Context

Utility Cloud was originally released with a user interface called Console to enable you to find, view, and download utility statement data. On January 4, 2024, Arcadia is releasing a modern, new Dashboard to replace Console.

The initial release of the Dashboard offers much of the same functionality as Console, but there are a few major differences, which this document will outline. The Dashboard is where Arcadia will be building the future of the platform including some exciting, new features coming out in 2024. Our support of Console will be limited to high-priority bug fixes and security patches moving forward.

Cost and Consumption

We’ve replaced the left navigation bar of Console, which listed each of the core data model elements (statements, meters, etc.), with a top navigation bar to be better aligned with the use-cases that the platform supports.

Consumption Tab

We’ve combined the “Sites” and “Meters” pages of Console onto a single page for convenience. If you need access to energy consumption data from a single meter, a filtered group of meters, or a site’s meters, use the Consumption tab. When you click the Consumption tab, you’ll see a data table with a list of your meters. You’re also able to create a new site by which to group your meters on this page.

There is now a handy “Download All” capability to retrieve the energy usage data across all your meters across a period of time. You can still download data from a manually selected grouping of meters as well.

Above the data table is a Meters tab and a Site tab. The tab you select will determine whether you are searching across all meters or across sites. If you click the search box, you can view the available search filters.

Cost Tab

If you need access to details about utility account balances or charges on utility statements, use the Cost tab. We’ve essentially combined the “Accounts” and “Statements” pages of Console onto a single page for convenience.
When you click the Cost tab, you’ll see a data table with a list of discovered Statements across all your Accounts. There now a handy “Download All” button to retrieve statement data across all your accounts across a period of time.
Above the data table is a Statements tab and an Accounts tab. The tab you select will determine whether you are searching across all statements or across accounts. If you click the search box, you can view the available search filters.

Human-readable Identifiers

In order to make it easier to help humans distinguish at a glance what kind of entity an identifier is referring to, identifiers for entities (statements, accounts, meters, etc.) in the platform now have a three character prefix appended to the original identifiers. If you are plugging these into the Utility Cloud API, we recommend omitting the prefix. A future version of our API will allow the full new version of the ID including the prefix.

• Statements have the stm_ prefix (for example, Dashboard: stm_1ee72bae-7176-de22-a655-02a7ee73455e vs Console: 1ee72bae-7176-de22-a655-02a7ee73455e)
• Accounts have the act_ prefix
• Meters have the mtr_ prefix
• Sites have the sit_ prefix

CSV Downloads

The shared CSV template for meters and site downloads has not changed since Utility Cloud. The unique CSV templates for accounts and statements has been merged into a single template that contains all the information across both previous templates. If an account has multiple statements, you will see a unique row in the CSV for each account-statements combination.

Furthermore, the new file format does not list a unique row for each service address like the downloads from Console – instead there is a Services Addresses column, with each meter’s service address separated by a newline. Similarly, the Meter Numbers column is a list of meters with each meter number separated by a newline. If any meter is missing a service address or meter number, that missing element will be indicated by a Null in the list. There should always be the same number of elements in the Service Addresses Column as Meter Numbers column.

Connect

Connect (the component for adding or fixing utility credentials) has new refreshed look! Your existing users leveraging the Connect URL collected from Console will not automatically see this new version of Connect. You use the Connect URL from Dash 2.0 in order to interact with the new version of Connect. The settings for Connect’s URL and other customizations are now in the configuration section.

Additionally, you cannot add a correlationId while submitting a username and password for a new credential from the dashboard. If you’d like to submit a correlationId, please create the credential first and then edit the correlationId on the credential detail page.

Improved Search

We’ve made searching for meters or statements better. There are clearer and more relevant search filters as soon as you click on the search box so you don’t have to guess what search filters are available.

Viewing and Adding Credentials

Within Console, the left navbar hosted two separate pages for viewing your list of credentials and adding new ones. Within the new Dashboard, we’ve created a dedicated Credential page where you can do both. You can navigate to it by clicking the configuration icon and then selecting Credentials option in the dropdown. Here you can click the "Add credential" button to open Connect in a modal.

Interacting with table data elements

Within Console, if you clicked anywhere on a table row, it would take you to the detail page on that item. That could be frustrating if you are trying to copy a value in a table column so we’ve changed the table behavior. In the new Dashboard, only clicking the underlined fields will navigate you to the detail page on that item.

Decoupled Account and Org Settings

Within Console, multiple types of settings including your profile, Connect terms of service or privacy policy contracts, or webhook settings lived under a page called My Account. Some of these settings applied to the whole organization while some applied to the single user.
Within the new Dashboard, we’ve decoupled account settings from organization-wide configurations. You can find your profile by clicking the profile icon in the top right where you can change your name or email address. The organization configuration is behind the gear-like org icon to the left of the profile. The organization configuration contains all your credentials, your webhook endpoint URLs, your Connect settings, and your API Keys.

Brand New Dashboard Features

We have a few new features we’re adding to the Dashboard that we hope helps make your platform experience easier.

Contract-less Trial Period

Console required a signed order form for a free trial prior to granting access to new customers. With the new Dashboard, prospective customers don’t need to sign any contracts – you can simply log in to the new dashboard to agree to our updated terms of service. You’ll have full use of the platform for a limited amount of time. Arcadia can revoke access at our discretion. If you decide to become a customer, we can either keep all the data created in your organization, or we can delete it so you start fresh. Just let your account manager know what you need.

Overview Page

The landing page for the new Dashboard is the Overview page where you can get quick navigation shortcuts to common features and easily find documentation.

Help Widget

Rather than having to go to email to get in touch with customer support, you can create a Zendesk widget directly from inside the Dashboard so that it’s easy to copy and paste the IDs you need to describe your issue without switching between tabs.

Developer Tools (Sandbox mode & Webhooks)

We’re introducing a few new developer tools in the next version of the API that you’ll see some remnants of around the dashboard. The settings for these features are in the Configuration section of the Dashboard but you’ll see the Live/Sandbox toggle on various pages all around the Dashboard.

The first developer tool is the introduction of a sandbox mode. This feature will allow developers to create a batch of realistic dummy data to test out API integrations as they're being built. We don’t expect non-technical users to need to use this feature so we recommend keeping all Live/Sandbox toggles set to Live unless you are a developer. We'll release more documentation on the sandbox mode in the coming weeks. We’ll also have more flexibility for creating webhook endpoints. To start, you’ll now be able to create a separate webhook endpoint for your sandbox data.

Unavailable Console Features

There are a number of minor Console features that have not yet been added to the new Dashboard.