Simon 5.1 released

I’m pleased to announce the general release of an update of my website and server monitoring app for macOS: Simon version 5.1.

It includes the ability to disable rendering a Web Page test, the addition of an automatic data backup, support for macOS Ventura, updated example tests, and several other improvements and fixes.

Please Note

  • Simon 5.1 requires a minimum of macOS 10.13 (High Sierra).

New Web Page test option to render the page in the Preview

  • Added a new option to the Other page when editing a Web Page test to control whether or not to render the page in the Preview.
  • By default it is on, preserving the usual behavior.
  • But if you turn it off for a test, the Preview pane only shows the HTML source and filter output, instead of the rendered page.
  • Reload the Preview to show or hide the rendered page after changing the option.
  • This option is independent of the “Capture rendered source” option; that will render the page in a separate process.
  • This is useful for performance, or if you want to minimize the risk of malicious JavaScript on the page, or other side effects.

Web Page render option

Added an automatic data backup

  • Once per hour Simon will make a copy of its data into a dated folder within a Backups folder in the data folder.
  • Added a slider on the Advanced settings page to control how many backups to keep; defaults to 10.
  • Set to zero to disable the automatic backups.
  • When the maximum has been reached, it’ll remove older ones, so that half of the backups are for the most recent hours, and half are for previous days.
  • If you need to restore your data, turn off syncing if it’s on, use the new File ▸ Reveal Data Folder menu command to show the data folder in the Finder, quit Simon, then copy the folders from one of the backup folders to replace the Filters, Notifiers, etc folders.
  • If in doubt, contact Dejal for assistance.

Backups

Support for Ventura

  • Updated for Ventura (macOS 13), but still compatible back to High Sierra (10.13).

Plus several other improvements

  • Updated the example tests.
  • Added a File ▸ Reveal Data Folder menu command, to show the Simon data folder in the Finder.
  • Added an option on the Advanced settings page to show the Debug menu, as an easier way to toggle it.
  • Fixed filters not completing if the {FilterStatusNumber} variable was used.
  • Fixed an issue with loading data that doesn’t have any reports.
  • Fixed an issue with the font in the script editor and elsewhere.
  • Fixed a localization issue, and updated the French localization.
  • Fixed a crash with the Preview.

Want to try it?

If you are using the Setapp edition, it will handle that update for you.

If you are using the direct edition, you can use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.

Otherwise, download Simon 5.1 now!