GETDATE() and User Timezone

User Preferences

The Language User Link Table has been renamed to User Preferences, and a time zone column has been added. Your timezone can be set in your profile.

System Properties

A new system property has been added called Default Time Zone. On an upgrade, this will be automatically added and set to Eastern Standard Time for backwards compatibility. If this value is removed or invalid, the default will be UTC.

GETDATE()

getdate() previously returned in your application server's time, it will now return in the user's time zone (and if that is not set, the system default time zone).

Cinchy System [Created], [Modified] and [Deleted] columns

These columns were previously returning in Eastern Standard Time. They will now display in a user's time zone.

Miscellaneous

• Links and Hierarchies have been merged into Columns. They are now simply a drop down option.

• Fixed a bug with nested display columns in a link dropdown, as well as not being able to search those columns.

View Changes

All Data View

There is now always an All Data view.

• Similar to Recycle Bin, this is a system view that is not editable

• This view has no filters or sorts, and contains all the columns in the table (access controls still apply)

• Includes the Cinchy Id column

Links

Links in Cinchy now take you to the All Data view rather than the default view. This allows you to set your default view to a more filtered down view.

Permissions

Views now have permissions, so you can limit who can see a view. They default to All Users, since that is the previous behavior.

Miscellaneous

HTML <a> Tag

Previously we auto-detect hyperlinks and allow them to be clickable. We now support limited functionality with <a> tags within Cinchy text fields.

Supported Attributes:

• href

• download

• target

Expand Row Height

You can now expand the height of rows.

• Collapsed is the default (1 row only)

• Expanded will open to a max height of 5

• Full View will open to a max height of 9

Cinchy 4.0 comes with Custom Data Network Visualizer, Multi-Lingual Support, the ability to use User Defined Functions in Calculated Columns and Docker support.

New Features

‌Custom Data Network Visualizer

You can visualize your own custom data networks using Cinchy. See Custom Data Network Visualizer.

Multi-Lingual Support

Cinchy now has multi-lingual support. You can go to your user profile and change your language and region preferences. French translations are pre-populated, but you can also add other language translations.

The same system can also be used by Applets through our language API.

See Multi-Lingual Support for details.

User Defined Functions in Calculated Columns

You can call a scalar-valued user defined function in a calculated column. This allows you to do a variety of operations:

• Create more complex functions or aggregations from other tables

• Trigger an API call to retrieve external data

• Create a notification or create a record in another table

Docker Support

Cinchy is now available via Docker. For deployment instructions please see Docker Deployment.

Improvements

New Options for Calculated Columns

Cache

Current calculated columns are cached, meaning they are stored for fast retrieval for querying. In some cases, you may want to run the calculations in real time (for example, if the calculated column calls a User Defined Functions, which calls an external API for immediate real-time information). In these cases, you can uncheck the Cache option.

A calculated column that is not cached is not persisted, and calculated on the fly. It works essentially like a saved formula, and is executed when you read the record.

Calculate Existing Values

Another option now available on Calculated Columns is calculate existing values. This option is available when you change a formula for a persisted calculated column on an existing table. Previously we would always recalculate all the values in the column.

If you uncheck the box, the column will not be calculated on save and will be blank. Any updates to that record or newly inserted records will have the column calculated. You can use this to set up triggers (since the calculation will run whenever a change occurs on the record) or schedule the calculations separately in batches in case you have a lot of data and may hit external API rate limits during the calculation.

Query Builder

Result Type

We included the result type drop down in the query builder screen so it is easier to switch result types when running your query. This is also useful when running different sections of your query for debugging purposes.

Query Timeout

The timeout for a query is now configurable. The default is 30 seconds. However if you find that you need to run a query that is known to take longer and needs to be executed you can modify the timeout. This can be saved so the query will always allow for that longer timeout. This is generally only recommended after you have already ensured your query is correct on a smaller dataset, and you know the query will take longer than 30 seconds to execute.

Nested Display Columns

Additional display columns can now come from links further down, rather than only from the linked table.

Keyboard Navigation for Manage Data & My Network

At Cinchy, we are constantly looking to improve our accessibility and usability. The My Network screen as well as the Manage Data screen can now both be navigated entirely via the keyboard.

‌

Pivot Table Reporting URLs

You can now save pivoted reports you create from a Saved Query. This can then be added as an applet to be bookmarked and shared with other users. For more details, see Displaying Query Results.

Custom Masking on Date Fields

You can now choose your own date/time masking on Date fields (we also added a few more defaults to pick from).

SameSite Changes with Google Chrome

Updated CinchySSO to work with changes that Google made to SameSite settings.

Create from Existing View

You can now create a view from an existing view rather than starting from scratch each time. This will pre-fill the view with existing display columns, sorts, and filter.

