Features and enhancements for 2023.5

Kyvos 2023.5 release brings minor bug fixes and the following enhancement.

Kyvos Analytical Store for complex and long-running queries (Beta)

The Kyvos 2023.5 release introduces an in-house data storage layer known as the Kyvos Analytical Store. This layer provides efficient data storage and retrieval capabilities that help to optimize both cost and time savings. The Kyvos Analytical Store is specifically designed to support complex, long-running queries that process substantial portions of the stored dataset. It is equipped with a columnar-vectorized query execution engine that processes a large batch of values, referred to as a "vector", in a single operation. This vectorized query execution significantly improves performance, especially in OLAP queries.

Kyvos Manager integration with Kyvos Web Portal for Kyvos Cloud (AWS SaaS offering)

The Kyvos 2023.5 release has added support that allows Admin users to effortlessly integrate Kyvos Manager with the Kyvos Web Portal for AWS Managed Services. After logging into the Kyvos Web Portal, Admin users can access the option to Manage Kyvos in the Setup menu located in the toolbox. Upon selecting this option, Kyvos Manager will open in a new tab, facilitating easy navigation to default menu items. Furthermore, the menu options of Kyvos Manager can be customized in Kyvos Web Portal through the use of the provided configuration files from Kyvos Manager.

Track issues or feedback through the Kyvos Web Portal

With this release, Kyvos comes with a feature enabling users to track their feedback and issues through the Kyvos Web Portal. Users can check the status of their requests using the Zendesk application, which serves as the platform for registering and tracking all support activities related to Kyvos.

Row-level security on the Key field value

Kyvos 2023.5 release comes with added support of Row Level Security (RLS) on key field value when the display field is set. This feature allows users to apply Row Level Security on a Key field value, as the display field changes frequently as per the business requirements. Therefore, applying RLS on the key field value saves time and resources. While browsing through a worksheet, filters applied to a key field will be respected, and the display field value corresponding to the key value will be shown instead of displaying all values.

Support for sharing source entity

With the Kyvos 2023.5 release, users can share an entity and all its underlying components recursively. This means that if a user shares a semantic model with another user, they can also share all the sources that constitute that model, including datasets, relationships, worksheets without having to share each one separately.

OIDC authentication for Excelerate desktop and web version

OpenID Connect (OIDC) is a federated SSO authentication protocol built over OAuth 2.0 and is already supported for authentication in the Kyvos Web Client. In this release, Kyvos has included OIDC authentication support for Excelerate Desktop and Web editions.

Generative AI-driven Calculation Designer (Beta)

With this release, Kyvos has added support for a GenAI-driven service called ‘Ask Kyvos Ginie’ that assists semantic model and report designers by generating MDX calculations based on natural language descriptions. Creating calculated measures or members on top of your base metrics from data sources is one of the key aspects of any semantic model. The expression language for creating calculated measures is MDX. MDX as a language is very powerful, especially for OLAP models. However, it may not be easy for many designers and business users to write calculations using MDX. To simplify this aspect of the product, this new capability is added. This service is built on top of the OpenAI GPT-3.5 T Model. It enhances the overall user experience by facilitating the creation of calculations, offering a quick start for users unfamiliar with the MDX language, and enabling experienced users to generate skeletons for complex calculations

Kyvos ODBC Driver with Kerberos authentication

The Kyvos 2023.5 release has added support for Kerberos authentication. Additionally, users can also specify the number of rows fetched in each chunk in the 'Advanced Options' tab by selecting the 'Row fetched per block' checkbox.

Support for calculated measures in Kyvos Viz on HOLAP semantic model

Users can now browse and query calculated measures created on HOLAP semantic models in Kyvos Viz. To ensure successful query execution, it is essential to include materialized fields in the visualization, filter, calculated measure, or non-empty behavior.
NOTE:

• The query will fail if non-materialized fields are used in the visualization, filter, calculated measure, or non-empty behavior.

• Do not change any field to non-materialized after the semantic model is processed. 

Semantic model job marked as Success if canceled during replication

With the Kyvos 2023.5 release, if a semantic model job is canceled during metadata and cuboid replication, it will still be marked as ‘Success’ since replication will be completed by threads operating at set intervals.

Web Accessibility enhancements

Continuing with our commitment to the inclusion of its customers and users with disabilities. We are taking steps to help ensure that the Kyvos Web application, and our customers’ experiences, adhere to WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA standards. As a result, the Kyvos 2023.5 release comes with the following enhancements:

• Non-text Content:
  All non-text content that includes active images (image links), area maps, informative images, complex charts and graphs, CSS images, decorative images, input image controls, CAPTCHA, audio, and video content must have text alternatives. This Success Criterion helps people who have difficulty perceiving visual content. Assistive technology can read text aloud, present it visually, or convert it to braille. 

  • All the icon action buttons and legend icons have alternate text as a tooltip. 

