What's new in Sigma

Welcome to your weekly snapshot of Sigma's newest features, enhancements, and bug fixes! Stay up to date with the latest developments to get the most out of your data analytics platform.

---

---

---

---

---

Bug fixes

• Resolved an issue that prevented workbook page names and order from persisting in Excel exports.

---

Bug fixes

• The Lineage Chart now displays the correct information after a data swap in version tagging.

---

Bug fixes

• Circular markers in scatter plot size legends are no longer distorted.

---

August 11, 2023

Column-Level Security (Beta)

Bulk actions for admins

Audit Log (Beta)

Functions

Bug fixes

Column-Level Security (Beta)

Column-Level Security provides granular control over data access allowing you the flexibility to restrict or grant access to column-level data. This ensures that the security of sensitive or confidential information is only accessible to authorized users.  Column-Level Security (CLS) is managed through team membership and user attributes.  

Column-Level Security provides the following benefits:

• Secures columns that contain sensitive information.
• Data sharing and collaboration: Organizations can share specific columns with external parties or partners without exposing the entire dataset.
• Data Confidentiality in Multi-Tenant Environments: In multi-tenant systems or cloud-based environments, where multiple clients or orgs share the same infrastructure, CLS ensures that each tenant's data remains isolated and protected from other tenants.
• Data Masking and Anonymization: Combine CLS with data masking and anonymization techniques to protect sensitive data, while allowing certain authorized users to work with pseudo or obfuscated values.

For more information, see Column-Level Security.

Bulk actions for admins

In order to improve the admin experience and provide admin functionality at scale, numerous actions can now be performed in bulk. 

User Management

• Bulk password reset
• Bulk invite resend
• Bulk invite delete
• Bulk reactivate disabled users

Team Management

• Bulk add team members
• Bulk team member transfer
• Bulk remove members from team
• Bulk team delete

User Attributes and Exports

• Bulk delete of User Attributes
• Bulk delete of Scheduled Exports

Audit Log (Beta)

New connection schema and dimension tables 

The Sigma Audit Logs connection now features a SIGMA_SHARED schema with dimension tables containing information about your Sigma organization's resources, objects, assets, etc.

Dimension tables:

CONNECTIONS

Connection attributes

DOCUMENTS

Document attributes (for folders, workbooks, datasets, etc.)

SCHEDULED_NOTIFICATIONS

Notification attributes for scheduled exports

SENDGRID_LOGS

Email attributes for exports

TEAMS

Organization team attributes

USERS

Organization user attributes

The dimension tables can be joined with the AUDIT_LOGS table to add context to audit log events. For example, join AUDIT_LOGS with the DOCUMENTS table to add document attributes (e.g., creation date, document path, and archive status) to event entries related to user interactions with workbooks, datasets, etc.

Functions

The ArraySlice function returns a portion of an array, defined by the starting index and length. See ArraySlice.

Bug fixes

The footer is now hidden for embedded workbooks, including tagged versions, if you set the show_footer parameter to false. 

 

August 4, 2023

Generally Available

Input Tables

Workbooks

Custom Functions

Hierarchies

Bug Fixes

Generally Available

MySQL connector is now GA. For more information, see Connect to MySQL.

Multi-tab Excel Export is now GA.

The Schedule Reports modal now has the option to Merge Excel files. If you select more than one Excel attachment, Sigma allows you to export them together in one Excel file, with each element in its own tab.

Input tables

AI-enhanced input tables (Beta)

Input tables now support AI-generated columns. You can use structured AI prompts to perform data classification, sentiment analysis (opinion mining), and column fill (data synthesis). For more information, see Create AI-enhanced input tables.

The AI functionality utilizes the OpenAI integration, which allows Sigma to leverage OpenAI language models (e.g., GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 models that power ChatGPT). For information about AI security and data handling, refer to Frequently asked questions in Manage OpenAI integration.

Workbooks

Copy + Paste Full Workbook Pages is now in Public Beta. For more information, see Copy a page within and between workbooks (Beta). 

Default blue in custom themes

Sigma now features a new default blue (#0059EB) across the product. To preserve the appearance of existing workbooks, the color change has not been applied to custom workbook themes that utilized the previous default blue as the primary color. You must manually update custom workbook themes to change the primary color to the new default blue. 