Collaboration Log

We made some improvements to the collaboration log, including:

• Freezing the first few columns as well as the header row

• Allowing you to more easily copy and paste values

• Keyboard navigation through the grid (tab and arrow keys)

Keyboard Navigation for Design Query and Query Builder

At Cinchy, we are constantly looking to improve our accessibility and usability. The Query Builder screen, including Design Query, are now navigable through keyboard only.

Please reach out if you have any suggestions to improve accessibility or usability.

Miscellaneous

• If you execute a saved query through the CLI or another query, it will now return in the result type of the saved query (i.e. Approved/Draft/Version History) rather than the context of what is making that request.

• Display seconds in the system Modified/Created/Deleted columns.

• When creating a filter in Manage Data, it defaults to contains rather than equals

Bug Fixes

Link with "\" in Collaboration Log

Fixed a bug in the collaboration log where if you had a link with a "\" in it, it would not be able to render the collaboration log.

Sorting by System Columns

Fixed a bug where a user could not sort by certain system columns if they did not have a View/Edit/Approve All Columns entitlement.

ResolveLink

Fixed a bug where using the resolveLink function was not using the same connection and transaction.

Tableau Web Browser

Removed an overly strict restriction that was causing problems for using the Tableau Connector with Cinchy due to the browser name coming from Tableau.

Accessibility

Cinchy completed its first iteration of WCAG 2.0 Accessibility. We are always looking to improve the usability of the product, so we would love to hear from you at support@cinchy.com.

If you would like a copy of our report, please speak with your Account Manager.

API Changes

A few changes have been made to improve the Saved Query API experience.

401 Reponse when your credentials are incorrect

The Saved Query API endpoint will return a 401 error code when you provide invalid credentials. This includes not providing credentials, expired credentials, and incorrect credentials.

RETURN is now supported in CQL

This allows you to use raiserror to return a specific error based on any validation errors you run into for your saved query.

ELMAH Logging

Any 400 errors that are from a Saved Query API will show up in the ELMAH log as a 400 HTTP error.

Model Loader

Calculated Columns

• Model Loader now updates the formula in a calculated column

• After the formula is updated if it is a cached column it will recalculate during the model load

Indexes

• Model Loader now loads indexes, unique indexes, and included columns

Enhancements

• Row height and summary statistics are added to Saved Queries grid

Forbidden Passwords

Bug Fixes

• Resolved an issue with searching link column dropdowns when you do not have access to view one of the display columns in the dropdown.

• Resolved a bug with parameters and Saved Queries when there are INSERT statements

• Relative links respect the target attribute (when set to parent or top)

• Percentage copy and paste behaves like regular numbers

• Resolved an issue with displaying Create View on Mac and certain zoom levels

• Resolved an issue with reverting hierarchy links in the collaboration log

Tableau Bug Fixes

• Resolved a bug that was causing Saved Queries with trailing whitespaces to cause problems with Tableau Web Connector

Miscellaneous

• Fixed Cinchy to work with new SameSite updates in Google Chrome

• Applets have been renamed to Experiences

View Changes

Continuing from last release, here are additional changes to Manage Data.

Manual Row Resize

In addition to the row height presets, you can now also manually resize a row (or multiple rows if you select more of them). You can also double click to auto expand the row height.

Filters

Filters are now applied to the table rather than the view. This allows you to flip between different views (ex. All Open vs My Open) while keeping your filters.

Recently Viewed

Now when you click on a recently viewed table, it will take you to the last state it was in, rather than resetting to the default view.

Can Delete Default View

Default views can now be deleted, since there is always a system All Data view. This will also allow you to clean up tables where a specific view was never specified and a custom All Data view was created.

Miscellaneous

Version Number in Collaboration Log

When comparing two values in the Collaboration Log, you can now see the version you are looking at to revert the correct version.

Password Policies

You can now customize your password policies within Cinchy.

See System Properties for more details.

4.13.1 Patch

Fixed an issue where you are unable to run a query referencing a Table Valued UDF concurrently under the same user account.

4.13.2 Patch

• Fixed a bug relating to automatic group sync for Single-Sign On users on login.

• Addressed a few bugs that caused limitations with certain SQL functions in CQL.

• Fixed a bug where queries with parameters fail in Tableau.

• Fixed a bug where Tableau was not working due to SameSite configurations.

• Fixed an issue with single record updates in Cinchy that was causing resolvelink issues with the CLI.

Data Erasure

We've introduced the ability for data owners to delete data for compliance and regulatory requirements. For more details, see .

Miscellaneous

• You can also set a policy.

