(v23) Symphony 23.4 Release Notes

Symphony 23.4 Release Notes

This topic describes feature enhancements, resolved issues, and important information for Symphony 23.4.

• Feature Enhancements
• Beta Features in this Release
• API Updates
• Resolved Issues
• Deprecated Features
• Removed Features
• Changes in this Version
• Known Issues

Beta Features in This Release

This release of Symphony may contain some features and enhancements in a beta test state so you can try them out in a non-production environment. Assess how they work in your environment, or provide feedback to insightsoftware as part of a formal beta testing process.

Important: Do not use beta features in a production environment or on mission-critical systems.

Name	Beta Version	Description	Final Release Version
23.4.1 Beta Features
Managed Dashboard Data Connections	23.4.1	You can now create data sources in Visual Data Discovery data cubes or data connectors. Establish a connection to an available project in Visual Data Discovery then use to create a data source. After you've created the source, use it to create a visual in the Visual Gallery or in a dashboard. See Add and validate a connection to a data cube and Define a new data source from a Managed Dashboards connection. Important: This feature is considered to be released in beta for your testing purposes. Workflows and features may change before a production-ready version is released.	N/A
23.4 Beta Features
None.			N/A

Feature Enhancements

Symphony

Title	Description
Symphony 23.4.1 Feature Enhancements
Multi Tenant Creation Updates	Creating tenants in Symphony has been simplified in this release. Select Tenants from the main menu to create a tenant and tenant admin quickly and easily in your environment, create a project for your tenant, then define the project privileges and hide the <GLOBAL> project. From there, you can create connections in Managed Dashboard and a Visual Data Discovery connector for your tenants to use, then add your tenant users. See Create a New Tenant and Multi-Tenancy in Symphony.
Nested Filters	All Visual Data Discovery connectors support the use of nested filters to search and analyze your data. To use, navigate to the Global Settings tab of a data source and build your nested filters in the Global Filters work area. If you're using a connector to return data and data cubes from Managed Dashboards and Reports, nested filters are not available.
Symphony 23.4 Feature Enhancements
Symphony Home Page Redesign	A redesigned Symphony home page offers you and your users a more robust user experience. Explore your data, use and filter content shown in the new Quick content work area. Jump back in lists the items you most recently worked with. Scroll through the list, filter the list using the Quick content filters (All, Managed dashboards, Managed reports, Visual data discovery), or find something using the Search bar. Actions includes actions you can take in the modules to which you have access. View your managed dashboards, create new reports, make connections, or work with your data sources. Switch between modules as needed by selecting the Managed Dashboards, Managed Reports, or Visual Data Discovery cards at the top of the home page. Links and Actions shown depend on each user's application privileges and licensed features.
License Management	Access license information for each module of Symphony in the unified Licenses work area. Select Licenses from the main menu to open the licenses work area. See overview details about all licenses, or filter only the license types you want to see. Select Actions, then License details to open a work area specific to that module's licenses to manage as needed. See Manage Licenses.

Managed Dashboards and Managed Reports Modules

Title	Description
23.4.1 Feature Enhancements
None.
23.4 Feature Enhancements
Main Menu Enhancements	The main menu has been redesigned to provide new workflows for finding and managing files such as dashboards, reports, metric sets, and data cubes.
Data Visualizations	Add pre-configured calculated variances to your visualization just by assigning data to compare such as Actual vs. Plan. Set up a variance table automatically with absolute and relative variance chart columns. Add absolute and relative variance charts automatically aligned to your current chart. Add base and total bars to your waterfall chart with variance values between. Data labels can now scroll text that doesn't fit within their set size when their Overflow property is set to show scrollbars.
Design and View	Usability improvements to the Export dialog ensure the cancel and download buttons are visible or notify you when content is delivered. Use the new Hatching brush type in various property settings in visualizations, components, and filters to fill an area with repeating lines at the specified angle.
Administration	New Password History Size and Password Minimum Age configuration settings can help improve security for local user accounts.
Microsoft SQL Server Updates	Microsoft SQL Server 2017 is now the minimum required version when using Microsoft SQL Server for Managed Dashboard and Managed Report application and warehouse databases (this change does not affect connecting to Microsoft SQL Server as a data source). If you are using a database created in an earlier version, the database compatibility level may also need to be changed to 140 or higher.