Button stretch

Button elements now support a Stretch option in the Alignment > Horizontal property. This option provides more control over button displays by allowing you to set the background or border to span the full width of the element. For more information about button elements, see Create a one-click action button.

Custom functions (Beta)

Use custom functions in your Sigma practice to encode business logic instead of repeating it, encapsulate complex calculations that are common business use cases for easier use, and to expose your proprietary warehouse functions and make them more consumable. See Custom functions.

Hierarchies (Beta)

Use the hierarchy feature for grouping the data and calculations at various category levels, and to keep track of the order between the coarsest and finest granularity of data. See Hierarchies (beta)

Bug fixes

Embeds no longer display bookmarks or document versions in the scheduled exports modal. 

July 28, 2023

Visualizations

Embeds

Bug Fixes

Bookmarks

The new  personal bookmarks feature is now in public beta. See Bookmarks (Beta).

Visualizations

KPI charts (GA release)

KPI visualization elements are available for general use with the following updates to time series KPIs:

• Change the default display type (the value displayed when not interacting with the trend line) in the Value property:
  • Latest period: Display the aggregate value for the most recent period in the time series.
  • Global summary: Display the aggregate value for all periods in the time series.
    
    
  
• Add reference lines and bands to the trend line in Element format > Reference marks.
  
  

For more information about KPI visualization elements, see Build a KPI chart.

Data point filters

Charts now include more date filtering options in the data point menu (accessed by right-clicking any data point). The Keep only and Exclude filters previously allowed you to filter based on the single-date value associated with the data point. You can now filter a date range that starts or ends with the data point's date value by selecting the On and after or On and before options.

Duplicate reference marks

Charts that support references marks now allow you to duplicate existing reference lines or bands in the Element format > Reference marks section.

Embeds

The :show_footer embed parameter value (False in the following example) is now case-insensitive, for example: :show_footer=False. 

Bug Fixes

• In some cases, setting up dynamic roles in a Snowflake connection resulted in an error. 
• If you copy an element in an embed document, it no longer returns an error. 
• Resolved an issue with expanding rows and single element exports.
• Resolved an issue where choosing Edit Join in the source of the join deselected all selected columns.
• Resolved an issue where Display Values for Boolean list controls did not show. Users can now create a manual list of display values for Boolean controls, adding their own interpretation of True and False.
• Resolved an issue causing input table elements to continuously display the "Saving" spinner after input table edits were successfully saved in the workbook's Published version. Users no longer need to reload the browser page to clear the spinner.

 

July 21, 2023

Workbooks

Input Tables

Connections

Embeds

Bug Fixes

Workbooks

Bookmarks

Bookmarks (Beta) now provide a notification when changes made (such as changing a filter’s value) for the bookmark are no longer relevant in the workbook. In other words, someone changed the base workbook such that the bookmark is now inaccurate. A modal gives the option of updating or deleting the bookmark.

Downloads

When a user downloads any resource, a status bar now appears at the bottom of the screen. This applies to embeds as well. 

Input tables

"Fill range" keyboard shortcut

Use the "fill range" keyboard shortcut to overwrite selected cells with the value in the first (top-left) cell of the range. Select a range and apply the applicable keyboard shortcut based on your operating system:

macOS

⌘ + return

Windows

ctrl + enter

Connections

Native JSON support

Sigma provides full native support for the JSON data type in BigQuery connections. This enables you to process and analyze semi-structured data effectively. For details on how to use JSON, see Google documentation on  Working with JSON data in GoogleSQL.

Embeds

Users can now copy and paste elements in an embed.  

Bug Fixes

We resolved an embed issue where visualizations failed to render in certain scenarios. 

July 14, 2023

Generally Available

Workbooks

Visualizations

Embeds

Templates

APIs

Bug Fixes

Generally Available

Warehouse Views

Workbook warehouse views are now generally available (beta version launched April 2023). For more information, see Create and manage workbook warehouse views and Review warehouse view details.

Workbooks

Table cell images (Beta)

Tables can now display images in cells. When a column contains image URLs, you can render the images by selecting Transform > Set image in the column menu.

Visualizations

Chart color scales

When you apply color scales to charts (in the Element properties > Marks > Color tab), the color menu now displays all options in various sequential and diverging color scale categories. The menu also offers new color scales, including color-blind accessible options.

