Release April 2022

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We are happy to deliver the brandnew April 2022 release with the new User Interface for Excel workbooks. Try it now!

Remember, the Web Client is the user friendly spreadsheet for your Collector Users to deliver their monthly/weekly/daily data. The Web App is the tool for the Power User to setup and control your organization’s collection workflows.

(1) Web App: New “Manage Workbooks” UI

We are happy to relaunch the Workbooks section in the Web App! You will find a new compact User Interface (UI) which is mainly represented by the new workbook list in the “Manage Workbooks” tab which directly lets you start either the Preview of the workbook …

… or lets you edit, add or delete the workbooks master data and lets you upload your local Excel Files as workbook for the Web Client:

For comparison check here the old user interface:

(2) Web App: New Workbook Preview UI

The preview for the workbook is now integrated into the “Manage Workbooks” tab. By clicking the new Preview button you get directly into the preview mode – this is much faster than in our user interface to date:

For comparison check here the old user interface:

(3) Web App: New Workbook Wizard UI

The Workbook Wizard is now also integrated into the “Manage Workbooks” tab. In the new UI it is only possible to enter the Wizard for workbooks which do not have an uploaded Excel file – this is more intuitive and logical:

For comparison check here the old user interface:

(4) Showcase “Weekly Project Status”: new dynamic list report

In the June 2021 Release we presented the new dynamic list reports based on the new list form for the “data1_CELLS01_DIM001” parameter. At that time this was demonstrated in a private showcase, now we added the feature to the Public Showcase “Weekly Project Status”:

(5) Dynamic List Reports: activation for any record granularity

This upgrade for the public showcase was possible now since the inital feature for the list form of the “data1_CELLS01_DIM001” parameter did not work with every form of record granularity. This public showcase uses a special record structure since it has to be compatible with a Power Apps application which is also used to add and edit the same data. With this release the list form of the “data1_CELLS01_DIM001” parameter is compatible with every recordset structure:

(6) Technical improvements and debugging

We have debugged an issue with the edit function for the dimension tree, the menu was shown on the wrong level in special cases. Furthermore we have improved the behaviour for highlighting changed cells, the initial functionality was not fully matured.

(7) Discontinued Feature: Excel Client (Javascript Add-In)

Until the beginning of 2020 the Excel Client – based on an innovative Javascript Add-In – was the only user interface for the collector users. Due to continuing heavy technical restrictions with the Excel Client (esp. in conjunction with Excel Online) we decided then to develop a new fully browser based client. In the meantime this “Web Client” has fully replaced the older “Excel Client”. So we have decided to officially discontinue this feature since it would bind to many ressource to keep it on the same level as the Web Client.

Therefore we removed the navigation item “Excel Client” from the user interface of the Web App:

Hope you like the new features – we are very curious about your feedback! Please let us know what you think and what kind of collection processes you would prefer to automate with data1.io. 

Stay healthy and we #StandWithUkraine

Release March 2022

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We are happy to deliver the brandnew March 2022 release with new showcases and new features for filter tables. Try it now!

Remember, the Web Client is the user friendly spreadsheet for your Collector Users to deliver their monthly/weekly/daily data. The Web App is the tool for the Power User to setup and control your organization’s collection workflows.

(1) New showcase “S&OP Demand Planning”

We are happy that we can present now our showcase #8, the new “S&OP Demand Planning”:

This showcase uses a dynamic definition table with the individual combination “customers – products”:

Selecting another customer of course changes the list of products for this customer:

Please be aware that at this stage this showcase has only a few demo data, we will upgrade this showcase with the next month releases.

