8.8.sw Release Notes

ThoughtSpot version 8.8.1.sw is now available.

These release notes include information about new and enhanced features.

To see our feature deprecation plans, please see Deprecated and removed features.

For a complete list of issues that we fixed in this release, see Fixed issues.

8.8.1.sw New Features and Functionality

For the Analyst

New Liveboard experience

The new Liveboard experience is now GA and on by default. It contains multiple new features and feature enhancements. It is part of ThoughtSpot’s move to a new stack. To learn how to manage your Liveboard experience, refer to New Liveboard experience.

The new Liveboard experience contains the following features:

  • Edit mode: To make any changes to your Liveboard, such as moving a visualization or editing the Liveboard name, you must be in edit mode. To enter edit mode, select the more options menu more options menu icon for the Liveboard, and select Edit.

  • Liveboard tabs: Separate your Liveboard into multiple tabs, grouping specific visualizations together in each tab.

  • Custom visualization sizes: Customize your Liveboard visualizations to be any size.

  • Improved filters modal: We moved all filter configuration into one modal, where you can add filters, specify which visualizations the filters should apply to, and link columns from different worksheets to create one Liveboard filter for visualizations that come from different worksheets.

  • HTML in Liveboard titles and descriptions: Use HTML 5 in titles and descriptions for Liveboards. For example, you can add a clickable link to a word or phrase in a description, or italicize part of a Liveboard title.

  • Undo, redo, or reset buttons: Use the in-product undo, redo, and reset buttons to reset or go back or forward 1 step each time you make a change in a Liveboard visualization (for example, when you add a new column to the search, drill down, or sort). These buttons appear to the right of the title of a Liveboard visualization.

  • Copy visualization link in the more menu: Copy a direct link to a visualization within the Liveboard. Use this feature to share a specific Liveboard visualization. This feature moved from the Share visualization modal to the more menu. First, share the Liveboard. Then, select the more menu More options menu icon for the visualization, and select Copy link. This provides you with a link to the specific visualization within the Liveboard. You can send that link to the user you shared the Liveboard with.

  • Answer Explorer improvements: Answer Explorer now opens in the current state of the visualization. For example, if you drill down on a visualization, then open Answer Explorer, it opens in the drilled-down state. Answer Explorer now opens in a modal.

  • Visualization make a copy improvements: When you make a copy of a Liveboard visualization, the copy now takes into account any Liveboard filters that applied to the original visualization.

  • Liveboard download footer: Administrators can specify a standard footer to add to all Liveboard downloads. Use this functionality to add a confidentiality disclaimer, for example.

New Liveboard experience deprecations

The following features are not available with the new Liveboard experience, but they are available in the classic experience. The new Liveboard experience is on by default. The option to turn it on or off individually is also on by default. If you would like your company to be able to use these de-supported features, you can turn the new Liveboard experience off for your company from the Admin Console. Alternatively, users can turn it on or off individually from your profile.

  • Share a visualization: The share button for a specific visualization within a Liveboard is no longer available. Instead, share the Liveboard. Then, select the more menu More options menu icon for the visualization, and select Copy link. This provides you with a link to the specific visualization within the Liveboard. You can send that link to the user you shared the Liveboard with.

  • Switch between Liveboards from the Liveboard title: This feature allowed you to click on a Liveboard title and view a list of other recently edited Liveboards that you could click on. Instead, navigate between Liveboards from your home page, or the Liveboard list page.

  • Copy embed link: The Copy embed link option in the more menu More options menu icon for the Liveboard or a visualization is no longer available. Instead, use the SDK for embedding purposes.

  • Change title menu option: The Change title option in the more menu More options menu icon for a visualization is no longer available. Instead, select the Edit option in the more menu More options menu icon for the Liveboard. Then, click on the visualization title or description to edit it inline.

  • Liveboard edit icon: The Liveboard edit icon Edit icon image next to the Liveboard name, for editing the Liveboard name or description, is no longer available. Instead, select the Edit option in the more menu More options menu icon for the Liveboard. Then, click on the Liveboard title or description to edit it inline.

  • Edit an answer in Liveboard present mode: This feature allowed users to select the edit icon Edit icon image while presenting a Liveboard, and directly edit the answer. Instead, exit Present mode, and edit the answer.