Visual Data Discovery Module

Title	Description
23.4.1 Feature Enhancements
Prebuilt User Credentials - ${User.credentials}	Use the new user attribute, ${User.credentials}, to pass the Symphony session ID (when working in Symphony directly) or trusted access token (in embedded environments) through a connection to a data source. If this attribute is found on upgrade, the existing attribute is renamed to ${User.Custom_Credentials}, allowing use of ${User.credentials} as designed. See Use User Attributes for Connection Parameters.
23.4 Feature Enhancements
Tenant Administration and Content Creation/Distribution Enhancements	With this release, Symphony transforms your approach to tenant administration and content creation and distribution among different Symphony tenants. Leverage the power of a centralized hub system administrators and content distributors use to push Visual Data Discovery content to your supported tenants. Key Features: A unified content area allows your content creators to create and distribute new content to multiple tenants easily. Create, modify, and effortlessly push dashboards and visualizations to different tenants. Seamlessly update existing content by pushing the changes where needed. If no additional tenants are added, the default tenant Visual Data Discovery is used. Visual Data Discovery replaces the company tenant. Multi-tenancy enhancement. Streamlined tenant creation and content management means you can create tenants directly, then push the content you want them to see all from one place. Updated Group Roles. You can now easily add users in a tenant to specific groups that allow these users to manage and create, share, and maintain content as needed. Members of the Content Distributors group can create, maintain, and distribute content to any tenants. Unified Administration. A new default user account, the system administrator wields the combined supervisor and admin capabilities. The system administrator can perform all tasks necessary to Symphony management. This change means: The superaccount work area is renamed to Visual Data Discovery. The default admin user is now the system administrator and has all supervisor user privileges, as a member of the Visual Data Discovery tenant. The default supervisor user is no longer installed; add users to the Supervisors group instead. Tenant Accounts are now known as Tenants in the user interface. See: Create a New TenantGroup Privilege Reference, Content Distributors Group, admin User .
Enhanced Content Migration Flow	Streamline your content migration flow with the enhanced objects Export and Import Process: Benefit from the bulk import and export of dashboards and sources; select tenants to include at import. Choose an import strategy per object class — create a new version of the object, reuse the object, or update the existing version on the target environment while preserving permissions and IDs. View real-time import validation results, address errors, and suppress warnings for later handling. See Import a Data Discovery Dashboard, Export Data Discovery Dashboards, and Import or Export a Source.
Breaking Changes Management	Symphony now offers more robust breaking changes management when working with changes to data types and sources for fields or schemas in use by dashboards, visuals, and filter snippets. When you make changes to a data source in use such as: Changing the data type of a source field, derived field, or custom metric Removing fields from inclusion in a data source Changing the schema in use in a data source Visual Data Discovery returns a verbose series of warnings about making such breaking changes. Review the returned list of affected visuals and filter snippets, and then decide to abort the change or proceed by selecting Ignore Warnings. Once you've saved your changes, navigate to the affected visuals and filter snippets to update the field used by each. This works with conditional formatting, and when changing between all data types.
Data Gateway Service	Use the Data Gateway service to connect to your on-premise data sources from an instance of Symphony running in the cloud. Install Data Gateway on your local network and by configuring Symphony allow connection to the on-premise data sources of your choice.
Azure SQL Data Warehouse (Azure Synapse)	Offset is now supported when you connect to the Azure SQL Data Warehouse (Azure Synapse) using the Microsoft SQL Server connector. See Manage the Microsoft SQL Server Connector.
Expanded Search Options for Managing and Adding Visuals	More search and select options are available when you add an existing Visual Gallery visual to your dashboards. Expanded search options means you can: Search for visuals by Type, Name, Description, Data Source, Tags, or Author. Narrow the visuals shown or returned in search by selecting a filter option: All, Favorites, My Items, or Shared with Me. If you search by tags, type, or data source, you can include multiple items in your search, returning all visuals that include at least one matching result. See Search and Filter Lists.
Descriptions for Visuals	Use the analytics capabilities of Symphony to generate descriptions of your visuals to Visual Data Discovery dashboards with a few simple selections. Quickly insert a visual description in a rich text snippet widget that summarizes the data shown in your visual. You can add multiple visual descriptions in individual widgets, or combine multiple visual descriptions in one or more widgets. Edit the snippet to change the format, edit the contents of the generated description, edit description variables, insert images, links, and more. See Generate and insert a rich text snippet with a visual description.
