Version 2.8

A new version of crystal is on the go and we have a lot of improvements to share. Here you can find the biggest ones.

Please find the updates below split by user type:

For Members

A member is a user who accesses the advisor and the Dashboard

Conversation enhancements

1. Conjunctions and preposition no longer obstruct crystal’s understanding: As of now, crystal had problems in recognizing a “hot word” if it was followed by a conjunction or a preposition. For example, in a sentence like "total sales for country Spain", she could recognize that “country” was a hot word for “Spain”, but she could not guess if the sentence was "total sales for country of Spain". With this enhancement, conjunctions and prepositions won’t cause any more problems to crystal.

2. Recognizing currency symbols when put before a number: The position of currency symbols is not a problem anymore. Before, crystal wouldn’t recognize a currency value when the symbol was put before the number (e.g. $500) and only recognize when it was put after (e.g. 500$). Thanks to this enhancement, crystal will recognize them, regardless of their position, before or after the numerical value.

Advisor UI improvements for a better user experience

Some UI improvements were included in Version 2.8, to guarantee our users a smoother experience. In particular:

1. New login image: crystal users will now find a new login look and feel, more in line with our brand identity, thanks to a new, fresh image.

2. Numbers formatting: numbers including thousands are now properly formatted with a comma to separate the hundreds. For example, a value like 4200h is now formatted as 4,200h. This applies to all topics including value headers, and the value in the center of donut charts.

3. Descriptions are on the line: with the current release, no more misalignments are to be found in the topics with description objects and related visualizations, as number types columns are left aligned in the light table.

4. iOS cut off issues solved for ranking tables: as of now, for iOS devices on a table topic with key value and applied filter, the last row of the table could be shown partially. With the current enhancements, this issue is no longer happening.

App login and startup enhancements

1. Refresh token is now live: the usage of a refresh token has been implemented in mobile apps, both for Android and iOS. Now, when the current access token is expired, the users are no longer automatically logged out: the app will instead convert the refresh token to get a new access token — meaning that you can close the app then reopen it without having to login again. Note that this only works if BioAuthentication is enabled.

2. Startup issue fixed: the app doesn’t freeze on jailbroken devices anymore: due to an issue, as of now the security check done during the app startup for a jailbroken device, was causing crystal to freeze in a specific view. With this release, crystal is now able to detach the debugger and can stay open, preventing the user from getting into a frustrating open-close journey.

For Admins

An admin is a user who can configure crystal in the Self-Service Console

Support of attribute and collection filters in data source adapters

Thanks to this enhancement, crystal now supports attribute and collection filters for the data adapters IBMDB2, BigQuery and MSSQL.

Deleting filter value aliases and entities

Deleting filter value aliasing was causing issues until now, but thanks to the improvements made with this version such problems were solved. Another improvement is related to the issues with entity deletion: until now, the process would result in an error message and the topic would go back to unpublishing status. Thanks to the current improvement, the error in the cancellation of an entity results in the topic going back to ready status.

Topic creation enhancements

1. Column formatting is more user-friendly: A new tooltip has been added to explain to users how they can now search both levels of the multi-level select for the column formatting field: they can either scroll down to look for the values of a category (e.g. Currency: euro, dollars…) or go back to the main categories selection, where they can find for example currency, power, length and so on.

2. Edit topic - removing static filter: As of now, when a static filter was removed, if the users went to the next step and then back, they would have still found the filter there. Now the problem is solved and the filter will no longer persist upon removal.

Visualizations enhancements

1. Donut chart can now host up to 30 slices: the donut chart visualization will now show a maximum of 30 slices going forward. A solution will be provided also for those who need more than 30 slices: all slices exceeding this limit will be called “others” and will contain the rest of the data merged in it.

2. Cluster column has a new design: the cluster column multi-entity visualization had an issue until now: the column format of the first aggregation function was automatically applied also to the second aggregation function, even though the selected format for the later one was different. To prevent this behavior, a new design was created: this solution now "blocks" the column formatting from the second column, similar to what happens with the aggregation function. To provide a better user experience, a tooltip is shown on hover to explain this limitation.

UI bug fixes

1. UI error on default time range selector resolved: as of now, the default time range selector dropdown was not positioned on top of the containing dialogue, which, as a consequence, was not shown entirely. With the current release, the issue is solved and the view is now complete.

2. Group detail view list scroll adjustment: in this version we fixed a UI bug that prevented the group detail users list to scroll. Now the behaviour is correct.

3. Empty state custom column formatting fix: until now, the custom column formatting would create some issues to those users that went back to change the column selection, only to find that the value selected before was persisting. The current version resolved this bug.

4. User limits reached dialogue spaces enhancements: to improve the user experience, a padding was added around the user limit reached dialogue and the footer space was removed. Now, the dialogue looks cleaner and easier to read.

5. Loading state button added to data source configuration dialogue: the missing loading button after clicking on “test and connect” in the data source configuration dialogue was implemented for a smoother user experience.

Need help using crystal? Check out the full crystal tutorials here.