(2) Improved showcase “HR Contract”

The “HR Contracts” showcase one our first showcases …

… so we decided to add a new dynamic list report with all the employees and their annual planning values:

Remember, the dynamic list reports feature was introduced with the July 2021 release. Of course the list report is dynamically requeried when selecting another item from the dimension tree:

(3) Filter Tables: new filter path parameter

For this new showcase we developed a new filter path parameter which is essential in application with “same name elements” in the dimension tree. If you retrieved a dynamic filter table until now …

… with focus on an ambiguous element in the dimension tree the table delivered all the bottom level elements from all subnodes with the same name:

To solve this we introduce a new parameter:

  • data1_CELLS01_DIM001_Key_Path

This field is filled with every click in the dimension with the full “SQL Where” path which can be used directly as filter criteria for the dynamic filter table:

(4) Filter Tables: new RLS option

Another important issue is the application of Row-Level-Security to dynamic filter tables. Until now, this was not possible and therefore filter tables delivered always the full list of elements independently of the RLS rules:

With this release we introduce the new parameter

  • data1_CELLS01_InsertTable_ForceRLS

which can be set to “0” (= default, no RLS) or to “1” (= RLS is applied to the filter table):

We intend to make the “Force RLS” feature to the new default with a later release.

(5) Web App: new “Is Visible” field

In some cases you need to keep an element in the dimension tree (e.g. for historical data) but you do not want to show the element in the dimension tree anymore. For this reason we added the new “Is Visible” definition field to all dimension tables. Setting an element to “false” …

… will remove this item from the dimension tree:

(6) Web App: new subscription form

With the September 2021 release we introduced the new UI forms for workflows and for the company data. With this release we deliver now also the Subscriptions with the new UI element. Since a company can have several subscriptions you`ll see at first the overview list with all active subscriptions …

… and clicking on one element of the list will open the form:

Please be aware that at this time the subscriptions cannot be edited by yourself (i.e. all the fields are read-only).

Hope you like the new features – we are very curious about your feedback! Please let us know what you think and what kind of collection processes you would prefer to automate with data1.io. 

Stay healthy and we #StandWithUkraine

Release February 2022

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We are happy to deliver the brandnew Februar 2022 release with the new Performance Analyzer and many more. Try it now!

Remember, the Web Client is the user friendly spreadsheet for your Collector Users to deliver their monthly/weekly/daily data. The Web App is the tool for the Power User to setup and control your organization’s collection workflows.

(1) Web Client: New Performance Analyzer

We learned that a weak performance in the Web Client can have different causes. One reason is a poor SQL performance, another one is a poor performance of the client device itself. For this reason we have developed the new Performance Analyzer to give our users a tool to analyze by themselves directly on the point of interest.

Just execute a READ or a WRITE process …

… and press

  • CTRL + ALT + P

and you will geht a popup with the Performance Analyzer:

Just expand the symbol on the left to get a pie chart with the SQL share on total performance:

Expand further to get the details about the single steps of the process:

(2) Web Client: New highlighting for updated cells

We are happy about this new feature to highlight cells that were updated and not saved yet:

To activate it define a named range for a single cell:

  • data1_CELLS01_ChangedCellFormat

Now format the cell to your taste – that`s all!

Please keep in mind that all data1.io named ranges in the workbook have to be defined on sheet level and not on workbook level.

(3) Web Client: New easy setup for new record definition mode

We introduced the new “record definition mode (by column)” in November 2021 and updated it in January 2022.

Now we are happy to be able to deliver an “easy setup” since the definition was a little bit complicated …

… from now on you can use the following wildcards instead of the recordset numbers:

  • Definition *
    The content of the column will be added to all records of the respective row in the spreadsheet (horicontal definition).
    The content of the row will be added to all records of the respective column in the spreadsheet (vertical definition).
  • Definition + or –
    The content of the column / row will generate a recordset on its own

Just remember: the new record definiton mode enables to append base data (blue frame) to the records with the figures …

… as can be seen here in the fact table:

(4) Web App: New merge fields for multi-workbook applications

We have introduced the Multi-Workbook feature back in April 2021 and the Multi-Workflow feature back in June 2021. We introduced the merge field {WEBAPP.WORKFLOW.URL} in November 2021 to make a multi-workflow accessable via a link.

Now it is time to deliver 4 new merge fields to adress a specific workbook in a multi-workbook environment:

  • {WEBAPP.WORKBOOK.SORT.01.URL}
  • {WEBAPP.WORKBOOK.SORT.01.NAME}
  • {WEBAPP.WORKBOOK.UID.01.URL}
  • {WEBAPP.WORKBOOK.UID.01.NAME}

They differ the following:

  • URL generates the name of the workbook as a clickable link
  • NAME generates the name of the workbook only as a text

The SORT.01 means that you want to adress the first workbook in the relative order of workbooks within your application. UID.01 means that you want to adress the workbook with this absolute UID.