Double-click chart legend values

Chart legends now support double-click actions. Prior to this update, Sigma interpreted a rapid double-click as two separate inputs that would select the value on the first click and deselect it on the second. Sigma now interprets a rapid double-click as a single input.

Centered reference mark labels

Chart reference marks now support center-positioned labels. In the Element format > Reference marks section, click the Position field and select Top center or Bottom center to display the label above or below the line.

Embeds

Admins can now convert Embed users to Standard, or vice versa. If you convert an Embed user to Standard, you must define their Account Type. 

Embed Parameters

The following optional user-backed embed parameters are now available:

• show_workbook_name A boolean value that displays the workbook name near the folder icon. 
• menu_position Allows you to change the position of the toolbar to top, bottom, or none.

Templates

Share Templates with different orgs

You can share Sigma templates with other organizations. This functionality is useful for customers who control multiple Sigma orgs and to create new Sigma orgs for their customers, allowing you to share templates with your customers.

When you share a template, no actual data is shared with the recipient organization.

For more information, see Share templates with different orgs.

Templates tab

The Templates tab is now split between Internal and External. 

APIs

Members

You can now use the PATCH /v2/members/{memberId} endpoint to reassign documents when you archive a member. In the request body, set isArchived to true and set newOwnerId to the member who will receive the docs from the archived member.

Workbooks

When you create a new workbook using POST /v2/workbooks endpoint, you can assign an owner by passing ownerId in the request body. If you don't include this, the owner is the user whose token was used to call the API.

A new query parameter Tag {tag name} is now available for the GET /v2/workbooks/{workbookId}/pages endpoint.

Connections

The /v2/connections endpoint now returns the following Connection metadata fields:

{
  "account": "string",
  "warehouse": "string",
  "user": "string",
  "role": "string",
  "timeout": {
    "default": 0,
    "worksheet": 0,
    "dashboard": 0,
    "download": 0
  },
  "poolSizes": {
    "adhocPoolSize": 0,
    "catalogPoolSize": 0,
    "resultPoolSize": 0,
    "schedulePoolSize": 0
  },
  "writeAccess": boolean,
  "friendlyName": boolean,
  "writeDatabase": "string",
  "writeSchema": "string",
  "materializationWarehouse": "string"
}

Bug Fixes

• Images in emails sent using Sigma are improved and more readable.    
• Keyboard navigation in table and input table elements is no longer disabled after the Hide column keyboard shortcut (shift+H) is applied. 
• Linked input tables no longer create duplicate records when one or more users edit the same row in multiple browser tabs.
• Custom domain settings in region maps now modify color scales as intended.

June 30, 2023

Visualizations

Workbooks

Bug Fixes

What's New

Visualizations

Geography map (Beta)

Illustrate geospatial objects on a map with the new Map - Geography visualization. Create a connection map to display spatial networks, correlations, and relationships, or build a choropleth map to identify variability and patterns across distinct geographic areas.

Map - Geography replaces the Map - GeoJSON visualization and supports geography data in WKT format (using Snowflake and BigQuery connections only) and variant data in GeoJSON format. For more information, see Build a geography map.

Reference mark label customization

Visualizations that support reference marks now include the ability to customize the reference mark label font size and color. See Label font options in Element formatting > Reference marks.

Workbooks

Error reports

Users can now send workbook error reports with trace IDs that facilitate improved, targeted error investigations.

Bug Fixes

• Resolved an input table issue that caused the Data validation modal to close when a date was selected from the date picker.
• Resolved an input table issue that appended numbers to unique key column names (e.g., Account ID (1)).

June 23, 2023

Generally Available

Functions

Embedding

Workbooks

APIs

Bug Fixes

What's New

Generally Available

Embed Sandbox is now generally available. For more information, see Embed Sandbox.

Functions

Sigma added support for the Geography data type, and the corresponding set of Geography functions:

Geography

Converts data in GeoJSON or WKT formats into the Geography data type.

Json

Converts the Geography data type into GeoJSON format.

Text

Converts the Geography data type into WKT format.

MakePoint

Constructs a point from latitude and longitude data.

MakeLine

Constructs a line from a series of points and line segments.

Latitude

Returns the latitude component of a point.

Longitude

Returns the longitude component of a point.

Distance

Calculates the minimum distance between two geographies, in specified units.

Area

Calculates the area of a geography, in specified units.

Perimeter

Calculates the perimeter of a geography, in specified units.

Centroid

Calculates the geographic center of a geography.