  • All the charts have textual information about the chart on the tooltip. 

  • The quick start video has a text description of the video. 

  • The Kyvos/Kyvos Lite logo has alternate text as a tooltip. 

  • All image tags have alt attributes. 

  • If an image or icon is used as a button or link, the image has a text alternative sufficient to describe the purpose of the button or link. 

• Labels or Instructions Level A: 
  Labels or instructions are provided when content requires user input. 

  • Descriptive labels for inputs. Visually position labels consistently, making associating labels with form controls easy.

  •  Set fields that describe the necessary input. 

  • Indicate required fields. 

• Name, Role, Value A: 
  For all user interface components (including but not limited to form elements, links, and components generated by scripts), the name and role can be programmatically determined; states, properties, and values that the user can set can be programmatically set; and notification of changes to these items is available to user agents, including assistive technologies. 

  • ARIA labels, descriptions, roles, states, and properties to expose information about the component. 

  • ARIA enhances accessibility only when HTML is not sufficient. 

  • Role attribute on HTML elements wherever needed. 

  • All form controls and other interactive elements have an accessible name. 

• Identify Input Purpose Level AA :
  All the input form controls are defined with the type attribute. 

• Label in name Level A: 

  • The accessible name for a User Interface element contains any visual label for the element.

  • Accessible names for UI elements match visual labels. 

• Info and Relationships Level A: 

  • Semantic markup to designate headings, lists, figures, emphasized text, etc. 

  • Page organization using nested HTML headings. 

  • Indicate required fields. 

  • The text indicates the required fields that have been left blank or missed.

• Error Identification Level A:

  • All the input elements have an error style when an error comes. 

  • Error information is shown in the form of text. 

  • Programmatically indicate required fields using the required or aria-required attributes. Also, visually indicate required fields in the form's instructions or form labels. 

  • Identify errors using aria-invalid. 

• Character key shortcuts Level A: 

  • No global shortcuts have only letters. 

  • If a keyboard shortcut is implemented in content using only letters (including upper- and lower-case letters), punctuation, numbers, or symbol characters

• Accessibility in Amcharts 

  The following rules have been supported in Amcharts: 

  • Keyboard Navigation:  

    • Users can navigate across chart elements using the tab key. 

    • Users can use the context menu shortcut (ctrl + shift + M) on focused chart elements if the context menu is available. 

  • Aria Label and Role (Name, Role, Value A:  

    • Chart elements have role and aria-label attributes. These are used by assistive technologies to enhance accessibility. 

  • Tooltip: 

    • All the charts have textual information about the chart on the tooltip. 

    • Tooltips will be visible to users when the chart element is focused using the tab key. 

Kyvos Manager enhancements

• Rule for setting email notification: In this release, Kyvos has added support to set a rule for email notifications. With this enhancement, users can set a rule to trigger an email notification only when the CPU, Memory, or Disk Usage reaches its limit after a specified number of occurrences and remains in the same range. This will help to reduce the number of unnecessary email notifications that are triggered when the CPU, Memory, or Disk Usage reaches its limit for a brief period. The feature is designed to keep users informed about system usage while preventing them from being inundated with excessive email notifications.

• OIDC-based external authentication for Kyvos Manager: This release has added support for an OIDC configuration with and without PKCE-based token exchange-based SSO.

Cloud support enhancements

AWS Enhancements

• Increase or decrease BI Server for Kyvos AWS Marketplace deployments: With this release, users can now effortlessly increase or decrease BI Server nodes from Kyvos Manager. This functionality allows the number of BI Server nodes to be increased or decreased without the need to create virtual machines, resulting in faster processing times. Additionally, users can view data disks attached to the BI Server node.

• Increase or decrease BI Server and Query Engine nodes for Kyvos Cloud deployments: With this release, users can now effortlessly increase or decrease Query Engine and BI Server nodes as per the specified zone from Kyvos Manager. This functionality allows the number of Query Engine and BI Server nodes to be increased or decrease without the need to create virtual machines, resulting in faster processing times.

• Automated key pairs creation in CloudFormation deployment templates

  • For Kyvos Cloud: Kyvos now supports the automatic creation of key pairs in CloudFormation deployment templates for primary and disaster recovery.

  • For AWS Marketplace: Kyvos now supports the automatic creation of key pairs in CloudFormation deployment templates.

These key pairs are essential for various nodes, including the bastion host, Kyvos Manager (KM), Query Engine (QE), EMR, and Business Intelligence (BI).

• Sanity Suite without user credentials: From Kyvos 2023.5 onwards, AWS Managed Services will not require Kyvos user credentials to run the sanity suite from Kyvos Manager. Previously, our Kyvos support team had to use the user credentials after each deployment or upgrade to verify the system's functionality, which was challenging in managed services deployment. This release has eliminated this requirement, making the verification process for successful deployment/upgrades more streamlined and ensuring proper system functionality.

