Latest Updates: April 2025

This article highlights the development work released to production throughout April 2025, including new features and enhancements, and bug fixes, made available to all users.

No Manual Upgrades Required

All updates to the Board Foresight application are version-controlled and automatically deployed, so customers always have access to the latest version without needing to manually upgrade.

Feature Releases and Enhancements

Transformations

• Users can now apply transformations directly from the Indicator page, enabling faster data preparation without navigating to a separate workflow.

• Transformations are now accessible within the Model Edit screen, allowing users to modify indicators and apply data adjustments during model refinement.

Data and Discover Improvements

• Data Expansions:

  • Google Trends, Tariff-Related Series Added: New tariff-related data series have been added from the existing Google Trends source, providing insights into search interest on trade and tariff topics.

  • Fable and Facteus, Inc.: Expanded datasets from Fable and Facteus, Inc. are now available, enhancing coverage of consumer behavior and financial activity.

  • FocusEconomics:  Expanded datasets from FocusEconomics now include both monthly and quarterly series, increasing the granularity and depth of economic forecasts.

• Geography Filter in Discover Auto Workbench: When using Discover with both a selected Geography and Automatic Workbench, the Geography now functions as a true filter, ensuring the indicators returned are relevant to the specified region.

Bug Fixes

This update includes bug fixes related to: 

• Charting and Display

  • A maximum character limit has been implemented for the header and footer sections in Reports to prevent layout issues and ensure clean formatting.

  • A scroll bar has been added to the Control Chart to prevent data from being clipped when the chart exceeds the available view.

  • Visualizations have been updated to better accommodate indicators with large numerical scales, ensuring proper rendering and readability.

  • When editing the date picker, the widget will now automatically close after a selection is made, improving usability.

• Data Handling and Aggregation

  • Component Contribution Reports now dynamically reflect the aggregation method used for the Primary Indicator, ensuring consistent interpretation across outputs.

  • The data pipeline for FRED-sourced indicators has been corrected to ensure timely and accurate updates.

  • The data pipeline for World Bank Commodity indicators has been corrected to ensure timely and accurate updates.

  • The version history for indicators now accurately reflects version numbers based on the Modified Datetime field.

  • When an indicator’s Base Calculation is modified, the associated chart on the Indicator Page now updates accordingly to reflect the change.

  • OECD-sourced indicators from the STLABOUR dataset now include additional activity-level details for improved analysis.

• Search and Discover

  • Search functionality has been improved to support advanced filtering. Use +#tag to require a tag, -#tag to exclude a tag, +term to require a term, and -term to exclude a term—enabling more precise and customizable search results.

• Workbench and Model Experience

  • Sorting by R² now functions correctly across Discover, Workbench, and Predict, ensuring consistent indicator ranking by explanatory power.

  • Model counts now display correctly when using filters in the Bulk Model Edit screen.

  • Predict now includes a validation warning if a user attempts to run a weekly period-over-period model, which is not currently supported.

  • The seasonality test badge now appears as expected on the Model Edit page when in condensed view.

  • After edits are made in the Model Edit screen, the correct "Unsaved Changes" warning now appears when switching to the Results tab for Weighted Univariate (WUR) models.

  • Resolved a regression where the “Delete Model and “Delete Scenario” button was incorrectly greyed out. This functionality has now been restored.