The Board 2022 Spring Release Is Now Available

Fabio Donatellis

This update introduces the ability to perform data entry actions on Data Views associated with Layout whose Blocks are vertically aligned, a much more efficient asynchronous Layout execution on folders of the Tab Container , and the ability to export data from the Impact Analysis section of Data models to Excel.

Board 2022 Spring release also introduces a new set of REST APIs that make it easier to connect to Board data from within other applications, such as Microsoft Power BI, and a new Microsoft Dynamics 365 certified connector, thus enabling a seamless integration of data from multiple Dynamics 365 apps in Board.

MAIN NEW FEATURES OF THIS UPDATE

Data entry on vertically aligned Layouts - It is now possible to perform data entry actions on Data Views that show data coming from a Layout with vertically aligned Blocks.

Asynchronous Layout execution on folders of the Tab Container - The Tab Container now executes the Layout of each Screen Object added to its folders only when said Object is visualized by the user.

Export Impact Analysis data to Excel - It is now possible to export all data from the table displayed under the "Analysis" tab of the Impact Analysis section of each Data model.

New REST APIs - A new, powerful set of REST APIs allows data to be read from Board into third party applications.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 certified connector -  The new Board Microsoft Dynamics 365 certified connector is a great step ahead in integrating Board with yet another powerful cloud environment: Microsoft Dynamics 365

Update (3/10/2022)

A new 12.3 Patch is now available for download!

Patch highlights:

• Several fixes related to the various Board features and Screen Objects

Bug fixes

The following is a list of reported bugs that have been fixed in this patch.

• Data entry. Data entry actions in Data views with more than 100 rows and the Freeze Panes feature enabled are now working properly
• Dataflow. In some cases, Dataflows having a source Layout with the Yearly Cumulated Value time function caused Procedures to fail
• Excel add-in. If an Excel workbook saved on OneDrive was opened by double-clicking the file, layouts were lost. The issue has been fixed
• Excel add-in. Users having a role with custom selection scripts using the @var function were not able to open the Layout editor in Excel after having exported a Data view to a Microsoft Excel Workbook for Board add-in. The issue had been resolved
• Excel add-in. In some cases, Layouts configured in Excel using the Board add-in were lost after disconnecting and reconnecting to Board. The issue has been fixed
• Layout. A regression that caused the Layout execution to fail when Cubes contained null values has been fixed
• Screen visualization. A visualization issue that caused some Entity members in the Select window to be hidden on an iPad has been resolved
• Select. In some cases and with Data models imported from Board 10.x, a selection using the Dynamic selection feature with the "Based on cube" option and the "Period <> 0" setting enabled did not work. The issue has been fixed
• Subscription Hub. An error that caused unexpected logouts from Platforms associated with the Subscription Hub has been fixed

• Substitution formulas. The new "ShowActive" parameter for the @Selection_Ex formula can be used in conjunction with the "Entity" parameter to always show the active members (i.e. members included in the selection) of the configured Entity or to show the formula if a selection is made on other aggregation levels of the same relationship tree.

  • When the "ShowActive" parameter is set to "False" (default value), the output is the formula itself regardless of any other selections made on other aggregation levels of the same relationship tree.
    Example
    The formula @Selection_ex(Entity="Month",ShowActive="False") is displayed as is also in Play mode, even if you apply a selection on the Year Entity that propagates to the Month Entity
  • When the "ShowActive" parameter is set to "True", the output is always a list of the current active members (i.e. members included in the selection). If all members of the Entity are selected, the output of the formula is "All".
    Example
    The formula @Selection_ex(Entity="Month",ShowActive="True") returns a list of all members of the Month Entity included in the current selection, even if it is made on other aggregation levels of the same relationship tree, such as the Week Entity

UPDATE (18/05/2022)

New 12.3 Patch available!
A new 12.3 Patch is now available for download: it includes various bug fixes and one new security feature for connecting to SAP environments.

 

Patch highlights:

• The mutual TLS (mTLS) authentication method is now officially supported for connecting to SAP data sources
• Several fixes and improvements related to the Layout and the Select
• Several fixes and improvements related to the Procedures execution

 

Bug fixes

The following is a list of reported bugs that have been fixed in this patch.

