Best Of
29th shows values when YCV PY is used
In reference of ticket 142328 I would like Board to display values on the 29th Feb. when the functions YCV and PY are used and values are existing until then in the previous year. Right now this empty.
The same also applies for custom time entities where this behavior can be observed.
Expectation here: PY YTD should show 1 770.
3 Q's with Kevin Kowalski, Solution Architect
Featuring: Kevin Kowalski, Soultion Architect and Community Captain
Solution Architects play a key role in the Board ecosystem. Listen in as Kevin shares a view into his role, who makes a good candidate for the team—and here more about an upcoming Tech Friday learning opportunity in France.
Quick reference:
0:33 A day in the life of a Solution Architect
3:03 Tech Friday, France
5:00 What makes a good team candidate
______________________________________________________________________________________________
You might also like:
Missed the presentation of Board Foresight & Board Signals? Or still have questions?
March 2025 Economic Outlook
3 Questions with Laura Villar, Business Intelligence Consultant
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Comments? Share them below!
Possibility to apply selection in "Export screen data to xlsx" procedure step
When a procedure is triggered from Screen A to export layouts from Screen B, there is currently no way to apply a selection on Screen B to export a filtered dataset. It would be very helpful if the "Export screen data to XLSX" step could optionally inherit the selection that is active in the procedure.
We are using this export option to provide users with a prefilled Excel template for Smart Import. Leveraging the "Export screen data to XLSX" step allows us to avoid creating dedicated layouts solely for this purpose. However, what we are currently missing is a straightforward way to apply a selection to the exported data
thank you,
Lorenzo
On Premise: Update the Naming of SQL Logfiles
Hi,
in the cloud the SQL Error Logfiles have this format:
On Premise, the first 4 letters of the databasename is used, followed by Data reader ID and Date. This is especially problematic in projects with multiple, similar named, databases, where the first 4 letters are the same.
Idea: Please use the same naming scheme for cloud also on premise.
‘Run as administrator’ feature: What you need to know
Featuring: Community Captain Björn Reuber, Product Support Tech Lead, Board
In my 15 years as a Board support tech lead, one of the most misunderstood features I’ve experienced is the ‘Run as administrator’ option for selections. Many people mistakenly believe that it will apply only to the entities mentioned in the step, rather than to everything. I’ve seen numerous implementations based on this incorrect understanding of what is, in fact, a pretty simple feature. Let’s explore together.
If we consider the selection sequence at runtime (learn more), we can simplify this in two different areas—the security selections and the ‘runtime’ selections. Now we can consider that the ‘Run as administrator’ option is just skipping the first part, so only the runtime selections were kept. So, depending on the selection made during runtime, we might get a different result.
Let's consider we have 10 Cost Centers: Cst_Ctr_1 … Cst_Ctr_10, Department (IT, Finance, HR, Services, Production), Country (US, DE, IT, FR, ES).
A user has a security selection on 3 Cost Centers (1-3) and 2 Departments (IT, Finance). Furthermore, I use some tech cubes to visualize the “real” selection and check those with an Administrative Account without selection.
Scenario 1)
User selects Cost Center Cst_Ctr_1, Cst_Ctr2 Department IT and Countries US, DE.
Reset selection on Entity (with run as administrator) leads to following result:
- Country: active selection Cost Center Cst_Ctr_1, Cst_Ctr2, Department IT.
- Cost Center: active selection ALL Cost Center (1-10), Department IT and Countries US, DE.
Scenario 2)
User selects no Cost Center, Department IT and Countries US, DE.
Reset selection on Entity (with run as administrator) leads to following result:
- Country: active selection ALL Cost Center (1-10), Department IT.
- Cost Center: active selection ALL Cost Center (1-10), Department IT and Countries US, DE.
The reason for the different behavior is that we have the security selection AND a user based selection (which is reducing the amount of cost centers).
We also need to consider that the ‘Run as administrator’ feature is only working UNTIL the next selection step (independent on the nature of the select action) OR the next user interaction. Please keep in mind that the Debugger is always considered as a user interaction.
So, if we had a Reset Selection on Cost Center with “Run as administrator” and, after this, a selection step on Year without “Run as administrator”, the security would be introduced again.
Summary:
- “Run as administrator” is always skipping the full security selection (not only a part of it).
- Selection can be done in security and user space at the same time, so this needs to be considered during procedure design.
- Security is re-introduced with the next user interaction OR selection without "Run as administrator."
_______________________________________________________________________________________
You might also like:
Mastering Debugging in Board: A Core Skill for Developers
Enhancing Knowledge Sharing with Attollo Board Compass
Debugging and Favorite Board Features
________________________________________________________________________________________
Thank you, Björn, for sharing your insights as a Community Captain!
Questions? Let us know in the comments section.
🆕 Feature Idea: Bulk Save for Data Entry with Pattern-Based Allocation to Improve Performance
💡 Context:
In many real use cases, end users need to input a large volume of data manually or via copy-paste from Excel. Once the data is entered, they use “Save using Pattern-Based Allocation” to distribute the values correctly.
However, when the number of data entry cells is high, Board executes the save in a cell-by-cell manner, applying the allocation one cell at a time. This cell-based approach significantly increases the number of operations and can negatively impact performance, especially for large datasets.
🔍 What I observed:
To understand the issue deeply, I analyzed the Data Entry logs and tested a capsule procedure combining data entry and save with pattern-based allocation. The logs confirmed that the process is executed cell-by-cell.
(Attached a sample with 4 cells)
Let’s imagine we have 50+ cells instead — in this case, the current cell-by-cell allocation logic becomes a performance bottleneck.
✅ Feature Suggestion:
Introduce an option for a bulk save mechanism when using Pattern-Based Allocation, similar to the Dataflow behavior.
This means applying the allocation logic in one go over all the intersections concerned by the data entry, rather than calculating allocations per cell.
Smoother developing in a Panel (that is in a Tab Object)
Working with Objects on a screen (align, mark, moving, rearrange, etc.) in B14 is pretty nice.
Working in a Panel-Object (or combination of Panel in a Tab-Object) and working with several object regarding e.g. marking, moving, aligning, etc. is not as smooth as directly in a screen without a panel.
Is it possible to make for developers working with objects in a panel as easy as working directly on the screen?
Enhancement Request of ALM (Transporter)
ALM (Transporter) shows position information even if we do not change anything of structure of cubes, entity.
This makes customer confused. This is impact for customer to increase checking cost which meta data needs to migrate via ALM.
Could you improve to filter position information?
Flex Grid - Enable 0 (Zero) Visibility
Currently, the flex grid does not support the visibility of zeros (0) or the display of raised - case IDs 00149013.
Providing this visibility would be highly beneficial for customers, as they rely on this information for reporting purposes. Ensuring that zeros are displayed accurately would enhance data accuracy and improve the usability of the reporting feature.
Harsh
Screen selections - Have 2 levels of selections (by default, for navigation)
Many screens have technical selections set by default (e.g: time, version, flags…) that should not be modified ever.
Since the B14 and the change of behavior of Design Mode, we often have screens regressions leading to bugs, due to human errors.
As it is now possible to save the screens selections, we can lose technical ones by mistake
More and more, we need to disable the screen selections option to users because there is a risk to break technical selections. Problem is there is no flexibility at all in navigation
RB