Changes in version 0.16.3 (2025-04-22)                 

New features

  - Now install_eplus() can choose the installer most suitable for
    current OS version (#579).

  - Now install_eplus() gains a new portable parameter. If set to TRUE,
    it the zip (on Windows) and tar.gz (on macOS and Linux) file
    provided for EnergyPlus v8.8 and above and directly uncompressed it
    into the target directory (#583).

Bug fixes

  - Provide more meaningful error messages when installing unsupported
    EnergyPlus version (#590).

  - Give correct error messages when querying multiple IdfObjects with
    both class and object info given (#594).

  - Fix AMY EPW file parsing (#596).

                 Changes in version 0.16.2 (2023-08-25)                 

Bug fixes

  - Support design condition specs from ASHRAE HOF 2021 (#571).
  - Use NA_character_ instead of NA for numeric_version() (#572).

New features

  - Update weather database for OneBuilding (#574).

                 Changes in version 0.16.1 (2023-06-19)                 

Bug fixes

  - Fix edge cases of IDF/IDD parsing (#566).

Internal refactor

  - Use character input for numeric_version() (#565).
  - Skips tests that need IDD downloading on CRAN (#561).

                 Changes in version 0.16.0 (2023-05-17)                 

New features

  - Add support for EnergyPlus v22.1 (#517).
  - Add support for EnergyPlus v22.2 (#530).
  - Add support for EnergyPlus v23.1 (#548).
  - Update weather database (#519).
  - Add support Space in IdfGeometry. Results from IdfGeometry$area(),
    IdfGeometry$tilt() and IdfGeometry$azimuth() now include a new
    column space indicating the spaces where the surfaces are attached
    to. IdfGeometry$view() and IdfViewer$show() now can render by spaces
    (#535).

Bug fixes

  - IdfGeometry$convert() now work for EnergyPlus v9.6 and above (#536).
  - Now IMF files can be handled correctly (#537).
  - Now idf$add(), idf$set() and other methods accept any list inputs on
    the RHS instead of explicitly restricting to list() (#545).

Internal refactor

  - Use testthat 3rd edition for parallel testing (#478).
  - Update minimal {data.table} version requirement to 1.14.6 to fix
    (#415).
  - Remove {crayon} and {progress} dependencies (#432).
  - Move {hms} to Suggest (#557).

                 Changes in version 0.15.3 (2022-11-20)                 

Bug fixes

  - Fix EPW parsing error due to an update of lubridate (#532).

                 Changes in version 0.15.2 (2022-08-19)                 

New features

  - A new encoding parameter has been added in read_idf(), use_idd() and
    read_epw(). The default value is unknown which indicates that the
    input file is native encoded (#515).
  - Now validate_level option is respected when parsing EPW files. This
    makes it possible to parse EPW files with non-standard EPW header
    values, which is useful when only the core EPW data is needed
    (#520). E.g:
    with_option(list(validate_level = "none"), read_epw(YOUR_EPW_PATH))

Bug fixes

  - Now IdfGeometry$coord_system() can correctly work. The coordinate
    system type can also be "world". "absolute" input now is
    automatically converted to "world" to be compatible with EnergyPlus.
    IdfGeometry$coord_system() now returns itself by default, instead of
    the parent Idf object. This enables to check the modified coordinate
    systems by printing the IdfGeometry (#506 #507).
  - Fix Idf$load() when input is a single string without any new line
    (\n) (#510).
  - Fix IdfViewer$snapshot() for PNG output. A new parameter webshot has
    been added in IdfViewer$snapshot() with default value being FALSE
    (#509).
  - Now IdfSchedule$... <- val works (#512).
  - Fix the error of invalid datetime in Epw$data() when data of Feb 28
    is from a leap year while the EPW did not contain any leap year data
    (#552).

Documentation

  - Regenerate package documentation to fix CRAN NOTES on HTML manuals
    (#525).

                 Changes in version 0.15.1 (2022-01-21)                 

Bug fixes

  - Fix ParametricJob$cases() when multiple objects are specified on the
    LHS in ParametricJob$param() (#492).
  - Fix install_eplus(9.1) on Linux (#494, #495).
  - Now ParametricJob$run() can correctly use weather file when only one
    parametric model exists (#497).

Minor changes

  - Compatibility changes for incoming {units} v0.8 (#499).

                 Changes in version 0.15.0 (2021-11-17)                 

New features

  - Idd$path() is added to show the path of IDD parsed (#442).

  - Add epw data sources from climate.onebuilding.org for
    download_weather(). type will always be "all" for those sources
    (#453).

  - Add a new "stat" option in type in download_weather() (#453).

  - Idf$is_valid_id() and Idf$is_valid_name() gain a new argument named
    class defaulting to NULL to check the validity of object IDs and
    names again a specific class.

  - Add support for EnergyPlus v9.5 (#438).

  - Add support for EnergyPlus v9.6 (#460).

  - Internal function locate_eplus() has been exported to enable user to
    find all available EnergyPlus without restarting R (#477).

  - uninstall_eplus() has been added to enable uninstall EnergyPlus from
    R on all platform (#477).

  - Now force re-installation of EnergyPlus install_eplus(force = TRUE)
    has been updated to support all platforms, including macOS (#477).

  - install_eplus() has been updated to behave smarter on macOS (#477).

  - run_idf() and run_multi() have been refactored to mimic the
    Epl-run.bat procedure. It supports to call the Basement and Slab
    processors. Now the requirement of EnergyPlus >=v8.3 for running
    simulations has been dropped Now simulations with FMU, including
    obFMU are supported. (#467).

  - HVAC-Diagram will be called when running simulations to make sure
    the svg output of HVAC diagram can be generated. Therefore,
    hvac_diagram() has been deprecated and will be removed in next major
    version (#467).

  - Functions path_eplus() and path_eplus_*() have been added to help
    specify file paths under EnergyPlus installation directory (#467).

  - A new Idf method $external_deps() is added to extra any external
    file resources specified in the IDF that are needed for simulation,
    e.g. schedule files (#467).

  - Now Idf$save(external = TRUE) and Idf$run(copy_external) save
    external file dependencies based on the results of
    Idf$external_deps() (#467).

  - A new EplusJob method $list_files() is added to list all inputs and
    output files for current simulation (#467).

  - A new argument readvars can be specified in EplusJob$run() and
    EplusGroupJob$run(). Setting it to FALSE will disable to run
    ReadVarsESO post-processor and thus no CSVs will be generated for
    Report variables and meters. This can speed up simulations
    significantly if there are hundreds of outputs in the model. Setting
    it to FALSE will not affect any data extraction functionalities in
    eplusr, as it uses the SQLite output instead of the CSVs (#467).

  - Now .() can also be used as an alias as list() in Idf$add() and
    Idf$set() (#445).
    
    idf$add(Output_Variable = .("*", "zone mean air temperature"))
    # is equivalent to
    idf$add(Output_Variable = list("*", "zone mean air temperature"))

  - A new argument names can be specified in ParametricJob$models() to
    rename the parametric models created (#487).

