Release Notes 2025.1 (General Availability)

Note

The release notes on this page reflect changes to the Alation application. If you’re looking for OCF connector release notes, jump to OCF Connector Release Notes.

RELEASE 2025.1.2

build 20.2.0.101757

Released May 1, 2025

Note

This release is available for all Alation instance types: customer-managed (on-premise) and Alation Cloud Service.

In this release:

Alation Marketplace Sunset

Alation Marketplace, which allowed search over AWS data exchange and Snowflake marketplace, will be discontinued in May 2025. The application will no longer be available in the Apps menu.

Content Experience

Content Alation Analytics Updates

Enabled joining documents analytics with articles data for the Documents or Folders migrated from Articles, and added new columns in the following tables:

  • article: document_id (int4) (AL-185004)

  • custom_glossary: folder_id (int4)

  • term: article_id (int4)

  • glossaries: article_group_id (int4)

Capture the hierarchical relationship of Document and Folder objects in the following tables:

  • terms: linked_glossaries (ARRAY of int4), parent_term_id (int4), and parent_glossary_id (int4)

  • glossaries: child_terms (ARRAY of int4), linked_terms (ARRAY of int4), child_glossaries (ARRAY of int4), and parent_glossary_id (int4). (AL-184657).

Display Creator Name on Document and Folder Pages

  • Document and folder pages will display the creator’s name and creation timestamp in the Properties panel. (AL-186403)

  • Documents created from the articles migration will carry forward the creation timestamp and creator from the source articles into the document.

Add Request Workflow Improvement

Enabled functionality to move documents rejected during the Add request workflow to alternative folders. (AL-188954)

Enhancements in Move Dialog

Move experience is updated with support for autocomplete and listing target Document Hub names when moving a document across Document Hubs. (AL-188091)

Security

Alation Cloud Service on the cloud-native architecture

Added support for Azure Key Vault with the Authentication Service Add-on for the Alation Agent. (AL-185805)

Curation

Data Dictionaries for BI Objects

Added support for BI object types in Data Dictionary. This allows uploading a Data Dictionary for such BI object types as BI server, BI folder, BI report, and BI datasource. (AL-183365)

Workflow Editing Enhancement

Added Delete Pending Suggestions toggle during workflow editing. This helps publishers gain greater control over in-progress requests and provides flexibility in managing pending suggestions during workflow modifications. This applies to both change requests and add object workflow changes.

When Toggle is Enabled:

  • Closes all pending suggestions within the workflow.

  • Makes suggestions inaccessible after applying the modification.

  • Unblocks fields for new suggestions or edits.

  • Requires users to resubmit suggestions, if any.

When Toggle is Disabled: (Default):

  • Retains all pending suggestions within the workflow.

  • Adapts suggestions to workflow changes according to established rules. (AL-187865)

Administrator Settings

Ability to Turn Off All Notifications

Added an option, Turn Off All Email Notifications for All Users, to enable a Server Admin to turn off all email notifications, under Admin Settings > Email. (AL-188564)

Platform

Amazon Corretto Upgrade to 11.0.27.x.x

Customer-managed instances

The Amazon Corretto JDK used internally has been upgraded from version 11.0.26.x.x to 11.0.27.x.x to enhance application security. The JDK will be upgraded automatically during the Alation update to 2025.1.2. (AL-190207)

Open Connector Framework

Error Response for Exceeding Source Limit

Users will now receive an error response when attempting to create a new source that exceeds the defined limit for the source’s atype (100). This validation check prevents the accidental creation of excessive sources and ensures system stability. (AL-189894)

ETL Source Privacy Settings

Added support for the ETL source Access settings. The Access tab of the ETL source settings page allows for selecting the source privacy options. (AL-190446)

Public APIs

Find a short summary of the Alation API changes below. More details are available in the 2025.1.2 API Release Notes on Alation’s Dev Portal.

Data Dictionary API

The Data Dictionary API now supports business intelligence (BI) object types. (AL-183365)

Documents API

The Documents API now supports filtering by folder and sub-documents, and returns parent document ID, linked folders, and child document count. It also allows creating and moving documents within Document Hub hierarchies. (AL-163463)

Folders API

The Folders API now supports Document Hubs hierarchies, including details on parent or child folders, folder contents, and navigation links. New functionality includes sub-folder creation and the ability to move folders within a document hub. (AL-163463)

Bug Fixes

Alation Analytics

  • Fixed an issue where data ETL transform jobs for data_quality failed due to an index access error. This was caused by data quality records with empty node_key values. The issue is resolved by filtering out these records and resetting the ETL checkpoint. (AL-186536)

  • Fixed an issue where the query_string column in the search_queries table had multiple values for the same request_id. (AL-167501)

  • Fixed an issue where the password policy for Alation Analytics in the UI doesn’t match the Snowflake criteria. Included specific error messages to alert users when either the Snowflake or the PRIOR_USE criteria aren’t met. (AL-184602, Alation Cloud Service on the cloud-native architecture)