• Collaboration. A malfunction that prevented User Groups from being used when defining the target of a new Feed has been resolved
• Data entry. Data entry actions in Data views with more than 100 rows and the Freeze Panes feature enabled are now working properly
• Data view. In some cases, values entered in tooltips were saved in the associated cell. The issue has been fixed
• Data view. A malfunction prevented data entry actions from being performed on the total cell of a Column with the Detail by option enabled
• Dataflow. A malfunction that caused the Dataflow to write wrong values when a Rule and a Time function were applied in the same Layout has been resolved 21354
• Export data to XLSX. In some cases, the Export data to XSLX feature using the “Page By” option did not export all expected members when there was an active selection on the same Entity used in the “Page By” option. The issue has been fixed
• Layout. In some cases, a Layout containing multi-versioned Cubes output generated results considering wrong versions of Cubes and this caused the data displayed in Objects to be incorrect. The issue has been resolved
• Layout. The “Total” analytical function applied to a Currency Cube gave wrong results. The issue has been resolved
• Layout. Vertically aligned Layouts having Blocks with the Detail by option enabled are now working again
• Layout. Layouts that use analytical functions and the Detail By option are now loading significantly faster
• Layout. In some cases, Data entry actions on Data views were unexpectedly discarded. The issue has been resolved
• Layout. A malfunction that caused a Screen selection to be ignored when a Layout included an Unbalanced Entity set By Row and an Entity Block has been resolved
• Presentations. Users that logged into Board using the username/password method and wrote their username differently from how it was created (i.e. with uppercase or lowercase letters) were not seeing any Presentation in the corresponding area of Board. The issue has been fixed
• Procedures. If two Procedures were launched at the same time and one had a Data reader step, the selection applied to the second one changed unexpectedly and random error on Layouts appeared. The issue has been resolved
• Procedures. The Export Dataset step now correctly handles text strings enclosed in double quotes
• Procedures. The “Chunk size” parameter in the Bulk insert to SQL Table step now indicates the number of fields (columns) processed with a single server roundtrip, instead of rows as it was previously, and the default value has been lowered to reduce the incidence of Procedures failure
• Rules. A malfunction caused wrong rules results after changing relationships between members of an unbalanced hierarchy unless the Data model was unloaded and reloaded in memory. The issue has been fixed
• Select. In a Procedure, saving two selections on two members with the same name in different groups of steps prevented a subsequent Restore Selection step from working properly. The issue has been fixed
• Select. When a selection made on two parallel branches of the same tree resulted in a null selection on the parent node, only the latest selected child member was considered and that reflected on the parent node too, instead of showing null selection. The issue has been resolved.
  A new behaviour has also been put in place when a selection made on child members results in a null selection on a parent member of the same branch: in this case, only the latest selection is considered
• Select. In some cases, a security profile including a security selection on Entities caused layouts to fail. The issue has been fixed
• Selector. A display issue that caused buttons of a Selector to be displayed incorrectly on an iPad with the Screen orientation set to portrait has been resolved
• Send To and Broadcasting. A malfunction that prevented the sending frequency from being edited has been resolved
• Waterfall chart. The scale break line across the plotting area of bars is now also available for horizontally oriented Waterfall charts

 

New feature

New mutual TLS (mTLS) authentication method for SAP data sources

The configuration of SAP data sources now supports the mutual TLS (mTLS) authentication method. This method verifies the identity of both Board and SAP in a connection between those two environments using the dedicated Board Connector for SAP.

The adoption of the mTLS authentication ensures that traffic is secure and trusted in both directions between Board and SAP: it prevents various kinds of cyberthreats, such as Brute force attacks, Spoofing attacks, Phishing attacks and many more.

The mutual TLS authentication method relies on three aspects:

1. Public key and private key. Those keys are used from both parties to encrypt and decrypt messages: anything encrypted with the public key can be decrypted only with the private key and vice versa
2. TLS certificate. The TLS certificate is a file that holds required important information for verifying the identity of both parties, information on who issued the certificate and the certificate’s expiration date
3. TLS handshake. The TLS handshake process verifies the TLS certificate and both communicating parties exchange messages to acknowledge each other, verify each other, establish the encryption algorithms they will use, and agree on session keys

 

How to enable the mutual TLS (mTLS) authentication method for SAP data sources in Board

To use the new method for connecting Board to SAP data sources, proceed as follows:

1. In the “Data sources” section under System Administration, click on the desired SAP connection
2. Click on the “Enable mTLS” toggle
3. Upload the required TLS Certificate (required). The Certificate file extension must be .p12 or .pfx
4. Enter the Certificate password that Board will use to read the certificate during the TLS handshake process
5. Click on “SAVE”.

Please note that the mutual TLS (mTLS) authentication method is available only for Cloud Platforms and it’s supported by the Board Connector for SAP version 5.6 and newer.

UPDATE (07/07/2022)
New 12.3 Patch available!
A new 12.3 Patch is now available for download: it includes various bug fixes and some enhancements.

Patch highlights:

• Two enhancements regarding API quotas and RAM usage
• Several fixes and improvements related to the Layout and the Select
• Several fixes and improvements related to the Procedures execution

 

Bug fixes

The following is a list of reported bugs that have been fixed in this patch.