  - A new interface for creating parametric models has been introduced
    using ParametricJob$param(). It takes parameter definitions in list
    format, which is similar to Idf$set() except that each field is not
    assigned with a single value, but a vector of any length, indicating
    the levels of each parameter. For example, the code block below
    defines 3 parameters (#487):
    
      - Field Fan Total Efficiency in object named Supply Fan 1 in class
        Fan:VariableVolume class, with 10 levels being 0.1 to 1.0 with a
        0.1 step.
      - Field Thickness in all objects in class Material, with 10 levels
        being 0.01 to 0.1 m with a 0.1 m step.
      - Field Conductivity in all objects in class Material, with 10
        levels being 0.1 to 1.0 W/m-K with a 0.1 W/m-K step.
    
    param$param(
        `Supply Fan 1` = list(Fan_Total_Efficiency = seq(0.1, 1.0, 0.1)),
        Material := list(Thickness = seq(0.01, 0.1, 0.1), Conductivity = seq(0.1, 1.0, 0.1))
    )

  - ParametricJob$cases() is added to get a summary of parametric models
    and parameter values. It returns a data.table giving you the indices
    and names of the parametric models, and all parameter values used to
    create those models.For parametric models created using
    ParametricJob$param(), the column names will be the same as what you
    specified in .names. For the case of ParametricJob$apply_measure(),
    this will be the argument names of the measure functions (#487).

  - Now .names in ParametricJob$apply_measure() can be a single
    character. In this case, it will be used as the prefix of all
    parametric models. The models will be named in the pattern .names_X
    where X is the model index (#487).

Break changes

  - hvac_diagram() has been deprecated as HVAC-Diagram will always be
    called after EnergyPlus simulation. If you still want to generate
    HVAC svg diagram manually, please use HVAC_Diagram() instead (#467).

Minor changes

  - When type is "all" in download_weather(), the ZIP file will be
    downloaded instead of downloading both EPW and DDY files (#453).
  - EplusJob$output_dir() now use backslash in the returned path on
    Windows (#467).
  - Better error message when no arguments are given to the measure
    function in ParametricJob$apply_measure() (#487).

Bug fixes

  - Fix the year value calculation when first day of a run period is
    holiday (#450).
  - Fix download_weather() file downloading URL (#452).
  - Fix EplusSql$report_data(..., wide = TRUE) when Do HVAC Sizing
    Simulation for Sizing Periods is set to Yes in SimulationControl
    (#461).
  - Now read_idf() and other functions that read files from disk can use
    stringi::stri_enc_detect() to fix encoding issue (#467).
  - Now ParametricJob$run(dir = NULL) will always use the seed model
    directory (#483).

                 Changes in version 0.14.2 (2021-05-28)                 

New features

  - IddObject$output() is added to extract all possible outputs of
    current class. All outputs are extracted from the LaTeX source file
    of "Input Output Reference" for EnergyPlus v9.5.0 and later. So
    empty result will always be returned for Idd version lower than
    v9.5. It is possible that there are some mistakes introduced when
    extracting the output variables. Also, some outputs are only
    available if certain fields are set. Even they are listed in the
    results, it does not mean that the Idf can report all of them. It is
    strongly suggested to check the RDD and MDD file for correctness
    (#427). Example:
    
    idd <- use_idd(8.8)
    idd$Lights$outputs()

Break changes

  - Autocompletion is enabled by registering a S3 .DollarNames method.
    Option autocomplete is deprecated. A warning is issued if you try to
    set it in eplusr_option(). Also, with_speed() is deprecated and
    falls back to without_checking() when called (#417).

Bug fixes

  - Fixed wrong transition of FuelFactors from v9.2 to v9.3 (#420).
  - Fixed Idf$del error when both sources and referees are given (#433).
  - Fixed the error that EplusGroupJob$tabular_data(..., wide = TRUE)
    did not return the index column (#449).

Minor changes

  - Better error and verbose messages (#422, #423).
  - The default mouse mode for wheel has been changed to "pull".

                 Changes in version 0.14.1 (2021-02-25)                 

Minor changes

  - Compatible changes for units v0.7-0 (#410).

                 Changes in version 0.14.0 (2021-01-07)                 

New features

  - Epw$save() gets a new option format_digit. If TRUE, the trailing
    digits in EPW data will be formatted in the same way as Weather
    Converter (#323).
  - Add EnergyPlus v9.3 and v9.4 support (#343, #347, #369).
  - Now ParametricJob$apply_measure() will give a nice progress bar when
    parametric models are creating (#378).
  - A new argument separate is added in EplusGroupJob$run() and
    ParametricJob$run() with default value being TRUE. If set to FALSE,
    all models are saved in dir when simulation, instead of creating a
    folder for each model and running simulation there (#381).
  - When extracting grouped simulation results using
    $report_data_dict(), $report_data() and etc in EplusGroupJob and
    ParametricJob class, a new column index is added which contains the
    indices of simulated models (#388). This is because when the same
    model runs with different weather files, the original case column
    cannot be used as an identifier.

Major changes

  - Now eplusr will always use the SQLite output for data extraction
    instead of using the CSV output. In EnergyPlus v9.3 and above,
    ReadVarsESO is deprecated and EnergyPlus itself will generate CSV
    directly. CSVs for variables and meters are always separated in this
    way. Together with the newly introduced Output:Control:Files which
    can be set to disable CSV output, it becomes very cumbersome to
    continuously support the CSV for data extraction (#307).

Minor changes

  - Now rgl and decido package has been moved from Imports to Suggests,
    since they are only used in the IdfViewer class for 3D visualization
    which is not the main focus of this package (368).
  - run_multi() now gets a new argument expand_obj to control whether
    ExpandObjects should be called before simulation or not. Because
    there is a known issue of ExpandObjects on Linux system
    (https://github.com/NREL/EnergyPlus/issues/8376), here we want to
    avoid unnecessary calls of ExpandObjects as possible. Also,
    EplusJob$run() and EplusGroupJob$run() now will detect if there are
    any HVACTemplate:* objects and set the expand_obj flag properly
    (#377).

Bug fixes

  - When .empty is FALSE, Idf$set() and Idf$update() will keep fields if
    there are not the last fields (#310).
  - Year fields are correctly calculated for EnergyPlus v9.1 and above
    (#312).
  - Fix coordinate system alignment in IdfGeometry class (#314).
  - Fix time matching in EplusSql$report_data() (#315).
  - EPW COMMENT1 and COMMENT2 are now parsed as a single string (#318).
  - Preserve input year values in Epw$set() (#322).
  - Additional columns in Epw$set() and Epw$add() input are now removed
    (#320).
  - Now Epw$abnormal_data() can keep columns that contains abnormal data
    when keep_all is FALSE (#326).
  - Epw$save() now formats the header in the same way as Weather
    Converter (#328).
  - Epw$comment1() and Epw$comment2() now accepts NULL as input, which
    will remove the comments. And NULL is returned if no comments are
    found (#330).
  - Fix the error when the first field is not in the input in
    Idf$update() (#332).
  - Fix the error in EplusJob$report_data() caused by incomplete
    EnvironmentPeriods table in EnergyPlus SQL output (#336).
  - Make sure Day of Week for Start Day is reset to empty if
    UseWeatherFile was used in transition from v8.9 to v9.0 (#338).
  - Fix the error in EplusJob$report_data() when multiple reporting
    frequencies exist in the CSV output (#340).
  - Fix simulation error when FMU files are given in relative paths
    (#344). Now all objects that reference to external files can be
    correctly copied into output directory when copy_external is set to
    TRUE.
  - Fix the error when using an Idf as input in Idf$insert() (#348).
  - Sub-hourly EPW files are supported (#351).
  - Fix invalid references introduced by setting field values to empty
    (#355).
  - Fix the error message in EplusGroupJob when no CSV output was found
    (#357).
  - Fix false positive warnings when resolving IDF external file
    dependencies (#366).
  - Empty string input, e.g. " " in Idf$add() and Idf$set() are now
    correctly converted to NAs (#370).
  - Now empty comments are kept in IdfObject$comment() (#372).
  - Fix IdfGeometry$print() when no building object exists (#395).
  - Now IdfGeometry$round_digits() also applies to Zone class (#397).
  - read_epw() now accepts date rewind in TYPICAL/EXTREME PERIODS header
    (#401).
  - Fix c.EpwDate() error (#403).
  - Fix IdfScheduleCompact$set() evaluate issue when called in nested
    environment (#405).
  - Now IdfScheduleCompact$type_limits() works properly when setting new
    type limits (#407).