  • Improved the time taken by an ETL job for the popularity table. (AL-189222)

Search

  • Fixed an issue where metadata searches did not return the correct results if mixed-case searches were used. This is now fixed and is configurable using a feature flag: alation.search.enable_exact_match_for_lowercase with false as the default value. (AL-183343)

  • Fixed the Term search query issue by correcting the JSON returned by TermFilter. (AL-182926)

  • Fixed an issue where URLs in custom fields for Alation Search were not loading the full URL. (AL-181632)

Content Experience

  • Fixed an issue where trust flags were unavailable in filters for folders and documents in the New User Experience. (AL-189502)

  • Fixed an issue where the Move Folder pop-up was not closing after the save action in the Classic User Experience, while the Move dialog disappeared after submitting the form. (AL-188229)

  • Fixed an issue related to a behavior that allowed creating a folder under a deleted folder. This issue is fixed now. (AL-181090)

  • Fixed an issue where the sub-documents table in the Classic User Experience couldn’t render properly. (AL-180398)

  • Fixed an issue where the Bulk Utility tool failed to update the domain in Terms. (AL-167986)

  • Fixed an issue where the table reference link used in articles did not appear as GONE when the table was removed from the catalog. The table object type is now added to the list of supported object types eligible for use with the GONE prefix. (AL-140498)

Open Connector Framework

  • Fixed an issue where an error message appeared while creating an ETL source. Updated the message if any error occurs during the ELT source creation in the Classic User Experience. (AL-190364)

  • Fixed an issue where the PowerBI OCF connector dataflow connection object failed due to the Connection ID exceeding the maximum allowed length. Dataflow objects with large queries causing MDE failures are now resolved. (AL-188361)

  • Fixed an issue where cross-system lineage between PowerBI and Databricks was not working. Provided support for query extraction of Databricks-based PowerBI datasets. (AL-181967)

  • Fixed an issue where Snowflake MDE jobs were failing. Implemented a retry mechanism in the save_with_retry utility function to handle exceptions during database save operations. (AL-181503)

  • Fixed an issue where automated extraction for AWS GLUE failed after a reboot until manually running metadata extraction (MDE). This also includes a bug fix to read the file in lowercase. (AL-180578)

  • Enhanced the Multiple Source Comment widget to support source comments in tabular format for the struct data type. (AL-181287)

Public APIs

  • Improved Document Hub API’s PUT method handling. Added extended validation of template and custom field values during Document creation or updates via the Document Public API. (AL-148143)

  • Fixed description issues of Term, Document, and Folder public APIs by indicating that Reference fields can only have a single object as the value. (AL-168818)

  • Fixed an issue in the Document Public API where PUT requests could assign the same folder as a document’s parent and as a navigation link. (AL-184835)

  • Fixed an issue with the wrong 500 error code message for an invalid document hub ID submission. This issue is now fixed and returns a 400 error code. (AL-185327)

  • Fixed an issue in the PUT and POST Document APIs by updating and extending the description of the nav_link_folder_ids parameter value restrictions. (AL-187525)

  • Fixed an issue where the Folders API request allowed passing document_hub_id for the PUT method. Change of Folder in Document Hubs through the public API is not supported. (AL-189590)

Other Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where an incorrect translation appeared in the Classic User Experience. The translation files are now updated. (AL-188567)

  • Fixed an issue where the Catalog page was not loading after editing the workflow with suggestion retention in the Classic User Experience. This issue occurred when suggestions were retained while editing the workflow in the New User Experience, the user switched to the Classic User Experience to view those retained suggestions. The modified workflow step execution interface within the Classic User Experience has been handled. (AL-188558)

  • Fixed an issue where the Health Check link was still visible on the Admin Settings page and produced an HTTP 404 error. (AL-174896)

  • Fixed an issue where workflow change requests were getting stuck. Eased the permission checks so that users can now suggest changes to an object if they have access to that specific object, regardless of their permissions for other objects in the workflow configuration. (AL-177544)

  • Fixed an access issue when a user with the Viewer role attempts to access the account details page of a user with an admin role. A 403 permission error page will now be returned. (AL-180988)

  • Enhanced lineage creation to support BI objects with periods . in their external_id. This improvement allows the creation of lineage paths between such objects, enabling greater flexibility in integrating with external tools and accommodating diverse naming conventions. (AL-177606)

  • Enhanced the View Impact Analysis and View Upstream Audit options on the Full Lineage view, and are now displayed as functional buttons to easily access and view downstream and upstream objects in a tabular format, improving the overall usability of the Full lineage view. (AL-184677)

  • Fixed an issue where manually selecting file and folder objects in Stewardship Workbench for updating domains did not apply the updates as expected. (AL-180921)

Known Issues

  • The error message fails to display when uploading a CSV file in an unsupported Unicode format. Only the UTF-8 format CSV or TSV files are supported for uploading in the Data Dictionary. (AL-189333)