Look at this demonstration in the above shown multi-workbook environment …

… all 4 merge fields deliver the Workbook name “Workbook Actuals”, 2 of them as a clickable link:

(5) Web App: New Streaming for XLSX-/CSV-downloads

There was an issue when downloading a larger amount of data from a (fact) table in the Web App, since the download could stopped with an error message.

With the new streaming implementation, the download of the records into an .xlsx or .csv es executed piece by piece. This also saves memory usage (e.g. 0,5 GB instead of 1,5 GB for downloading 65.000 records).

(6) Public Showcases: Dynamic table demo

We have introduced the dynamic table feature in the July 2021 Release, now we have added the demo to the “Weekly Project Status” Public Showcase:

You` ll find the demo in the second sheet called Dynamic Table. Please note that the two sheets are not synced, therefore the read processes are triggered independantely from each other.

Hope you like the new features – we are very curious about your feedback! Please let us know what you think and what kind of collection processes you would prefer to automate with data1.io. 

And: stay healthy!

Release January 2022

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We are happy to deliver the brandnew January 2022 release with the Extended Showcase “Cost & Invest” and many more. Try it now!

Remember, the Web Client is the user friendly spreadsheet for your Collector Users to deliver their monthly/weekly/daily data. The Web App is the tool for the Power User to setup and control your organization’s collection workflows.

(1) Showcase Cost & Invest: new “Invest Planning” sheet

We have created a new sheet called “Investitionen” which is intended for invest planning. So it`s new in this showcase that you as a user can plan 2 different contents (with the 2 sheets) on the some costcenter elements. The new sheet provides a – in data1.io Showcases totally new – structure of data entry: additonally to the numbers several master data can / have to be entered per row.

The main isssue in this showcase is to create the records in the fact table this way that the master data is stored on every record with the numbers (and not as seperate master data records). This is enabled by the “New Record Definitions” which was introduced in November 2021 Release:

Just to rembember: the cost planning did in the first sheet did not change.

(2) Showcase Cost & Invest: old/new “Object Planning” sheet

For those of you who are asking what happened to the “old” invest planning: we repurposed it to an “Object Planning”. The data entry sheet was streamlined and the elements in the dimension tree are named now “Objekt xx”. Please remember that this showcase demonstrates how to activate a specific data entry sheet for defined element (types).

(3) Web Client: New “vertical” record definition mode

The interesting thing of this “Object Planning” sheet is that with this release the “New Record Definitions” (from the November 2021 Release) are now also available in a vertical format:

The consequence of this definition is – again – that the master data is merged on every recordset with a measure:

Please note that at this stage the master data is only merged on the measure recordsets from the first column in the workbook (see above).

(4) Web Client: New progress screen

When opening a workbook as a collector user, you`ll see now a nice progress screen while loading the workbook and reading the values of the first element from the dimension tree:

(5) Web Client: Single click

You can not see it on the screenshot but you will notice immediately if you use the web client: from now on a single click in the dimension tree is sufficient to trigger the “switch” to another element. Therefore, the previous double click is not necessary any more.

(6) Web App: Download tables as XLSX as new default

Until now when downloading a table a CSV was generated. From now on XLSX will be generated by default:

The CSV download has moved to the small dropdown right to the download button:

(7) Web App: Upload Workbooks as XLSM

From now on you can also upload XLSM Files. Please note that Macros and VBA Code can NOT be executed in the Web Client. But: you can use macros and VBA in your Excel file to prepare the workbook offline and then directly upload the XLSM without having to execute an additional “save as”:

Here is the full list of supported files formats:

  • .xls
  • .xlt
  • .xlsx
  • .xlsm
  • .xltm
  • .xltx

Hope you like the new features – we are very curious about your feedback! Please let us know what you think and what kind of collection processes you would prefer to automate with data1.io. 

And: stay healthy!

Release November 2021 (before the winter break)

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We are happy to deliver the brandnew November 2021 release with the new Record Definition Mode and many more new features . Try it now!

Remember, the Web Client is the user friendly spreadsheet for your Collector Users to deliver their monthly/weekly/daily data. The Web App is the tool for the Power User to setup and control your organization’s collection workflows.