                 Changes in version 0.13.0 (2020-08-28)                 

New features

  - Idf$add() and Idf$set() have new features:
    
    # refer to field using '..'
    idf$add(Material = list(..1 = "mat", ..7 = 0.95))
    idf$set(mat = list(..6 = 0.5))
    
    # using vector field values
    idf$add(Material := list(..1 = sprintf("mat%i", 1:10)))
    idf$set(c(sprintf("mat%i", 1:10)) := list(..6 = runif(10)))

  - Idf$to_table() gains a new parameter force. The default value is
    FALSE. If TRUE, you can convert object data from any classes into a
    wide data.table. This may be useful when you know that target
    classes have the exact same fields, e.g. Ceiling:Adiabatic and
    Floor:Adiabatic (#202).

  - A new method Idf$purge() has been added (#223). It can be used to
    delete any resource objects that are not referenced by other
    objects. Here resource objects indicate all objects that can be
    referenced by other objects, e.g. all schedules. $purge() will
    ignore any inputs that are not resources. If inputs contain objects
    from multiple classes, references among them are also taken into
    account, which means purging is performed hierarchically. If both
    materials and constructions are specified, the latter will be purged
    first, because it is possible that input constructions reference
    input materials. Idf$purge() makes it quite straightforward to
    perform IDF cleaning. Actions like removing all materials,
    constructions and schedules can be easily achieved via
    
    Idf$purge(class = c("Material", "Construction"), group = "Schedules")

  - New methods Idf$duplicatd() and Idf$unique() have been added. They
    can be used to detect and remove duplicated objects, respectively.
    Here duplicated objects refer to objects whose field values are the
    same except the names. Object comments are ignored during
    comparison. These two methods can be useful when doing model
    cleaning (#227).

  - Now if class is set to NULL in Idf$definition(), the underlying Idd
    object is returned (#237).

  - Internal helper functions with_option(), with_silent(),
    with_verbose(), with_speed() and without_checking() have been
    exported. They can be used to evaluate an expression with temporary
    eplusr options (#240).

  - Now Idf$insert() can directly take an Idf object or a list of Idf
    objects as input. And also Version objects in input will be directly
    skipped instead of giving an error (#245).

  - A new option all has been added in IdfObject$print() with default
    being FALSE. If TRUE, all fields defined in [Idd] are printed even
    they do not exist in current object (#247).

  - New S3 methods of == for all classes are added, i.e. ==.Idf,
    ==.IdfObject, ==.Idd, ==.IddObject, ==.Epw, ==.EplusJob,
    ==.EplusSql, ==.EplusGroupJob, ==.ParametricJob. The negate methods
    are also added. This makes it quite easy to check the equality of R6
    objects of these types (#250).

  - A new Generic function reload() is added. eplusr relies heavily on
    the data.table package. The core data of all main classes in eplusr
    are saved as data.tables. This introduces a problem when loading
    saved Idf objects or other class objects via an *.RDS and *.RData
    file on disk: the stored data.tables lose their column
    over-allocation. reload() is a helper function that calls
    data.table::setDT() on all internal data.tables to make sure they
    are initialized properly. It is recommended to call reload() on each
    Idd, Idf and other class object in eplusr loaded with readRDS() or
    load(), to make sure all eplusr's functionaries works properly
    (#251).

  - The implementation of EplusSql$report_data() has been refactored,
    resulting in a ~200% speed-up (#259).

  - Now day_type in EplusSql$report_data() has a few new options (#259):
    
      - "Weekday": All working days, i.e. from Monday to Friday
      - "Weekend": Saturday and Sunday
      - "DesignDay": Equivalent to "SummerDesignDay" plus
        "WinterDesignDay"
      - "CustomDay": CustomDay1 and CustomDay2
      - "SpecialDay": Equivalent to "DesignDay" plus "CustomDay"
      - "NormalDay": Equivalent to "Weekday" and "Weekend" plus
        "Holiday"

  - Some internal functions have been exported. They are mainly useful
    for developers to handle internal IDD and IDF data more efficiently
    (#260).

  - A new IdfScheduleCompact class is introduced. A constructor function
    schedule_compact() is added. IdfScheduleCompact class provides more
    detailed methods to add, modify and extract schedule values. For
    more details, see vignette("schedule") (#256).

  - New IdfGeometry and IdfViewer classes are introduced. IdfGeometry is
    designed to extract data for all geometry objects and perform
    geometric operations on them, while IdfViewer is to view IDF
    geometry in 3D using the rgl package in a similar way as OpenStudio
    SketchUp Plugin. Idf$geometry() and Idf$view() methods are added to
    directly create an IdfGeometry and IdfViewer object based on current
    Idf object, respectively (#296).

  - A plot.Idf method is added which is basically a wrapper of
    Idf$view() (#296).

  - Now eplusr can utilize the CSV output for report data extraction.
    Benefiting from the fantastic data.table::fread, this approach can
    be as 3~10X faster compared to the SQLite approach. eplusr will
    still use the SQLite if the CSV output is not available.

Major changes

  - The algorithm of object/field/value relation extraction has been
    completed refactored. Now it can correctly detect object
    recursive-reference and it's faster (#222, #223).
    
    All relation-related methods now have an unified interface:
    
    X$method(which, direction, object = NULL, class = NULL, group = NULL, depth = NULL, keep = FALSE)

    Where which is a class index or object ID, direction is the target
    relation direction to extract. All results can be further
    constrained via 3 extra arguments, i.e. object, class and object.
    object only applicable to Idf and IdfObject. The depth argument is
    used to control the depth for searching recursive relations. Default
    value is 0L, which means no recursive relations will be detected,
    while NULL means to search all possible recursive relations.
    
    A new keep parameter with default value FALSE has been added. If
    TRUE, all input fields will be returned, even they may not have any
    relations. This is the default behavior of v0.12.0 and before. In
    this version, only fields that have relation with other objects will
    be returned.
    
