(UPDATED) Board 2023 Summer Release - 12.6 Patch Release is Here!

Product Management Team · 2023-06-21T18:21:02+00:00

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We are pleased to share that the Board 2023 Summer Release is here!

For the latest Patch Release notes and a link to the release, please see the first comment below this post.

This release includes significant improvements for all types of users, but its main new features are focused on Makers and Admin & Ops.

Makers can now use the new ALM section (Integrated Application Lifecycle Management) under System Administration to safely compare and transport key Board resources between different Platforms.
Makers also received important updates regarding the "REST API call" Procedure step, which has been greatly enhanced to provide more flexibility and to easily adapt to additional common business scenarios.

Other enhancements for Makers include extending the use of Temporary Cubes to all Procedures steps and, in the Database security area, the ability to configure a security selection based on a Cube and the support of Unbalanced Hierarchies in the Custom selection script field.
Admins & Ops, the Board 2023 Summer release includes the official support of SCIM APIs, which have been integrated into Board's Subscription Hub.
Citizen End-users are getting new scrollbars that have been greatly improved in terms of usability.

To learn about other new functionalities and improvements, see to the "Other enhancements" page and the "Minor changes" page.

Board 2023 Summer release also marks the introduction of the new Enterprise security concept, that officially replaces the previous Enterprise security feature (also known as ~Database_name & ~Security) for new installations.

The new approach provides Cloud customers with greater flexibility and many more options for managing their data, while at the same time improving usability by reducing the implementation effort.

The revamped Enterprise security concept makes use of three powerful features included in this Board release:

Cube visibility - This feature, released in Board 2022 summer release, provides enhanced visibility into the customers' data by allowing them to view and analyze the relevant functional combinations on the reports. This enables them to make more informed decisions and gain deeper insights into their business operations. Learn more about the Cube visibility feature
"Select Entity based on Cube" feature for Database security profiles and Roles - This feature allows for a more granular and flexible approach to security management, where access permissions can be based on individual data Cubes rather than be applied on the entire Data model. This provides greater control over data access and ensures that sensitive information is only accessible to authorized personnel
Board SCIM API service. The System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM) protocol is now officially integrated into Board's Subscription Hub, which now offers a new area dedicated to Permission Groups and supports SCIM attributes in the User Metadata section, thus enabling the use of security selection scripts in the Database security area.

Learn more about the Board 2023 Summer release and its new features and enhancements.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/841160208?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&speed=0&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

The main features of this release include:

Integrated ALM - Transporter improvements - The Transporter section of the System Administration area has been renamed into ALM to reflect the new approach of Board towards an Integrated Lifecycle management system that allows Makers to easily and securely create and maintain Data models and Applications (Capsules) across different Board Platforms.
The new area includes the Data model snapshot and Data model package tools for Data models, which have been improved to transport also custom API queries, and the following two new tools:
- The Capsule snapshot tool: Like the Data model snapshot, this tool allows you to create a snapshot of the entire Capsules area of the Platform, including folders
- The Capsule package tool: Like the Data model package, this tool allows you to create a package based on two different Capsule snapshots, define the structure of the Capsule area once the package is run, compare the two snapshots and map the structure of the source snapshot to the structure of the target snapshot.

The CLI automation area has been updated accordingly to support the execution of Capsule packages.

The improvements above unlock the following key benefits:

Unified management of back-end and front-end
Comparison and impact analysis available also for Capsules
Complete automation of transport and backup, including front-end

Learn more about the new Integrated ALM section

REST API call Procedure step enhancements - The "REST API call" Procedure step is now able to handle pagination (adding order to the query result) and supports visualization of returned data in a dialog (like what happens with the Drill-through). The @Selection_Ex substitution formula and the Data picker tool are now supported in the parameters table and in the "API path" field, to also dynamically pass values to the API call itself. The Procedure Debugger has also been improved to help troubleshoot potential issues with the step.

The improvements above unlock the following key benefits:

Flexibility: REST API step is now able to adapt to a much wider range of external systems and architectures;
Improved performance and reliability: unlock better performances and more reliable data exchange processes;

Learn more about the enhancements to the REST API call Procedure step

Board SCIM API - Board 2023 Summer release now officially supports the System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM) protocol, which enables organizations to manage user identities and access to Board resources across multiple systems and domains. Using SCIM RESTful API calls, you can automate the process of creating, updating, and deleting user accounts and permissions on Board's Subscription Hub, and to keep these accounts and permissions in sync across different systems.
This new implementation reduces the need for manual intervention and ensures that user information is always accurate and up to date.

