Board 14 is here!

Product Management Team · January 22

We are pleased to announce that the Board 14 release is here! 🚀

The new  Board 14.1 release includes significant improvements for both developers, administrators, and end users in addition to a completely new, enhanced user interface.

End users can look forward to the new Flex Grid Object, a powerful Object which gives end users more independent pivoting capabilities. With an intuitive design, Board 14.1 provides more visibility of features strategically placed for better and quicker navigation. In addition to the look, enhanced features to support end users have been implemented, like embedded search and Tooltips for every action. End users have more intuitive interactions with the most common end-user functionalities like Quick Layout, selection, and other Object options.
Makers configure Screens more easily and faster with the intuitive design. The Layout Editor has been improved for better navigation with enhancements like the Quick Layout and editing multiple blocks simultaneously. Makers can now improve the end user experience because of improvements to the Selector Object associated with Unbalanced Entities and the new Refresh Data step.
All users benefit from global features like right-click options, improved messages, better visualization, and many other enhancements. The most noticeable change immediately upon using the new version is the look and feel.

What to expect in the new Board 14.1 release

https://player.vimeo.com/video/936205611?h=12519fd858

Consistent and consolidated UI experience

Reviewed Design framework components with a coherent style and predictable behavior
Redesigned form elements (inputs, checkboxes, radio buttons, sliders, switches, etc.)
Improved UI components: Buttons/Toggles, Loaders/Spinners, Chips & Badges, and Board tiles (Capsule, Presentations, Data model, System administration)
Screen Objects and other elements:
- Consistent styles
- Common and predictable interactions
- Improved readability of the content
- Hierarchical view display of elements where applicable
- Application of colors standardized
- Introduction of Breadcrumbs navigation

More support for end users

Embedded search
Advanced dropdown
Right-click support
Improved messages (positive confirmation, alert, errors)
Tooltip on every action
Expanded Keyboard shortcuts

Improved performance and visualization

Modern framework enhances security and simplifies updates
Bundle loading modules have better performance and a more efficient execution
Reactive programming paradigm boosts performance and performs a smoother and more responsive UI
Client-side execution allows the exploit of browser execution power and optimizes the exchange between client/server
Completely rewritten data transfer for Objects allows a lighter and faster communication between client/server

Main new features of Board 14.1

We are thrilled to announce that Board 14.1 will showcase an enhanced user interface, designed to improve the capabilities from visibility to faster feature access and more control capabilities.

Enhanced UI and improved features

The new Layout Editor. The improved Layout Editor is more intuitive to navigate. It provides more advanced configuration settings, for example in the Quick Layout section, and better visualization of settings available. The improvements were designed to make configuring a Layout faster and easier
Right-click. Available in all global pages (Capsules, Data model, System, Procedure editor, etc.), makers can quickly access menu options and the toolbar
Screen design. Makers and end users can quickly switch between Design and Play mode and can do so with a Selection continuously applied rather than being reset. Enjoy faster development and easier debugging with the new Screen design features
Masks. When editing a Mask, makers can now quickly assign it to multiple Screens simultaneously and directly in the Screen they are working on
Quick Layout. Customize the end user controls in more detail when they interact with a Data View to guide them as to which data configurations they can display
Sliding and Properties panels. The Layers section now allows the selection of multiple Objects to rearrange them within the Layer list as well as in the Screen all together as before and to change their positions with the options of "bring to front" and "bring to back". While the “Properties Search” feature allows the ability to easily find properties also in more complex Objects
Back-end updates. Key elements such as Cubes, Entities, Procedures, Data readers, and Drill through have all been improved to enhance usability with quicker developments, faster troubleshooting, and an easier navigable design
System administration. Admins and Makers can assign roles, view folder security, and deliver Broadcasting more easily. The Themes section has a new “Custom Links” are and an instant preview to visualize customizations.