    With this update, it is possible, for example, to directly know the
    structure of an air loop by using idf$object_relation("AnAirLoop",
    depth = NULL)
    
    Moreover, a new argument class_ref can be specified in methods of
    value-relation extraction. It can be used to specify how to handle
    class-name-references. Class name references refer to references in
    like field Component 1 Object Type in Branch objects. Their value
    refers to other many class names of objects, instaed of referring to
    specific field values. There are 3 options in total, i.e. "none",
    "both" and "all", with "both" being the default.
    
      - "none": just ignore class-name-references. It is a reasonable
        option, as for most cases, class-name-references always come
        along with field value references. Ignoring
        class-name-references will not impact the most part of the
        relation structure.
      - "both": only include class-name-references if this object also
        reference field values of the same one. For example, if the
        value of field Component 1 Object Type is Coil:Heating:Water,
        only the object that is referenced in the next field Component 1
        Name is treated as referenced by Component 1 Object Type. This
        is the default option.
      - "all": include all class-name-references. For example, if the
        value of field Component 1 Object Type is Coil:Heating:Water,
        all objects in Coil:Heating:Water will be treated as referenced
        by that field. This is the most aggressive option.

  - read_epw() will proceed parsing for non-standard EPW header format
    (#236).

  - Now EplusSql$report_data() will set the year values of day type
    SummerDesignDay and WinterDesignDay to current year and the day_type
    value will be left unchanged (#258).

  - Now read_idf() will always make sure all necessary fields are added
    during parsing (#267).

  - [[.IdfObject now only accept standard field names. No
    underscore-style names are allowed.

  - The suffix of automatically created names in Idf$dup() has been
    changed from _X to  X.

  - The warning parameter in read_epw(), Epw$add() and Epw$set() has
    been deprecated (#298).

Minor changes

  - EplusJob, EplusGroupJob and ParametricJob will not parse input EPW
    files, but only validate their existences and store the paths (#215)
  - period parameter in EplusSql$report_data() now works as expected
    (#259).
  - run_idf() and run_multi() now return additional element/column
    called
  - version which contain the versions of EnergyPlus that are called
    during simulations
  - format.Idd() now returns a single line string in format <EnergyPlus
    IDD v[Version] (Build) with X classes.
  - The column datasource returned in Epw$data() has been renamed to
    data_source.

Bug fixes

  - Fix the bug caused by ExpandObjects executable that causes run_idf
    fails when running in parallel (#130)
  - Idf$insert() now will remove all duplicated objects in input (#219).
  - Fix the bug in install_eplus() on Windows (#230)
  - Fix the error in $<-.Idf when input list of IdfObjects are all from
    the same Idf on the LHS (#238).
  - Now Idf$insert() and Idf$load() can now successfully remove
    duplicated objects by comparing field values case-insensitively
    (#243)
  - Now Epw$save() can work with empty DESIGN CONDITIONS,
    TYPICAL/EXTREME PERIODS and GROUND TEMPERATURES headers. Thanks
    @lukas-rokka for the bug report (#263).
  - Fix output directory creation error in EplusGroupJob(#270).
  - Fix IDF header option parsing (#278).
  - Trailing spaces after class names in IDF can be handled correctly
    (#294).

                 Changes in version 0.12.0 (2020-02-20)                 

New features

  - Now group_job() supports single IDF input with multiple EPW inputs
    (#185).
  - A new method Idf$last_job() has been added to enable getting the
    last simulation job created using Idf$run() (#187).
  - Provide a workaround to fix the issue of EnergyPlus v9.1 and above
    installation which fails to extract files into correct directory
    /usr/local/EnergyPlus-X-Y-0, but instead extracting all files
    directly into /usr/local (NREL/EnergyPlus#7256) (#193).
  - A new parameter group_ext has been added in Idf$to_table() and
    IdfObject$to_table(), with default value being "none". If "group",
    values from extensible fields will be grouped by the extensible
    group they belong to. For example, coordinate values of each vertex
    in class BuildingSurface:Detailed will be put into a list. If
    "index", values from extensible fields will be grouped by the
    extensible field indices they belong to. For example, coordinate
    values of all x coordinates will be put into a list (#74).

Bug fixes

  - The algorithm of detecting numeric columns in
    EplusSql$tabular_data() has been improved (#190).
  - Now EplusSql$tabular_data() keeps the original column order when
    wide is TRUE (#186).
  - Fix EnergyPlus installation on macOS (#193).
  - Fix parallel simulations on macOS (#194).
  - Now eplus_config() will always return the expanded EnergyPlus path
    (#196).
  - Now group_job() will return more informative error messages when
    input contains Idf objects that haven't been saved (#204).
  - Fix error in EplusGroupJob$run() when custom dir is specified
    (#205).

                 Changes in version 0.11.0 (2020-01-20)                 