(1) Web Client: New record definitions (for the “by Column Mode”)

Until now, these 4 entries in the Cost & Invest Public Showcase …

… were saved into the fact table as 4 records:

The new record definition (in the “by column mode”) consists of 2 components:

  • The existing definition “data1_CELLS01_ByColumnMapping” (here row 6) is upgraded with a record definition -> these are the digits after the last underscore of the text in the definition fields. For instance “_10” means that the October values are saved on the 10th record that is created when writing back a row.
  • The new definition “data1_CELLS01_ByColumnMapping_Records” (here row 7) defines on which records the value from that column should be written. “1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15” means that the comment should be written on all records of this row.

These definitions force the system to save the comment on the 3 records with the values (without an additional 4th record only for the comment):

On the one hand, this makes analysis – e.g. in Power BI – much easier and on the other hand this makes possible to save master data directly on the measure records. We will show further fields of applications in the next releases.

(2) Web Client: Clear all fields

Until now, it was not possible to remove all the data from an element because the write process was not started when the data entry area was empty. From now on Collector Users can …

… remove all the data from the spreadsheet and press the Write button, this will remove the data also from the database:

(3) Web Client: Another Performance improvement

We are happy that we have solved another performance bottleneck for the READ process (after we have solve already one in the September 2021 Release). data1.io creates now an additonal index consisting of all dimension keys which can improve the READ performance by the factor 2.5!

(4) Web App: New Merge Field

We have introduced the new Multi-Workflow Feature back in June. Now it is time to extend also the set of merge fields for the workflow e-mails with a new one:

  • {WEBAPP.WORKFLOW.URL}

This new merge field …

… creates a hyperlink in the workflow e-mail which …

… directly leads to a filtered version of the Collection Workflows landing page:

The landing page is filtered to the relevant application (here “Weekly Project Status”) and the workflow from the e-mail is highlighted (here “PM Weekly Actuals”). This way, your collector users get the overview of all running workflows and see which workflow is the most relevant one.

(5) New Blogpost “Power BI Custom Visual” (in German)

In the October 2021 release we have introduced the new “Gen2” Custom Visual for Power BI, now we have written also a blog post with many details about the custom visual. See the custom visual in action here:

Please be clear that the Power BI custom visual can be used as an alternative client to the Web Client – this gives you more options for your planning and data collection workflows:

To the blog post:

https://linearis.at/blog/2021/11/26/datenerfassung-in-power-bi-teil-3-custom-visual/

(7) New Blogpost “Power Apps Demo” (in German)

We have introduced Power Apps as another alternative client already in the March 2021 release. Now we show how to make the user interface more attractive and use the Power Apps application via the Power Apps visual directly in a Power BI Report:

To the blog post:

https://linearis.at/blog/2021/11/17/datenerfassung-in-power-bi-teil-2-power-apps-visual/

(8) Technical improvements and debugging

We have solved an issue with the “comment marker” in the corner of the cells, this was placed on the wrong position if the zoom factor was <> 100 %.

Further, we have improved the technical execution of the SQL Transaction for the writeback: the processes for setting the existing records on “deleted” and the process for inserting the new records are now always executed either together or none of the two is executed.

Finally we have removed a bug leading to a wrong aggregated “Level” calculation (using the “%” placeholder) in combination withc “comment” records.

Hope you like the new features – we are very curious about your feedback! Please let us know what you think and what kind of collection processes you would prefer to automate with data1.io. 

We`ll be back after the christmas break with the January Release!

And: stay healthy!

Release October 2021

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We are happy to deliver the brandnew October 2021 release with the next version of the Power BI Custom Visual . Try it now!

Remember, the Web Client is the user friendly spreadsheet for your Collector Users to deliver their monthly/weekly/daily data. The Web App is the tool for the Power User to setup and control your organization’s collection workflows.