For the Business User

Chinese (Traditional) or 中文 (繁體) localization

Set your ThoughtSpot locale to Chinese (Traditional), or 中文 (繁體). ThoughtSpot changes your data format settings, such as currency and number formatting, and translates keywords, ThoughtSpot menu and navigation items, operators, and error messages.

For the Data Engineer

Query banding with Teradata connections

With query banding, Teradata connections now support the trust SQL feature in Teradata. This provides additional permissions to a ThoughtSpot user for accessing specific tables in Teradata to execute queries. The user must be configured as an application proxy user in Teradata. Query banding also allows tracking of statistics for queries executed by a user. Refer to Add a Teradata connection.

For the IT Ops Engineer

RHEL 8 deployment on Microsoft Azure

ThoughtSpot supports customer-managed deployment of ThoughtSpot on RHEL 8 with Microsoft Azure. For more information, see RHEL and OEL Deployment.

RHEL 8.6 and 8.7 deployment

ThoughtSpot supports customer-managed deployment of ThoughtSpot on RHEL 8.6 and 8.7, in addition to the RHEL versions supported in previous releases. For more information, see RHEL and OEL Deployment. ThoughtSpot certifies RHEL 8.6 and 8.7 for AWS, Microsoft Azure, and VMware.

Manage RHEL cluster operations on Ansible

If you install your ThoughtSpot cluster on RHEL, you can now manage privilege escalation through an external tool that integrates with Ansible. For more information, see Manage cluster operations on Ansible for clusters that use RHEL.

For the Developer

Customers licensed to embed ThoughtSpot can use ThoughtSpot Everywhere features and Visual Embed SDK.

To enable ThoughtSpot Everywhere on your cluster, contact ThoughtSpot Support.

For information about ThoughtSpot Everywhere, refer to ThoughtSpot Everywhere Documentation.

8.8.0.sw New Features and Functionality

Inline 8.8.0.sw Limited Availability

8.8.0.sw is a Limited Availability (LA) release for select customers to test and provide feedback directly to ThoughtSpot, ensuring the 8.8.1.sw maintenance release is customer-tested, stable, and reliable.

8.8.1.sw will be generally available for all customers and is scheduled for release in December 2022.

For the Analyst

Customizable colors for heatmap and treemap charts

You can now customize the colors used for heatmap and treemap charts. Prior to this release, the only available heatmap color was teal in various shades, and the only available treemap color was green in various shades. Now you can choose any color in your color palette. For more information, see Heatmap charts and Treemap charts.

New answer experience

The new answer experience is now GA and on by default. The new answer experience contains the following features:

  • Improved Formula Editor: The new formula editor has a larger editor window, allows new lines, and has a new layout with integrated help.

  • Table column summaries and headlines: Conditional and number formatting for table column summaries and headlines is now available. Column summaries are aligned with their respective columns and are part of the table, although you can configure their number and conditional formatting separately.

  • Table column summary configuration for admins: You can now enable or disable column summaries for users on the new answer experience, from the Search & SpotIQ section of the admin console. By default, table column summaries are on.

  • Table configuration: Conditional formatting for attributes is now available for tables. Conditional formatting is now part of the Table configuration panel instead of being a separate modal. You can now set the content density and theme (outline, row, or zebra) of your table.

  • Chart configuration: Conditional formatting for chart measures is now part of the Chart configuration panel instead of being a separate modal.

  • KPI chart type: You can now create visualizations of your data’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Using this feature, you can track the changes in important KPIs in your data.

  • Conditional formatting for pivot tables: You can now perform conditional formatting on measures in pivot tables.

  • Improved sorting for pivot tables: Pivot tables now support multiple sorts at a time. When you sort by a measure, you sort rows only, not columns. This change allows you to sort the rows by a measure and the columns by an attribute. When you save a pivot table that you sorted, the existing sorting saves as well.

  • Undo, redo, or reset button: Use the in-product undo, redo, and reset buttons to reset or go back or forward 1 step each time you make a change in a search or saved answer (for example, when you add a new column to the search, drill down, or sort). These buttons appear to the right of the search bar in a search or saved answer. Note that the reset button is only available for saved answers; it resets the answer to its last saved state.

