July, 2024

We’re excited to present you with the Long-Term Support (LTS) Release Note 2024.4! This LTS covers all the Dawiso updates, enhancements, and bug fixes released since release note 2023.1. Our ongoing commitment to improving the platform ensures you have access to the most reliable and feature-rich tools. In this document, you will find a detailed overview of what’s new.

Please note that this LTS serves as a full replacement for a standard release note.

Download the 2024.11 LTS as a PDF here.

API Tables of Objects

API tables are essential for efficient data management and navigation, enabling users to add, customize, and maintain lists of objects with ease. Our latest updates bring enhanced functionality to streamline your workflow and user experience.

  • Attributes Mass-Edit: You can now perform mass edits on attributes using templates, making it quicker and easier to update multiple entries simultaneously.
  • Object Path in API Tables: This new feature allows you to display the paths to any object within the API tables, significantly enhancing navigability and making it simpler to locate specific items.
  • Object Type Column Icons: Icons were added to the object type column in tables of objects for better visualization.

Data Lineage

Data lineages are crucial for managing, tracking, and visualizing data effectively. It’s a key functionality in Dawiso, which is why we continuously fine-tune it to meet users’ needs. Here’s a look at the latest features and improvements.

Add or Delete Relation

A new action has been added to the data lineage editor. In addition to annotating, you can now add new relations or delete selected ones (except for relations representing invisible data flows).

Keep in mind that you need at least a contributor-level user role to delete relations.

Embedded Diagram

Embedding diagrams into text has been added. You can now embed existing diagrams directly in your text editor.

Type a forward slash ”/” and select Diagram in the top panel of the text editor to find your desired diagram and embed it seamlessly into your text.

Higher Default Depth

You can now set a higher default depth for objects within the diagram. This allows you to expand and see all data flows in both incoming and outgoing directions, providing a comprehensive view of data movements.

Smart Expand

The new Smart Expand feature allows diagrams to expand as much as possible while maintaining visual clarity. This feature will be especially useful for large, branching diagrams.

Smart Expand lets you expand certain flows to show related entities (tables, columns, etc.) in as much detail as needed. Simply select the desired depth.

UI Optimization

We’ve redesigned the UI of lineages for a more streamlined experience:

  • Fullscreen Mode: Fullscreen now provides a lot more space, making it easier to view and work with lineages.
  • Right Panel: The right panel now closes by default, giving you a cleaner and less cluttered workspace.

View Data Flow Levels

For a better data visualization, it’s now possible to view different levels of data flows in the lineage diagram. Please note that the number of available levels depends on your Dawiso environment configuration.

Some examples of levels are:

  • Column level: Focus on individual columns.
  • Database level: View flows at the database level.
  • High-level parent entities: See data flows at the organizational unit level (e.g., DB owners).

To access these views, right-click an object and choose from the following options:

  • Hide this level: Hide the currently selected level.
  • Hide level below: Hide the level immediately below the selected one.

Other Data Lineages Enhancements and Changes

  • Deleting incoming and outgoing flows no longer requires confirmation, thanks to the Undo & Redo actions added in the previous LTS.
  • Expand to Depth was renamed to Precise Expand.

Dawiso AI

As AI continues to evolve, it has become an indispensable tool for streamlining workflows and enhancing productivity. Dawiso is excited to introduce AI-driven features designed to simplify your daily tasks and optimize overall efficiency.

  • AI-Powered Writing: Our text editors now feature AI writing assistance to support spelling, grammar, style checks, and more. Activate AI assistance by clicking the Dawiso AI icon in the text editor toolbar or by typing a forward slash ”/” in the text field and selecting Help me write.
  • AI Recommendations: The new Recommendations AI enhances the Search function by suggesting objects tailored to your interests. It considers factors such as visitor numbers and object popularity, making the platform more intuitive and user-friendly, especially for new users.
  • AI Summary: Dawiso AI now includes content summarization to make your tasks easier. Simply toggle the AI-Generated option on the Summary card, and our AI will generate a summary based on the content of the page (attribute values). Disable the option to manually edit the generated summary.

Entity Relationship Diagram

For yet another way to simplify data governance, we’ve added the Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) feature which offers:

  • Visual Data Representation: ERD allows you to visualize the relationships between different entities in your database, making it easier to understand complex data structures.
  • Enhanced Data Management: With ERD, you can quickly identify and navigate through interconnected data points, improving your ability to manage and manipulate data effectively.

Explorer & Search

The Explorer was refined with streamlined object hierarchy. The extra click previously required to access the object hierarchy was removed. Now, when you select a space or application to view the space-app overview page, the object hierarchy instantly appears in the left panel. This rollback was based on your feedback to better align with your needs! 👍

The Search functionality has been simplified and improved:

  • Categorization of Objects: It’s now possible to configure the categorization of objects into Asset Type Groups, such as table and column. This allows for more intuitive searches without needing to know the exact application, making the process more intuitive and user-friendly.
  • Recommendations AI in Advanced Search: We have integrated Recommendations AI into the Advanced Search function to suggest relevant objects based on your interests. For more details, refer to the Dawiso AI section.

Help Center: User Guide and Developer Documentation

Comprehensive documentation is crucial for enhancing user experience, troubleshooting, and ensuring smooth navigation through our platform. To better support our users, we prepared a new Dawiso documentation and made it more easily accessible.

  • Enhanced Documentation: We published brand-new user and developer documentation, providing detailed and updated resources to assist you with any queries or issues you may encounter.
  • Easy Access: Click the Help icon in the top navigation bar to open the Help menu. From there, you can easily access user guides and developer documentation.
  • Tours: When you click the Help icon in the top navigation bar, you will also have the option to review the introductory Dawiso tours. For more information, see the Tours & Hotpots section.

