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Board Impact Analysis: A Powerful Developer Tool
Author: Bart Scott, Board Developer at CFO Solutions LLC and Community Captain
Board Impact Analysis is a very powerful tool that can be used to assess impacts of proposed changes as well as help in debugging, when used properly. There are two different areas you can utilize the Impact Analysis within Board. Only Developer licensed users can access the Impact Analysis.
The first Impact Analysis is found as a tab in Entities and Cubes. This enables a Developer to analyze where a specific Entity or Cube is used across the Board Application. This can be helpful to determine what may be impacted if an Entity and/or a Cube needs to be modified or cleared. The screenshot below shows an example from an Entity where the Analysis tab is chosen. It identifies that the selected Entity is used in six cubes, one data reader, four screens, and one procedure. If a Developer was going to make changes to this entity, this enables them to determine what parts of the application might be impacted by that change.
When analyzing Cubes, a similar Analysis is available with some differences. The Cube analysis will show which entities are selected for use in the cube, the sparsity, any data readers that populate the cube, any screens the cube is utilized within, and all procedures that utilize the Cube and what dataflows within the procedures affect the Cube. Clicking on the Procedures, the Developer has the ability to launch the Procedure in another tab/window to further investigate the Cube usage. This is extremely helpful when debugging why data may be changing within the Cube. The Developer can identify what data readers affect the cube and what procedures utilize the cube with data flows.
When clicking on the Screens Analysis, similar to procedures, it lets the Developer analyze any screens that may be impacted with changes to the Cube. The Developer is also able to launch the screen directly from this Analysis.
The Second method of using Impact Analysis is available as a menu option under each Data Model.
Selecting the above will take them to the Main Impact Analysis area. This Impact Analysis allows a Developer to analyze multiple items at one time and get much more granular level details related to each item being analyzed. It will take the system a little time for the screen to be loaded because it is loading all the analysis upon opening, as shown below.
The above screen is broken into various sections, including the What, the Linked To and a Graph/List view option on the left-hand side of the panel. A Developer can decide what objects they would like to analyze and uncheck the ones they do not want to analyze to narrow down the scope of the report. For example, in the below we will focus on Procedures. Procedures and Cubes are the two most common items where Analysis is very helpful in debugging of data and/or processing. First uncheck the What checkbox to unselect everything. Then, check mark the Procedures. This will then change the graph accordingly:
Once you have narrowed the scope, you can switch to the List view on the left-hand side within the red circle below:
Checking the List view is optional, not required. It will just provide a different view of the analysis being requested, as shown below:
Once a Developer is happy with what needs to be analyzed, they click on the Analysis tab on the top of the view. As you can see from the screenshot below, there are 23 procedures within the Data Model that have been analyzed. The Procedures found in the red circle below can be clicked on to expand the procedures to further refine what needs to be Analyzed. The List view in the red square below is utilized to show all the details of the analysis.
Once expanded, the Developer can click next to procedures to uncheck all, as shown in the first red square, then select the specific procedures they would like to analyze. For this example, I am picking one specific procedure to analyze.
Once the Developer reduces the scope to the items they want to analyze, they can then click the List view shown inside the blue square on the screenshot prior. As shown below, there are a lot of details listed, from Entities being set in selections, to cubes being modified by dataflows, etc. This is an extremely powerful tool to analyze what may be impacted within the Board system.
In closing, Impact Analysis in Board is a powerful capability—so much so that we could easily fill a 200-page guide exploring its full range of applications. Mastering it is not just a nice-to-have; it’s an essential skill for every Developer.
- You can Analyze in both directions depending on what is needed. Either set the What and review Linked To, or reverse it and set the Linked To and review the What. Both are important depending on what analysis you are doing.
- You must have security to all capsules for the Impact Analysis to identify all Linked To screens and Capsule procedures properly.
- The most important usages of Impact Analysis are normally Cubes, Procedures and Entities, but knowing where Data Readers are utilized can be important as well.