Key benefits achieved:

Standardization & Integration: accessibility and full operability with identity management systems already used by customers;
Automation: Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operations for Board users can be automated;

Learn more about how the SCIM protocol has been implemented into Board

Release Notes

You may review the full release notes now on the Board Manual here: Board 2023 Summer Release Notes

Install Files

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

Upgrade Instructions

Visit the Upgrade instructions page of the Board Manual to learn about the upgrade process.

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Board 2023 Summer Release

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Product Management Team

UPDATE (27 November 2024)

A new update for Board 12.6 is here (V 12.6.1.3.246912) including several bug fixes. Find the download links on the 12.6 downloads page.

Bug fixes: 

Procedures. When running a Procedure with “Save Data entry”, an invalid data entry input did not prevent the Procedure from completing when it should have. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000022350

Sign-out. In corner cases, users were logged out during navigation shortly after logging in when they shouldn't have been. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000021733

Procedures (On Premises). When executing a “Go to Screen” Procedure action that opened in a new tab and applied a selection or disabled the Layout execution, the settings were not applied to the opened Screen. Also, when executing “Go to Screen” to a Screen where the “Hide Screen list” was enabled in Capsule settings, the Home Screen would open instead of the desired Screen configured in the Procedure. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000022430

Lock and Spread. When lock and spread was activated on a total and some cells were empty, the total changed instead of the rest of the values when a value cell was modified. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000022273

Dynawrite. The text inserted in the Dynawrite object using RTF Cubes did not display Bold and Italic formatting. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000021527

Labels. When changing the Layout Select of a Label, the size of the corresponding Label changed when it shouldn’t have. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000021745

Custom Time Entity. The custom Time Entity with the physical name “E_000002” is not usable whether the Data model was restored or created. When the Data model was restored, the custom Time Entity would not appear in the Custom Relationships page, even after changing the name. When the Data model was created, the custom Time Entity would appear in the Custom Relationships page but not appear listed as a possibility for mapping in a Data reader. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000022143

Security selection. In a corner case, when a selection was made on a Security profile using the “Select Entity based on Cube” filter and a Procedure configured to launch a selection was based on the same Entity, the wrong selection displayed. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000021983

AzureML. Several fixes regarding AzureML have been fixed, including:

Inference step. All inference values were generated from an inference Procedure that was executed after a training scenario ran regardless of an active Screen selection. The Screen selection is now considered.
Timeout parameters. The request timeout has been increased to match that of the endpoint timeout specified at deployment.
Inference client call. Some Inference client call settings have changed in AzureML. Adjustments were made to restore communication with Board.

Data entry. When a minimum and maximum filter was made on a Cube in a Data View Layout with Data entry enabled, and data entry was saved within those filters, a Data validation error message appeared when the value should have correctly saved. This bug has been fixed.

The newest 12.6 Patch Release is now available here!

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UPDATE (18 June 2024)

A new update for Board 12.6 is here (V 12.6.0.2.164865) including several bug fixes. Find the download links on the 12.6 downloads page.

Bug fixes

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

Algorithm. In some cases, when a Data View had several Blocks and an IF algorithm, the algorithm did not return the correct values. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000021794

Azure ML. Due to an update in the Azure ML Studio APIs, the training query experienced a timeout issue despite the training process continuing in the background. This issue has now been resolved. PRB-000021843

Cubes. In a specific case, new Cube versions were not possible to create. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000021795

Impact Analysis. When a Capsule Procedure called a Data model Procedure, the Impact Analysis displayed both as Capsule Procedures. When those Data model Procedures were opened from the Impact Analysis, the Capsule was opened instead of the Data model with a cannot read warning. This bug has been fixed PRB-000021774

Data entry. When an RTF Cube contained text with bullet points and Data entry was disabled on the Object displaying the text, the bullet points did not display. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000021527

Data model (on-premise only). When a Data model backup Procedure configured with an expiration date was launched, the timestamp in the log file differed from the one that appeared in the Backup folder. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000021497

Export. When exporting a printable report to a Word document or PowerPoint and adding the Data View to the print area, the Object was not adjusted correctly to the page size even when using Fit to page configurations. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000021736

Export. When a Data View contained a very long text within a cell and was exported to PDF, the very long text would not fully display in the PDF. The max height of Data View cells exported in Excel or PDF has been increased to 546px (409pt). This is also the maximum allowed in most recent versions of Microsoft Excel. PRB-000021664

