Other enhancements

Some other enhancements are also noteable for the release of B14, including many updated design features, visualization, and add-in improvements. It should also be noted that with the release of B14, Cognitive Space is no longer accessible.

User experience enhancements

  • Edit multiple Blocks settings in a Layout. If you want Blocks to have identical configurations, select each Block by checking the corresponding checkbox to the left of the Data Block name in the Data area, then right click and enter into Settings or click any Block. The Blocks must have the same settings
  • Tooltip on Mouse-over is now available for every Object
  • Collapsible groups is a feature now available for better visibility of data
  • Export screenshot .png. This new feature is available in the Object toolbar in Play mode and will export a screenshot of the Object to a .png 
  • Mask improvements. It is now possible to change the Mask assigned to a Screen not only from a central menu but directly in the Screen itself. When editing a Mask, it is also possible to quickly assign it to multiple Screens simultaneously

  • The Capsule browser has been completely redesigned, some of the key changes are:

    • Capsule tile and folders: new style and customization opportunities

    • Better visualization of the current positioning via breadcrumb menu

    • Embedded search 

    • Hierarchical visualization of Capsules and Folders‘ structure

    • No more edit mode required: changes can be made via + button or simply via right click

  • Screen design. From a Screen design point of view, the new UI also offers several benefits. The general interactions which have been improved are:

    • Quick switch between Design mode and Play mode using F4

    • Selection is kept when switching from Play to Design mode 

    • Object Group selection via squared area (click & drag) and highlight of selected Objects

    • Easier to add Objects into containers 

    • Easier Object positioning 

  • Keyboard shortcuts. Shortcuts in Design mode like Select all Screen Objects (Ctrl + A) and select none (Ctrl + shift + A)

    • Interact with a Screen Object. When you want to interact with a Screen Object both in Play or Design mode, you can double click or Ctrl + left-click on the Object to reveal the contextual menu icon in the top left corner of the Object. However, if the Object is nested inside another Object or multiple Objects, you must double click as many times as the Object is nested. To reduce the amounts of clicks, you can Ctrl + left-click over the nested Object to immediately have access to the contextual menu for interaction

Improved Objects and Object features

  • Data View. With better usability that is more intuitive and flexible, the Data View improvements include:
    • Improved toolbar usability
    • Right click access to options and editor for ad-hoc changes
    • Quick Layout and other interactive features more visible and easier to use. Read more about the improved Quick Layout
    • Direct access via right click and toolbar
    • Pivot options can be defined by the maker to guide the user on how to best use the available data
    • Modal window and refresh when pivoting is completed
    • Extra value blocks hidden by default and can be shown when relevant
    • Improved scrollbars behavior and usability
  • Drill function. Now the Drill function is quicker with improved usability such as:
    • Better visualization of available actions in Play mode and active/inactive elements
    • Entities hierarchy view easily shows the related Entities and how drill will be executed
    • Faster rendering for large Data models with several Entities and trees
  • Entity Editor. The new Entity Editor provides more usability for quicker developments with improvements including:
    • Improved Editor: a single page instead of multiple windows for Relationship management
    • Hierarchical view: better visualization of hierarchy between displayed Entities
    • Changes are clearly marked before they are committed
  • Procedure Editor. The new Procedure Editor displays more settings and options upon creating a new Procedure like the Steps section and Options tab. This creates better visibility and faster access to create steps than before. Also notable is the improved tooltips and steps description, improved temporary Cube management, collapsible and expandable groups, the advanced search option with embedded, faster, and hierarchical view and filters

  • 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 

    • Play mode Sort 

    • Manual collapse/expand 

    • Master object  

    • Select from toolbar 

    • Search from toolbar 

    • Quick layout changes 

    • Freeze panes 

    • Number scaling

  • Major use cases for this new Procedure step are planning Screens, including a refresh Screen via Procedure and the Data View Object; planning Screens with frequent interactions between the Data View Object and the available buttons; and planning Screens using several drill Procedure logics

 