Within

Determines if one geography is fully within another geography.

Intersects

Determines if one geography intersects another geography.

You can also use two new Passthrough functions to support the Geography data type:

AggGeography

Calls a warehouse aggregate function that returns a Logical data type; aggregation version of CallGeography.

CallGeography

Calls a warehouse function that returns a Geography data type.

We added a new ArrayDistinct function, and pulled all Array functions into the same grouping in our documentation:

ArrayContains

Determines if the array (or list) contains the specified value; True or False.

ArrayDistinct

Returns the array without duplicate values.

ArrayLength

Determines the number of entries in an array or list.

Embedding

A new optional parameter is available, disable_mobile_view, for user-backed embeds. If you set this parameter to yes, workbooks won't automatically resize to the mobile layout. For more information about Embedding, see User-Backed Embedding.

This is only available if you upgrade the workbook to the new grid layouts.  It's not supported in  classic layouts.

Workbooks

Controls

You can use the new Create list from preset option to easily create a drill down control for a visualization that has year, month, and day categories, without manually creating them. 

Grid Layout

Grid Layout mobile view has been enhanced with the following updates:

• New option to enable/disable responsive layout
• Updated viewport control design
• Ability to auto-arrange elements in synced mode

APIs

New response fields are now available for the following Workbook API endpoints:

• The /v2/workbooks/{workbookId}/queries endpoint now returns elementName. 
• The /v2/workbooks/{workbookId}/pages/{pageId}/elements endpoint now returns name and columns.   
• The /v2/workbooks/{workbookId}/pages/{pageId}/elements now returns vizualizationType.  

Bug Fixes

• When allow_export isn't set or is set to false in an application embed, users no longer see an option to export in the workbook. 
• The POST /v2/members endpoint for orgs using OAuth now functions correctly. 
• Resolved an issue that prevented column auto-select when additional targets were added to controls. When one or more targets exist, new targets now default to the same column applied to the first target element.

June 16, 2023

Connections

Workbooks

Bug Fixes

What's New

Connections

Connect to MySQL [Beta]

You can now connect Sigma directly to your data in a MySQL data warehouse. Learn how to create and manage the connection in Connect to MySQL (Beta).

Workbooks

Grid layout PDF export

Workbooks with Grid Layout (beta) enabled now support PDF exports. A scheduled export PDF attachment can capture an individual element, a single workbook page, or the entire workbook, and you can choose between portrait or landscape orientation.

Multi-element delete confirmation

When you select multiple elements to delete, the confirmation modal now lists all dependencies. View names of elements to be deleted alongside the effected elements that currently use them as sources.

Keyboard shortcuts

We added new keyboard shortcuts to help you work with input tables. See Keyboard shortcuts > Input tables.

Bug Fixes

• Resolved an issue that changed the height of table elements when the browser width was adjusted.
• Resolved an issue that added excess empty canvas space in page-level PNG images attached to scheduled exports. 

June 9, 2023

Functions

Workbooks

Admin Features

APIs

Bug Fixes

What's New

Functions

Repeat

The Repeat function returns the results of repeating a string a specified number of times.

Workbooks

• You can now detach a control directly from its element without having to go to the control first.
• Custom options for number formatting now includes “pp”, for percentage point, a formatting option for values and value comparisons. 

Admin Features

Remove Team Members in Bulk

Admins can now remove multiple members of a team using a bulk action. To remove team members in bulk, go to your Admin portal > Teams > select a team > select members to remove > and click the Remove from team button.

For more information about managing teams, see Manage Teams.

Reset Password for Users in Bulk

Admins can now initiate a password reset for multiple users with a bulk action setting. The selected users receive an email alerting them to reset their password. 

For more information, see Manage Authentication.

APIs

A new parameter, userKind, is now available for the Update a Member in Your Organization endpoint. This parameter defines the type of user. The three possible values are guest, internal, or embed. 

For more information, see Organization Member API.

Bug Fixes

• Resolved an issue that caused some embeds to display in mobile mode rather than desktop. 
• Materialization status updates correctly when clicking Materialize now in the Materialization schedules page.
• Resolved an issue that caused unintentional duplicate records in linked input tables when one or more users edited the same input table row in multiple browser tabs.
• Resolved an issue that intermittently prevented input table cell edits from persisting.
• Resolved an issue that caused the active input table cell to appear beneath the element’s horizontal scrollbar when a user edited a row towards the bottom of the table.