Impact Analysis. When a Procedure contained a step (e.g. Export Data, Go to Screen, or Go to Capsule step) referring to a Capsule path that no longer existed because the Capsule had been deleted or moved, the Impact Analysis threw an exception and would not open as expected. This issue has been fixed and the item with the invalid Capsule/Screen path reference will now be shown without the connected Object info. PRB-000021635

Impact Analysis. In some cases, running the Impact Analysis on a Procedure caused unexpected errors. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000021813

Localization. When a localization language was added and then selected from the user menu, the localization reset if the page refreshed. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000021925

Select. When a Data View was dimensioned by an Unbalanced Entity by Row in the rightmost position and a selection of another Entity on a different tree was made, the correct values did not display. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000021848

Word Add-in. When configuring a Data View in Word Add-in with many members in one column, the Object size did not adapt to the Word page size correctly and the size of the Object also did not shrink appropriately when a selection was made that should reduce the size of the Object needed. This bug has been fixed. PRB-000021770

Waterfall. When a Waterfall Object is dimensioned by an unbalanced Entity and a dynamic selection is made on said Entity with a sort applied, the sorting does not work as expected. PRB-000021783

The newest 12.6 Patch Release is now available here!

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UPDATE (3 May 2024)

A new 12.6 Patch is now available for download here.

Patch Highlights:

A new feature has been added in this release that gives developers the ability to customize the timeout parameter of REST API calls defined in a Data source connection
Several bug fixes related to:
- Cubes
- Data models
- Data sources
- Impact Analysis

New feature

New Data source connection timeout parameter for REST APIs. A new parameter has been added to REST API calls defined in a Data source connection to customize the timeout period. The default timeout period is 100 seconds and remains so when this new parameter is not defined. This is helpful, for example, in the event that you anticipate a Data source connection to take longer than 100 seconds.

Bug fixes

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

Cubes. When a Data View configured with an unbalanced Entity and a Text Cube with the Lock by feature enabled and referring to another Cube had a selection applied on parent members of the aforementioned unbalanced Entity in the Layout axes, an unhandled error was returned without rendering data in the Data View. This bug has been fixed.

Data model (on-premise only). When a Data model backup Procedure configured with an expiration date was launched, the timestamp in the log file differed from the one that appeared in the Backup folder. This bug has been fixed.

Data source. When an SAP Data source was modified by editing the URL or moving the Data model from one instance to another where the SAP Data source had a different URL, all the configured Data Readers executed even if the endpoint was invalid. This has been fixed, and now, Data Readers will work if the Data Source URL is updated to a new valid endpoint and will not work if the URL is wrong or invalid.

Impact Analysis. In some cases, when accessing the Impact Analysis from a Data model, an error occurred where the page could not be accessed. In this case, the diagnostic log has been enhanced to record information about the file restricting access to the Impact Analysis so the user can address it and then successfully access the Impact Analysis area.

The newest 12.6 Patch Release is now available here!

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UPDATE (23 February 2024)

A new 12.6 Patch is now available for download here.

Bug fixes:

Presentations. When creating a Presentation, if the Presentation name was shorter than 8 characters, changes were not saved. This bug has been fixed

System Administration. When more than one Broadcast was set with daily schedule at a specific time, the Broadcastings did not run correctly and an unexpected execution ran instead. This bug has been fixed

Procedures. When configuring a Broadcast using the "From Layout” option, an error message occurred. This bug has been fixed

Data entry. The Data entry on a cell with a reverse rule was not saved after unloading from a Database or restarting the Board Engine. This bug has been fixed

The newest 12.6 Patch Release is now available here!

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UPDATE (1 February 2024)

A new 12.6 Patch is now available for download here.

Bug fixes:

Data sources. When a Data Source connection was made with an Amazon S3, the Data Reader only displayed up to 100 text files in the Source folder. This bug has been fixed

Rules. When applying a Rule with a code defined within square brackets [ ], the Rule was not applied and the reference to the correct member was not highlighted. When using a Rule with a code defined within parentheses ( ), the Rule was applied correctly, but the reference to the correct member was not highlighted. This bug has been fixed

Subscription Hub. When using the UpdateLicense call to update licenses in the Subscription Hub with a file that contained temporary licenses, the update would not complete. This bug has been fixed

The newest 12.6 Patch Release is now available here!

