Click here if you want to read the Factry Historian v8 changelog
Factry Historian v8: Calculated Event Properties, Bulk Editing, and much more
1. Calculated Event Properties
Whilst we have since long supported flexible calculations on timeseries data through Tengo scripts, we’re now taking that same capability one step further. With calculated event properties we're enabling the thing everyone was quietly doing in spreadsheets: deriving composite KPIs like yield per batch.
So, what changed? Tengo-based calculations can now be applied at the event level. The real benefit is that you can now use event-level context like duration or aggregated values inside your calculations. Because those depend on the exact event window, they simply weren’t possible to compute straight from the time-series data before.
More concretely, when an event is detected (e.g., Filling → Tank 12 → Batch L-204) Factry Historian runs your calculation when the event completes and that result becomes part of the event record.
You'll use this to calculate derived KPIs to identify why one run outperformed another. It enables you to standardize KPIs across sites and to get contextual metrics flowing directly into Grafana, Data lakes or ML models.
2. Bulk Editing measurements, calculations and collectors
Gone are the days of export → Excel → re-import to bulk change the settings, for instance measurements
Need to pause 20 measurements after a process change?
Before V8, that meant 20 separate edits.
Now you bulk-edit measurements, calculations, and collectors in one go.
We're applying this to:
- Measurements
- Calculations
- Collectors
In a single action, you can:
- Start or pause multiple measurements
- Bulk delete measurement data for a selected time range
- Remove measurements entirely
- Update labels, tags, metadata
- Change collection settings like metric name or edge node
All without exporting, re-importing, or praying nothing breaks.
How it works
You can use filters to select the items you want (by type, tag, status, etc.) and apply changes directly. Factry Historian then bulk updates everything in one clean operation. You'll use this to amongst others to clean up measurement metadata in bulk, pausing or restarting large groups after maintenance, deleting historical data safely across multiple measurements, ...
Because the only thing worse than making a mistake is fixing it one measurement at a time.
3. Swinging Door Compression, like MP3 for process data.
V8 adds a new way of storing time-series data called Swinging Door.
Instead of saving every tiny fluctuation, this allows you to keep only the points that matter, the ones that actually change the shape of the signal. Your temperature sensor is not accurate to 0.0001 degrees, so why should your historian record that change?
The best thing? You're in control as you define the allowed deviation, and you decide for which measurements it applies.
Why it matters
This matters most for setups pulling in hundreds of thousands of measurements, like in Oil & Gas or petrochemical plants. The result: databases that grow more slowly and stay manageable for longer.
4. What you’ll see first: new Admin Homepage.
V8 introduces a completely new admin overview page where it becomes the first place you look when something unexpected happens or when you need assurance that nothing did. The statistics are now easily accessible within Historian for the first time.
What’s new
- The statistics which are now easily accessible.
- A “Latest changes” block showing who changed what. Including edits, deletions, configuration updates, …
- A built-in Factry news channel for in-app messages and future release updates
This results in troubleshooting issues faster. When something breaks or behaves oddly (“Why did Line 4 stop logging data?”), you’ll open the homepage first instead of digging through logs. The Latest Changes list gives an immediate clue e.g. someone deleted a tag, edited a calculation, or changed a collector config.
The homepage acts as a shared activity feed, giving visibility into who modified what, preventing finger-pointing and confusion.
5. Event Processor Refinements.
V8 quietly overhauls the Historian’s internal engine.
What’s new
- Improved caching and overall throughput
- Error states visible directly in the UI
- Automatic pause on persistent errors.
- Inline logs for any failing processor or asset
Why it matters
When something breaks, you see it immediately, in red, right where it happened.
No more “I’m broken” log floods or mystery failures.
It’s a more observable, maintainable Historian.
6. UX Refresh: Tables That Actually Behave
Every screen from collectors to measurements now follows a unified look and feel.
All tables now use detail panes (instead of modals) for view/edit. This means that instead of opening pop-up modals, you can edit and browse without losing your place in the list.
There's more!
Want to get up to speed about every change in Factry Historian v8? Read the technical release notes.