New features

  - A new method $models() has been added in ParametricJob class. It
    returns a list of all parametric models generated after a measure
    has been applied. If no measure is applied, NULL is returned (#59).
    Thanks @yidan1214 for this feature request.
  - A new method $save() has been added in ParametricJob class. It saves
    all generated parametric models and weather file into specified
    directory. You can use separate argument to determine whether each
    model is to be saved in a separate folder (#58). Thanks @yidan1214
    for this feature request.
  - New arguments align and all have been added to $to_table() method in
    Idf class. Setting align to TRUE will make sure that all returned
    object data per class have the same field number. The number of
    fields is the same as the object that have the most fields among
    those you specified. Setting all to TRUE will return all available
    fields in that class definition in IDD.
  - Now the weather argument in $run() method in Idf class can be set to
    NULL. If so, design-day-only simulation is performed. Note that this
    needs at least one Sizing:DesignDay object exists in the Idf object
    (#80).
  - Similar as above, the epw argument in eplus_job() and param_job()
    can also be NULL to force a design-day-only simulation.
  - Now $status() in ParametricJob class includes a new member named
    job_status which is data.table containing detailed information on
    each simulation job (#70).
  - Now $print() in ParametricJob will give you more informative details
    on each simulation job status, especially when wait is set to FALSE
    in $run().
  - A new column index is added in the returned RddFile and MddFile. It
    contains index of each variable.
  - Two new methods $read_rdd() and $read_mdd() have been added in
    EplusJob class. $read_rdd() and $read_mdd() which parse the
    simulation RDD and MDD file (#84).
  - Two new function rdd_to_load() and mdd_to_load() have been added,
    which format RddFile and MddFile into a data.table in acceptable
    format for $load() method in Idf class.
  - Similar as Output:SQLite, when $run() in Idf object is called, an
    object in class Output:VariableDictionary is automatically created
    with Key Field being IDF (#85).
  - A new argument echo has been added in $run() in Idf, EplusJob and
    ParametricJob class. It is only applicable when wait is TRUE. If
    FALSE, the simulation will be run silently without echoing any
    message from EnergyPlus.
  - A new function transition() has been added. Basically it is an R
    implementation of IDFVersionUpdater. Currently the lowest version of
    IDF is v7.2. It should be much faster than IDFVersionUpdater.
  - Now the way of find IDD file has been changed to take advantage of
    IDD files distributed along with IDFVersionUpdater. This update
    makes it possible to directly read IDF of most versions without
    downloading corresponding IDD.
  - A new option autocomplete with default value being interactive() has
    been added. It is used to control whether to turn on autocompletion
    on class and field names. Underneath, makeActiveBinding() is used to
    add or move active bindings in Idf and IdfObjects to directly return
    objects in class or field values. This will make it possible to
    dynamically show current class and field names in both RStudio and
    in the terminal. However, this process does come in with a penalty
    on the performance. It can make adding or modifying large mounts of
    [Idf] and [IdfObject]s extremely slow. Default value make sure
    autocompletion works in interactive mode.
  - A new syntax class := list(field = value) in $set() has been added.
    Note the use of := instead of =. The main difference is that, unlike
    =, the left hand side of := should be a valid class name in current
    Idf object. It will set the field of all objects in specified class
    to specified value.
  - A new function dt_to_load() has been added, which formats a
    data.table from Idf$to_table() and IdfObject$to_table() with wide
    being to TRUE into a data.table in acceptable format for Idf$load()
    method and Idf$update() method.
  - Now read_epw() support EPW files with non-integer timezones fail to
    load (#113). $location() in Epw class also support setting the
    timezone to non-integer one.
  - A new method $parent() has been added in IddObject and IdfObject
    class to get parent Idd and Idf object, respectively (#76).
  - Simulation status will be updated in the progress message in
    run_multi() and $run() method in ParametricJob class, instead of
    only showing COMPLETED (#124, #125).
  - EplusJob class now will parse and store input IDF and EPW. It will
    also add Output:SQLite and Output:VariableDictionary object if
    necessary. This change makes sure using EplusJob can always have the
    ability to extract simulation results instead of totally relying on
    the input IDF (#118).
  - As a result of previous change, the $run() method in EplusJob now
    takes the same parameters as $run() method in Idf, i.e. you can also
    change the EPW file to use and output directory using epw and dir
    argument (#118).
  - A new class EplusGroupJob is added. It can be created using
    group_job(). EplusGroupJob provides a wrapper of run_multi() to
    group multiple EnergyPlus simulations together for running and
    collecting different EnergyPlus outputs (#117).
  - A new parameter named .empty has been added in $set(), $insert(),
    $load(), $update(), $paste() methods in Idf class and $set() method
    in IdfObject class (#133).
  - EnergyPlus v9.2 support has been added (#138).
  - Now required objects and unique objects can be deleted in $del()
    when .force is set to TRUE (#149).
  - Now for Windows and Linux, install_eplus() supports to install
    EnergyPlus to your home directory or your customized directory
    without requiring administrator privileges (#167).
    # install to your home directory
    install_eplus(8.8, local = TRUE)
    # install to custom directory
    install_eplus(8.8, local = TRUE, dir = "~/MyPrograms")
    Please see ?install_eplus for details.
  - All documentation in R6 classes have been update thanks to roxygen2
    R6 support (#156).
  - Deprecated methods in each class have all been remove (#156).
  - New parameter case has been added in EplusSql$tabular_data().
    Similar like case parameter in EplusSql$report_data(), it lets you
    to add a case column to indicate the case of simulation. This brings
    some changes in the returned results of EplusSql$tabular_data().
    Compared to previous version, there will always be a case column,
    unless case parameter is set to NULL (#182).
  - New parameter wide and string_value have been added in
    EplusSql$tabular_data() and EplusGroupJob$tabular_data(). When wide
    is TRUE, each table will be converted into the similar format as it
    is shown in EnergyPlus HTML output file. And when string_value is
    FALSE, values in possible numeric columns are converted into numbers
    (#182).

Bug fixes

  - Fix the error in $set() when $add_unit() is performed in Epw class
    (#56).
  - Now IDF file located in a folder whose name contains spaces can be
    successfully simulated (#60). Thanks @yidan1214 for reporting this
    bug.
  - Now $ref_to_object() and $ref_by_object() can give correct results
    when class argument is specified.
  - Now IDD version lower than 8.3 can successfully be downloaded and
    parsed.
  - Now ErrFile objects returned from $errors() in ParametricJob can be
    successfully printed.
  - Now one-line empty objects, e.g. "Output:Surfaces:List,,;\n", can be
    successfully parsed (#88).
  - Fix the error of $to_table() when no arguments were provided (#103).
  - The references of newly added extensible fields are now correctly
    handled (#109).
  - $update() now works for class Schedule:Compact with type checking on
    (#111).
  - Fix the error in $ref_to_node() when no objects in specified class
    is found (#110).
  - Now leading and sep_at argument work as expected in Idf$to_string()
    (#160).
  - Now Idf$to_table() matches object names case-insensitively (#157).
  - One-line-formatted Version object with trailing comments can be
    successfully parsed, e.g. Version, 8.6; !- ABC (#170).
  - Better support for old IDD (#183).

Minor changes

  - Describe on how the arguments are matched in $apply_measure() (#57).
    Thanks @yidan1214 for pointing this out.
  - Now the echo argument in run_idf() and run_multi() will only take
    effect when wait is TRUE. This makes it possible to remove the
    dependency on the later package.
  - All messages can be suppressed by setting the verbose_info option to
    FALSE.
  - $delete() method in Epw class has been deprecated in flavor of
    $del() to provide a similar API as Idf class.
  - When all is TRUE in $report_data() in EplusSql, EplusJob and
    ParametricJob class, an extra column environment_period_index is
    returned which contains the indices of each run period environment.
    This helps to distinguish different run period environment when no
    name is assigned.
  - param_job() now gives more informative error message if input Idf
    object and Epw object is not created from a local file (#112).
  - param_job() now preserve parametric model names from argument .names
    in $apply_measure() instead of calling make.name() to convert them
    into valid R names (#115).
  - $save() works if weather was not given during initialization for
    ParametricJob (#120).
  - Required fields in IdfObject are now marked with * when printing
    (#135).

                 Changes in version 0.10.4 (2019-11-05)                 

This is a bug fix release which make sure eplusr is compatible with new
version of R6 #164. No new feature is included.

                 Changes in version 0.10.3 (2019-07-08)                 

New features

  - Now you can get autocompletion of class names of Idd and Idf
    objects, and field names of IdfObject class in RStudio.
  - [[<-.Idf and $<-.Idf now can work with unique-object classes as
    well.
  - A new method $update() is added in Idf class which makes it possible
    to directly modify existing objects using character vectors and
    data.frames.
  - A new argument wide is added in $to_table() method in Idf class,
    similar to $to_table() method in IdfObject class.
  - New function read_rdd() and read_mdd() are added to help to directly
    parse .rdd and .mdd file.
  - Now $rename() will not give an error if input name is the same as
    the old one.
  - Now new method $version() is added in EplusJob and ParametricJob
    class, which returns the version of IDF it uses.
  - A new argument by_group is added in $class_index(), $class_name() in
    Idd class and $class_name() in Idf class. If TRUE, a list is
    returned which separate class indexes/names by the group they belong
    to.
  - Recursive relation support has been added to $object_relation() in
    Idf class, and $value_relation(), $ref_to_object(), $ref_by_object()
    in IdfObject class. All type of relations can be searched
    recursively by setting newly added argument recursive to TRUE. There
    is also a new argument called depth to control how many recursive
    searching steps should be performed.
  - Add Node support into $value_possible() in IdfObject class, i.e. if
    specified fields are nodes, all nodes are returned in the source
    component.
  - Now component node references support has been added. A new option
    "node" has been added to the direction argument in $object_relation,
    $objects_in_relation() in Idf class and $value_relation() in
    IdfObject class. New methods $ref_to_node() and $has_ref_node() have
    been added in IdfObject class. Now $has_ref() in IdfObject class
    will return FALSE only when all $has_ref_to(), $has_ref_by() and
    $has_ref_node() are all FALSE.