June 2, 2023

Generally Available

Financial Functions

Materialization

Impersonate Users

Scheduled Exports

Visualizations

Bug Fixes

What's New

Generally Available

Version Tagging is now generally available. For more information, see the previous Version Tagging announcement. 

Configure User Attributes on a Snowflake Connection is now generally available. For more information, see the previous Configure User Attributes on a Snowflake Connection announcement.

Financial Functions

Sigma now supports a new category of functions for financial calculations. They include:

CAGR

Returns the compound annual growth rate of an investment.

Effect

Returns the effective annual interest rate.

FV

Returns the future value of an investment.

Nominal

Returns the nominal annual interest rate.

NPer

Returns the number of periods for a loan or investment based on known amount, interest rate, and periodic payment amount.

Pmt

Returns the periodic payment for a loan based on the amount, number of periods, and constant interest rate.

PV

Returns the present value of a loan or an investment, when using constant and regular periodic payments.

XNPV

Returns the net present value of an investment for payments or incomes at irregular intervals.

Materialization

You can now suspend the scheduled refresh of materializations if they are not accessed for an extended period of time.

For more information, see Pause scheduled materializations.

Impersonate Users

Admins can now impersonate users from the Team page in the Admin portal. Previously, admins could only impersonate a user from the People page. The Impersonate Users feature provides admins with ability to impersonate a user and view, edit, access Sigma resources based on the user's account type.

For more information, see Impersonate Users. 

Scheduled Exports

Scheduled exports now provide the option to select which tagged version of the workbook you want to include in the export.

For more information, see Apply Control Values to Scheduled Reports & Version Tagging.

Visualizations

Table Summary KPI

Quickly highlight summarized totals by creating KPI visualizations directly from table summaries. To add a KPI, right-click a table summary to open the menu, then select Create KPI element.

Theme Palette & Hex Color Picker

Customize chart mark colors with more flexibility and control using the enhanced color selector. Select the  and  icons to toggle between the color palette—now featuring a Theme palette—and the new hex color picker.

• Theme palette: provides a predefined set of colors based on the selected workbook theme (Workbook settings > Workbook formatting > Theme).
• Hex color picker: allows you to enter a hex value or select the tint, tone, or shade of a specific hue.

Stacked 100% Data Label Customization

Customize data labels in Stacked 100% bar charts with new number formatting options.

In the Element format > Data labels section, the new Display value as a percent setting is enabled by default. Disable the setting to display the labels as absolute values. When displaying percentages, you can use the Percent decimal precision tool to increase or decrease decimal places.

Chart Legend Header Visibility

Configure the visibility of chart legend headers.

In the Element format > Legend section, the new Show legend header setting is enabled by default. Disable the setting to hide the header. When the element features two chart legends (i.e., color and size), the setting applies to both legend headers.

Scatter Plot Legend Header Visibility

When a scatter plot features two chart legends (i.e., color and size), you can now configure the visibility of each legend individually. Previously, only the Show legend setting was available, which allows you to show or hide both legends. 

To configure individual legend visibility, go to Element format > Legend and enable or disable the Show color legend and Show size legend settings.

Bug Fixes

We fixed the following bugs in the past week. 

• Resolved an issue with pivot table rows not displaying.
• Resolved an issue when using Send Now in the Schedule Export modal screen.
• The show_footer parameter failed for encoded single-page embeds. 
• Added column resizers to first row in pivot tables to resolve issue preventing column resizing when no header row exists.
• Resolved issue causing pivot table titles to be hidden when the element was resized to an arbitrary height.
• Resolved issue that disabled pivot table title editing after the value placement was moved from the Pivot columns property to the Pivot rows property.

---

May 17, 2023

Team Admin Privileges

The new team admin privileges are now generally available. Since Beta, Sigma added notifications to a team admin and improved overall usability. For more information see the previous note Assign Team Admin (Beta).

Impersonate Users

The ability for Admins to impersonate users is now generally available. For more information see the previous note Impersonate Users (Beta).

Embed Sandbox (Beta)

The new embed sandbox provides a playground for embedded workbook developers to test your workbooks using different URL parameters and modes. You can experiment and validate before embedding them into your application. Any Admin can use the embed sandbox, and it is now enabled for all organizations.