(1) Power BI: New Custom Visual (Gen2)

In the May 2021 release we introduced the first version of our Power BI Custom Visual (which was a prototype):

Now, we invested for the next generation of this visual to make it not only more beautiful but also more powerful:

  • Measure and text as columns
  • Multi-Project editing at once
  • Filter not only for projects but also for dates
  • Free configuration of the data1.io ODATA parameters in the settings of the visual

Just edit the values and texts in the custom visual and immediately see the aggregation in the Power BI charts and tables (by using a Direct Query datamodel with automatic Change Detection):

Sure, you can use the Power BI Custom Visual and the data1.io Web Client in parallel, both clients show the same values from the data1.io application (of course):

Please be aware that also this Gen2 visual is a proof-of-concept and not part of the data1.io production environment. If you are interested in usimg this technology for your company please feel free to contact us!

(2) Web App: New Design for the Public Showcases Page

We are happy to present our new Public Showcases landing page which is more compact and up-to-date:

Just for comparison, this was our old page:

(3) Web App: New Hide/Unhide for the Navigation Pane

Analyzing or editing wide tables needs more space – therefore we have implemented the new hide/unhide function in order to expand or collapse the navigation pane:

Here we go:

(4) Web Client: Improvements for the Showcase “Weekly Project Status”

Due to the the Power BI Custom Visual as well as due to our tests with Power Apps we decided to streamline the anyway small showcase for “Weekly Project Status”:

Furthermore we changed the record structure for this showcase “from vertical to horicontal”, i.e. several values and texts are now stored on the same record in the fact table:

(5) Web Client: Improved query for same name level elements

Formerly there was a problem with elements on the same level with the same name: the data1.io query engine summed up all values with this element name but took not into account the branch of the dimension tree. Now we have changed that and the query engine retrieves the aggregations for an element by querying also the above levels of the element.

This way, two “Team 1” elements on the same level of the dimension tree get the right aggregated values on both elements:

For the sake of completeness: this feature was already implemented in May 2021 but not communicated until now.

(6) Web App: Improved sort & filter for text fields in large tables

With the May 2021 release we introduced the new paging mechanism for large tables (> 1000 records). One remaining issue was sorting & filtering for text fields in such tables, which was only applied to the 1000 records in the current page. This is solved now so that filters and sort commands are applied in the backend to the whole table:

For the sake of completeness: this feature was already implemented in May 2021 but not communicated until now.

(7) Technical improvements and debugging

We had an issue when uploading data into the fact table which contain empty strings (“”) instead of null in the dimension key fields. As a consequence the values of such records could not be shown in the workbook, this is solved now.

Furthermore we improved the READ performance in multi-sheet workbooks, since we found out that the recalculation was done for every sheet although once for all does the same job in much less time.

Finally, records with empty date fields in the fact table caused an error when the table was downloaded, this is solved now as well.

(8) SQL Days 2021 “Power BI and Data Entry” (in German)

Two weeks ago I had a session at the SQL Days 2021 in Munich (Germany) called “Power BI and Data Entry”:

I used data1.io as “SQL based planning engine” to show how a Direct Query application in Power BI has to be setup and how Power Apps and Power BI Custom Visual can be used as alternative frontends to Excel:

Find more information here (in german language):

https://linearis.at/blog/2021/10/29/session-power-bi-und-datenerfassung-bei-den-sql-days-2021/

(9) Supplement license information

We added a supplementary row to our pricing page in order to make clear that the Free Plan as well as the Enterprise Plans have limits concerning number of records and the resulting READ performance. So, there is not a limit for the number of records but the READ performance will go down the more records you will put into the fact table of your data1.io application:

The solution for larger application is “calculation power” in the form of additional DTUs (see bottom right).

Hope you like the new features – we are very curious about your feedback! Please let us know what you think and what kind of collection processes you would prefer to automate with data1.io. 

And: stay healthy!

Release September 2021

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We are happy to deliver the brandnew September 2021 release with the new dynamic list reports! Try it now!

Remember, the Web Client is the user friendly spreadsheet for your Collector Users to deliver their monthly/weekly/daily data. The Web App is the tool for the Power User to setup and control your organization’s collection workflows.

(1) Web App: New workflow timeline overview

We are really proud to present the new workflow timeline overview. You’ll see all your defined workflows in a graphical timeline visualization with a vertical bar for “Today”. This way it is very easy to see which workflows run at the same time and how long they will run.