  • Drill down by measures: You can now drill down on a data point by a measure. In the classic answer experience, you can only drill down on a data point by an attribute.

  • SpotIQ: Cleaner, more intuitive UI for the SpotIQ tab and SpotIQ analyze of answer data points, surfacing the most useful workflows and allowing advanced customization.

  • Improved logic for showing chart elements in Liveboard visualizations: For all Liveboard visualization sizes except for the smallest size, ThoughtSpot now shows axis values, labels, and legends. Legends will always appear to the right of the chart. For the smallest visualization size, ThoughtSpot now shows axis values and labels, but not legends.

  • HTML for answer titles and descriptions: Use HTML in titles and descriptions for answers and visualizations within Liveboards. For example, you can add a clickable link to a word or phrase in a description, or italicize part of an answer title.

  • Answer download footer: Administrators can specify a standard footer to add to all answer downloads. Use this functionality to add a confidentiality disclaimer, for example.

New answer experience deprecations

The following features are not available with the new Answer experience. The new Answer experience is on by default. The option to turn it on or off individually is also on by default. If it is on in your environment, and you would like your company to be able to use these de-supported features, you can turn the new Answer experience off for your company from the Admin Console. Alternatively, users can turn it on or off individually from their profile.

  • Browser back button: you can no longer use the browser back button to go back one step in a search or answer. Instead, use the new product back button to the left of an answer name.

  • Multiple join path resolution within the formula editor or a search: when you try to search on columns with more than one possible join path, the system no longer allows you to define the join path within the search. Similarly, when you try to create a formula with columns with more than one possible join path, the system does not allow you to define the join path. Instead, the system now prompts you to resolve this issue and avoid confusion or incorrect data by creating a worksheet with the correct join path.

  • Send feedback: The option to send product feedback, from the more options menu more options menu icon on an answer or search.

  • Client-side summaries for tables: We consolidated column summaries and headlines into one summary, called a headline summary. To calculate these headline summaries, ThoughtSpot executes a query against the underlying database. If you are connecting to your data in an external database, ThoughtSpot executes one query for each summary. If you store your data in ThoughtSpot’s in-memory database, ThoughtSpot executes one query for all summaries in the search. These headline summaries are integrated with the table columns. You can pin them to Liveboards. After you upgrade to the new answer experience, you must manually re-enable headline summaries on charts and tables in your Liveboards from the chart or table settings. ThoughtSpot won’t migrate them automatically, because of high query costs.

  • Granular access to Liveboards: A privilege limiting some users to Read only access on curated Liveboards. These users could view and explore; however, they could not copy, alter, download, or share the Liveboards.

New SpotIQ experience

The new SpotIQ experience is now GA and on by default. The functionality remains the same, but we reorganized the UI to make it more intuitive. You can manage your individual SpotIQ experience from your profile. Note that the new SpotIQ experience is dependent on the new answer experience; to use the new SpotIQ experience, you must first enable the new answer experience. For more information, refer to SpotIQ.

New Liveboard experience Beta

The new Liveboard experience is now available. It contains multiple new features and feature enhancements. It is part of ThoughtSpot’s move to a new stack. To learn how to enable it, refer to New Liveboard experience.

The new Liveboard experience contains the following features:

  • Edit mode: To make any changes to your Liveboard, such as moving a visualization or editing the Liveboard name, you must be in edit mode. To enter edit mode, select the more options menu more options menu icon for the Liveboard, and select Edit.

  • Liveboard tabs: Separate your Liveboard into multiple tabs, grouping specific visualizations together in each tab.

  • Custom visualization sizes: Customize your Liveboard visualizations to be any size.

  • Improved filters modal: We moved all filter configuration into one modal, where you can add filters, specify which visualizations the filters should apply to, and link columns from different worksheets to create one Liveboard filter for visualizations that come from different worksheets.

  • HTML in Liveboard titles and descriptions: Use HTML 5 in titles and descriptions for Liveboards. For example, you can add a clickable link to a word or phrase in a description, or italicize part of a Liveboard title.