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UPDATE (3 January 2024)

A new 12.6 Patch is now available for download here: it includes an important Data model Authorization update.

Bug fixes:

User permissions. A restricted user permission allowed access when it shouldn't have. This bug has been fixed.

API. When using localhost with Board 12.6, Swagger API documentation does not open as expected. This bug has been fixed.

Presentations. When a Presentation was shared to all users, CPU consumption and time elapsed was unusually high and, in some cases, could lock the system. This bug has been fixed.

Data View. When a Data View is populated with a text Cube, has Data entry enabled, and the “differentiate zero and null” option is enabled, text that the user deleted would still appear after saving the Screen. This bug has been fixed.

Excel Add-in. When a Screen Selection was applied to a Layout with Flatten mode enabled in Excel Add-in, an error message occurred and the selection was not applied. This bug has been fixed.

Layout Configuration. When a Data View was configured with two or more Entities in the axis by Column and Data entry was enabled with the “reverse algorithm” setting, the value entered into a cell would appear in another column to the left before saving. This bug has been fixed.

Name field. When special characters were used in names for Labels, Cubes, Procedures, and Entities, the whole field would disappear. This bug has been fixed

The newest 12.6 Patch Release is now available here!

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UPDATE (17 November 2023)

A new 12.6 Patch is now available for download here: it includes an important Data model Authorization update.

Bug fixes:

Data model Authorization/Security filter. When an Entity with a Security filter set by the “Select Entity based on Cube” is set by Row in a Layout and a Layout selection of that Entity’s parent is applied using “TO” instead of “APPLY”, the Security filter rule was ignored. This bug has been fixed.

If you are currently using the Security filters feature released in Summer 2023, we recommend to update to the new version.

Data reader. When a Data source of a Google Cloud storage (ISS) or an Azure Blob storage (on-prem) was configured, a Data reader pointing to these sources could not be configured and displayed the message “Could not load file or assembly”. This bug has been fixed.

Subscription Hub. When more than 50 instances attempted to connect simultaneously, the Subscription Hub connection would fail. This issue has been resolved.

The newest 12.6 Patch Release is now available here!

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UPDATE (14 November 2023)

A new 12.6 Patch is now available for download here: it includes various enhancements and bug fixes.

Patch highlights:

Several fixes and improvements, in particular related to:
- Procedures
- Rest APIs
- Logs
- Data View

Bug fixes

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

API. When using a Data picker in a POST API call, the JSON output value was always displayed in double quotes, even for numeric values. This bug has been fixed.

API. In case of high number of columns generated in the response, a soft kill was implemented (added feature) in test call to abort the remote call, also a new logging has been added (in debug mode). The soft kill has now been logged in the diagnostic log.

Cubes. The action “Reload all Cubes” failed when loading more than 1000 Cubes. This bug has been fixed.

Data model. When a custom Time Entity was created as a child of Fiscal Year and a change was made to the Time Range, the Fiscal Year was duplicated. This bug has been fixed.

Data View. The code and description for all Time Entities would only show the description in display mode. This bug has been fixed.

Data View. When an algorithm with a reverse rule was applied to a Data View and Data entry was performed on the Grand Total, the on-the-fly calculations were not correct until saved. This bug has been fixed.

Impact Analysis. When opening a Cube from a Data model, the Impact Analysis was trigged. This bug has been fixed. Now, the Impact Analysis will only be triggered when the ANALYSIS tab is opened.

Logs. When opening an HBMP log file of at least 2 GB in size from the web client, BENG crashed due to RAM consumption. This bug has been fixed. The log is limited to the last 1 million latest records.

Procedures. There was an error where Layout configurations were lost when editing a dataflow step, replacing the target Cube with a temporary Cube. This issue has now been fixed.

Rules. When a Rule with “column offset” (dot annotations) was applied to a Data Block and Entities were sorted by “None”, the values were sometimes displayed incorrectly. The issue was appearing if the order in which Entity members were loaded was different from the default display. This bug has been fixed.

Rules. The Data picker within a Rule was not working as expected. This bug has been fixed.

Screen. When a button was created with the Action Type “Go to previous Screen”, the action did not always go to the previous Screen. This bug has been fixed.

Smart Import. SEARCH and FIND did not work in Smart Import as expected. This bug has been fixed.

Subscription Hub. When importing users in bulk using a .csv file, user attributes did not update correctly. This bug has been resolved.