• ATO. New members added in ATO environments with the “Auto incremental” options enabled were overwriting existing members. The bug has been fixed
• Dataflow. In some cases, Dataflows having a source Layout with the Yearly Cumulated Value time function caused Procedures to fail
• Dataflow. Dataflows using the RAND() function are now working as expected, even if the Procedure is launched multiple times
• Dataflow. Dataflows with a Layout using the Yearly Cumulated Value time function and having Rules with the Column offset option (dot Rules) are now writing values correctly
• Dataflow. In some cases, launching a Data reader before launching a Procedure which included a Dataflow with the “Target dynamic offset” option caused the Dataflow to write wrong values. The issue has been resolved
• Layout. A bug that caused the failure of Layouts containing an algorithm Block with a formula enclosed in parentheses has been fixed
• Layout. In some cases, Layouts containing a Cube structured by Entities having members with missing relationships and the Yearly Cumulated Value time function applied failed. The malfunction has been resolved
• Procedures. If a Procedure had a “Clear Entity” step and subsequent “Text file Data Reader” steps that loaded data in Cubes having the cleared Entity in their structure and two versions, the second version of said Cubes was not aligned correctly. The issue has been resolved
• Select. In some cases, a selection made on an Unbalanced Hierarchy using a Selector was lost after refreshing the Screen. The bug has been fixed

 

 

New enhancements

Ram consumption optimization

This update includes a number of improvements that reduce the memory usage and a number of potential memory leaks have been fixed in order to improve Board’s overall performance and to make it less taxing for the hardware.

More in detail, a new runaway query protection system has been put in place to kill queries that generate a number of cells exceeding the maximum cell limit. The new runaway query protection is enabled by default with a one million cell limit.

Customizable ApiQuery requests limits

ApiQuery requests are free up to 500 requests per day and 10 requests per second. This limit can be increased with an additional license. If you need an increase to your quota, please contact your Board Customer Success Manager or Key Account Manager.
Please note that custom quotas are only available for Cloud subscriptions.

If you are using Board 2022 Spring release, we strongly recommend installing this patch to correct issues reported in the current version and improve Board’s reliability.

Install Files

To download the latest installer files, please visit Downloads. You must sign in to view and download the files.

This version contains a wide list of new features, fixes and enhancements.
Click here for the full documentation

Kayne Schwarz

UPDATE (3/10/2022)

A new 12.3 Patch is now available for download!

Patch highlights:

• Several fixes related to the various Board features and Screen Objects

Bug fixes

The following is a list of reported bugs that have been fixed in this patch.

• Data entry. Data entry actions in Data views with more than 100 rows and the Freeze Panes feature enabled are now working properly
• Dataflow. In some cases, Dataflows having a source Layout with the Yearly Cumulated Value time function caused Procedures to fail
• Excel add-in. If an Excel workbook saved on OneDrive was opened by double-clicking the file, layouts were lost. The issue has been fixed
• Excel add-in. Users having a role with custom selection scripts using the @var function were not able to open the Layout editor in Excel after having exported a Data view to a Microsoft Excel Workbook for Board add-in. The issue had been resolved
• Excel add-in. In some cases, Layouts configured in Excel using the Board add-in were lost after disconnecting and reconnecting to Board. The issue has been fixed
• Layout. A regression that caused the Layout execution to fail when Cubes contained null values has been fixed
• Screen visualization. A visualization issue that caused some Entity members in the Select window to be hidden on an iPad has been resolved
• Select. In some cases and with Data models imported from Board 10.x, a selection using the Dynamic selection feature with the "Based on cube" option and the "Period <> 0" setting enabled did not work. The issue has been fixed
• Subscription Hub. An error that caused unexpected logouts from Platforms associated with the Subscription Hub has been fixed
• Substitution formulas. The new "ShowActive" parameter for the @Selection_Ex formula can be used in conjunction with the "Entity" parameter to always show the active members (i.e. members included in the selection) of the configured Entity or to show the formula if a selection is made on other aggregation levels of the same relationship tree.
  • When the "ShowActive" parameter is set to "False" (default value), the output is the formula itself regardless of any other selections made on other aggregation levels of the same relationship tree.
    Example
    The formula @Selection_ex(Entity="Month",ShowActive="False") is displayed as is also in Play mode, even if you apply a selection on the Year Entity that propagates to the Month Entity
  • When the "ShowActive" parameter is set to "True", the output is always a list of the current active members (i.e. members included in the selection). If all members of the Entity are selected, the output of the formula is "All".
    Example
    The formula @Selection_ex(Entity="Month",ShowActive="True") returns a list of all members of the Month Entity included in the current selection, even if it is made on other aggregation levels of the same relationship tree, such as the Week Entity