• Changed the default row height in Manage Data to expanded rather than collapsed

• Resolved a few accessibility bugs

• Resolved a few bugs with formatting rules

• Fixed a bug where double clicking a row to adjust the height did not take into account link columns

• Fixed a bug where the UI export only exports the first page even when you're on a different page

• Fixed a bug with subqueries where the subquery was only returning 100 records when called through the UI

SSO Changes

Support for SAML2 Grant Type

You can now obtain a Cinchy bearer token using your SAML2 token. Simply pass in your base64 encoded saml token instead of your username and password. See for details.

Update Groups on Log In

User group memberships will now be updated anytime a user logs in. Note that group memberships can still be synced via the CLI (see for details) at a regular interval or after large group membership changes.

Restoring Deleted Users when Auto User Creation is On

Now when deleted users attempt to login to Cinchy when the SSO Auto User Creation has been turned on, their user will be restored from the Recycle bin. If you want to revoke a user's access to Cinchy but keep their SSO account active, you can disable the user by checking off the Is Disabled box in the Cinchy.Users table.

Additional App Settings

Syncing Users with Multiple Groups

In 4.0 and earlier, we support syncing multiple groups where the attributes are separate:

Now we also support comma separated lists in the response.

Tableau

Some tweaks have been made to our Tableau Web Connector to be compatible with more versions of Tableau. A few bugs have also been fixed.

Summary Stats

We now display the total number of records in a table in the bottom right hand corner. Additionally, we will also display the sum and average of any numeric fields selected, as well as a count (cells and record level) of the selection.

Miscellaneous

Fixed a few small bugs relating to exporting data from the Manage Data screen, selecting columns in the View Editor, logic in when recalculate existing values is displayed, and resizing the query builder sections.

New Features

• The CompressJSON flag is now useable with the ExecuteCQL endpoint as well

• We now support the ability to encrypt or sign SAML responses

Changes

• Significant changes have been made to the model loader to deal with more complex scenarios.

• We now ignore Cinchy tables in a model import - so you can load models from lower Cinchy versions to higher Cinchy versions without worrying about corrupting the system tables. We do not recommend modifying system tables.

• CreateDXVersion (and DXD) now check a user's permission for the selected tables, rather than using the builders and builder groups column

• "allow-downloads" is now enabled with embedded applets so you can build an integrated applet that allows the user to download files

• We've made some changes to percent to improve the user experience. Here's a quick demo of what you can expect from typing/copying/pasting in a number versus a percent column.

Bug Fixes

• Navigating and using Data Controls no longer creates a 404 HTTP error in ELMAH logs

• Yes/No columns now load properly into Tableau from Cinchy.

• Link display columns now have proper encoding for < >, so you can display linked hyperlinks properly.

• Fixed a link dropdown type ahead issue where there are link filters with an OR clause.

Miscellaneous

Toggling Change Approval

You will be prevented from turning off change approval if you still have any records in draft state. Note that you may have to check in the Recycle Bin for draft records if there are none currently in the All Data view.

Formatting Rule Bug

Fixed a bug where some viewable row filters made it so the formatting was not being applied.

Editable Row Filter Bug

Fixed a bug where changing data that caused a cell to be editable is not being reflected on the UI.

UDFs Calling External APIs

Fixed a bug with making certain HTTP requests from a UDF.

French Translations

Tweaked some translations for consistency.

Real Time Sync

4.8.1 includes changes that allows you to set up a real time data sync. Right now this capability is only available for listening to push topics from Salesforce but a Cinchy source will be added soon.

For more information, click here.

ExecuteSavedQuery

There is a new Cinchy built in function, executeSavedQuery, which allows you to get back a scalar value or a list of values. This is useful for replacing subqueries both for cleanliness and performance.

For more details, click here.

New Features

• We now support screen readers on Cinchy tables

Changes

• Enhancements have been made to the model loader:

  • Resolved issue where reloading the same model throws an error

  • Added logging to model load operation to indicate which tables are updated/created

  • Removed re-saving of tables that have no changes

  • Resolved an inconsistency issue when loading large models

• Saved Queries supports name-based routing:<baseurl>/query/execute/domain/savedqueryname

• DXD Reference Data table now has an additional column called Target Filters

Bug Fixes

• Collaboration log now supports the quotation mark character in linked field records

• Fixed the filters applied to columns with the yes/no data type where the UI was reset

• Fixed retry logic in Listener when retrieving the Salesforce access token fails

• Better error handling for unique constraint violations

Breaking Changes

• Cinchy Platform 4.18.0+ will require Hosting Bundle .NET Core 3.1 instead of .NET Core 2.1 https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-core/3.1 (for the page) https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-core/thank-you/runtime-aspnetcore-3.1.10-windows-hosting-bundle-installer (for the direct download link)

New Features

• Cinchy now expires your session based on inactivity and requires you to login again if you have been inactive for too long. The default timeout is 30 minutes, but can be configured in the CinchySSO appsettings.json. User Grants are tracked in the Cinchy.User Grants table.