Substitution formulas. Specific substitution formulas (@datelong, @dateextendend, @datemonth, @dateyear, @dateday, @timelong, @time12, @time24) were not working as expected. This bug has been fixed.

The newest 12.6 Patch Release is now available here!

——————————————————————————————————————————

UPDATE (25 September 2023)

A new 12.6 Patch is now available for download here: it includes various enhancements and bug fixes.

Patch highlights:

Several fixes and improvements related to:
- Vertical Layouts
- Rest APIs
- Data entry
Resolved issues with the Google Maps API due to a Google update. Read more here
Board SAP connector compatibility update to use the new SAP extraction feature Table CDC

Enhancements

Google Maps Object is available upon upgrade

After a recent Google API update, the Google Maps Object will now display properly only with this latest Board version. If you are on a previous version and you want to use this Screen Object, you must update to the newest Board version.

Increased security to Data sources

To enhance security, the option to connect data sources to Board using “localhost”, “127.0.01”, or all the access requests that are resolved internally to the server are not supported anymore. This is true for all types of Data readers, including SAP and ASCII readers.

This kind of configuration should be changed with a specific server URL/address to continue using the connection.

The URL security check, whether positive or negative, is logged at the DEBUG level into the Diagnostic log.

Data reader fix for newest version of SAP Connector

If a customer upgraded to the newest version of Theobald software, Board was unable to connect to the SAP Connector server where at least one Table CDC was configured. With the new Theobald update, the new SAP Connector only uses the HTTP/HTTPS protocol, which uses the data transfer port.

In order to fix this, administrators must upgrade to this latest Summer update version and change the connection URL in the Data Reader section of Board from TCP to HTTP or HTTPS, pointing to the same server but using the data transfer port. The data transfer port default for HTTP and HTTPS respectively are 8097 and 8197.

e.g. The old connection with TCP, board-connection.com:8098, must now be changed to HTTPS, https://board-connection.com:8197

Note: the ports 8097 and 8197 are the default ports that the SAP Connector offers during installation but can be changed by the client.

If customers upgrade to a new Board version, but do not upgrade to the new SAP Connector version, the data connection will still work as expected. This only applies to those who upgraded the Theobald software to use the Table CDC extractor.

Bug fixes

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

Bulk SQL insert. In some cases, the Bulk SQL insert Procedure step caused an error to appear and the Procedure to fail. Also, these errors were logged incorrectly. This bug has been fixed and all errors and exceptions are now logged correctly.

Cubes. Reordering Cube Groups from the user view page in the Cubes section caused an unexpected error. This bug has been fixed.

Cubes. When a BLOB Cube was moved to a different Group or was renamed, the Cube was cleared. This bug has been fixed.

Cubes. If a Cube with multiple versions that was included in a Transporter package was moved to a different position in the user view page, the Cube was cleared. This bug has been fixed.

Data entry. When a new value was entered in a Down Total or a Row Total cell of an algorithm block with a reverse algorithm, the number displayed in the preview of those cells was wrong. This bug has been fixed.

Data entry. In a Layout with a Screen Selection that has an unbalanced Entity set by Row, performing a Data entry on a Cube cell, resulted in the value not being saved and propagated as expected along the Relationship tree. This bug has been fixed.

Data entry. Data entry on a vertically aligned Data View would not save the correct value. This bug has been fixed.

Dataflow. Running a Procedure with the Dataflow step with the time function Yearly Cumulated Value applied to the source Cube and a Select applied to the Fiscal Year Entity would unexpectedly change the selection. This bug has been fixed.

Data model. When a 128-bit Cube was configured to have access conditions from the Cube visibility section of the Database security page, the Layouts that contained said Cube would fail. This bug has been fixed.

Data View. Entity members whose code was a number were not displayed correctly when added as a Block in a vertically aligned Layout. This bug has been fixed.

Data View. When the Lock and Spread function was applied on a Data View associated with a vertically aligned Layout, the “Total”, “Average”, “Minimum”, and “Max” values displayed in the right panel of the Lock and Spread configuration window for cells containing decimal numbers were rounded to whole numbers. This bug has been fixed.

Data View. When a Data View with multiple columns of different widths was navigated by scrolling horizontally, the last column was not displayed. This bug has been fixed.

Data View. When a Screen Selection made with the “exclude” option and one or more of the excluded members were deleted from the Entities section of the corresponding Data model, a log line in the Diagnostic log set at a verbosity level “Warning” was created every time the Screen was opened. This event is no longer tracked in the Diagnostic log set at “Warning” but at “Debug”.

