As part of the LANSA BI version 9.14 release, a sample of the Visual LANSA web file is included in the installation package. This sample is designed to help you quickly begin integrating LANSA BI dashboards and reports into your own application in Visual LANSA.
Expanded REST API functionality
The expanded range of REST API allows you to create your own applications in Visual LANSA, having multiple seamless integrations with LANSA BI’s reports, dashboards and content.
The REST API provides important functionality to help you automate key processes, such as automating the onboarding of new clients in a multi-tenant environment, building custom embedded applications using LANSA BI in Visual LANSA, and integrating LANSA BI content (users, stories, signals, reports, etc) inside a LANSA application.
LANSA BI version 9.14 introduces new functionality for REST API, including:
- New content endpoint: returns a list of all content accessible to a user, including Views, Reports, Dashboards, Stories, and more. It allows further ability to build custom content browsing solution in an embedded BI scenario.
- New dashboards, presentations, and themes endpoints: retrieves a list of items or detailed information for a specific content item.
- New health endpoint: returns the overall health of a Yellowfin deployment, including clustered deployments. There are two forms:
- Ping endpoint: returns limited information, and it does not require authentication.
- Full health endpoint: returns comprehensive information about the deployment.
- Enhanced users and import-export endpoints: updates the user profile information, such as timezone, language preference, and lists the dependencies of a Content Item from within an Import File.
- Cached filter refreshes: the REST endpoints trigger cached filter refreshes for Dashboards and Views.
- New integration API: allows external developers to get information about the user and organization in a user-friendly interface. This eliminates the need to reference internal Yellowfin methods to get the current user, role or client organization when developing custom headers, JSPs and internal plugins like formatters and analytic functions.
For detailed technical information, see the REST API documentation here.
Enhancements
Report Builder
- Re-order columns: columns can be re-ordered from the Column Formatting page by dragging and dropping the column to a new location. This is especially useful for Reports with a large number of columns.
- Calculated totals in charts: calculated totals are supported across most chart types. Calculated totals are an extremely useful feature when using Calculated Fields in a report. It provides the option to re-execute the calculation at the total or sub-total level for a report, rather than using traditional aggregation types such as Sum, Average, etc. This is useful when you use a calculation such as a ratio (e.g., return on equity).
- Chart customization: apply micro-configurations, such as changing the color of label lines.
User Interface
Unification of the UI to ensure consistent popups are displayed throughout the application. This includes popups to create and edit Folders, popups for sharing content such as Reports and Stories, the View Summary popup, and a variety of other confirmation popups (such as when deleting content).
In addition, based on users’ feedback, LANSA BI 9.14 has enhanced the UI for managing User Access on Folders - including the ability to:
- Resize the columns of the table to better see information
- Restrict what is shown in the list by selecting People Only, Groups Only or Client Groups Only
- Make the table scroll within the page so that the Save and Cancel buttons are always visible
Attachments
LANSA BI 9.14 has continued to improve on reporting capabilities, including the ability to export, share and broadcast reports as attachments (using Export and Broadcast features).
In this release, the role function for TXT and CSV are separated roles (previously, these were combined in a single role), and added fine-grained control over exactly which attachment types are supported for Reports and Dashboards, including the ability to modify the default attachment type for broadcasts.
Image
The Image Manager has been enhanced to allow new image uploads to be pasted from the clipboard of the browser, making it easier when adding images to Stories, adding images to Dashboards or adding images to Presentations. To search for an image (for example, in a Google Search result), right click to copy it and paste it directly into the Image Manager popup.
For users who have not added a profile image, User Avatars now display the user’s initials, similar to many modern messaging applications, as opposed to the default user icon. In addition, we have added the ability for users to choose a custom background color for their avatar. This uses a standard color picker that allows for a choice between standard colors or a fully custom color including the ability to enter the hexadecimal code of your favorite color. Users can now also customize the initials that are displayed, particularly useful for certain languages where the first and last initial do not represent the most appropriate choice for a user.