Configuration Manager	Configuration for Visual Data Discovery services are now available both by API or directly in the UI for users who are members of the Administrator or Supervisors groups. While logged in as a member of an appropriate group, navigate to the Visual Data Discovery module. Select Tools > Configuration from the main menu to open the Configuration work area. Any service configured as available can be edited in this work area: select a tab for a service, make needed changes, then save your changes and restart the service to apply to Symphony.
Add URLs and Images to Table Visuals	Table visuals now support the inclusion of links to URLs or images in a table column. Select the option Format {field name} as URL to include a link to a URL or image by adding a URL with an interpolated value, such as http://www.website.com/${value}. If you link to a URL, the destination URL opens in a new browser tab when the user selects the field. If you link to an image, the interpolated image is shown in the table cell. Define height and width of the image as needed. Clear the image or URL by selecting the None option in the Format as URL work area.
Hierarchical Fields in Filter Snippets	Create filter snippets to filter by Hierarchy data type for the hierarchical data included in your dashboards. Select a hierarchical field to add to the filter snippet, then select an operator: equals or descendants of or includes to build the conditions for filtering the data. Equals or descendants of: Selecting the parent node selects all child nodes of the parent. Child nodes can't be deselected. Include: Selecting the parent node selects all child nodes of the parent. Child nodes can be deselected as needed. As with all filter snippets, you can search your hierarchical content defined in the Value Column to help you select and deselect the content to include. See Manage Filter Snippets.
Content Tags for Visuals, Sorting, Filtering	We've expanded the use of content tags in Visual Data Discovery. You can now add tags to visuals, and use them to sort and organize content as you do with tags for dashboards and sources. Add a tag when you save or edit a visual in the Visual Gallery, or convert and add from a local visual from a dashboard to the Visual Gallery. When you import and export dashboards, sources, and shared visuals to the Visual Gallery using the UI or API, any associated tags are included. Sort and filter dashboards, sources, and shared visuals in the Visual Gallery using your tags; filter in specifically tagged items, or items with no tags to help you organize your content. Extend the use of content tags, filtering, and sorting to users working with embedded instances of Symphony. See Use Tags in Symphony Visual Data Discovery.
Multi-Grouping for Box Plot Visuals	Box plot visuals can now include groups and subgroups: add a subgroup to expand the depth of the information you provide in this visual type. See Box Plots.
Sunburst Visuals	Use the new visual type, Sunburst, to display hierarchical data in a circle format. Display up to three levels of data, starting with the topmost hierarchical data in the center of the sunburst, with the secondary and tertiary levels shown in levels further from the center.
Export Multiple Sources and Copy Sources	You can now easily export multiple sources and copy individual sources in your environment as needed. Export multiple sources: Select the sources you want to export in the Source work area, then select Export Selected Items. All selected sources are downloaded to your browser, exported as one JSON file. Copy a source: Open a source for editing, then select Copy Source. Enter a new Name for the copy of the source, and optionally a Description and Tags, then select Copy. The newly-named copy of your source is added to your data sources inventory, and you can continue editing your original source if needed. Use the Sources API to send export requests for multiple sources, or copy requests for sources.
Other Bucket Grouping Options	A new feature, Show Other, allows you show or hide data in several visual types normally hidden when you define a limit for your data. For example, enable Show Other for a pie chart of data sorted into twenty five counties, with a Limit of ten. Eleven slices are shown: the fifteen other counties are grouped as a single slice, comprising the remaining data succinctly. Disable Show Other in the sidebar menu, or by selecting Remove from the context menu of that data point. This feature is available in the Sort & Limit sidebar menu of several visuals: Bar charts Donut (single group) Pie (single group) Packed bubbles Scatter plot Tree map Heatmap (single group)
Improved Analytical Capabilities	This release brings extensive updates to custom metrics. We've added time and time conversion functions, as well as a number of string manipulation functions to expand the range of possible calculations you can use in your environment.
Toggle Static Legends	You can now enable static legends for individual visuals as needed. If a static legend is available for a visual, enable or disable it in the Color sidebar menu. In embedded environments, this is configured at the dashboard level on a per-dashboard basis.
Refresh Data in Embedded Environments	Use the EmbedManager method component.refreshData() to refresh the data in an embedded dashboard. See Embedded Dashboard Properties and Objects.