Entities. In some cases, when a standalone Entity was cleared from the Entities section of a Data model, all selections that included that standalone Entity did not work as expected. This bug has been fixed.

Layout. The execution of Layouts containing a high number of cells was unexpectedly slower than previous versions. This has been fixed.

Layout. When a filter was set on one Cube and Data entry on another and the Screen with the associated Data View was opened in 2 different browser tabs, then, if the user filtered out a cell from one tab and then went back to the other tab without refreshing the page to perform Data entry on the same cell, the newly entered data was saved in the wrong cell. This bug has been fixed.

Layout. If a Layout with Unbalanced Entity had the “Refer to” option enabled and an Entity not in said Layout was deleted, after unloading and reloading the Data model, the Down Total value was not calculated correctly. This bug has been fixed.

Layout. A Layout having more than one Entity set by Row and two algorithms, one that displayed the same value of a Cube block and the other one that performed a formula where the Cube block is divided by itself and also had a filter applied, produced an incorrect Total value. This bug has been fixed.

Procedures. If the path in an Extract Tree Procedure step configuration didn’t exist, the Procedure which contained it would fail instead of creating the necessary folders. This bug has been fixed.

Rest API. If a REST API step configuration used a data picker for a query parameter value on a temporary Cube, an error would occur. This bug has been fixed.

Rest API. When a REST API Call was made and the response had a body in gzip format, this step could not read it properly in the output configuration dialog. This bug has been fixed and compressed body types are now supported: to do so, we have added two new default headers (Accept and Accept-Encoding) to notify the remote server. If a custom value is entered, those headers will notify the remote server with said custom value. If no value is entered, those headers will not be added to the call. If an unsupported custom value is entered, an error message will be displayed in the output configuration dialog.

Smart Import Object. In Design mode, when a user with a Power User license clicked on the Suggested Values menu in the right panel, the user was logged out. This bug has been fixed.

Subscription Hub. When an administrator updated password policy options in the General Settings area, the new options were not displayed correctly and were ignored when users changed their password. This bug has been fixed.

SQL Data Reader. When Entity members had a line break at the end of their code, the said code would only be saved correctly upon its creation. Running the same Data Reader again would not write any values. This bug has been fixed.

The newest 12.6 Patch Release is now available here!

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UPDATE (14/08/2023)

A new 12.6 Patch is now available for download here: it includes various enhancements and bug fixes.

Patch highlights:

Update on Board’s public APIs
New “set trigger” option for Data Views
Data model package enhancements
Several fixes and improvements related to various Data model features, the Dataflow step, Data entry, and more.

New features

Board's public APIs

It is now possible to trigger the execution of a Procedure with a selection added through query string parameters: the selection will define the scope of the Procedure as it does when the Procedure is triggered from a Capsule Screen that has an active Selection applied.

This improvement is particularly useful for business cases when the API call should update and process only a specific selection of data and that information is not stored in Board but in the external system that triggers the execution of a Board Procedure. For example, if a user has updated sales data for 100 products in their ERP system and wants to launch a Procedure which reads only the information about those products and calculates the related margin, now a selection can be passed with the "Procedure" API query to limit the scope of its execution to those 100 products.

Examples:

Base: ?{entity_name}={member_code} ?year=2012
Result: The Procedure scope will only consider the year 2012
Multiple: ?{entity_name}={member_code}&{entity_name}={member_code} ?year=2012&city=IT01
Result: The Procedure scope will only consider the year 2012 and the city whose code is IT01
List: ?{entity_name}={member_code},{member_code},{member_code} ?year=2012,2017,2019
Result: The Procedure scope will only consider the years 2012, 2017 and 2019
Range: ?{entity_name}={member_code}..{member_code} ?year=2015..2019
Result: The Procedure scope will consider all years from 2015 to 2019
Escape: ?{entity_name}="{member_code}" ?city="IT01"
Result: The Procedure scope will only consider the city whose code is IT01

Other details about the "Procedure" API query are available here.

New "Execute procedure for active selection" option

A new option has been added to the Data View properties in Design mode, under the "Set trigger" menu in the "Data entry options" menu.

If enabled, the new option triggers the associated Procedure only once as soon as new values are saved and only on the active Screen Selection, instead of running it one time for every updated value.

The new option is disabled by default.

This new implementation allows Makers to automatically trigger workflow and calculation Procedures when new values are saved, without the need to add other Objects on the Screen (e.g. Buttons) to manually trigger said Procedures.

