Upgrading to 12.6 from Board 11 and older

Before beginning the upgrade to Board 2023 Summer release (full version number: 12.6), there are some activities that are strongly recommended to ensure the success of the upgrade process.

Every Data model created in a Board version prior to Board 2021 releases (older than version Board 12) will have to be cleared after you upgrade your solution, so Cubes must be extracted before the process and then reloaded in the new Board 2023 Summer release (12.6) environment.

This applies both to Data models created in Board version 10.x and to Data models created in Board version 11.x.

Steps for upgrading to Board 12.6 (2023 Summer release)

1. Prepare a new environment with the current version
   Prepare a development environment with the same version of Board currently in use. Board Cloud Customers can utilize a Sandbox instance for this purpose whereas on-premises customers must ensure a suitable environment is made available

2. In your current version, run a Procedure that performs an “Extract all cubes” step and then, in the Cubes section, select all Cubes and clear them all 

   • By default (using the "Extract all cubes" procedure step), the extraction path used by Board is c:\BOARD\dataset\database_name

   • Cloud Customers must extract such data in the z:\ storage area, therefore a dedicated "Extract all cubes" procedure must be configured

     Only the first version of each Cube (also called Structure) is extracted during this process.

3. Uninstall your current version of Board (on-premise customers only)

4. Install Board 12.6 (2023 Summer release)

   • For Cloud customers, the upgrade process can be initiated by raising a ticket through the Board Support Portal. The ticket must contain your Platform name (e.g. customer1-s1.board.com). The Board Cloud Operations team will then handle your request.

     It is not possible to directly upgrade Board solutions from versions earlier than 10.x. An upgrade to Board 10.x must take place before upgrading to Board 2023 Summer release. If you upgrade from versions prior to Board 2021 releases, installing Board 2023 Summer release will update the chat feature to the new version and all previous chat sessions will no longer be available.

   • On-premises customers can download the necessary installer files from the Board Community.

5. Access your Data models. A pop up window will appear, asking you to migrate your Data model: click "YES" to continue

6. The system will automatically try to clear all existing Cubes data, search for previously extracted Cubes in the default directory and reload them onto Board 2023 Summer release

   This process may take minutes or hours, depending on the amount of data you're upgrading. If the automatic process fails, you will need to reload all Cubes through Data readers or by launching the "Reload all cubes" procedure. If after the Data model upgrade your Cubes aren't cleared, we strongly recommend to perform a "Clear all" action on your Cubes before manually reloading them.

After all these steps are completed and your Data models are upgraded and fully populated with your previous data, you'll be ready to actively use your new Board 2023 Summer release environments.

Data models upgraded from version 10.x will preserve Cube versioning, sparsity settings and max item numbers. MXC Cubes will be converted to integer and Expressions will be deleted, since Expressions are no longer supported as of the 2021 releases of Board. Data models upgraded from versions 11.0, 11.2, 11.3 will lose Cube versioning. Cube versions will need to be manually recreated: the process to create versions is exactly the same as in version 10.x.

Installing Board 2023 Summer release will update the chat feature to the new version and all previous chat sessions will no longer be available.

Installing the Board 2023 Summer release will update the @Selection_Ex substitution formula with the new "ShowActive" parameter, which must be used in conjunction with the "Entity" parameter to always show the active members (i.e. members included in the selection) of the configured Entity or to show the formula if a selection is made on other aggregation levels of the same relationship tree.   When the "ShowActive" parameter is set to "False" (default value), the output is the formula itself regardless of any other selections made on other aggregation levels of the same relationship tree. Example The formula @Selection_ex(Entity="Month",ShowActive="False") is displayed as is also in Play mode, even if you apply a selection on the Year Entity that propagates to the Month Entity   When the "ShowActive" parameter is set to "True", the output is always a list of the current active members (i.e. members included in the selection). If all members of the Entity are selected, the output of the formula is "All". Example The formula @Selection_ex(Entity="Month",ShowActive="True") returns a list of all members of the Month Entity included in the current selection, even if it is made on other aggregation levels of the same relationship tree, such as the Week Entity   Please be sure to check the Screens that use the @Selection_Ex substitution formula after upgrading to the Board 2023 Summer release.

The evaluation of multiple dynamic selections applied to Time Entities has been changed starting from Board 2023 Spring release. In detail: - If at least one dynamic selection based on period <> 0 is applied to Time Entities, all similar dynamic selections based on period <> 0 are executed ignoring other dynamic selections applied to Time Entities based on latest period and current date - If no dynamic selection based on period <> 0 is applied to Time Entities, all dynamic selections applied to Time Entities based on latest period and current date are executed  In both cases, all selections manually applied to Time Entities are ignored.   If you upgrade from a version prior to the Board 2023 Spring release, please be sure to check Screens and Procedures that use multiple dynamic selections applied to Time Entities after the upgrading process is finished.

To enhance security, the option to connect data sources to Board using “localhost”, “127.0.01”, or all the access requests that are resolved internally to the server are not supported anymore. This is true for all types of Data readers, including SAP and ASCII readers. This kind of configuration should be changed with a specific server URL/address to continue using the connection.

Starting with the Board 2023 Spring release (12.5), members of unbalanced hierarchies are re-sorted according to the Entity's "Sort by" property configuration each time the Data model is loaded in memory. Since the "Sort by" property configuration was ignored in previous versions, please be sure to check the Screens where the hierarchy structure is shown (in Data Views and Selectors) after the upgrading process is finished: if you notice any differences, go into the Entity properties and check the configuration of the "Sort by" property configuration.

Board 2023 Summer release introduces a new Enterprise security concept, officially replacing the previous Enterprise security feature (~DBNAME & ~Security). These prebuilt Data models are no longer maintained nor supported by Board. Customers already using ~DBNAME & ~Security can continue to do so, however it is recommended to move to the more recent and embedded functionalities now offered by our latest versions.