May 15, 2023

Version Tagging for Input Tables (Beta)

You can now tag workbooks with input tables in them and let users edit data on your tagged workbooks. You can version control the custom insights you've added to your data. Any customer who has version tagging enabled can use this functionality. The tagged version will have a blank copy of the input table with the schema available on the workbook. The data that users enter on the tagged input table persists across future tags with the same version tag. Each tagged version has its own data.

May 11, 2023

New User Welcome Banner Updates

All free trial and new users in existing organizations now see an updated welcome banner. The banner provides links to resources to help users get started.

May 10, 2023

New Grid Layouts (Beta)

With the new grid layout system, all elements are positioned within a series of rows and columns that form a responsive grid structure. This addition of the grid makes it much easier to visualize the space and alignment of elements within a workbook when exploring data alone or collaboratively with a team. You can now drag elements into the canvas to add them, drag elements on top of each other to swap, split, and insert them in a shared space, multi select elements for quick alignment, and much more. The grid layout also comes with a custom mobile layout option where users can either preview the default mobile arrangement of their workbook or create a custom arrangement for when the workbook is viewed on mobile devices. For more information see Compose Elements on a Page (New Layouts Beta).

The new grid layout is available as a Beta for most organizations, if you do not see the Upgrade button in the Workbook Settings, please reach out to your Account Manager for more information.

Added Teams to the User Profile Popup

The user profile popup appears when you hover over a user’s avatar or name. The profile now shows which teams the users belong to, including any private teams to which you also belong. If you are not part of the same private team, you won’t see it listed. If you are part of the same teams, links take you to the team page.

May 4, 2023

Warehouse Views Page (Administration Portal)

The Warehouse Views page in the Administration portal provides a centralized location to review details of all warehouse views created by users in your organization. The page allows you to search for and check the status of specific warehouse views, verify or copy view paths, and reference audit history (i.e., who created a view and when it was created and last updated). You can also determine the location of a view’s source element and navigate directly to that workbook.

For more information, see Review Warehouse View Details.

May 2, 2023

Copy and Paste Elements

Empty input tables and all data, UI, and control elements now support copy-and-paste functionality. The feature allows you to quickly replicate elements and their lineage (if applicable) across different workbooks in the same organization, eliminating the need to re-create existing analytic components from the ground up.

For more information, see Copy and Paste Elements.

May 1, 2023

Embedding Enhancements

OAuth for Embeds

This feature allows embedding customers to enhance authentication security using OAuth. You can pass secure tokens to Sigma that authenticates users into Sigma's embedded analytics to drive granular user permissions. 

Themes

The usage of themes for embedded workbooks has been expanded. Theme colors are now used for the following: 

• Inspector (the left sidebar)
• Lineage menu
• Formula bar
• All modals (prior to this change, only modals accessed through the main body of the workbook would use theme colors).

You can also select any of the Sigma default themes (Light, Dark, and Surface) or themes defined in your org using the <themes> parameter. Use the name of the theme as the value. The value is case-sensitive. For example: Light%20Palette%201. This is a required parameter. 

For more information, see User-Backed Embedding. 

KPI Charts (Beta)

Key performance indicator (KPI) charts highlight single metric values typically used to measure performance or progress toward goals. With Sigma, you can create a KPI chart to summarize the total value of a metric for a specific period, or you can include additional data to compare the metric’s value over time and measure it against a benchmark or target value.

For more information, see Build a KPI Chart.

April 24, 2023

Impersonate Users (Beta)

The Impersonate Users feature provides admins with ability to impersonate a user and view, edit, access Sigma resources based on the user's account type. 

When admins impersonate a user, they can identify and troubleshoot issues that a user experiences from their perspective. This allows admins to resolve problems with greater efficiency so their users can resume work. Admins can also verify what documents the user can access and their corresponding permissions.

For more information, see Impersonate Users. 

Assign Team Admin (Beta)

Admins can assign users, with Creator or Explorer account types, Team Admin privileges. Team Admins can perform the following actions:

• Edit a Team
• Add org members to a team
• Remove members from a team

For more information, see Manage Teams. 

April 17, 2023

Input Tables

Integrate new data points into your analysis and augment existing data with input tables—Sigma's latest addition to workbook elements. 

