What’s New with Inforiver Writeback Matrix: Lookup visuals for dropdowns, text measure support in Infobridge, and more!

Inforiver continuously enhances features and capabilities to provide users with powerful tools that help illuminate their data. We’re excited to share our newest 3.5.2 release, loaded with highly requested features and performance improvements. Inforiver remains the ultimate solution for advanced reporting, writeback functionalities, analytics, and data visualizations.  

Infobridge, our innovative add-on to Inforiver for real-time transformation, collaboration, and data consolidation, now supports text and person measures, making it even more powerful. We’ve also added a handy LOOKUP function that can fetch values from your bridges. 

Other key features in this release include: 

• Faster turnaround times for writeback with payload refactoring and optimizations 

• Lookup/helper visual for dropdowns that simplify cross-referencing data from different semantic models 

• Performance mode in Scheduler - beta version 

• Pivot rows to create desired aggregated views in your report 

• Data-driven approval workflows with the ability to send notification emails 

• Enhanced forecasting capabilities with formula support for open and closed periods for better control over data, accurate projections, and much more. 

Let’s explore them: 

1. Infobridge 

1.1. Text measure support 

Infobridge can now support text measures, which means you can live stream text data between Inforiver visuals. Consider the example below, where the text measure containing the email IDs is selected to be imported into a bridge and consumed in another visual as inserted measures. 

Importing text measure to a bridge: 

Adding text measure from the bridge: 

1.2. Person measure support 

Infobridge now supports the ‘Person’ column import from the visual, and you can add the same from the bridge to another visual. 

Integrating the ‘Person’ measure between the visuals: 

1.3. LOOKUP formula 

Inforiver, along with Infobridge, can now perform Excel-like VLOOKUP. Thus, the user can look up values from an Infobridge query and load them inside an Inforiver visual. 

The LOOKUP formula can fetch measure values directly from Infobridge without creating an integration and importing measures/rows into your report.   

We’ve used a bridge that stores product rebate rates to demonstrate this feature.  

Notice how we can fetch the rebate rates directly from the bridge from within the formula without exposing them in the report or adding more fields/rows to the report.

1.4. Other enhancements in Infobridge: 

• Option to select required measures and scenarios to import into the bridge. 

• Support for blank forecast fields when extending the forecast period or manually entering values. 

• Real-time help suggestions in the formula editor for adding calculated measures to the bridge. 

• ‘Concat’ option to combine strings from many rows with your preferred delimiter. For example, you can aggregate all accounts within a specific segment to analyze data at a higher granularity and then use the aggregated table in another visual. 

• Conditional Column feature to create dimensions based on specific conditions instead of writing cumbersome IF-ELSE and CASE statements. 

• Setting up scheduled refreshes for native measures in the bridge by specifying the frequency, time, start and end dates (Data input fields are automatically updated without manual source refresh). 

• Grouping the source queries to organize them within the bridge, allowing you to manage your data efficiently. 

• Infobridge lineage on the visual side to quickly recognize and manage rows and measures sourced from multiple bridges. 

2. Scheduler 

2.1. Performance mode – beta version 

We have introduced the new Performance Mode in the subscription scheduler, which provides a significant performance boost even for high data volume reports. When enabled, you will notice improved scheduler job runtimes. This is currently available in the beta version. 

2.2. Other enhancements in the scheduler: 

• 'Low Quality' option to compress large PDF reports for easier and quicker email deliveries. 

• Support for dynamic subscriptions is now available in Teams, SharePoint, and Google Drive destinations. 

• Option to generate PowerPoint extracts of your reports. Each page in your report will be extracted into one PowerPoint slide. 

• 'Merged PDF' option in Power BI to integrate multiple multi-page Inforiver reports by continually adding page numbers, regardless of whether they are from different Inforiver visuals. If you select 'Include Appendix in PDF,' each Inforiver visual in your report will begin with an index page.   

3. Writeback 

3.1. Faster Writebacks 

In this release, we have refactored and optimized payloads so writeback processes complete significantly faster.  