Data model package now includes Azure ML forecast scenarios

In the “COMPARE” step of the Data model package creation process, you can now include or exclude AzureML forecast scenarios, configured in the new Azure ML section. If included, the Data model package will transport the AzureML forecast scenarios along with the information regarding their execution (i.e. training results, logs etc.), and substitute any existing information in the target Data model.

AzureML forecast scenarios that are undergoing the training phase can be included in a Data model package, but they will not be transported when that Data model package is executed. Specific warning messages will appear when you try to create or execute a Data model package that includes an AzureML forecast scenario that is currently in the training phase.

Check the full release notes here.

Bug fixes

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

Appearance. If a logo or a header background of the recommended specifications were uploaded in the Appearance page under System Administration, unwanted space around the images would appear. This bug has been fixed

Capsule Snapshot (on-premises installation only). If the Board Server Configuration did not use disk C as the default “Board path”, an error would occur when creating a Capsule snapshot.

Charts. The template applied using a Select would override the template applied through a “Refer to” function. The bug has been fixed

Data entry. If the Save/Undo mode was disabled in a Data View and a Procedure was set to trigger after updated values were saved, the Procedure would not trigger when a user pasted values in a cell range that contained some locked cells. This bug has been resolved

Data entry. If a Layout was configured with a hidden Block, an unhidden Block with Data entry enabled, and at least an Entity set By Column, clearing sequential cells on the same row with the DEL key would also clear adjacent unselected cells. This bug has been fixed

Dataflow. The Forecast and Trend time functions are now also supported by Dataflow Layouts

Dataflow. If only one value of a Block in a Dataflow Layout was considered and said Block was used in the expression, in some cases, the target Cube was not cleared before writing new values. This bug has been fixed

Dataflow. The JOIN function, not to be confused with the JOIN algorithm, is not considered by the Dataflow anymore, and if you use the JOIN function in a Dataflow, it will be ignored because Board automatically defines which algorithms to use in calculations. If you have existing Dataflows using the JOIN function, no further action is required. For example: a formula with the following syntax JOIN(a+b) is now considered as simply a+b

Dataflow. In some cases, if the function IN() was selected while mapping a Cube from MDB to RDB, the Dataflow wouldn’t write any values. This bug has been fixed

Data model. When creating a Transporter package, if Rules were unselected in the configuration of the package or if the target Data model didn’t have any existing rules, running the package afterward would result in a failure. This bug has been fixed

Data model. If the Data reader was called in parallel on the same file from two different users at the same time, an error would occur. This bug has been fixed

Data model Restore. In some cases, where several backups of a Data model exist, of which one was renamed without a timestamp, the system would always restore the version without a timestamp regardless of the user’s choice. This bug has been fixed

If the restore process is initiated in the Admin Portal, the system will always restore the latest backup with a timestamp even if the user manually selects a backup without a timestamp. This is a known limitation

Data View. Templates created with Symbols applied before and after values by Row were not ignored when the “Ignore format template” option was enabled. This bug has been fixed

Export Data to xlsx. Exporting data from a Data View using the “Export data to xlsx” feature with the “Use Excel formulas for calculated blocks, column totals and row totals” option selected didn’t work as expected when the Layout had 2 Entities set By Column. This bug has been fixed

Gantt Chart. If Gantt Chart bar colors were changed in the ACTIVITY BARS OPTIONS menu from the default Monochrome to another type, after saving and switching to Play mode, the color change did not take effect. This bug has been fixed

Layout. If a Layout had an Unbalanced Entity with many levels set by Column and totals were enabled, the Layout execution took much longer than before. This bug has been fixed

Layout. In Layouts with an Unbalanced Entity set by Column and multiple Entities set by Row, data aggregation did not occur as expected. This bug has been fixed

Power Bi add-in. In some cases, when signing in using SSO, an error would appear, preventing the user from signing in. The bug has been fixed

Public APIs. In some cases, if a Data model was renamed, starting one of its Procedures via an API request would not successfully execute. The bug has been fixed

Rules. In some cases, when exporting and re-importing Rules created at different times, newer Rules did not work as expected. The issue has been resolved and new user notification messages have been implemented. Also, the data entry log has been enriched in order to be able to track errors regarding Rules: these new log lines include the name of the Rule that caused the error and specific information about the error
Example:
2023-07-06 16:42:10.545 +02:00 WARN BOARD\admin 1ee9314f-6491-4ab4-8a93-484e0555f5aa DTB_OpenByName Rule {"Exceptions":[{"Name":"A", "Formula":["Error in formula [a2] +10 - 01] - [a5]: Wrong codes delimiter balancing"]}]} Anomalies in rules found

