February 2nd, 2018

Platform

New Features:
  1. Data Center: ‘Merge Data Stores’is provided to merge two data stores using common dimension.
Enhancements:
  1. Admin: ‘Python Server’ configuration details are added to the ‘Predictive Settings’.
  2. Migrated to Java 8 to improve performance, stability, and security of the platform applications.
  3. Elasticsearch engine migrated to 5.6.5, to provide faster query response.
  4. Natural Language Search: Option to add synonyms to a Data Store, to support more accurate natural language queries.
Note:

API Data Connectors, Natural Language Search, and Play Plugin are currently in Beta.

Business Story

New Features:
  1. ‘Actions’ feature allows you to drill/filter other views based on the dimension selection on your current view.
  2. ‘Change Theme’ option has been provided on the Storyboard to change the look and feel of a Business Story.
  3. ‘Sort’ & ‘filter’ option is provided for the view mode.
  4. A Business Story can be exported as CSV/XLSX/PDF/PPT file.
  5. Mobile Support: Business Story view has been rendered as per the mobile app requirements.
  6. R visuals are integrated into the Business Story.
Enhancements:
  1. Data Store Merge can be done at the view level for a Business Story.
  2. Filters:

    3. The following types of filter functionalities are introduced in the recent version of the Business Story:

    1. Global Filter Saving
    2. Custom Filter Option
    3. Exclude Filter Option
    4. Search option in the filter panel
  3. Create comparison views using measure filters (e.g., Compare your online sales vs. pos sales in single view)
  4. Charts:
    1. The following charting components are added to the KPI Tile:
      1. KPI Tile: Sparkline chart
      2. KPI Tile: Column chart
      3. KPI Tile: Comparative Tile
    2. The limit option is provided for the charting components.
    3. Pie Chart: Data Labels are provided.

Data Preparation

Enhancements:
  1. Output Component: Users can create metadata in output component by reusing a service from the Data Center.

Dashboard Designer

Charting New Features:
  1. Formatter: The symbol of the Currency Formatter for Rs. and INR is equivalent to display values like L/Cr/M/B/T.
  2. Configurable Number Formatters (1,000 or 100,00) in Y-Axis marking and Data Labels are provided for all the components.
  3. Components: ‘OnAfterRender’ callback method can be exposed in SDK to use in scripting.
  4. Scatter Plot Chart: X-axis markers are provided with the formatter capability
  5. Data Service: ‘GetEndPointURL’ service is enabled to improve dashboard performance and support for OLD dashboards.
  6. Charts:Overlapping data points can display visible point as selected in the tooltip.
  7. Data Grids: Numerical sorting is available for columns with number formatting and indicator.
  8. Bubble Plot: An option to fill Solid color and gradient is available.
  9. Dashboard preview can be maximized up to the browser viewport for the display.
Designer New Features:
  1. Logo image can be displayed in full width (max-width is 300px) and auto dashboard tabs should be auto adjustable.
  2. Dashboard: Language mapping methods are available through SDK method and manual JSON settings.

Predictive Workbench:

New Features:
  1. Python programming language has been integrated into the following plugin components:
    1. Regression Algorithms
      1. Linear Regression
      2. Multi-Linear Regression
      3. Logistic Regression
    2. Apply Model
    3. Save and Read Model
    4. Data Preparation
      1. Split Data
      2. Missing Value Replacement
      3. Normalization
    5. Custom Python Script
    6. Deploy Python Workflows to Dashboard Designer
      1. View Summary
      2. View Visualization
Enhancements:
Notes:
  1. Spark, R, and Python workflows work independently. Users cannot use Spark, R, and Python components together in one Workflow. The workspace will not allow dragging an R or Python Component if the current workflow has a Spark component and vice versa.
  2. Users must run a predictive model, before saving it.
  3. Due to browser constraints, the data set that can be viewed in the table/chart has been limited to 50,000 cells.
  4. Spark workflow supports only Cassandra Data Source/Data Writer.
  5. Spark and Python workflows do not support scheduling.
  6. Python does not support Cassandra Data Source/Data Writer.
  7. Python supports only CSV files, MySQL, MSSQL and Oracle as a data source.

iOS App:

New Features:
  1. Explore visual authoring of Business Stories in Mobile through:
    1. Voice
    2. Click and choose
  2. Voice-based data exploration using the NLP feature.
  3. The following features are provided while displaying views on a storyboard:
    1. The Tile view can be reordered.
    2. Views can be added to a Business Story using the ‘Shared Views’ option or using voice commands.
  4. The ‘Change Theme’ option is available for the mobile stories.

Recommendations:
Product Description
Business Story The R script needs to be written inside a valid R function. I.e., the entire code body should be inside the curly braces of the function
The R script should have at least one main function. Multiple functions are acceptable, and one function can call another function, but it should be written above the calling function body (if called function is an outer function) or above the calling statement (if called function is an inner function)
To use R integration with business story, ‘BizVizPredictiveAnalysisLight_0.1.0’ package must be present
Any extra packages that are required to run your R script must be installed on the BDB server, and it should be loaded using library('library_name') statement, before calling the associated function in your script.
The R script only returns visualization. The visualization code should be written inside the script.
The main function should only have a single argument.
o save a global filter configuration, users need to save the entire story
Users should use the same dimension for creating views and join conditions to perform datastore merge at tile level.


Known Limitations:
Product Description
Business Story The ‘Action’ feature does not support KPI Tile, Metric Summary, Data Grid, and Semi-Gauge.
Data Store Merge at Tile Level
  1. Users cannot use another dimension part from join condition dimension for creating views.
  2. Merge Data Store functionality would not work for creating/ editing the following chart types:
    1. TreeMap
    2. Semi Gauge
    3. Metric Summary
    4. Data Grid
    5. KPI Tile
    6. Pie Chart
    7. Map
  3. Slicer in Mixed Chart and Column Stack Chart would not work.
  4. Users can only perform ‘inner join’ on two data stores.
  5. Users cannot select multiple join conditions.
Data Store Merge at Data Center Level:
  1. Users can only perform ‘inner join’ on two data stores.
  2. Users cannot select multiple join conditions.
  3. Users cannot edit/remove the dimension and measure present in the parent data stores.
  4. Users cannot schedule for merged data stores.
The custom filter will not work, if view filter is already applied to the view and the same dimension is selected in the custom filter.
KPI Tile with Sparkline and Column Chart
  1. KPI Tile with Sparkline and Column chart cannot be exported as PDF or PPT.
  2. The value in the Sparkline and Column Chart KPI Tiles is overlapping with another tile.
‘Limit’ option cannot be applied to Semi-Gauge chart, KPI Tiles, KPI Comparative Tile, KPI Column Tile, and KPI Sparkline.
KPI Comparative Tile:
  1. The value of KPI tile is overlapping with another tile.
  2. By resetting or removing filters, the secondary drop-down value automatically changes to the first option.
Data labels cannot be applied to Bubble Chart, Area Chart, TreeMap, Semi Gauge, Data Grid, KPI Tiles, KPI Comparative Tile, KPI Column Tile and KPI Sparkline.
The given display names will not reflect in the ‘Sort’ at view mode.
The given display names will not reflect in the exported file.
The same aggregation for the measure cannot work in the merged data stores.
An error message will be displayed, if the provided script executes for more than one minute.
iOS App Users are only allowed to create new stories from the ‘Shared Views’.
Users cannot copy paste the stories from My documents to a public folder, shared folder.
Users cannot add stories to the Favorites.