For comparison, until now we only had this (very unintuitive) table based view on the workflows:

(2) Web App: New workflow editor

Embedded in the new timeline overview you’ll find the new editor for your workflows. You can change here start end date both visually by pulling the slider or by selecting the date from the data picker:

The form is structured into topics which makes the definition of a workflow much more intuitive than before:

For comparison, this was our data entry form for workflows until now:

(3) Web App: New UI form

We have developed a new “standard form” for entering the organizational data in your tenant. This form looks “quite normal” as you probably are used to from other cloud services.

For comparison, our “table based form” was not really suitable for this kind of data:

This was a simple solution for the start of your system but now we replace it with the new intuitive form. We plan to roll out this new form to more topics within the next months.

(4) Web App: New UI elements

With the new workflow editor and the new UI form we have streamlined and modernized the look & feel of the whole data1.io Web App.

Compare the new record editor …

… with the old one:

And compare the new login form …

… with the old one.

We will continue this process of modernizing the UI within the next months in order to bring the user experience of our Web App to the next level.

(5) Web Client: Performance improvement for the READ process

In workbooks with many cells activated for the data1.io READ process (named range “”data1_CELLS01) we had a performance issue since the check which cells in this area exactly have to be cleared (as part of the READ process) took a long time in this case. We have solved this issue and the READ process gained a huge performance win in this applications.

Hope you like the new features – we are very curious about your feedback! Please let us know what you think and what kind of collection processes you would prefer to automate with data1.io. 

And: stay healthy!

Release July 2021 (before the summer break)

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We are happy to deliver the brandnew July 2021 release with the new dynamic list reports! Try it now!

Remember, the Web Client is the user friendly spreadsheet for your Collector Users to deliver their monthly/weekly/daily data. The Web App is the tool for the Power User to setup and control your organization’s collection workflows.

(1) Web Client: New dynamic list reports

Until now, it was only possible to show aggregated values on the aggregated levels of the dimension tree:

With this release you can create reports like this which show the elements from the dimension tree in the report itself:

Of course, those reports can be filtered dynamically by double clicking in the dimension tree:

This new type of report uses the following new features:

  • New filter tables
  • New “data1_CELLS01_DIM001_Attribute” parameter
  • New list form for the “data1_CELLS01_DIM001” parameter

(2) Web Client: New filter tables

With this release you can query all dimension tables from your datamodel simply by using the following named range:

  • data1_CELLS01_InsertTable_T_DIMxxx

After the READ process has been executed …

… an Excel table with the dimension data is inserted starting at the defined cell:

Furthermore, you can add an filter condition which has to be written in the syntax of an “SQL where clause” using the following named range:

  • data1_CELLS01_InsertTable_T_DIMxxx_Filter

Please note that there a several restrictions at the moment:

  • Row Level Security (RLS) is NOT applied as filter
  • The filter table is read only (it is NOT possible to write changes back to the datamodel)

(3) Web Client: New “data1_CELLS01_DIM001_Attribute” parameter

There is only 1 thing missing to link the table to the selected element from the dimension tree: the name of the field from the selected element in the dimension tree. You can query this information now with this new named range:

  • data1_CELLS01_DIM001_Attribute

You can combine now the selected element with the attribute behind it in order to define a dynamic filter statement for the table:

Selecting another element from the dimension tree triggers a new query of the dynamic table and you get a new filtered table:

(4) Web Client: New list form for the “data1_CELLS01_DIM001” parameter

Until now, the parameter “data1_CELLS01_DIM001” had to be a single cell. With this release, you can define this parameter as a horicontal or vertical range. Double clicking an element in the dimension tree will transfer the name of the selected element to the first cell of the named range and the other cells from the named range will also be used as filter parameter for the query of the values in the cells area:

The same is true for the new parameter ” data1_CELLS01_DIM001_Attribute”:

Finally, you can connect the cells area with the READ/WRITE interaction with the dynamic filter table e.g. by using the INDEX() formula in order to get the elements from the filter table in relative order into the cells area:

Please note that there a several restrictions:

  • At the moment only the Measure fields and NOT the Text fields are retrievable
  • At the moment those sheets are read only (so it is NOT possible to write back data entries)

(5) Web Client: New vertical ByColumnMapping definition

The next feature has nothing to with the new dynamic list reports. Until now, the named range “data1_CELLS01_ByColumnMapping” could only be used in a horicontal list form …

… with this release you can use this definition also in vertical list form which makes many more usecases realizable:

(6) Web Client: New Exception Type 0

Exception types overrule the definition from R/W control panel. This is useful if you have rows or columns which are partly relevant for the Read/Write process and partly not:

  • data1_CELLS01_ExceptionType0

Please note that the other exception types (1 to 4) were already available.

