Version 11.4 Release Notes

Last Updated January 31, 2013

Introduction

Version 11.4 is a minor release. It includes the following enhancements:

Viewsheet Annotation

Users can now add annotations to a dashboard screen and to individual dashboard components, chart data points, and table cells. The Annotation Editor provides tools to customize the annotation font, size, color, alignment, and other properties. Annotation borders and callout lines can be styled and freely positioned. The 'Annotation' toolbar button allows a user to control whether annotations are displayed on the dashboard or hidden. Annotations are saved together with the current bookmark (see Shared Bookmarks below) so that they can be shared among users.

Shared Bookmarks

Viewsheet bookmarks can now be shared among users. When a user creates a new bookmark, the user can choose to make the bookmark "private" (accessible to the creator only) or "shared". A shared bookmark can be made visible to all users or restricted to users who belong to the same groups as the creator. The bookmark can also be designated as 'read-only' to prevent modification by other users.

Discrete Measure Representation

Chart measures can now be designated as 'Discrete' in order to represent the measure values individually (discretely), rather than as part of a continuous spectrum. For example, when using a measure such as 'Discount Level' to color the groups on a chart, you can designate the measure as 'Discrete' to create a categorical-type legend identifying each individual color/value pair rather than the default continuous spectrum-type legend.

Independent Visual Binding for Chart Measures

In previous versions the Chart Editor 'Visual' bindings ('Color', 'Shape', 'Size') applied uniformly to all measures on the chart. For example, if you plotted two measures, 'Total' and 'Quantity', and then added the 'State' field to the 'Color' binding to break out the data by state, both the 'Total' and 'Quantity' measures displayed the state color-coding. In the current version, you can choose to restrict the 'Visual' bindings to individual measures; for example, you can break out the 'Total' measure by 'State' without altering the 'Quantity' measure.

Dynamic Sorting for Viewsheet Chart Axes

Users can now sort the groups on a chart by clicking the 'Sort' button on the chart axis. The 'Sort' button appears when a user moves the mouse over the relevant axis, and provides access to the commonly-used 'Ascending by Value' and 'Descending by Value' sort options.

Screen Layout Guide for Viewsheets

As an aid to Viewsheet layout, the 'Viewsheet Options' dialog box now provides a 'Target Screen' option, which allows the designer to enter the dimensions (in pixels) of the target dashboard size. When this option is enabled, the Viewsheet grid displays a set of guidelines to mark off the borders of the specified region. By placing all Viewsheet components within the guidelines, the designer can ensure that the dashboard will fit the specified screen size.

Data Model Validation Checking

Style Studio now performs validation checking on data model attributes to determine whether attributes are properly mapped to database fields. If a database field has been removed from the database schema or from the physical view (thus rendering the data model mapping invalid), the corresponding entities and attributes in the data model are highlighted in red, and the cause of the validity failure is presented as a tooltip.

Metadata Refresh for Individual Data Sources

The 'Datasource/Lib' page of Enterprise Manager now provides the ability to refresh meta-data independently for each data source.

Restructured Tabs in Enterprise Manager

In previous versions, Enterprise Manager's Report and Schedule tabs provided sub-tabs at the bottom of the page to display different sets of properties. These sub-tabs have now been relocated to the top of the page for greater accessibility.

Worksheet Organization in Enterprise Manager

In previous versions it was possible to change the folder of a Data Worksheet only from within Visual Composer or Style Studio. Administrators can now change the folder of a Data Worksheet from the Report tab of Enterprise Manager as well. To do this, simply click-and-drag a Worksheet in the 'Repository' tree to move it from one folder to another.

Script Access to Viewsheet Component Position

Two new properties, 'size' and 'position', allow Viewsheet components to be resized and repositioned using scripted logic. Component position and size are specified in terms of Viewsheet grid cells.

Search Access to Non-Archived Reports

In previous versions the User Portal 'Search' feature allowed users to search only archived reports. The current version allows users to search live reports as well, although search in live reports is restricted to the report title, description, alias, keywords, and comments. An administrator can control whether live reports are indexed for search. (The actual contents of a live report cannot be indexed for search because the data is reloaded from the data source each time the report is executed.)

Deprecation of Portlet Dashboards

Portlet dashboards have been deprecated in version 11.4, and will be completely discontinued after two more releases. Users are encouraged to transition portlet dashboards to Viewsheet dashboards as soon as possible. To enable existing portlet dashboards when upgrading an existing installation, set 'portlet.dashboards.enabled=true' in the 'sree.properties' file. To enable portlet dashboards in a new installation, copy the 'portlet.xml' file and the 'config' and 'data' directories from the 'server\webapps\sree\WEB-INF\classes' directory of an existing installation into the same directory within the new installation. However, it is preferable to convert existing portlet dashboards into Viewsheet dashboards. This will prevent the loss of dashboard functionality when portlets are fully discontinued after two more releases.

Other Enhancements

Version 11.4 contains over 100 additional enhancements!