use in scripts, etc.
• Also added UserComputer and UserName as general service and notifier variables, to output your computer's name and your name, in case these are useful for scripts, speech, or elsewhere.
• Added test-specific service and notifier variables: TestChangeCount, TestFailureCount, and TestRecoveryCount, that output the number of changes, errors, or recoveries that have occurred for the test. Useful for example to determine in a script if this is the first failure or just an ongoing failure, if the option to only notify for the first one is off.
• Changed the TestStatusType variable to output tidier values: Failure, Recovery, Change, Unchanged, etc.

Other:

• The Preview window for non-web services now displays the source text while performing the check, instead of waiting till done, so you can see what it's doing.
• Fixed a cosmetic bug with the Check for Updates feature when using a general release and wanting only general releases, and a beta release is available.
• Updated the built-in Kagi purchasing tool to the latest version, which fixes some issues with Leopard.
• Updated the French and German localizations.
• Added Spanish localization, thanks to Oscar A. Mata T.
• Switched the distribution method to ZIP archives instead of disk images, as it's simpler for everyone. Feedback welcome!