What's New in Spotfire® 11.3

Advanced analytics has been an integrated part of visual data discovery for many years. But often, only the data function developer or experts have been able to add it to an analytic application... we have lowered that barrier...

Data functions become shareable assets for repurposing across an organization. This also frees up data scientists' time to focus on higher value work, spending less time on tedious lower value custom integrations and more time on developing data functions that solve complex challenges.

Spotfire data functions typically calculate new tables and columns based on simple, or very complex, Python or R scripts developed by analysts, data engineers or data scientists.

With Spotfire 11.3, it?s much easier to add existing data functions to your analysis files. This enables you to use more advanced calculations to answer more questions in more analysis files, for the most comprehensive analysis.

Spotfire 11.3 also includes a new version of the Mods framework, with more capabilities and features. All supported data sources are now listed in the flyout, and, speaking of data sources, the SharePoint connector now supports Automation Services and Scheduled Updates, and SAP HANA retrieves metadata much quicker with the use of SAP HANA Hints.

Back to the What's new in Spotfire landing page.

Data Science

Spotfire data functions are written in Python or R, which makes them extremely versatile. They are often used to run statistics on your data, but they can also be used, for example, to connect to web services, or to transform your data.

Data functions: The f(x) flyout is now available in Business Author

The f(x) flyout, introduced in Spotfire 11.0, is now available in the web client Business Author. This makes it possible to pin your favourite data functions to the flyout and enables quick access when you want to add data functions to an analysis.

Data functions: Add data functions to Business Author analyses

To enable all analyst users to leverage data functions, it's now possible to select data functions from the flyout's library browser or its f(x) menu, also in the Business Author web client.

Once selected, inputs and outputs are easily mapped directly from within the flyout.

This makes it easier for all users to enrich their analysis with data functions.

Data functions: Data table is now available as a new input type

Previously, if you wanted a complete data table as input to your data function, you had to write a $map expression that would include all existing and future column in a table: 

The custom expression for including all columns $map("[sales data].$esc($csearch([sales data],"*"))",",") can be seen if the Custom expression type is selected.

Starting with Spotfire 11.3, you can simply pick the data table you want as input (if all of the columns are allowed by the data function).

Data functions: New output types in the summary view

Data function output is configured in the summary view, just as when you are adding data to an analysis file.

When configuring data function outputs in the summary view, there are now five new output types available:

1. Add as calculated column to
2. Replace data table
3. Add as document property value
4. Add as data table property value to
5. Add as column property value to

A data function that outputs a value is automatically recommended as a document property output.

A data function that outputs a column is automatically recommended as a calculated column output.

Data Wrangling

Automatic column name and data type matching when adding rows

A new auto-match option is available when configuring an Add rows operation.

With auto-match, Spotfire will automatically match columns on name and data type, each time the data is reloaded.

This is useful, for example, when columns' names frequently change in files added as rows.

The new setting is available in the Add rows dialog.

The use of the setting is visible in the Data Canvas information.

Administration

AdoptOpenJDK is supported as an alternative Java implementation for Spotfire

TIBCO Spotfire Server and related Spotfire services (Spotfire Web Player, Spotfire Automation Services, TIBCO® Enterprise Runtime for R - Server Edition, and Spotfire® Service for Python) now support using AdoptOpenJDK (https://adoptopenjdk.net/) as an alternative OpenJDK distribution, instead of the default Oracle Java (also an OpenJDK distribution).

Note: Spotfire supports AdoptOpenJDK 11 (LTS), aligned with currently supported Oracle Java 11.

New custom log configuration file for the node manager

The node manager now has a logging configuration file on the file system, located at:

 <tsnm installation dir>/nm/config/log-config/log4j2.xml

You can customize the node manager logging behavior using a new properties file located at:

 <tsnm installation dir>/nm/config/log-config/log4j2-properties.xml

Note that this second configuration file is kept when doing upgrades.

APIs / SDK

Mods developers on TIBCO Cloud Spotfire can sign mods using their own CA certificate

Mods developers on TIBCO Cloud Spotfire can download the TIBCO Spotfire Package Builder from Library > Resources > Downloads to sign visualization mods with their own CA certificate. See Signing a visualization mod using Package Builder.

New version of the Spotfire Mods API

The Spotfire Mods API 1.1 is a minor update to the API and includes the following new features:

• The ability to cancel a Reader, which allows you to start and cancel subscriptions for more dynamic functionality.
• ID property on Page objects, more robust than index and name.
• Enabled state for radio buttons.
• New leafNode method on DataViewRow objects, which makes it easier to handle data from a categorical axis without having to check for empty expression.
• New elementId method on DataViewRow objects, which gives you stable row identifiers that can be used to identify visual elements in different data views.

All the new features are non-breaking, and existing mods (using Spotfire Mods API 1.0) will continue to work.

Open .mod files in web clients using drag and drop

It is now possible to open a visualization mod by dragging the .mod file to an open analysis in the Spotfire web client. In earlier versions this was supported only in the installed clients.

Added support for custom visualization tooltips in the visualization flyout

It is now possible to use the API to define a localizable string property for a custom C# visualization. The added text will be shown as a tooltip for the visualization in the visualization flyout.

Added support for the JavaScript Mashup API in editing mode

It is now possible to use the JavaScript API also when the Spotfire analysis is in editing mode, enabling authoring of an analysis in a mashup context.