Factry Historian V8: Calculated Event Properties, Bulk Editing, and much more
This release is for those running and optimizing production on a daily basis. Finding out what happened, calculating why it happened, and fixing things before the next shift starts asking questions.
Factry Historian V8 is built for exactly that.
Below we give you an overview of what's new, alternatively, click this link to read the technical release notes.
1. Calculated Event Properties
Factry Historian now enforces the thing everyone was quietly doing in spreadsheets: calculating batch KPIs like yield and energy .
Factry Historian has long supported flexible calculations through Tengo scripts.
With V8, we’re taking that same capability one step further:
What’s new
- Tengo-based calculations can now be applied at the event level
- Everything you could calculate before now belongs to the batch, phase, or run it came from. as the results are stored as event properties.
How it works
- An event is detected (e.g., Filling → Tank 12 → Batch L-204)
- Historian runs your calculation when the event completes
- The result becomes part of the event record
Example:
energy_kwh = sum(power_kw) * duration_hours
yield_pct = (output_mass / input_mass) * 100
Why it matters
- No more exporting to excel to calculate certain KPIS
- Less errors trying to calculate KPIs
- More time and better context to compare batches
What you’ll use it for
- Comparing batches
- Identify why one run outperformed another.
- Standardizing KPIs across sites
- One definition → consistent results everywhere.
- Process optimization
- Track yield, duration, or energy per event to drive improvement.
- Feeding analytics
- Clean, contextual metrics flow 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 of for instance measurements
Need to pause 20 measurements after a process change, rename tags across a line, or roll out a new calculation to every oven?
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
- 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
- Use filters to select the items you want (by type, tag, status, etc.)
- Apply changes directly in the UI
- Historian updates everything in one clean operation
- The homepage reflects changes instantly, so nothing goes unnoticed
What you’ll use it for
- Rolling out a new naming convention across all lines
- Applying the same calculation to every oven, tank, or filler
- Cleaning 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 iis 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, Historian keeps only the points that matter, the ones that actually change the shape of the signal.
You choose the allowed deviation, and you decide for which measurements it applies.
What’s new
- Enable Swinging Door per measurement
- Choose the maximum allowed deviation
- Works with existing collectors (after updating)
Why it matters
Factories generate a lot of data. Most of it is stability, not insight. Without compression, you end up paying storage and query time for values that never actually changed. Swinging Door keeps the shape of the trend, but removes the timestamps that don’t tell you anything.
This means:
- databases grow slower
- queries don’t choke on unnecessary points
- historical depth becomes a planning choice, not a limitation
You'll want to use this to have snappier / faster dashboards and trend data that takes up less storage space.
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
You'll be using this for:
- 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.
- Change tracking across teams:
- 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.