Input tables support structured data entry to facilitate rapid prototyping, advanced modeling, forecasting, what-if analysis, and more. You can select from two types of input tables to address your ad hoc dat entry needs:

• Empty input tables support data entry in standalone tables independent of existing data.
• Linked input tables support data entry alongside data from Snowflake or other data elements in the same workbook.

Both types allow you to manage the table structure, input cell values, and configure advanced options, including data validation, column protection, data entry permission, and row edit history.

For more information, see Intro to Input Tables.

Workbook Warehouse Views (Beta)

Create warehouse views based on data elements and input tables to simplify queries and retrieve relevant and up-to-date subsets of data directly from your database.

Warehouse views are virtual tables in Snowflake that you can query using Sigma or any other application in your data ecosystem. Instead of storing data in a Snowflake database table, a view saves a SQL statement that expresses specific query logic defined by the data element or input table in Sigma.

When you create a warehouse view, you establish a live link between Snowflake and Sigma. The view references the data element or input table as the source of truth and automatically updates to reflect the most recent version of the element’s underlying data.

For more information, see Create and Manage Workbook Warehouse Views.

Modified Filters and Parameters in Workbooks

You can now use both filters and parameters for workbook controls. As a result, the user interface for creating filters and parameters in a workbook has changed. You no longer have to choose between a filter and a parameter when creating a control.  

The new interface moves this functionality to the TARGETS tab.

For more information see Parameters in Workbooks.

April 14, 2023

Azure Private Link Connections

If your organization runs on azure, you can now securely connect to your data using Azure's Private Link, which allows Sigma to access the data warehouse hosted on Azure via a private endpoint in the virtual network. This not only enhances security during data transit but also improves performance by reducing network latency.

With Private Link, Sigma connects to the data warehouse using private IP addresses, ensuring traffic never leaves the Microsoft network and data remains secure without exposure to the internet. 

Sigma supports connections to the following data warehouses on Azure:

• Snowflake
• Databricks
• PostgreSQL

To learn more about connecting Sigma to your data with Azure's Private Link, see Azure Private Link Connections.

March 8, 2023

Share Modal

You can now share a workbook with everyone in your Sigma organization and set the permission level for the organization on an individual workbook. The following permissions are available:

• Can view
• Can explore
• Can edit

To learn more about sharing workbooks, see Share a Workbook.

March 3, 2023

Embed Parameters

We added three new embed parameters: 

• hide_tooltip- If set to true and a user hovers over a tooltip, the tooltip is no longer displayed. This applies to vega charts (line,bar,area,etc) and map chart marks. This is available for application & user-backed embeds.
• hide_folder_navigation- Is available for <mode=userbacked>. If set to true, it hides the folder navigation options in the bottom left. Available for user-backed embeds. 

  

• hide_sheet_interactions- If set to true, it hides the option to modify a chart or sheet from a dropdown or right-click actions. This hides the sort dropdown on a column header or filter bar access for users of the embedded workbook. Available for application embeds.

To learn more about embeds, see Application Embedding and User-Backed Embedding. 

February 28, 2023

Metrics

Sigma’s Metrics feature boosts your organization’s metrics governance and helps you perform standard calculations with ease and efficiency.

Metrics allow you to create custom aggregate calculations that can be reused across workbook data elements that share a data source (i.e., dataset or connection table). Define metrics at the data source level, then apply them to workbooks to ensure consistent metric logic across tables, visualizations, and pivot tables.

For more information, see Create and Manage Metrics and Add Metrics to Data Elements.

February 24, 2023

Custom SMTP Server (Beta)

Sigma added the ability for orgs to use their own SMTP Server for Sigma generated emails.

This allows you to customize the branding of emails, including the sender & reply-to address and sender name. The branding options provide the capacity for you to create a consistent user experience that enhances your organization's image.

Custom SMTP also offers the benefits below. 

• Email Deliverability: The ability to configure your email server settings, which are optimized for your org's email infrastructure, can improve email deliverability.
• Security Improvement: You control the security of all email data and communications.
• Flexibility: Increases your flexibility & control over your email infrastructure. You can easily modify your email settings and troubleshoot issues as needed.

To learn more about Custom SMTP Servers & Sigma generated emails, see Customize Welcome and Invite Emails.

February 24, 2023

Workbook Materializations (Beta)

We now offer the ability to materialize workbook elements, in addition to datasets. Materialization enhances query performance by allowing your data warehouse to avoid recomputing some or all of the element query every time it’s used.