Enhancements

• Ability to chain User Defined Function triggers across multiple tables

• Model loader now respects the order of the columns in your model.

• Ability to change the issuer via a new app setting in CinchySSO. (see installation guide)

• Further accessibility enhancements including fixing contrast issues, reordering columns, alerting the user when executing queries or saving data, and labeling objects in My Network

• Platform returns a better error for unique constraint violations - this does not impact your platform experience since the UI retries each row when there's a unique constraint failure, but it does allow the CLI to sync in all valid rows rather than failing the whole batch.

Bug Fixes

• Maintenance script was not correct (this would cause an error in running the maintenance command)

• User Defined Function errors now display in the Query Builder screen (they are intentionally suppressed for calculated columns)

• Fixed tab characters breaking link display columns

• Popup for pasting data on Manage Data closes properly

4.18.1

Enhancements

• Indexes are no longer resaved unnecessarily on table save

Bug Fixes

• Copy and paste in Data Controls resolves against the correct columns

• Yes/No filter no longer resets incorrectly

4.18.2

Enhancements

• New look for Collaboration Log

• Improve caching and data callback logic

• Added the /Experiences/Domain/AppletName endpoint

New Features

Spatial tables are now available. You can create geometry and geography columns in a spatial table, as well as geospatial indexes (directly on the column itself). Note that all existing tables are standard tables, which support partitions but not geospatial columns.

Enhancements

• Upgrading a model via the model loader now no longer deletes any columns that were not part of the previous model. This applies to Cinchy system tables as well so you can extend Cinchy tables with your own custom columns (ex. create a calculated column in Cinchy.Tables to navigate to the table directly) without an upgrade deleting those columns. Note that any modifications made to a column from a model will only be overwritten if the new model has changes on the column.

• Additional logging has been added to the IdP to facilitate troubleshooting SSO issues.

• A script is now shipped with the Cinchy Platform that enables set up of a Cinchy database user without db_owner privileges.

• Added support for try_parse, try_convert, and try_cast

Bug Fixes

• Resolved a limitation of data erasure on tables with a lot of columns

Added Expiry to ExecuteSavedQuery()

ExecuteSavedQuery now takes in a 3rd parameter as the cache expiry time for that particular instance of the query. This can be used to improve performance on slow changing data (ex. retrieving an employee's team). See for more details.

Index can now include Included Columns

This is equivalent to:

Miscellaneous

• Platform performance improvements

New Features

• Connections: It is now possible to create, edit, and run data syncs via the Connections experience in the Cinchy marketplace. For more information, see the .

• Data Change Notifications: Users can now enable Data Change Notifications on any Cinchy table. When enabled, data changes are logged in the Change Log table, which can be queried via the Cinchy Data Change (CDC) API.

Enhancements

• CQL support for Multi.Multi notation: This supports more specific queries in scenarios with multiple linked data elements.

• Increased left nav width: Allows longer view names and menu options to be more legible.

• Firefox support: The Cinchy data browser now fully supports Mozilla Firefox; previous issues related to the scroll bar and favourites icon have been resolved.

• New Event Connector Type options in Listener Config table: Support for Cinchy CDC and AWS SQS connectors is now available.

Bug Fixes

• Resolved an issue where users could not sort by a linked display column in the "All Data" view.

• Improved a specific querying scenario related to formatting rules caused by the use of try-cast, try-convert and over clause in CQL.

New Features

• Webhook Ingestion: It is now possible to ingest webhook notifications from external applications and platforms.

  • A new system table called Webhooks (only available to administrators) allows you to create a unique key for each webhook, and specify a saved query that can be run when the event is triggered.

  • See our step-by-step instructions for configuring webhooks to learn more.

• Anonymous User: This release creates a new Cinchy user called "Anonymous".

  • This user can be given permissions directly, or added to groups, similar to any other user. However, note that the anonymous user is programmatically limited to read-only access. Even if it is directly given insert or update privileges, or added to a group that has such entitlements, these will not apply when accessing Cinchy anonymously.

  • Unauthenticated calls to the ExecuteCQL and ExecuteSavedQuery APIs will now run based on the permissions granted to the anonymous user; i.e. Cinchy will return any and all data that the anonymous user has permission to view.

  • Note that API calls that provide incorrect credentials will still return a 401 - Unauthorized response.

  • Currently, there is no way for the anonymous user to access Cinchy directly via the data browser.

Enhancements

• Login Screen and Home Page Improvements: Watch the below video for a quick tour of what's changed.

• Minimum Contrast: Contrast ratios have been adjusted to support WCAG guidelines.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed error when trying to pass a variable to a table-valued User Defined Function (UDF)

• Resolved error when filtering on a linked date column

• Resolved an issue that occasionally caused session timeouts for data browser users

• Adjusted timeout length on executeMatch UDF (used in Cinchy MDM experience)