Bug fixes

  - Now all internal data, specifically all data.tables are correctly
    copied when calling $clone() in Idf and Epw class.
  - $add() method and other methods that modify field values can
    correctly convert field values to numbers if necessary.
  - Fix the error that holiday header got overwritten (#43).
  - Fix EPW date parsing error (#42).
  - Fix warnings in parsing .err file when there is no warning nor
    error.
  - Fix $errors() error in ParametricJob class.
  - The year of returned date time from $data(), $abnormal_data() and
    $redundant_data() now have correct values (#44).
  - Reset year after checking datetime in read_epw() (#44).
  - Add field name in input before validation in paste() (#45).
  - Fix datetime calculation in $report_data() in EplusSql (#46).
  - Update doc on EnergyPlus time notation (#47).
  - Fix EPW design condition parsing error when hours_8_to_4_12.8_20.6
    is zero.
  - Now recurring errors in .err file are parsed correctly in ErrFile.
  - Handle large value references in get_value_reference_map() (#50).
  - Fix the error when extract numeric default values using
    $value_possible() (#51).
  - Fix the error that .ref_to argument in $del() in Idf class did not
    take effect.
  - Fix field deletion in $update() in Idf class.
  - Fix reference parsing error with mixed source types.
  - External files used in Schedule:File class are now only copied once
    when copy_external is TRUE in $save() in Idf class.
  - When .ref_to or .ref_by is TRUE in $del() in Idf class, objects
    whose class names are referenced by input will not be deleted,
    except all objects in referenced class are detected by field value
    reference or there is only one object in referenced class.
  - Objects detected using .ref_to and .ref_by in $del() in Idf class
    can now be successfully deleted, even if they still have relations
    with other objects.
  - Now invalid input object name is kept as it is, instead of converted
    to lower case.
  - Now $value_possible() returns correct source values when fields
    refer to class names rather than field values.
  - Now $del() method in Idf class works correctly with multiple inputs.
  - Now trailing comments in IDF will be removed in read_idf().
  - Now $to_table() in Idf class will keep the input object order.
  - Now $set() method in IdfObject can successfully delete fields when
    field values are set to NULL.
  - Now $run() method in Idf will use the correct model path to run
    simulation.

Minor changes

  - Change message types in $ref_to_object() and $ref_by_object() in
    IdfObject.
  - Now ErrFile is stored as a data.table with additional attributes
    instead of a list.
  - Now when argument .unqiue is TRUE in $insert(), $load() and $paste()
    in Idf class, object comparison are performed case-insensitively.
  - A new default value "." of dir in download_idd() is add.

                 Changes in version 0.10.2 (2019-05-13)                 

This is a patch update mainly to fix CRAN check errors on a strict Latin
locale, with a bug fix.

Bug fixes

  - $report_data() method in EplusSql class now correctly returns data
    if even if key_value is not given (#37)

                 Changes in version 0.10.1 (2019-05-09)                 

This is a patch update mainly to fix CRAN check errors, with few bug
fixes.

Bug fixes

  - $set() method in Idf class now does not try to convert all input
    strings into numbers (#32)
  - $del() method in Idf class now also respects validation settings.
    You should be able to delete any object if current validation level
    does not include reference checking
  - $del() method in Idf class now will only print object relation only
    if .ref_to or .ref_by is TRUE
  - Now $set() method in Epw class will correctly reset leap year flag
    in the header (#32)
  - Now $save() method in Epw class returns the path of saved file
    invisibly

                 Changes in version 0.10.0 (2019-05-03)                 

eplusr v0.10.0 introduces dozens of improvements, unfortunately also has
some break changes. Detailed updates per class are as follow:

Idd Class

  - $object() now takes a single class name and returns an IddObject.

  - New method $objects() is added as the successor of $object() in
    previous versions.

  - New method $object_relation() and $objects_in_relation() are added
    to get all objects that have relation (one refer to others or one
    referred by others).

  - $object_in_group() has been deprecated in flavor of
    $objects_in_group().

  - New method $to_table() and $to_string() are added to help easily
    extract internal IDD data in data.table format and string format
    respectively.

  - $clone() method is now deprecated.

  - S3 method str.Idd(), format.Idd() are added.

IddObject Class

  - A constructor idd_object() has been added to help directly create
    IddObject. It takes a parent IDD version or an Idd object and a
    valid class name or class index, e.g. idd_object(8.8, "Material"),
    idd_object(use_idd(8.8), "Construction")

  - New method $version() is added to extract the version of parent IDD.

  - New method $field_relation() is added to extract the field relation
    in current class with other class fields.

  - New method $has_ref(), $has_ref_to(), and $has_ref_by() are added to
    help to detect field relations

  - New method $is_real_field() is added to detect if specified fields
    should have values of real numbers but not integers.

  - New method $has_ref(), $has_ref_by(), $has_ref_to() are added to
    detect if specified fields refer to other fields or can be referred
    by other field in other classes.

  - New method $to_table() and $to_string() are added to help easily
    extract internal IDD data in data.table format and string format
    respectively.

  - field_possible() now does not need IdfObject data to run.

  - Argument lower in $field_name() has been deprecated.

  - $field_reference() in IddObject class has been deprecated in flavor
    of $field_relation().

  - A brief argument is added in $print() with default value of FALSE.
    If TRUE, only the class name of the IddObject is printed.

  - $clone() method is now deprecated.

  - S3 method format.IddObject(), as.character.IddObject() and
    str.IddObject() are added which calls $to_string() and $print().

Idf Class

  - An argument sorted is added in $class_name() and $group_name()to
    control whether to sort the returned value according to the
    occurrence in IDD or not.

  - $definition() now only accepts one class name and returns a single
    IddObject, not a list of IddObject.

  - $object() now takes a single object ID or name and returns an
    IdfObject.

  - New method $objects() is added as the successor of $object() in
    previous versions.

  - New method $object_unique() is added which returns an IdfObject in
    unique-object class, e.g. SimulaSimulationContrl. This makes it easy
    to directly extract and modify those objects, e.g.
    model$object_unique("SimulationContrl")$set(...).

  - $object_in_class() now is deprecated in flavor of
    $objects_in_class().

  - New method $objects_in_group() is added to get all objects in
    specified group.

  - $search_object(), $search_value() and $replace_value() now can take
    same arguments as base::grepl() to further control the way it
    searches objects.

  - $replace_value() now will perform validations when replacing value.

  - Now all methods in Idf class that return IdfObjects will not convert
    object names into valid R names. The former conversion behavior is
    unnecessary and a little bit confusing.

  - $add_object(), $set_object(), $del_object(), $ins_object() and
    $del_object() are now all deprecated. Please use $add(), $set(),
    $del() and insert() instead, which provide much cleaner syntax.

  - New method $rename() is added which helps to modify only object
    names.

  - New method $paste() is added which will parse contents that copied
    from IDF Editor using the Copy Obj button and directly insert them
    into current Idf.