  • Undo, redo, or reset buttons: Use the in-product undo, redo, and reset buttons to reset or go back or forward 1 step each time you make a change in a Liveboard visualization (for example, when you add a new column to the search, drill down, or sort). These buttons appear to the right of the title of a Liveboard visualization.

  • Copy visualization link in the more menu: Copy a direct link to a visualization within the Liveboard. Use this feature to share a specific Liveboard visualization. This feature moved from the Share visualization modal to the more menu. First, share the Liveboard. Then, select the more menu More options menu icon for the visualization, and select Copy link. This provides you with a link to the specific visualization within the Liveboard. You can send that link to the user you shared the Liveboard with.

  • Answer Explorer improvements: Answer Explorer now opens in the current state of the visualization. For example, if you drill down on a visualization, then open Answer Explorer, it opens in the drilled-down state. Answer Explorer now opens in a modal.

  • Visualization make a copy improvements: When you make a copy of a Liveboard visualization, the copy now takes into account any Liveboard filters that applied to the original visualization.

  • Liveboard download footer: Administrators can specify a standard footer to add to all Liveboard downloads. Use this functionality to add a confidentiality disclaimer, for example.

New Liveboard experience deprecations

The following features are not available with the new Liveboard experience, but they are available in the classic experience. The new Liveboard experience is on by default. The option to turn it on or off individually is also on by default. If you would like your company to be able to use these de-supported features, you can turn the new Liveboard experience off for your company from the Admin Console. Alternatively, users can turn it on or off individually from your profile.

  • Share a visualization: The share button for a specific visualization within a Liveboard is no longer available. Instead, share the Liveboard. Then, select the more menu More options menu icon for the visualization, and select Copy link. This provides you with a link to the specific visualization within the Liveboard. You can send that link to the user you shared the Liveboard with.

  • Switch between Liveboards from the Liveboard title: This feature allowed you to click on a Liveboard title and view a list of other recently edited Liveboards that you could click on. Instead, navigate between Liveboards from your home page, or the Liveboard list page.

  • Copy embed link: The Copy embed link option in the more menu More options menu icon for the Liveboard or a visualization is no longer available. Instead, use the SDK for embedding purposes.

  • Change title menu option: The Change title option in the more menu More options menu icon for a visualization is no longer available. Instead, select the Edit option in the more menu More options menu icon for the Liveboard. Then, click on the visualization title or description to edit it inline.

  • Liveboard edit icon: The Liveboard edit icon Edit icon image next to the Liveboard name, for editing the Liveboard name or description, is no longer available. Instead, select the Edit option in the more menu More options menu icon for the Liveboard. Then, click on the Liveboard title or description to edit it inline.

  • Edit an answer in Liveboard present mode: This feature allowed users to select the edit icon Edit icon image while presenting a Liveboard, and directly edit the answer. Instead, exit Present mode, and edit the answer.

TML import improvements

You can now import TML files that contain certain errors. During the import process, ThoughtSpot removes the part of the object that contains errors, and allows you to import the rest of the object. These errors include the following:

  • Some Liveboard visualizations contain errors, but the overall Liveboard is valid: ThoughtSpot removes the visualizations that contain errors and imports the Liveboard.

  • Some Liveboard filters contain errors, but the overall Liveboard is valid: ThoughtSpot removes the filters that contain errors and imports the Liveboard.

  • Destination tables for some joins in a table do not exist, but the overall table is valid: ThoughtSpot removes the joins that do not have destination tables and imports the table.

Refer to Migrate an object.

Formula function search bar

The formula editor assistant now contains a search bar for formula functions. Use it to search for specific functions to include in your formula. Refer to Add a formula to a search.

year_name function

The new year_name formula function returns the year in string format for a given date. This improves the behavior of formulas involving years when using a custom calendar with year values that are not in integer format. Refer to Formula function reference.

Headline summaries for discontinuous group aggregate formulas

We changed the default behavior for table aggregation summaries when the search contains formulas that contain both a conditional clause (if…​ then…​ else) and a group_aggregate expression. When a user searches with a formula containing both a conditional clause and a group_aggregate expression, then ThoughtSpot detects the aggregation type on the first non-constant output clause and uses it in the headline summary. In this context, a non-constant output clause means any base column reference (for example, Revenue), or formula (for example, sum(revenue)).