Visualization improvements

  • Data visibility control. Now you can edit multiple Cubes in Data security settings to have the same setting configurations. To do this, select multiple Cubes.
    Then, select Edit and a pop up window called "Multiple Cubes Edit" will appear
  • Browser title labeling.The browser title labeling has been improved. The browser tabs will now display the name of the page first so that when many tabs are open, it is easier to navigate which tab is which page, for example a Capsule Screen, the Data model page, or the Procedure Editor
  • Hierarchy view. Now you can view Entities in a hierarchical view in multiple places like the Entities page, in the Entity editor, choosing Entities from a drop down menu, like in the New template window or in a Drill window

 

Board Excel Add-in improvements

The Excel Add-in has improved in the B14 release. Those improvements are as follows:

  • Formatting. Exports from Excel Add-in now support formatting
    • Export formatting. The option Export "MS Excel Workbook for Board Add-in" from a Data View now supports formatting
    • Dynamic formatting. Next to the already available Excel static formatting, Board Add-in now supports Row Style templates, Data View colors (including Data entry and locking), and Blocks formatting
      • Defined in a Capsule and then exported, or configured directly in Excel
      • Row Style templates and Block format can be modified in Excel directly via the Data View Editor
      • Data View colors can be accessed via right-click on a Data View cell in Excel
  • Pagers. Pager options have been improved
    • "No-All" and Period options have been added
    • Improved Pager interactions between Pagers of the same hierarchy and in relation to the active Selection
    • Improved Panel usability
  • Workbook settings (only accessible by Power Users and Developers). The following Workbook settings have been added:
    • Automatically refresh the Workbook on Connection. This toggle enables or disables the ability to automatically refresh the workbook content once a connection is established to Board

      When enabled, if any "offline" pending Data entry is present, and the workbook refreshes, the user will be prompted with an ad-hoc message shown below.
      Choosing "Yes" will refresh the workbook and any unsaved Data entry made while offline will be lost.
      Choosing "No" or "Cancel" will not refresh and keep the unsaved Data entries.

    • Makers can intentionally disable all the ribbon icons to expose a less complex set of features to end-users
  • Select Settings (only accessible by Power Users and Developers). The following Select Settings have been added:
    • Makers can manage the visibility of Entities in the Select window. This will display a restricted list of Entities showing only Entities which are relevant in that Sheet (i.e. in other words the Select Window can now be configured like a list of Selectors for end users). These visibility settings are only applied if an end user (Lite and User license) connects to the workbook

      Select settings are saved at the "Sheet" level for each Data model in use.
      If these settings are activated, the dynamic selection options and the "Graphical view" representation are disabled in the Select window for the end users.

  • Add-In settings. A new area has been added to the Add-In settings called the Environment Area at the bottom of the window. For your reference, this area shows the host environment name, the license of the user, the user email, and the version of Board being used
  • BCUBE_K. The new formula BCUBE_K has been added to Excel Add-in. It has the same syntax as BCUBE and similarly retrieves data from a Board Data model or Cube of a specific set of coordinates. However, the significance of the K represents "keeps selection". The difference is that BCUBE_K maintains the workbook selection and retrieves data accordingly with the Select applied. This allows users to display data without having to necessarily specify each and every coordinate, but only the ones not already defined in the selection.

    The syntax is as follows: =BCUBE_K("Data model", "Cube Name", "Coordinates", "Functions"), for e.g. =BCUBE_K("Echo", "Profit & Loss","Quarter=201203") will show the value of Data model Echo from the Profit & Loss Cube with the coordinates of the 3rd quarter in 2012 within the current selection to the sheet.

     

 

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.

  • Scalability
    • 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
  • Performance:
    • The new architecture allows for several performance optimizations and improvements in several key areas like Dataflows, Data Readers, Extractions, etc.
  • Simplification:
    • Only one saving policy and architecture moving forward which is automatically applied when upgrading to B14
    • 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
    • InRam Flag now deprecated

 

Other

Data Reader optimization. Reduction of transient memory consumption of Dataflow and dataset export action