December 23, 2015
Traccar GPS tracking server version 3.3 is now available for download.
This release is not as big as the last one, but still there are a few very important features and changes:
Starting from this release Traccar is switching to new REST API instead of old custom API. It's not fully REST because it still supports sessions as an authorization option. For live location and status updates service will be using WebSocket instead of long-polling technique used in previous releases. Hopefully this change will simplify integration of third party applications with Traccar. For those who are already using old API, it will be supported as an option for at least this release. Migration to the REST API shouldn't take a huge effort as the format is almost the same.
One of the most user visible features of the new version is addition of device status field. It replaces unique identifier field in the web interface (devices panel). The new column shows time of the last message from device and color indicates connection status. Green means that device is connected, yellow color means that status is unknown and red indicates that device is disconnected from the server.
Next big feature is automatic database migration between different versions of Traccar. This means that you no longer need to manually update database schema. Server uses Liquibase library to allow universal migration and database creation process that works on any supported database engine including MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL and others. You can automatically update to version 3.3 from any older 3.x version. Note that the process might take a while if you have large amounts of data in your database.
Last new feature is support for GSM-based locations (commonly referred as LBS). At the moment Traccar supports OpenCellID and Mozilla Location Service (MLS) providers. The option is disabled by default, but it can be enabled in the config file. Note that you need to provide an API key for the provider that you plan to use. Some protocols don't include MCC and MNC values in the messages. For those types of protocols you need to manually specify values in the configuration file.
This release also includes various small improvements and modifications. There is a new follow button to automatically follow selected device on map. Date and time label has been removed from the tracks. As usual there are a few new protocols:
With this release Traccar GPS tracking platform has reached a milestone of 100 supported communication protocols from manufacturers all over the world. There are many features and improvement planned for the next release which is coming next year. To receive Traccar project news and updates you can subscribe to the newsletter.
Wishing you a wonderful holiday season.
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