For example, in the formula group_aggregate(sum(if (Color = 'blue') then 0 else group_unique_count(Discount))), the headline summary would use COUNT_DISTINCT, since the first non-constant output clause within the if…​ then…​ else clause is group_unique_count and has an aggregation type of COUNT_DISTINCT.

R analysis in the new answer experience

This release introduces support for custom R analysis in the new answer experience.

We support R only in Falcon deployments (data imported into ThoughtSpot), and R integration is disabled by default. It is not available when creating connections and linking to external databases in real time.

For the Business User

Support for multiple contains, begins_with, and ends_with phrases in versus queries

ThoughtSpot now supports multiple contains, begins_with, and ends_with phrases in vs queries. For example, you can now have a versus query such as state name begins_with 'a' state name begins_with 'c' vs state name begins_with 'd'.

For more information, refer to the Keyword reference.

Choose sources limitation

You can no longer select more than 100 data sources to search on when searching data. This maximum of 100 sources improves performance and limits timeouts due to the selection of too many sources.

Geo charts enhancements

This release includes several enhancements to all geo charts:

  • Improved map quality: This includes faster map loading, better clarity, and more granular details down to the street level when you zoom in.

  • A new map type option that allows you to customize the display of the geo chart map. The new map type options are Light, Dark, Outdoors, Streets, Satellite, and Satellite Streets. The default is Light.

See Geo charts.

Improvements to German keywords

This release improves the translated German keywords. See Deutsch keyword reference.

For the Data Engineer

Snowflake OAuth improvements

This release brings improvements in how ThoughtSpot handles user tokens for Snowflake connections configured with Snowflake OAuth. If a user’s refresh token becomes invalid, the administrator or author of the connection can now run the Invalidate Tokens command to allow the user to re-authenticate and regain access to the insights provided by the connection, and the connection itself. Also, in this release the Role field has been added to the Snowflake OAuth connection details page, allowing a role to be added when the connection is created and changed when a connection is edited. See Invalidating refresh tokens of a Snowflake connection.

Snowflake Okta OAuth

You can now use Okta as your authorization server for external OAuth. For details, see Configure Okta OAuth for a Snowflake connection.

Starburst Azure AD OAuth

You can now use Azure AD as your authorization server for external OAuth. For details, see Configure Azure AD OAuth for a Starburst connection.

New connections

This release adds the following new connections:

Delete joins that have dependents

You can now delete a join from the ThoughtSpot UI even if the join has dependents. Deleting the join does not delete the dependents. This allows you to delete a join and create it again in the other direction, without invalidating or deleting any dependent objects.

Refer to Delete a join.

Integration with dbt improvements

This release includes the following improvements to the dbt integration:

  • Integration with dbt for Databricks, Amazon Redshift, and Google BigQuery connections

  • Import of multiple folders at a time

  • Import of a single table within a folder

  • Support for joins across multiple folders

For more information, see Integrate with dbt.

Edit tags from the Data workspace

You can now edit tags for tables, worksheets, views, and SQL views from the Data workspace home page. Refer to Use tags to organize.

For the IT Ops Engineer

Storage of session-based consumption in Snowflake

ThoughtSpot now securely stores your consumption data in a searchable Snowflake data store. For more information, see Consumption data storage.

For the Developer

Customers licensed to embed ThoughtSpot can use ThoughtSpot Everywhere features and Visual Embed SDK.

To enable ThoughtSpot Everywhere on your cluster, contact ThoughtSpot Support.

For information about ThoughtSpot Everywhere, refer to ThoughtSpot Everywhere Documentation.

Supported Upgrade Paths

If you are running one of the following versions, you can upgrade to the 8.8.1.sw release directly:

  • 7.2.x to 8.8.1.sw

  • 8.4.x to 8.8.1.sw

This includes any hotfixes or customer patches on these branches.

If you are running a different version, you must do a multiple pass upgrade.

First, upgrade to version 7.2.x or 8.4.x, and then to the 8.8.1.sw release.

To successfully upgrade your ThoughtSpot cluster, all user profiles must include a valid email address. Without valid email addresses, the upgrade is blocked.

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