Import & Export

We have significantly upgraded the import and export features to improve your experience with managing objects.

  • Add Relations to Excel Import: You can now include relations when importing objects in Excel format. This functionality streamlines the process and ensures all necessary data is captured accurately.
  • Cleaner Word Export: When exporting to Word, empty attributes are no longer included. This change ensures your documentation is cleaner and more relevant, focusing only on the attributes that contain data.

Ingestions

We are excited to present the Ingestion functionality, allowing administrators to seamlessly integrate your data into Dawiso. We support a variety of providers, enabling you to connect and create data sources with ease.

  • Expanding Integration Capabilities: We provide numerous out-of-the-box metadata scanners already available and more in development. Additionally, we now support GraphQL querying within the dbt connector, and a Redshift scanner was newly added.

The user experience for ingestions has been consistently refined, and the following features have been added:

  • Detailed Data Source Information: Each data source now includes additional details such as ingestion state and last run, providing more comprehensive data management insights.
  • Enhanced Ingestion Notifications: Notifications display the name of the connection or data source for better clarity.
  • Toast Notifications for Ingestions: Instant updates are available when an ingestion process is initiated, ensuring you stay informed in real-time.
  • Improved Modal Texts for Deletions: Confirmation texts have been optimized for better understanding when deleting a connection or data source.

Marketplace & Packages

We are thrilled to introduce our new Marketplace! Accessible from the Settings menu, the Marketplace allows you to install and delete applications from a curated set of packages available in the cloud.

The Packages menu, now also available directly from the Settings menu, enables administrators to configure spaces, applications, and object attributes with ease. The following features were also added to make sure Packages are more user-friendly.

  • Packages Renderer: The Packages Renderer was updated for traditionally created templates, ensuring compatibility and ease of use.

New customization options via Packages and templates are now available:

  • Object Details Configuration: Configure the details that appear in the right panel in Search and Diagrams using JSON templates. This allows administrators to highlight the most important information about each object for their users.
  • Application Overview Customization: Fully customize application overviews via templates. Note that this customization will become obligatory as the fallback option will be discontinued in the upcoming LTS release.
    • Moreover, application overviews will no longer be available in the Explorer.

Panels

We have made upgrades to panels to provide a better user experience and functionality.

  • Open and Close Attributes: To optimize your work experience, you can now hide or display certain attribute values on the object page using the arrow next to each attribute to toggle visibility. Changes to panel visibility are retained when you revisit the same object or object type.
  • Redesigned Panels: Panels across the platform have been redesigned for a more streamlined look and improved navigation.
    • All sections and panels now have a distinct border.
    • Panels are clearly titled.
    • The header panel spans the width of both the middle and right panels.
    • Anchors (tabs) have been added in the header for easier navigation, linking directly to specific sections on the page.

Text Editor

The following features were added to the text editor to enhance your writing experience:

  • AI Powered Assistance: Our text editors now feature AI writing assistance for spelling, grammar, style checks, and more! For further details, see the Dawiso AI section.
  • Embedded Text: You can now embed object names when attributing values of other objects. Once saved, the object name will display as embedded text.
  • Embedded Diagrams: Embed diagrams directly into your text has been simplified. Type a forward slash ”/” and select Diagram. For more information see the Data Lineages section.
  • Table of Contents: You can now display a Table of Contents in the right panel. Headings used in the text editor will appear in the Table of Contents, allowing you to navigate directly to specific sections by clicking on them.

Tours & Hotspots

For a better onboarding experience, we’ve added Tours which will guide you through key elements of the platform. This will make it easier to understand and navigate the platform. Click Show me around to start the tours.

Tours will have hotspots, which are descriptive markers that appear throughout the tour to help you interact with the platform.

If you skipped a tour or need to review it, in the Help menu, click Reset Onboarding.

Workflow

We’ve optimized workflows to enhance efficiency and collaboration:

  • Protect Workflow Transition: To prevent approval of objects with missing mandatory fields, workflow transitions are now only possible if all required fields are filled in.
  • Disable Adding Child Objects Based on Workflow Status: You can now restrict the creation of child objects within the object hierarchy based on
    • The workflow state of the parent object and
    • Specific object types

In these cases, error messages will be displayed to prevent unauthorized actions.

Other Enhancements & Bug Fixes

To elevate the Dawiso experience, the following features were fine-tuned.

  • Specific Comments: A new tab for Specific comments is now available in the Activities section. Specific comments can have their own workflows to better differentiate. Rename the tab to suit your needs.
  • Simplified Tab Names: Browser tab names have been made clearer, making it easier to understand and navigate.
  • New Sign-in Page: Sign-in page has been simplified and redesigned to allow you sign-ups and password resets.

Bug Fixes

We always prioritize listening to customer feedback and continuously strive to improve our platform. In response to the valuable insights and reports from our users, as well as our internal quality checks, we have addressed and fixed the following bugs.

  • Attributes: SQL attribute type will now be formatted correctly when entering SQL query (incl. color-coded keywords).
  • Concept: Asterisks indicating mandatory fields were added where appropriate.
  • Copy Link: When copy pasting a link into a new browser window, the correct link will be opened.
  • Data Lineage: Delete key on keyboard and delete button now work the same way.
  • SQL Format: SQL queries in the definitions will be correctly formatted.
  • Templates: Improved speed of attributes editing via templates.

Conclusion

Thank you for your continued support and invaluable feedback over the past year. Your insights and suggestions are crucial in helping us enhance our platform and address your needs effectively. We are committed to being your trusted partner in your data governance journey, constantly striving to deliver the best tools and features to support your success.

We look forward to continuing this journey together and helping you achieve your data management goals with confidence!