API Updates

API documentation is provided with your Symphony installation at this link: <symphony-URL>/discovery/swagger-ui.html.

Managed Dashboards and Managed Reports Modules

Endpoint	Method	Description
23.4.1 API Updates
None.
23.4 API Updates
None.

Visual Data Discovery Module

Endpoint	Method	Description
23.4.1 API Updates
/api/sources/	POST	When using the sources endpoint, Symphony returns the parameter fields of the collection you request, both for /preview and /describe.
23.4 API Updates
/api/recently-accessed-elements	GET	Use to return items recently used, such as dashboards, visuals, and data sources by the logged in user in Visual Data Discovery. Limit the number of items returned by sending /api/recently-accessed-elements?listSize={number}.
/api/accounts/{id}	PUT	Use /api/accounts/{id} to update existing user accounts, or create new ones.
/api/sources/{sourceId}/clone	PUT	Use to clone an existing source in your environment with a new name. Mandatory fields include sourceID and name. Optionally add tags and description.

Resolved Issues

Symphony

Title	Description
23.4.1 Resolved Issues
None.
23.4 Resolved Issues
None.

Managed Dashboards and Managed Reports Modules

Description

23.4.1 Resolved Issues

Addressed some cases where localization keys used when setting captions in the Data Analysis Panel are not localized when exporting to Excel or CSV. Localization keys used when setting Header Text in a table visualization's properties are not affected by these issues.

Fixed an issue that could cause certain measure formatting such as range format overrides to be lost and not take effect. There is now an option to Use Source Formatting to clarify when formatting is coming from the underlying data source.

Fixed an issue preventing scrolling to access additional files in the new list pages accessed from the main menu.

23.4 Resolved Issues

Addressed an issue where notifications could deliver unexpected content if an error occurred, or fail to send to some recipients after encountering an error for others.

Fixed an issue preventing authentication using the MicrosoftIdentity protocol in version 23.3.

Fixed an issue that could prevent more than two other data cubes from being combined using the Union transform.

Fixed an issue that could result in date values being exported to Excel as text rather than sortable dates unexpectedly.

Visual Data Discovery Module

Title	Description
23.4.1 Resolved Issues
Raw Data Export	Symphony exports raw data for hierarchical fields only when the raw data capability is enabled.
Source Deletion	Corrected an issue that prevented sources from being deleted after updates as part of an insertion strategy.
23.4 Resolved Issues
None.

Deprecated Features

Symphony

Title	Description
23.4.1 Deprecated Features
None.
23.4 Deprecated Features
None.

Managed Dashboards and Managed Reports Modules

Title	Description
23.4.1 Deprecated Features
None.
23.4 Deprecated Features
None.

Visual Data Discovery Module

Title	Description
23.4.1 Deprecated Features
None.
23.4 Deprecated Features
Tenancy and Default Account Changes	The superaccount work area is renamed to Visual Data Discovery. The default admin user is now the system administrator and has all supervisor user privileges, as a member of the Visual Data Discovery tenant. The default supervisor user is no longer installed; add users to the Supervisors group instead. Tenant Accounts are now known as Tenants in the user interface.

Removed Features

Symphony

Title	Description
23.4.1 Removed Features
None.
23.4 Removed Features
None.

Managed Dashboards and Managed Reports Modules

Title	Description	Alternative
23.4.1 Removed Features
None.
23.4 Removed Features
None.

Visual Data Discovery Module

Title	Description	Alternative
23.4.1 Removed Features
None.
23.4 Removed Features
None.