3.2. ‘Last Updated at’ filter 

With this custom writeback filter, you can write back data based on the last updated date. For example, you can write back only the data that was updated after, before, or on a specific date.   

4. Lookup/Helper visual for drop-down lists 

With the new Inforiver Lookup visual, you can effortlessly fetch dropdown options from different semantic models in real-time with implicit row-level security.  

The Inforiver Lookup visual is a lightweight custom visual from us that works with the Matrix visuals. It can be imported from AppSource at no extra cost. While the existing option of sourcing the dropdown options within the visual works, we recommend you use the Lookup visuals for the reasons below: 

Top 3 benefits of switching to the Inforiver Lookup visual  

1. You can fetch data from your source tables in real time, provided you have an up-to-date semantic model or the lookup table is in direct query/lake mode.  

2. Row-level security is implicitly handled as the helper visual displays the list of values based on the data Power BI transmits for a particular user.  

3. The semantic model option for dropdowns introduced in earlier versions required more data refreshes and maintenance overhead. The lookup visual is lightweight and requires virtually no maintenance.  

Sourcing dropdown values from Lookup visuals: 

This blog provides more information about importing, configuring, and working with the Lookup visuals.  

5. Pivot Option 

The new Pivot option allows you to create aggregated tables or views within the Inforiver visual with different combinations of row dimensions. When enabled, the Pivot Explorer retains all your pivot views so you can easily switch between them for analysis. 

Within each pivot view, you can create data inputs, forecasts, formulas, snapshots, and scenarios corresponding to each combination of dimensions. The pivot view/table you create also lets you enter numbers at the higher level and allocate proportionally to all the relevant sub-levels. 

Let us consider the report below, which contains Country -> Segment -> Products. You can now create aggregated views at the Segment/Country level or only at the Product level. 

6. On change formula – approval workflows  

With Inforiver, you can easily set up custom approval workflows based on your unique business cases.  

When a data input or forecast value is updated, you can trigger actions like sending a notification email or setting a value in a related field. This feature comes into the picture when you need to set up an approval workflow for values changed in the report: a report user updates a value, an approval/notification email is sent to their manager, and the manager can approve or reject the update by selecting the appropriate status from the manager approval dropdown.  

Consider this report where a user can update the Tax Rate:  

After a user enters/updates a value in the TaxRate data input field, they should manually change the ManagerApproval status to ‘Submitted.’ In the ManagerApproval single select, we’ve listed the actions for each status change in the On Change Formula section.  

• The SETVALUE function can assign a particular value to a related cell. For example, when the ManagerApproval status is ‘Approved,’ the DirectorApproval status should change to ‘Pending.’ Notice how the DirectorApproval status automatically changes based on the manager's approval.

• The SENDMAIL function will trigger email(s) to the specified recipients. You can optionally provide an email subject and a summary, which will be used in the body of the email. The email body will also contain the details of the updated values.  

7. Upgraded forecasting interface 

The latest version of Inforiver ships with an advanced, more intuitive forecasting feature that provides greater power and a more comprehensive array of configuration options. Forecasts created in earlier versions of Inforiver will be migrated to the new forecasting interface.  

With the new forecast user interface, you can, 

• Configure multiple forecasts simultaneously 

• Add forecast time slicer to manage and analyze forecasts spanning over many years/periods

•  Use conditional statements and Inforiver’s wide range of formulas for calculated open and closed forecasts 

• Options to hide closed forecast periods and styling options made more accessible within the Forecast menu 

8. Scheduled backup for measures  

Using the new scheduled backup feature, you can capture read-only backups of Inforiver input measures within the same visual.  

Unlike Snapshots, this feature not only automates the data archiving process but also lets you use these read-only measures in a formula for further analysis inside the visual, if required. You can create daily, weekly, or monthly backup schedules as shown below: 

The report below shows a daily measure backup:  

In addition to the above, there are a few other features you might not want to miss: creating scenarios for specific timeframes, collaborative adjustments and approval workflow within Inforiver visuals, quick formula to calculate simulation variances, etc.  

Please refer to our release notes for a comprehensive list of requirements, features, and bug fixes. 

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