Azure Enhancements

• Increase or decrease data disk of Query Engine nodes for Kyvos Azure Marketplace deployments: With this release, users can now effortlessly increase or decrease data disk of Query Engine nodes from Kyvos Manager. Additionally, you can view data disk attached to the BI Server and Query Engine nodes.

• Automated external repository backup and restoration during Kyvos upgrade/rollback: With this release, the backup process of the external Postgres repository in Kyvos has been automated during the upgrade. Additionally, the restoration process of the external Postgres repository has been automated during the rollback. These enhancements eliminate the need for manual intervention and provide a more streamlined experience for the users.

• Support for Databricks SQL warehouse for ROLAP queries: This release includes support for Databricks SQL warehouse, enabling the execution of ROLAP queries. As a result, users can now seamlessly perform raw data querying through the newly introduced Databricks SQL feature.

• Support for Azure Flexible Server as an external repository for Kyvos and Kyvos Manager: Kyvos Manager and Kyvos initially supported a single server as an external repository in Azure Cloud. The product has now implemented support for flexible servers by gradually phasing out the single server and leveraging new capabilities, such as starting and stopping repositories for cost savings.
  NOTE: From Kyvos 2023.5 onwards, we have ceased support for Azure Database for PostgreSQL Single Server. Kyvos is now certified with Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server, serving as an external repository for both Kyvos and Kyvos Manager.

Kyvos Viz enhancements

• Report an issue to Kyvos: This release includes a new feature that enables users to report issues during query execution on the semantic model, dataset, dashboard, and completed jobs. You can now easily report an issue by clicking on the 'Report an Issue' link available on the Query and Job summary page.

• Enhancements to sublevel Hide Members: With this release, users can update all lower levels when modifying the ‘Hide Member' property. Previously, changes were applied only to lower levels with the default setting. For instance, changing level 2 from 'Never' to another value affected all below-level properties initially. Subsequent changes in the hierarchy won't impact other levels. After this release, when switching level 2 from 'Never' to 'OnlyChildWithNoName' and confirming with 'Yes' in the message box, all lower-level Member properties will update to 'OnlyChildWithNoName.’

• Automatic access rights applied during object duplication: With this release, when users duplicate an object, the access rights of the original object will be automatically applied to the duplicated objects. This applies to all Kyvos entities, including datasets, relationships, semantic models, workbook, worksheets, and dashboards.

• Support for repeatable charts for XY family charts: With this release, users can now create repeatable charts for XY family charts by enabling the repetition of the value axis based on Measure, Color Member, and a combination of Color Member and Measure. The repeatable charts will be displayed when exporting the worksheet or dashboard.  

API enhancements

This release comes with the following API enhancements:

New parameters have been added to the following existing REST API's : 

1. Audit logs API: The ‘FilterJson’ parameter has been added to fit the logs as needed.

2. Get Completed Jobs API: The ‘MaxRows’ parameter has been added to fetch more than 300 records. 

3. Get Job Summary API: The ‘History Id’ parameter has been added to fetch a historical build summary of semantic models.
   NOTE: The ‘History Id’ can be fetched using the ‘Get Job Execution Status List’ API.

4. With this release, Kyvos has added support to the existing security API to apply row-level security based on field values.

REST API for Kyvos

The REST APIs are intended to deploy and manage the Kyvos cluster via automation and reduce manual efforts.

Rest APIs added to the Kyvos 2023.5 release are:

• Execute Query: This REST API allows the execution of SQL queries, and its response downloads the result in CSV format.

New Properties

This release comes with the following new properties:

• SECRET_IDENTIFIER (globals.properties file): Points to the Secret Identifier in the case of AWS, GCP, and VaultUrl for Azure.

• CLIENT_IDENTIFIER (globals.properties file): Specifies the Client ID in Azure and Project ID for GCP.

• SERVICE_ACCOUNT (globals.properties file): Obtains an access token required for reading secrets. This property is only used in the Google Cloud Platform.

• kyvos.build.aggregate.type (Semantic Model Property): Specifies the type of aggregate structures used for persisting the aggregated data of a semantic model.

Behavior changes

Read TLS passwords from cloud services: To enhance the security, the Keystore and Truststore passwords will now be stored in the cloud environment. With the Kyvos 2023.5 release, all services, including the client, Kyvos Manager, and backend will retrieve TLS passwords from cloud services such as secret managers and vaults. This method will replace the current one, which involves reading TLS passwords from a file or requesting a BI Server. Henceforth, Kyvos will no longer store passwords and secrets in repositories or files, thereby enhancing the overall security of the system

NOTE: To read passwords from cloud services, The SECRET_IDENTIFIER, CLIENT_IDENTIFIER, and SERVICE_ACCOUNT properties are configured in ‘globals.properties’ by Kyvos Manager.

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