Changes in this Version

Managed Dashboards and Reports

Description

23.4.1 Changes in this Version

Behavior changes associated with the ability to associate an account with multiple tenants:

• On instances with multi-tenancy enabled, enable the new Global option on accounts that don't belong to tenants but can access them – this is done automatically when upgrading for existing accounts that do not belong to tenants.

• Accounts that don't belong to any tenants and are not global cannot log in.

• Deleting a tenant does not delete accounts that belong also to other tenants. Tenant administrators cannot edit settings of an account that also belongs to another tenant. If they delete such an account, it is removed from their tenant, but the account and its data for other tenants remain.

• When using federated authentication with AccountAutoCreationMode set to Open, accounts will be added automatically to the tenant specified in the claims if not already added.

When using APIs to retrieve a tenant user's personal ("My") project, the new method GetUserProject should be used in .NET, REST, or JavaScript with the tenant ID specified since there is one for each tenant.

You can assign a user or group account to multiple tenants or remove them from tenants when creating or editing accounts. Tenant users belonging to multiple tenants can switch between them from their Profile menu to access different tenant projects and files.

The new list pages accessed from the main menu now directly support various operations normally available from a file's context menu, including check in/check out and publishing, and now indicate their check out status.

Copy or cut files directly from the new list pages and paste them into a folder on the left.

Rename files more easily on the new list pages with inline name editing.

Right-click anywhere on a file on the new list pages as an alternative to clicking the action buttons.

Data cubes using storage are indicated with an icon on the Data page, and their storage can be built directly from their actions or right-click menus.

23.4 Changes in this Version

Results have been improved when exporting or sending as a notification an empty report, scorecard, small multiple, or slideshow to include a warning or message rather than an empty file for PDF, image, and PowerPoint formats.

A new Password History Size configuration setting can prevent users from reusing previous passwords or variations of them up to the specified number of passwords.

The Export dialog has been updated to make the cancel and download buttons easier to find and access at the top of the dialog after clicking to export.

The dialog for editing an account's default view as an administrator has been improved to clearly distinguish between the user-set vs. administrator-set default view when one of these has been set.

Data labels now support scrolling text that doesn't fit within their set size when their Overflow property is set to show scrollbars.

It's now possible to select and copy to the clipboard various text values displayed on the administration homepage.

Each column in a table visualization can now be assigned a distinct border below its column header.

A new Hatching 'brush' type is available for various properties of visualizations, components, and filters, to fill an area with repeating lines at the specified angle.

Use the new Variance Scenarios section of the Data Analysis Panel's Visualization tab for tables and charts to automatically calculate and generate pre-configured columns of charts or aligned charts displaying the absolute and relative variances between the values you choose.

For a Waterfall chart, the new Variance Scenarios section will automatically configure the chart as a variance waterfall displaying incremental changes between the base bar and total result bar you choose.

The new Password Minimum Age configuration setting can be set to prevent a user's password from being changed multiple times within the specified time period.

A message is now displayed to confirm that exported content set up to be delivered by email or another method has been sent.

Press shift+A to quickly open or collapse the Labels window in reports.

Support has been added for changes made in PostgreSQL 15 to ensure new application and warehouse databases can be created.

The main menu has been redesigned to provide new workflows for finding and managing files such as dashboards, reports, metric sets, and data cubes.

A message is now displayed when deploying an instance if the SQL Server compatibility level corresponds to a version lower than the system requirements.

Microsoft SQL Server 2017 is now the minimum required version when using Microsoft SQL Server for Managed Dashboard and Managed Report application and warehouse databases (this change does not affect connecting to Microsoft SQL Server as a data source). If you are using a database created in an earlier version, the database compatibility level may also need to be changed to 140 or higher.

Known Issues

Affected Releases	Description
Symphony 23.3 and later	The NGINX proxy for the main Symphony service (logi.symphony.proxy.port) should not be routed through port 8080. Select an appropriate available alternative port to designate for the service.
Symphony 23.4 and later	Important: If you're installing Symphony for the first time, any user not associated with a tenant uses the tenant Visual Data Discovery.