Select window. The hierarchy of Relationships is now displayed as expected in the Select window: each level of a Relationship tree is displayed right after its child level

Smart Import. When using the Smart import Object, certain string values were recognized as scientific notation values. This has been resolved by providing users the ability to set a specific data type for each unmapped column. The new COLUMN TYPE menu has been added to the Smart Import Object contextual right panel in Design mode for unmapped columns. Once opened, select the column name from the “Column” dropdown menu and then, from the “Data Type” dropdown menu below, select the preferential data type: numeric, text, or date. The default option is “not set”, and in that case, Board will automatically interpret the data type based on the values entered in the unmapped columns

Subscription Hub. If the Subscription Hub was upgraded to a version that supported Board's Collaboration services without activating them, a notification error would appear when opening Capsules where instances of the previous Chat feature were present. This bug has been fixed

System and Performance. If the Chrome or Edge browser setting for inactivating tabs after a period of time is enabled and a user accessed the same Board environment in multiple browser tabs of which the inactive tabs were put to sleep after the specific period of time, resuming one of the inactive tabs would log out the user automatically. This bug has been fixed

Word add-in. If a Board-created Layout that contained an Entity with a Row template applied was opened in a Word document through Word add-in, that Row template would no longer be applied. This bug has been fixed

The newest 12.6 Patch Release is now available here!

Taylor Coroneos

Hi @Product Management Team and Board world,

Been getting a repeated question related to the patch change for the below so figured I'd post it for all.
"Dataflow. The JOIN function is not supported anymore and should not be used in the Dataflow configurations. If you have Dataflows using the JOIN function, it will be ignored and requires no further action"

Is there a recommended best way to 'find' all the JOINs used in an application that is in 12 today? In version 10, it will be simple to find the steps as they will be within the log. In 12, is there a clean way to identify which procedures and steps are using a join today?

Thanks in advance!
Taylor

Product Management Team

Hi Taylor,

Since the JOIN function will be ignored, Board will automatically apply the appropriate algorithm to the formulas proceeding the ignored function. There is no need to find and change existing formulas with the JOIN function. For example: a formula with the following syntax JOIN(a+b) is now considered as simply a+b

The bug fix has been updated:
The JOIN function, not to be confused with the JOIN algorithm, is not considered by the Dataflow anymore, and if you use the JOIN function in a Dataflow, it will be ignored because Board automatically defines which algorithms to use in calculations. If you have existing Dataflows using the JOIN function, no further action is required. For example: a formula with the following syntax JOIN(a+b) is now considered as simply a+b

Please don't hesitate to reach out for further information regarding the topic!

The Board Product Management Team

Manuela Jucker

Hi board team

i experience it differently. Dataflows with a join will not be calculated. I had to change all formulas when updateing from 12.3 to 12.6.

I can show you if you doubt untill 1st of september :-).

Best regards

Manuela

Product Management Team

Hi Manuela,

Thank you for your feedback. Unfortunately, this was the case in the first version of 12.6 which is why it was fixed in the recent update which was released on August 14, 2023.

If you still have issues, please reach out to our Support Team.

Kind Regards,

Board Product Management Team

Product Management Team

The latest 12.6 Patch Release notes are at the top of the first comment, directly underneath the original post.

Nicolas CHIGROS

Hi,

Thank you for the lasted patch, but the wording on the following fix is quite vague, can you elaborate on which issue it does fix?

User permissions. A restricted user permission allowed access when it shouldn't have. This bug has been fixed.

Product Management Team

Hi @Nicolas CHIGROS,

Thank you for your comment. Let us explain this in more detail:

Admin users who have Sub Hub authorization permission can be restricted from or to specific Platform areas; the bug fixed pertained to the very specific use case when an admin with a User license was only allowed to edit and access Collaboration functionalities. Within Sub Hub, they were able to access generic Platform options. This restricted permission group no longer has access to these options. This only affected admin users who already had authorization to access the Sub Hub.

With any further questions, please ask.

Best,

The Product Management Team

Yana McConaty

Could you please update the release notes for the 18 June 2024 Patch? Thanks

Product Management Team

Hi @Yana McConaty, the release notes are up to date.