The new Flex Grid Object

The new Flex Grid Object is a new way of interacting with Board data in a highly-performant, self-service manner. With dynamic capabilities, this powerful feature allows key benefits such as:

Performance. The Flex Grid is a powerful tool with improved performance capabilities. End users and developers can leverage large data volumes with more Entities set by Row (1 million+) or by Column than ever before. Now, access and display of large amounts of data is faster and easier. The new object also optimizes how the data is retrieved, improving the user experience, responsiveness of the object, and performance in highly concurrent environments.
Empowers end users. With the new Flex Grid Object, the end user has many more capabilities than before. With advanced ad-hoc reporting, the end user can calculate data they need on the fly without restraint. With more self-service capabilities, the end user is free to pivot data without breaking the dataset logic. And when displaying data, the end user now has more control over how they view that data with improved display options like grouping data, sorting data, filtering data, collapsing axes, and more
Self-service pivoting with Pivot Mode. Pivot functionalities allow makers to create more open reports and dashboards for end users so they can freely and independently achieve the type of analysis they need
Improved filtering and sorting. Filtering and sorting is not configured in the Layout editor configuration as with a Data View, but within the Flex Grid itself. It is also possible to save a default display configuration of sorting and filtering within the Flex Grid so as not to start from the original dataset. Manual sorting of columns and Blocks are also possible
- Multi-filtering & multi-sorting. It is possible to sort and filter by multiple Entities and Cubes. The maker can configure the restrictions to a single column or multiple
Embedded Charts. Charts are possible directly within the Flex Grid itself. Use on-the-fly charts to visualize demand patterns and identify trends
Export to Excel. You can export the exact Flex Grid configuration to an Excel workbook directly from the Object without formatting it
More flexible formatting. The Flex Grid has even more formatting options than a Data View, found under the Design subpage of the Object Properties panel
Unbalanced hierarchies. The dataset-level execution now allows the table to calculate multiple unbalanced hierarchy aggregations; this is significant because in Data Views, only the most-nested Unbalance hierarchy set By Row was executed
Rules and Algorithms. These on-the-fly calculations are executed at dataset-level, now allowing the users to easily display/aggregate calculated values by the available dimensions (i.e. Excel Pivot-like behavior).

Dynamic Engine

We have made significant improvements to the capabilities of the Board Engine, specifically in the areas of memory management, performance optimization, and data on-disk reliability. These enhancements will allow our customers to scale more efficiently and handle larger, more complex applications.

Improved scalability for larger data volumes with fewer resources
- Board Engine is now capable of managing much larger amounts of data thanks to an optimized management where information is kept in memory
- On average, much more resources are available to execute user interactions and requested calculations
Improved performance for calculations and data transfers
- The new architecture allows for several performance optimizations and improvements in several key areas like Dataflows, Data Readers, Extractions, etc.
Simplified architecture and maintenance
- Only one saving policy and architecture moving forward which is automatically applied when upgrading to Board 14.1
- Complex backup architectures (save to disk, OnServerClose, etc.) can now be removed, exploiting a simple backup via a Procedure step
- Historical data loading has much less impact on resources usage, reducing the need for data archiving processes

More enhancements

In addition to the three main features, Board 14.1 has numerous other enhancements to expect. Some of these improvements include:

Excel Add-in improvements
- Formatting (export management)
- Ribbon icons (management)
- Connect & refresh options
- Filters (Improved Pagers & Selection window)
- BCUBE_K (BCUBE responsive to active selection)
- General performance optimizations
Refresh Data step. A new Procedure step which refreshes only data without resetting the most relevant Play mode interactions active on Data Views which are:
- Positioning and scroll
- Sorting
- Manual collapse/expand
- Master Object 
- Locked cells
Selector improvements. Selectors used on Unbalanced hierarchies now have quicker access to the most used selection modes (Descendants, Ancestors, Leaves, etc.). Makers configure special selection modes as a default view and end users can make these special selections while interacting with the Object in Play mode, for example, selecting all the descendants of a selected member
Cognitive Space, InRam flag, and Fast track are no longer available with the release of Board 14