Hope you like the new features – we are very curious about your feedback! Please let us know what you think and what kind of collection processes you would prefer to automate with data1.io. 

We`ll be back after the summer break with the September Release!

And: stay healthy!

Release June 2021

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We are happy to deliver the brandnew June 2021 release with the new Multi-Workflow feature and new Trigger Cells. With this release we leave now the public beta stage – data1.io is now generally available! Yeah, let`s celebrate! Try it now!

Remember, the Web Client is the user friendly spreadsheet for your Collector Users to deliver their monthly/weekly/daily data. The Web App is the tool for the Power User to setup and control your organization’s collection workflows.

(1) New Multi-Workflow Mode: Collector Users’ view

With the April 2021 Release we got the possibility to have more than 1 workbook in an application. From now on it is also possible to run several workflows at the same time within the same application. Every workflow can have its own workbook …

… or several workbooks can share the same workbook(s):

(2) New Multi-Workflow Mode: Power Users’ view

The most important new thing for the power user is the new assignment table where you define which workbook is valid for which workflow:

In the Workflows section we added the Add new button where you can define now as many workflows as you need. They can run at the same time or in different time slots:

All existing definition tables for workflows have got now a dropdown selection where you can select the workflow you want to define:

The Invitation section has got a workflow dropdown as well which means that the invitation mails are sent now for every workflow seperately:

Please note that at this stage the Workflow e-Mails cannot be defined seperately (i.e. all workflows use the same e-Mail Templates). Furthermore we want to announce that we will adopt our pricing which is based now on users/applications and we will transform that to users/current workflows.

(3) Web Client: New trigger cells

We are happy that we can deliver now the new trigger cells. As soon as a cell within the named range data1_CELLS01_TriggerReadOnChange is changed, a read process (= refresh will be triggered).

With this new feature you can intensively use dropdowns in your workbooks in order to refresh the queries:

Please note that there is another named range data1_CELLS01_TriggerTreeSelectionAndReadOnChange which makes it possible to select a dimension tree key within a dropdown, pass it to the dimension tree and then trigger the read process (= refresh).

(4) Web Client: Read first bottom element

Another useful definition ist the new “data1_ReadFirstBottomElement = 1” setting …

… since this will force the automatic selection of the first element in the dimension tree when opening the workbook:

Please note that this feature is “Row Level Security sensitive”, i.e. the first element the current user has rights for will be selected.

(5) Web App: Upload from Excel Files with Formulas

Until now you got an error when you tried to upload an Excel file into a data1.io table which contained formulas. From now on this issue is solved and you can upload also files with formulas:

(6) Web App: New column USER_Key in the Fact Table

A little but important extension is the new User Key column in the fact table. This makes analysis of the collected data much easier than before:

(7) Web App: License information for Enterprise Plan

As an Enterprise Plan user you can see now your personal license informaton in your Tenant Settings:

Please note that at this stage it is not possible to change license settings by your own.

(8) Further Improvements

We have improved the default sort order of the tables and have set the default time to “00:00 AM” when entering a date without time. Futhermore we have solved some minor buts with the workflow e-mails.

(9) Removal of the “Public Beta” bar

Since data1.io is “Generally Available” now we removed the “Public Beta” at the top of the Web App and the Web Client:

Hope you like the new features – we are very curious about your feedback! Please let us know what you think and what kind of collection processes you would prefer to automate with data1.io. 

And: stay healthy!

Release May 2021

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We are happy to deliver the brandnew May 2021 release with the new editable Dimension Tree and the new Power BI Custom Visual Prototype. Try it now!

Remember, the Web Client is the user friendly spreadsheet for your Collector Users to deliver their monthly/weekly/daily data. The Web App is the tool for the Power User to setup and control your organization’s collection workflows.

