2008 November | Data and the Web

Data and the Web

Archive for November, 2008

Announcing Kirix Strata 4.2

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

Image - Strata IconWe're happy to announce another new Strata upgrade today. If you've got a version of Kirix Strata 4.x on your system, this is a free minor upgrade, so download it now.

This release contains a ton of various bug fixes and adds a few notable features:

Saved Indexes

Indexes are fundamental to the inner workings of a database. Strata has always saved indexes per session for things like sorts and relationships; however now you can save them from session to session so they don't need to be recreated. You can save indexes by choosing Edit Indexes from the data menu. Once saved, you can just right-click on any field header and select Sort Orders to access your saved sorts instantly.

Saved Column Views

When performing your analysis, it is almost inevitable that, at some point, you'll change the way your columns are shown. Some will be rearranged, others will be hidden. However, particularly with data sets that contain many fields, it is often useful to be able to save column views to access at different times. You can now save column views in Strata by selecting Data > Columns > Edit Column Views. Once you save your views, you can easily access them by right-clicking on any field header and selecting Column Views.

Function Help

We've made it a little bit easier to get help with various functions when you use the formula/expression builder. If you hover over any function in the list, you'll see a tool tip with the function syntax and short description. If you click on a function, you'll see the syntax appear on the bottom left of the formula builder with a hyperlink to further information. Functions are such an integral part of data analysis that we hope this extra little bit of help will make things faster.

Scripting/Extensions

Overall, we've fixed lots of different bugs and have continued to improve the strength and breadth of our scripting language. Because of some scripting tweaks, some of the previous extensions you downloaded may not be visible in your menu, as expected. If this is the case, we've updated all the extensions with the new syntax — so just go ahead and re-install the extension and you'll be ready to roll.

As always, if you have any recommendations or see any bugs, please let us know — it is extremely helpful to have this type of feedback.

About

Data and the Web is a blog by Kirix about accessing and working with data, wherever it is located. We have a particular fondness for data usability, ad hoc analysis, mashups, web APIs and, of course, playing around with our data browser.