Veera's Been Updated!

If you haven't already, be sure to download the newest version of Veera, which was released this week. Updates include:

1. The ability to change the order of the jobs and other tabs

To switch the order of jobs or other tabs you have open in Veera, simply drag and drop the tabs at the top of the screen until they match the desired order. 

2. Easier way to view jobs and other tabs in separate windows with the introduction of a "tear off" feature

To view jobs or other tabs in a separate, un-docked window, simply drag the tab you'd like to view outside of the Veera window. 

3. Addition of editable job descriptions to the Workspace area

By double-clicking in the area highlighted in orange above, you can now add job descriptions to label your jobs. Here you can include information like how and why the jobs were created, which data files were used, and which outputs come from each job. This feature is also helpful when sharing jobs as a place to get a quick idea of what the job should accomplish. 

4. New ways to format data in the Convert node, including SSN and multiple phone number formats

To utilize the new formats in the Convert Column Data Type node, change the data type to 'Text', and select the appropriate new format from the drop-down menu. Included are four ways of expressing phone number, and an SSN format. See below. 

5. Can now add new categories to "Transpose By Values" list in Transpose node

You can now add new categories (ones that currently don't exist in your dataset) as "Transpose By Values" in anticipation of them being included in your dataset. To do so, select your "Transpose By" variable in the Transpose node, and click the Get Values button as you normally would. 

Next, click the button highlighted in orange above, which will open a new screen that allows you to add additional categories. 

Once in the new screen (shown above), click the green plus sign to add additional values to your "Transpose By" list. 

We hope you like the new features. My personal favorite so far is the tear-off feature to easily check out tabs in a new window (which is also great for side-by-side comparisons). If there is a new feature that you'd like to see in the next build of Veera, please email me and I'll make sure that your request finds its way to the right person. In the meantime, have fun exploring!

Introducing the Rapid Insight Collaborative Cloud

With the new version 4.1 of Veera comes the Rapid Insight Collaborative Cloud. The Collaborative Cloud allows Veera users to share and collaborate on any analytic processes that they develop; these processes can be utilized, discussed, and enhanced by anyone in the RI user community. We hope that the cloud will increase efficiency by allowing users to share resources and ideas in real time and draw upon the knowledge of their peers whenever they begin a new analytic challenge.

Accessing the Cloud
To access the Collaborative Cloud, click on ‘RI CC’ on the title bar and select “Browse RI Collaborative Cloud” as shown: 

Downloading from the Cloud

Once in the cloud, you have the ability to search for Veera jobs, transform operations, and chart styles to download.  You can choose to search these by contributor. You also have the ability to order search results by contribution date or type, number of downloads, number of comments, name, date modified, or contributor.

To get details on an item or select an item to download, simply double-click on its title. To view or leave comments, double-click on the “# Comments’ field.

If you choose to download a transform operation or chart style, Veera will direct you to save to a folder outside of the Veera program, similar to the way you would save any outputs from Veera jobs. If you choose to download a job from the Collaborative Cloud, Veera will place that job in an automatically created folder titled ‘From RI Collaborative Cloud’, which you’ll see along with your other folders in the Workspace tab:

You can access any of the jobs you download from the cloud by navigating to this folder. 

Uploading to the Cloud
Right-click on the item to be uploaded (job, transform, chart style, or add-in) and select “Contribute [item type] to RI Collaborative Cloud”. Once selected, the Contribute to Rapid Insight Collaborative Cloud window will open with the original name of the item entered already at the top. 

Before submitting by clicking “Contribute”, the user must enter a unique name, a description of the item, and check the Terms & Conditions box before the item can be contributed. Additional files (like related sample data) can also be contributed as part of the submission.

Other Ways to Download
You can quickly download jobs from the Collaborative Cloud by right-clicking in the “Jobs” area of the Workspace tab and selecting “Get Job from RI Collaborative Cloud”:

You can also import transforms from within a Transform node. To do so, right-click on the white area in the “Transform Operations” window at the bottom of the screen and select ‘Get transform from RI Collaborative Cloud”.

To import a chart style from within the Chart Data node, click on the ellipsis to the right of the “Chart Style” drop-down menu. In that window, right-click and select “Get style from RI Collaborative Cloud” as shown below. 

-Caitlin Garrett, Statistical Analyst at Rapid Insight

Updated Features in Veera 4.1

The new and improved version 4.1 of Veera has quite a few updates. Here are 12 of the biggest changes you'll see when you update your version:

1. Transforms can now be saved for future use. If you have a useful formula or transform that you’d like to save to apply to multiple datasets, this means you can save the whole transform and export from or import into other jobs as needed.

2. Cache node now has a ‘view data’ option. So, once a cache is full, you can see what the data looks like at that point in a job, rather than having to check it out an output.

3. When using a Combine Input node, you can now create a “file date created” column and a “file modified column” to better track the dates associated with each of the files you’re importing.

4. Job and data view windows can now be un-docked and float outside of the main Veera window.

5. Sampling node now has ‘range’ option. Instead of having to sample records from the top or bottom of a dataset (if you didn’t want to sample randomly), you can now choose which range of records you’d like to sample from.

6. Sampling node is also parameterized. You can set a parameter to prompt you for the number of records to sample in each sample node.

7. When restoring connections, Veera will now Auto-backup in case anything was to go wrong with the restoration process.

8. A “busy” window will now show when Veera Client is connecting with the server.

9. Setting run order can now be done from a list rather than having to click on each output in the order you’d like them to run.

10. The Quantile node now allows you to choose whether to sort values in a descending or ascending order.

11. Fields on an Excel Output file can now be parameterized. So, if you’re running jobs with a particular parameter, this parameter can now be included as part of the outputted field names.

12. The new Variable Reduction node has now been implemented. When available, Variable Reduction will filter down the variables in your dataset so that you’re only looking at variables that are statistically significantly related to your chosen Y-variable from that point forward. 

...As always, we update our packages based on our customers' ideas and needs. If you have any feedback or ideas regarding either of our packages, we encourage you to leave them in the comments or email us directly. We'll make sure your ideas find their way to the right person.  


-Caitlin Garrett, Statistical Analyst