(1) New editable Dimension Tree: Collector User view

From now on it is possible that your Collector Users can create new elements in the dimension tree! More exactly, the bottom level elements in the dimension tree can be edited by users, who get the “create” right. You`ll find the edit dialog as kontext menu on the dimension tree elements on the bottom level as well as the elements on the penultimate level: in both cases the element is created on the bottom level. If the user does not have the right to edit the dimension tree (or parts of it) then the edit dialog is disabled:

The creation of a dimension tree element needs the entry of two information: the key and the name of the element:

If the dimension key already exists then the element will not be created. After the element was created only the name (and not the key) can be edited. Please be aware that this feature is very mighty and therefore your users have to be instructed how to define keys and how to use the delete function.

(2) New editable Dimension Tree: Power User view

The editable dimension tree will not be relevant for every data1.io application, threrefore the dimension tree is by default NOT editable (as it was until now). If you want to activate this new function, you do that on a workbook level:

On a more detailled level, the user-specific definition for the whole dimension tree or only for branches of the dimension tree ist set via the new “create” right in the Row Level Security definition:

(3) New Showcase: “Weekly Cash Planning” (in German)

We are happy that we have the “Weekly Cash Planning” as our 7th Public Showcase:

The showcase demonstrates how the logic from the established financial planning tool “iXPlan” can be used within the data1.io service to collect cash planning information e.g. from several companies:

If you are interested to use this solution for your own company please contact Mr. Pfitzer from Pfitzer Consult in Coburg / Germany:

(4) Power BI: New Custom Visual (Prototype)

We are really proud that we can show with our existing public showcase “Weekly Project Status” …

… how data1.io collections could look like with a Power BI Custom Visual:

Please note that this is a prototype in order to test the feasibility. If you as a company are interested in this technology please feel free to contact us.

Read also our blogpost – you´ll find there an embedded version of the demo application to test the Power BI Custom Visual in action!

data1.io Datenerfassung mit dem Power BI Custom Visual

(5) Power BI: New iFrame Embedding for the Web Client (Prototype)

We invested also in another feasibility prototype – namely the embedding of the data1.io Web Client via iFrame e.g. into Power BI:

You can see the iFrame HTML Code in the bottom of the Power BI Page, we used the “normal” custom visual “HTML Viewer” to embed the data1.io Web Client into Power BI. After the login you can use data1.io as you know it directly on a Power BI Page:

If you as a company are interested in this technology please feel free to contact us.

(6) Web App: New paging mechanism for large Tables

Until now it took a long time to load large tables within the Web App. With the new paging mechanism for large tables this issue is solved now:

(7) Web App: Change in default Landingpage for Power Users

Until now a Power User was directed to the Web App and it was difficult to navigate to the “Collector Users`Landingpage” as a Power User. Vice versa, a Power User who has also (in another application) a Collector User role was directed to the “Collector Users`Landingpage” and it was difficult to navigate to the Web App.

We have changed that now. A Power User is directed now always to the Web App and we added in the navigation pane on the left the links to the “Collector Users’ Landingpage” an to the “Public Showcase Gallery”:

Definition: a Power User is a user who either has a Tenant Admin role or an Application Owner role.

(8) Enterprise Plan: User Interface finished

We are happy that we have finished the User Interface for Companies / Users with an Enterprise Plan. We have checked and streamlined all screens, dropdowns, etc. to make the maintenance of the Enterprise Plan features as efficient as possible. Furthermore we added new tabs for the different user roles in your tenant:

(9) Enterprise Plan: New ODATA rights

Until now the private ODATA feed was always enabled for both read and write. From now on this can be configured on an application level and we recommend to set the “read” right since this will be sufficient for the most use cases:

(10) Tipp: Use icons in the dimension tree

One of our users showed us that it is possible to add UTF-8 symbols to the name of the dimension tree elements – which can make the dimension tree more friendly and more intuitively:

Simply add the UTF-8 Symbol to the Dimension Tree NAME:

Find UTF-8 Symbols:

https://www.w3schools.com/charsets/ref_utf_symbols.asp

Hope you like the new features – we are very curious about your feedback! Please let us know what you think and what kind of collection processes you would prefer to automate with data1.io. 

And: stay healthy!