SMTP Authentication [Classic] [OSX]
SMTP alerts and reports now support SMTP Authentication.
Outgoing email is queue based [Classic] [OSX]
Outgoing email is now stored in a persistent queue. Even if both your
primary and secondary email servers are unavailable, any alerts or reports will
be delivered as soon as a method is available.
Improved Loading Speed [Classic] [OSX]
Large setups load faster on both classic and OSX.
Improved System Performance [Classic] [OSX]
CPU load is significantly reduced for many internal processes in both the
classic and OSX builds. Lower loads overall improving performance or allowing
much larger setups.
Launch Shell Command Action [OSX]
In OSX you can now launch a shell command or other command line program
in response to an outage. You can also use Whistle Blower Tags to send
dynamic data to the command.
Send Message to Syslog Action [OSX]
Write a message to the system log in response to an outage. You can
use Whistle Blower Tags to write dynamic information.
Shell Task [OSX]
New Task for OSX. Run any command line or shell script program and
validate the response.
Description Task Field [Classic] [OSX]
A new field for storing a description of the Task.
New Whistle Blower Tags [Classic] [OSX]
[tab] inserts a tab character
[cr] inserts a carriage return
[lf] inserts a line feed
[address] replaced by the server address
[port] returns the port number of the Task
[description] returns the Task description
[longtime] like 4:15:32 pm (formatted as per the system prefs)
[hour]:[minute]:[second] 24 hour time fields
[type] returns the type of the server, like "HTTP", "radius", "HTTPS", "SMTP", etc.
[day][month][year] more date tags
[shortyear] returns a 2 digit year
[gmt] returns the gmt offset as set by your system preferences
[online] tag returns the current status of the Task
New Applescript properties [Classic] [OSX]
You can check to see if a Task has an alert and clear it via the script.
Response Time Logging [Classic] [OSX]
This is a preliminary step towards doing some very detailed logging and statistics
tracking. At this point, all it does is log the data to a daily file. You can
specify the format of the data via meta tags in the statistics tab of the
preferences dialog. Keep in mind that most of this data is collected in 'userland'
so how busy the machine is may impact its accuracy. And the reality will almost
always be a little bit faster than what Whistle Blower will show. The measurement
is in milliseconds. You can parse this log yourself if you wish. Right now
Whistle Blower doesn't do anything but log this data. For most Tasks there are 2 numbers
logged: the time to answer the connection, and the time when the request
is finished. For example, for the web Task, the first number is when the web
server accepts the connection and the second number is when it's done sending
data.
Nightly Stats Roll [Classic] [OSX]
3.0 introduced the automatic stats roll. If you wish to collect
percent uptime data for longer periods you can now turn this off
in the statistics tab of the preferences dialog.
No longer needs to run as root [OSX]
in 3.0 the program needed your administrator password in order to get
access to the lower level networking functions. 3.1 removes this requirement and runs
as a regular user.
Make an HTTP request action [Classic] [OSX]
New action to connect to an HTTP server in response to an outage.
You can include GET parameters and URL Encoded Whistle Blower Tags
for dynamic data. Use this Task to hit another remote
notification system, such an SMS service.
HTTP and HTTPS Tasks can follow a redirect message [Classic] [OSX]
If your HTTP or HTTPS server generates a redirect message in response to a check,
the Task can follow the redirect and ask for the new page. This is selectable in the
HTTP server-specific info tab. Any cookie data set during the redirect is also
preserved and sent to the new address.
Each Task now has its own Console Window [Classic] [OSX]
A separate console window showing the exact communication between Whistle
Blower and the server can be opened for each Task. You will find this in the
Task menu, or in the contextual menu for the Task.
AppleScript Actions now get specific Task info [Classic] [OSX]
3.1 still supports the traditional simple compiled AppleScript action. However, if you
create a "on wbalert" handler in the script that will be run and passed all the
data about the Task in question so that you can make very complicated decisions
based on the information. There is a "wb script template" file included that shows
all the available parameters and how to access them. Please see the
Apple Script Action page for more information.
Ping and DNS use BSD Networking [OSX] On OSX, the Ping and DNS Tasks now use BSD level networking which makes then as reliable as running dig or Ping from the command line.
New Timeout Display For active Tasks the time left is shown in an easier-to-read format. You'll also find a clock ticking off the seconds left changing color from yellow to red as the timeout gets closer.
Report system status via AppleScript [Classic] [OSX]
You can now stop and start the email status and HTTP status upload
systems via AppleScript.
Startup Script [Classic] [OSX]
If you create an AppleScript Applet or other document called "Startup" and place
it in Whistle Blower's Scripts folder, it will be launched when Whistle Blower
is launched. This is particularly useful if you have the nightly restart of Whistle Blower, but
want to keep some other application in the foreground on the server--you
can tell it to activate in the startup script.
Automatic Preferences Backup [Classic] [OSX]
Every day (at midnight) the preferences for the previous day are moved into a file
called "Yesterday's Preferences," so that in the event of catastrophic failure you
can reset to the most recent data. You can also archive your preferences at any time
manually by selecting the "Archive Preferences" menu item from the File menu.