  - $validate() and $is_valid() now accepts an argument level. Also, a
    helper custom_validate() is added to customize what kind of
    validations to check.

  - $string() is deprecated in flavor of $to_string() in Idf class.

  - New method $to_table() is added which can extract object data into a
    data.table.

  - The default value of deep argument in $clone() method is set to
    TRUE. As in almost all cases, a total cloned object is desired when
    calling $clone().

  - plain argument is deprecated in $print() in IDF class. Because the
    same thing can be achieved using $to_string() and base::cat(). New
    argument zoom and order are added, which give more control on how
    detailed should the model be printed.

  - New method $object_relation() and $objects_in_relation() are added
    to extract all objects in relation.

IdfObject Class

  - New constructor idf_object() is added.

  - New method $version() is added to get the underlying version of IDD.

  - $get_comment(), $get_value() now have been deprecated in flavor of
    $comment() and $value()

  - $comment() (former $get_comment()) now returns NULL if the object
    does not have any comment.

  - $set_value() now has been deprecated in flavor of $set()

  - $possible_value() now has been deprecated in flavor of
    $value_possible().

  - $ref_from_object() and $has_ref_from() now have been deprecated in
    flavor of $ref_to_object() and $has_ref_to().

  - $has_ref_by(), $has_ref_to() and $has_ref() now return a logical
    vector of the same length as field numbers.

  - $validate() and $is_valid() now accepts an argument level. Also, a
    helper custom_validate() is added to customize what kind of
    validations to check.

  - $string() and $table() are now deprecated in flavor of $to_string()
    and $to_table().

  - $clone() method is now deprecated.

  - S3 methods format.IdfObject(), as.character.IdfObject() and
    str.IdfObject() are added, which calls $to_string() and $value().

Epw Class

  - Epw class has been totally rewritten which provides much more
    functionalities. Please refer to package documentation for details.
    All headers are parsed and can be retrieve in Epw class.

  - The default value of deep in $clone() has been change to TRUE.

EplusSql Class

  - New method $path_idf() is added to return the parent IDF file path.

  - New arguments period, month, day, hour, minute, interval,
    simulation_days, day_type and environment_name are added in
    $report_data() which provide extra subsetting on the SQL file.

  - New arguments report_name, report_for, table_name, column_name and
    row_name are added in $tabular_data() which provide extra subsetting
    on the SQL file.

  - $clone() method is now deprecated.

EplusJob Class

  - New method $path() is added to return the path of IDF and/or EPW
    file of the job.

  - New method $list_table(), $read_table() are added which provide the
    same functionalities as they are in EplusSql class.

  - $clone() is now deprecated.

  - New arguments period, month, day, hour, minute, interval,
    simulation_days, day_type and environment_name are added in
    $report_data() which provide extra subsetting on the SQL file.

  - New arguments report_name, report_for, table_name, column_name and
    row_name are added in $tabular_data() which provide extra subsetting
    on the SQL file.

  - $clone() method is now deprecated.

ParametricJob Class

  - New arguments force and copy_external are added in $run() which have
    the same effect as in $run() method in Idf class.

  - New arguments period, month, day, hour, minute, interval,
    simulation_days, day_type and environment_name are added in
    $report_data() which provide extra subsetting on the SQL file.

  - New arguments report_name, report_for, table_name, column_name and
    row_name are added in $tabular_data() which provide extra subsetting
    on the SQL file.

  - $clone() method is now deprecated.

Miscellaneous

  - Function read_err() is added which takes a path of an .err file,
    parses it and returns an ErrFile object.

  - Functions is_eplus_ver(), is_idd_ver(), is_eplus_path(), is_idd(),
    is_idf(), is_iddobject(), is_idfobject() and is_epw() are now
    exported.

  - Function custom_validate() and level_checks() are added to customize
    validation.

  - Right now, all returned object and field names will remain what they
    are as in the IDF, instead of converting them into underscore style
    names in the returned lists.

  - The num_digits option has been deprecated as formatting of numeric
    fields are now handled by R itself.

  - Error will be given instead of warning if there is no build tag or
    multiple build tags found in input IDD.

  - eplusr_option() accepts custom validate level using newly-added
    function custom_validate().

                 Changes in version 0.9.4 (2018-12-05)                  

New features

  - Now you can directly download EnergyPlus Weather File (.epw) and
    Design Day File (.ddy) using new function download_weather(). It
    takes a regular expression as input, searches through EnergyPlus
    weather data base (stored in this package), download corresponding
    files and return the saved paths. Below are some examples:
      - Search locations that contains string "los angeles" and "tmy",
        return a menu to select which one(s) to download. Once selected,
        download both corresponding weather file(s) and design day
        file(s):
        download_weather("los angeles.*tmy", type = "all", ask = TRUE)
      - Same as above, expect that all files will be renamed to
        la.epw(ddy), la_1.epw(ddy), la_2.epw(ddy):
        download_weather("los angeles.*tmy", filename = "la", type = "all", ask = TRUE)
      - Search locations that contains string "beijing" and "cswd". If
        no more than 3 results found, directly download all weather
        files and save them to temporary directory.
        download_weather("beijing.*cswd", dir = tempdir(), type = "epw", ask = FALSE, max_match = 3)

Minor changes

  - Now clean_wd() is run before every call to EnergyPlus.

Bug fixes

  - $clone() method has been refactored for Idf and Idd class. This fix
    the issue that internal shared environments were not cloned in
    version 0.9.3.

  - Fix the error that $save() and $string() in Idf class did not
    respect format argument.

  - Fix the error that $apply_measure() in ParametricJob class did not
    respect .names argument.

                 Changes in version 0.9.3 (2018-10-11)                  

New features

  - Add support for EnergyPlus v9.0.0.

Bug fixes

  - Remove duplicates when update value references (#20).

                 Changes in version 0.9.2 (2018-09-30)                  

Break changes

  - Clean up the dirty code that manually modifies $clone() method in R6
    in order to be compatible with (#19). After this, deep has to be set
    to TRUE if a completed cloned copy is desired. Also, documentations
    on $clone() method in Epw, EplusJob, ParametricJob have been added.

Minor changes

  - clean_wd() is called internally when running EnergyPlus models. This
    guarantees that the old output file from last simulation is cleaned
    up before the new simulation starts.

New features

  - A new class EplusSql has been added. This makes it possible to
    directly retrieve simulation results without creating an EplusJob
    object which can only get simulation outputs after the job was
    successfully run before. It can be easily created using eplus_sql()
    function. However, it should be noted that, unlike EplusJob, there
    is no checking on whether the simulation is terminated or completed
    unsuccessfully, or the parent Idf has been changed since last
    simulation. This means that you may encounter some problems when
    retrieve data from an unsuccessful simulation. It is suggested to
    carefully go through the .err file to make sure the output data in
    the SQLite is correct and reliable. Currently, there are only few
    methods in EplusSql class which have some overlaps with theses in
    EplusJob, but more methods may be added in the future. For more
    details, please see the documentation of EplusSql.

  - A new method $is_double_field() is added to IddObject class to check
    if specified fields should be double numbers

Bug fixes

  - Fix the error of missing Idf file when dir is not NULL in $run() in
    Idf class.

                 Changes in version 0.9.1 (2018-08-29)                  

Minor changes

  - Long lines in err files now will be wrapped when printed.

