New Answer experience

Overview

The new Answer experience contains multiple new features and feature enhancements. It is part of ThoughtSpot’s move to a new stack. It is on by default for individual users. The option to turn it on or off individually is also on by default. Remove or enable this option from the Admin Console. If the new Answer experience is available in your environment, turn it on or off individually from your profile, in the Experience manager at the bottom of your profile. 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.

  • Show measures in pivot table rows: Choose whether to display measures in rows or columns in your pivot tables.

Turn the new Answer experience on or off individually

The new Answer experience is on by default. The option to turn it on or off individually is also on by default. To remove or enable this option, contact ThoughtSpot Support. If this option is available in your environment, you can turn the new Answer experience on or off individually from your profile.

To turn the new Answer experience on or off, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to your profile: select the Profile icon at the upper right of your screen, and select Profile.

  2. Next to Experience, at the bottom of your profile, select Edit.

  3. Next to Answers experience, select New experience. To turn it off, select Classic experience.

  4. Select Save.

Turn the new Answer experience on or off for the whole cluster

You can manage the availability of the new Answer experience from the Admin Console. You can turn the new Answer experience on or off globally, and specify the default answer experience for all users. For example, you can turn the new Answer experience on globally, but use the classic experience as the default. Refer to Search and SpotIQ settings.

Limitations

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.