Workbook materialization is similar to datasets, but offers the following benefits: 

• It allows you to materialize any workbook element (table, visualization, pivot) that can be used as a data source for another element.
• Materializations are used when viewing and editing a workbook. Datasets don't use the materialization in edit mode.
• Workbook materialization offers a smarter refresh when published. Publishing a document only refreshes the materialization if necessary. 
• It offers support for different levels of reference. Grouping levels can be independently materialized. Datasets only materialize at one grouping level.
• It pushes status changes. The workbook viewer is notified of Materialization activity in a new Alerts center (to be integrated with in-app notifications) and toasts.

To learn more about workbook and dataset materialization, see Materialization.

February 21, 2023

Explore Mode

Organizations using workbooks with Live Edit capability now have access to the updated Explore mode.

Like Edit mode, Explore mode enables the following functionality:

• Create, modify, and delete content (i.e., pages, child elements, and layouts)
• Edit the workbook layout
• View, filter, and sort underlying data
• View and change the data source of a workbook or element
• View the workbook lineage
• View custom SQL logic
• Export workbook pages or element data

Unlike Edit mode, however, Explore mode prevents you from saving changes to the open workbook’s draft or published version. This provides an isolated environment that allows you to perform unrestricted ad hoc analysis without effecting saved workbook versions.

Sigma recommends using this mode when you need quick answers to specific business questions, but you don’t need to retain the analysis for future use or sharing.

For information about how to access and use Explore mode, see Explore a Workbook.

PDF Orientation

The Download as PDF button now allows you to specify the PDF output orientation. You can select portrait or landscape orientation and apply it to the current page or entire workbook.

For information about creating a button element, see Create a One-Click Action Button.

February 10, 2023

Audit Logging (Beta)

The Sigma Audit Log is a connection that provides data related to user-initiated events that occur within your Sigma organization. Use the audit log to troubleshoot issues or monitor user activity for security and compliance purposes. You can also explore the audit log as a workbook to analyze how users across your organization utilize Sigma.

Sigma currently logs the following event types (more coming soon):

• User Access
• User Account
• Account Type
• Team
• Connection

For information about how to access the audit log and interpret entry data, see Access and Explore Audit Logs.

February 9, 2023

Version Tagging (Beta)

We are excited to announce that we added the ability to tag workbook versions. This allows you to employ a software development cycle to control workbook versions using tags. For example, orgs can have a development, staging, and production version of a workbook and migrate changes as needed. This allows you to control which workbook versions are viewable by your users. 

One of the benefits of this solution is your org can modify a Development workbook without affecting the experience of your customers who use the Production version. Once you complete your developmental changes, you can easily update the Production version of the workbook.

To learn more about this new feature, see Version Tagging. 

January 31, 2023

Copy and Paste Elements (Beta)

Copy/Paste element actions have been added to workbooks. This allows you to copy an element in one workbook and paste it to a specific location in a different workbook.

For more information, see Copy and Paste Elements.

January 8, 2023

Configure User Attributes on a Snowflake Connection (Beta)

Sigma added the ability to configure two user attributes on your Snowflake connection: Warehouse and Role.

The Warehouse attribute allows you to dynamically change the value of a warehouse based on the user role, which allows you to create separate warehouses for every client and easily monitor the compute costs incurred per client. It provides monetization opportunities by providing separate warehouses for large customers.

The Role attribute provides row-level security using the roles you configured in Snowflake, rather than manually recreating row-level security and security policies in Sigma. This allows you to bypass Oauth to dynamically deploy your Snowflake roles on the connection, in Sigma.

Once you configure either attribute on the connection, you can pass the attribute to external users in an user-backed embed URL.

For more information, see Configure User Attributes on a Snowflake Connection. 

January 5, 2023

Date Range and Number Range Controls

• Date range and number range parameters can now be added to Workbooks as controls. 
• To reference a date range in a formula, add .start or .end to the parameter reference (e.g. [DateRangeParamId].start)
• To reference a number range in a formula, add .min or .max to the parameter reference (e.g. [NumberRangeParamId].min)
• Parameter ranges can also be referenced in custom SQL using ['start'] and ['end'] for dates and ['min'] and ['max'] for numbers.

• Date range controls’ start and end dates can now be defined in workbook URLs (e.g. Analysis%20Time%20Frame=start:prior-year-0,end:2020-04-01T02:00).