- As mentioned, you must have a Developer license to use Impact Analysis.
- The Data Model Full Impact Analysis is best compared to the Cube/Entity Analysis, but the Cube/Entity Analysis can be used for quick reviews of where items are used.
- Practice makes perfect! The more you use the Impact Analysis, the more comfortable you will become, and it will be extremely helpful when tracking down unknown data changes happening in cubes.
Adding Percentage % option for data label in Waterfall chart
Hi BOARD Team,
When we use waterfall chart, we can only display deviation in numbers. But we cannot add Percentage.
Can we have selection to show number, percentage and both when using waterfall chart? Thanks
Send Blob Cubes Attachment through Email
Hi ,
We need to send multiple attachment through email currently it is not feasible in Board.
It would be great if we could take this up in the latest releases
Align the behavior of smart import error messages for the two types of import
Hi,
I would like to suggest a possible improvement for the smart import object. As for now, if I import data copying and pasting from an excel file, I see detailed error message with the causes of any errors, also highlighting the cells where problems were found (example below).
If I import directly an excel file, instead, I don't have detailed logs, but just the cell number where the problem occurs.
This becomes a bit annoying in complex smart imports, because customers have to take the excel file and search every record to find the nature of the problem and correct the data.
I think that it would be really useful to have the same logs of the "copy/paste option" also when loading data through a file upload.
Leonardo
copy & paste objects size
as happens for formats, it would be nice have the option to quickly set more objects with same size (height and width).
A basic solution could be have the option "Copy size" and "Paste size" , that works like copy/paste format, in the same drop down menu
A more advanced solution is that when i select more objects I can open a panel where i choose the reference one, and decide which Size parameters i would to apply for all object selected (e.g. only width, only height, both)
Introduce a "Mini Map" View in Procedures
Problem :
When working on long and complex procedures in Board, it's easy to get lost navigating between multiple steps, loops, and conditional blocks. The current linear view makes it hard to maintain an overall understanding of the structure, especially for debugging or reviewing purposes.
Suggested Feature:
Add a Mini Map (like the one available in many code editors) in the procedure editor, showing a zoomed-out view of the entire procedure. This would allow developers to:
- Quickly navigate to any part of the procedure
- Visualize the full logic structure at a glance
- Identify sections like IF conditions, loops, or large blocks without scrolling endlessly
Value:
- Boosts productivity and clarity for developers
- Reduces navigation time in large procedures
- Improves maintainability and onboarding for new consultants
Let me know what you think! 👇
Diagramme de Flux de Données en ligne | Modèle et créateur DFD | Miro
Exp
Adding Cube Precision Control to Avoid Floating-Point Errors
Hi everyone,
I propose adding a feature to handle decimal precision in Board, especially for totals and calculations. Currently, floating-point errors can cause totals to display as 0.0000000000xxx instead of 0, which leads to issues in data entry and result splits.
Suggested Solution:
Allow users to set precision limits (e.g., 2 or 3 decimals) in specific cubes to avoid floating-point discrepancies. This would ensure that rounding is applied consistently at both the leaf and total levels.
Additionally, when small errors like 0.00000000001 are detected, treat them as 0 automatically, preventing incorrect data entry and split issues.
Scale numbers in graphs correctly
Hello,
Currently when numbers scaling in used in graphs (for example, show M for millions), the scaling is only applied to the plot area, so, when you hover over a graph.
However, by logic it should apply to the whole graph, including the axis. Please accept this idea to improve customer experience.
dd/mm/yyyy in the IDP/Subscription Hub please
North American style dates mm/dd/yyyy is very confusing. I have to translate it in my head when I read them. They are also more difficult to sort/filter in Excel.
Can we have an option to change the date format to dd/mm/yyyy please, for on the screen in the IDP and in the output from the Export and Audit buttons.
Line break in Tooltip and format options
Tooltip should automatic create line break if original text has no break in it.
Furthermore a format option for size and colour of tooltip text would be appreciated.