Bug fixes

  - Fix the error when checking invalid extensible fields in value
    validation.

  - Fix the error that value references did not get updated when setting
    values to NA in $set_value() in IdfObject and $set_object() in Idf.

                 Changes in version 0.9.0 (2018-08-27)                  

Break Changes

  - parallel_backend argument in run_multi() has been removed, due to
    the reason that supporting remote parallel computing is out of the
    scope of this package. This makes it possible to remove both future
    and furrr package dependencies. The default behavior of run_multi()
    does not change if running on local machine, as it still runs
    multiple EnergyPlus instances in parallel.

  - In run_idf() and run_multi(), eplus argument has been moved to be
    the last argument with default value setting to NULL. This will make
    them a little bit more convenient to run EnergyPlus without
    explicitly specify the version. If NULL, the version of EnergyPlus
    is automatically detected using the version field of input model.
    For example:
    
    # before
    run_idf(8.8, model.idf, weather.epw)
    
    # after
    run_idf(model.idf, weather.epw)

  - Both argument echo and wait have been added to run_idf() and
    run_multi(). Unlike the behavior in eplusr 0.8.3 when echo is TRUE
    in run_idf(), right now echo only control whether to show the output
    from EnergyPlus command line interface. Please use wait to control
    whether to wait until the simulation is complete or not.

New features

  - Package documentation has been heavily updated. Examples of every
    exported class and most functions have been added. Also, an example
    IDF file "1ZoneUncontrolled.idf" from EnergyPlus v8.8.0 is included
    in the package, which makes it possible to run most examples without
    installing EnergyPlus. Of cause, for examples in EplusJob and
    ParametricJob class, EnergyPlus installation is needed to run them
    successfully.

  - The brilliant package crayon is used to support colorful printing of
    Idd, Idf, IddObject, IdfObject, Epw, EplusJob and ParametricJob
    classes.

  - A new type of "character" validation has been added, which will
    check if field values should be characters but are not.

  - A new option copy_external has been added in $run() in Idf class. If
    TRUE, the external files will also be copied into the output
    directory. Currently, only Schedule:File class is supported. This
    ensures that the output directory will have all files needed for the
    model to run.

  - $validate() in Idf and IdfObject class will also check incomplete
    extensible groups. Extensible groups that only contain any empty
    field are treated as invalid.

  - New methods $field_reference() and $field_possible() have been added
    into IddObject class. $field_possible() is basically the same as the
    $possible_value() in IdfObject class. This makes it possible to show
    all available references for a class that does not have any object
    yet. $field_reference() only returns all available reference values
    for specified fields. NOTE: $field_reference() and $field_possible()
    can only be used in IddObjects that are created using $definition()
    in Idf class and IdfObject class, and cannot be used in IddObjects
    that are created using $object() or equivalent in Idd class. This is
    because both methods need shared Idf value data to collect all
    reference values.

Minor changes

  - use_eplus() now returns an invisible list of EnergyPlus configure
    data instead of NULL.

  - The default value of dir argument in download_eplus() has been
    removed, which enforce the user to explicitly specify the directory
    to save EnergyPlus installer file, as per CRAN reviewer comment.

  - A new option "auto" for download argument in use_idd() has been
    added, which will automatically download corresponding EnergyPlus
    IDD file if the file or Idd object is currently not available.

  - The dir argument in install_eplus() has been removed, as per CRAN
    reviewer comments. The EnergyPlus installer file will be saved into
    tempdir().

  - The default value of dir argument in $run() in Idf class has been
    removed, as per CRAN reviewer comments. Users can explicitly set dir
    to NULL if they want to use the directory of input IDF file.

  - The default value of echo in run_idf() has been changed to TRUE,
    which will always show EnergyPlus simulation process to the console.

  - Fix the error of output_dir argument checking in rum_multi().

  - Now an informative error message is given when there is no SQL
    output found when trying to read simulation output using
    $report_data(), $report_data_dict and tabular_data() in EplusJob
    class.

  - run_idf() and run_multi() now does not call clean_wd() as this is
    automatically handled by EnergyPlus itself.

Bug fixes

  - Fix errors when try to get units $field_name(), $field_unit() and
    $field_default() in IddObject class.

  - Fix the error that $get_value() and $table() in IdfObject class did
    not return all field values even all was set to TRUE.

  - Fix the error that $table() in IdfObject class did not return field
    units even unit was set to TRUE.

  - Fix the error that $replace_value() in Idf class did not update
    object names.

  - Fix the error when unit is set to TRUE in $get_data() in Epw class.

  - Fix the error that $state_province in Epw class always returns NULL.

  - Fix the error of missing expanded IDF files which occurred randomly
    in run_multi().

                 Changes in version 0.8.3 (2018-08-08)                  

New features

  - A new method $possible_value() has been added into IdfObject class,
    which will return all possible values for selected fields, including
    auto-value (autosize or autocalculate), default, range, choices and
    references.

  - New parameter dir has been added to install_eplus(), which makes it
    possible for keeping the downloaded EnergyPlus installation file.

  - $dup_object() in Idf class now can duplicate one object multiple
    times.

Minor changes

  - The names of returned list of $get_value() in IdfObject is
    "underscore" name, not lower name. This makes its behavior being
    consistent with $object() in Idf class.

  - When wait is FALSE, $run() in EplusJob and ParametricJob will return
    itself instead of the time when simulation started.

  - A clear message will be given when trying to run $kill() in
    ParametricJob, which inform the user that currently $kill() does not
    for parametric simulations.

  - A warning will be given if no configuration data found in
    eplus_config().

  - Now the names of returned list from $search_object() in Idf class
    will also be underscore-style object names, which makes its behavior
    being consistent with $object() and $object_in_class(). Also, if no
    results found, $search_object() now will return invisible NULL and
    give a message.

  - $dup_object() will give an error if given new_name is the an
    existing object name.

Bug fixes

  - Fix errors in $status(), $output_dir() and $locate_output() in
    ParametricJob class when which argument is not given (#12).

  - Fix idf input version parsing in param_job (#13).

  - Fix EnergyPlus downloading and installing errors on Linux and macOS
    (#14, #17).

  - Fix run_idf() and run_multi() errors on Linux and macOS (#14).

  - Fix missing name attribute in class NodeList (#16).

  - Fix errors in use_eplus() when input is an EnergyPlus installation
    path (#18).

                 Changes in version 0.8.2 (2018-07-22)                  

New feature

  - $get_value() in IdfObject class new has a new argument simplify. If
    TRUE, a character vector will be returned instead of a named list.
    Default is FALSE.

Minor changes

  - The names of returned list of $get_value() in IdfObject is
    "underscore" name, not lower name. This makes its behavior being
    consistent with $object() in Idf class.

Bug fixes

  - Fix warning messages of column type coercion from data.table in Idf
    and IdfObject.

  - $set_value() in IdfObject and $set_object() in Idf now will delete
    empty fields with empty value. This fix the error when trying to
    reassign only some empty fields which have been deleted before.

                        Changes in version 0.8.1                        

Major changes

  - Add package logo.
  - Add Epw, EplusJob and ParametricJob class and methods.
  - Add IdfObject and IddObject class and methods.
  - Refactor Idf and Idd class methods.