  • User and object field history fail to get updated if People or Object Set values are removed through the Upload Dictionary. (AL-189249)

  • The URL provided under the ‘error’ property (intended for downloading only the errors) is currently non-functional. As a workaround, users can retrieve the error report via the Info & Status endpoint by accessing the URL specified in the report_download_link property. (AL-190563)

  • With the alation.workflows.dev_retain_suggestions_on_workflow_edit_ability feature flag enabled, adding an object to the Exclude items from this workflow list when the object already has active suggestions may cause inconsistent behavior. (AL-188621)

  • With the alation.workflows.dev_retain_suggestions_on_workflow_edit_ability feature flag enabled, clicking links in email notifications redirects to the Catalog page but doesn’t open the suggestion by default in the new user experience interface. (AL-188820)

PATCH RELEASE 2025.1.1.1

build 20.1.1.101039

Released April 17, 2025

Note

This patch release is available for Alation Cloud Service instances on the cloud-native architecture. This patch release doesn’t apply to customer-managed (on-premise) instances and Alation Cloud Service instances that haven’t been migrated to the cloud-native architecture.

  • Fixed an issue where object type tables with custom fields were only partially extracted in Alation Analytics ETL. The issue was caused by a bug in the data submission process to the queueing system, which has now been resolved. (AL-189895)

RELEASE 2025.1.1

build 20.1.0.99218

Released April 1, 2025

Note

This release is available for all Alation instance types: customer-managed (on-premise) and Alation Cloud Service.

In this release:

Alation Quick Start Tour Deprecation

The Alation Quick Start Tour feature will be discontinued in April 2025. The Quick Start Tour links have been removed from the Classic User Experience. This includes the link previously shown to new users on the Welcome screen, as well as the links that were accessible via the Help menu > Quick Start Tour in both the Catalog and Compose interfaces.

You can access the Get To Know Alation and Data Catalog Fundamentals courses and other training resources available in Alation University for the same onboarding content for users. (AL-183390)

Platform

PostgreSQL Upgrade to 16.8

Customer-managed instances

The internal PostgreSQL databases (the internal Alation database and the Alation Analytics database) have been upgraded from version 16.5 to 16.8 to enhance application security. The databases will be upgraded automatically during the Alation update to 2025.1.1. (AL-184959)

Document Hubs

Trust Flags for Documents and Folders

Added support for all users with edit permissions to assign trust flags, including endorsements, information or warning indicators, and deprecations through Document and Folder catalog pages. This provides a standard way to assess and communicate the reliability of content.

Deprecation Propagation

  • Deprecating a Folder will recursively mark all its Documents and Subfolders as deprecated.

  • Deprecating a Document will apply the same status to all child Documents in its hierarchy.

Note

You can disable the feature using the feature flag alation.document_hubs.DEV_enable_document_hubs_trust_flags. (AL-152752)

Note

Alation Cloud Service customers can request server configuration changes through Alation Support.

Move Documents and Folders Across Document Hubs

  • Server Admins can now move Documents and Folders to a different document hub and select any destination folder. Moving a Folder transfers all its contents, including its hierarchy, while moving a Document transfers the document along with its hierarchy. This feature helps in reorganizing content better structurally.

    By default, a template is created as part of the move, with an option to map it to an existing template in the destination.

    Note

    The navigational links to the source document or folder in the original document hub will be removed. (AL-180571)

  • Introduced an optional intermediate step in the basic Move flow for Documents and Folders, allowing users to choose between the old flow or the new cross-hub migration. The new flow is enabled for admins. (AL-182446)

Enhancements to the Folder Page

Applies to Classic User Experience

Enhanced the Folder page with a toggle control to switch between all listed items or only Top-level items.

In the Folders table, the changes include the following:

  • A toggle switch where Top-level is the default.

  • The count of the number of documents listed is based on the total count of documents and navigation links.

In the Documents table, the changes include the following:

  • A toggle switch where all the items are listed by default.

  • A parent column that establishes parent and child relationship for the documents.

  • A sorting feature for the table where you can use Last Updated or Created Date to sort. By default, Last Updated is used in descending order. (AL-181983)

Improved Migration of Article Groups to Document Hub

Enhanced serialization and datetime within the code path by addressing issues preventing the migration of Article Groups to Document Hubs, particularly when articles are mentioned in any catalog object. This ensures a smoother migration of articles and their references. (AL-181635)

Error Status in Migration Readiness Results Table

Query error statuses for articles in a group now appear at the top of the Migration Readiness results table during article migration check, ensuring visibility even without pagination. (AL-185205)

Open Connector Framework

  • Improved job notification for extraction from OCF Tableau sources by adding a new alation_conf flag alation.job.notify_status_list with default values of [failed, did_not_start]. This enhancement ensures that job statuses like Did Not Start are properly flagged, triggering email notifications for relevant job runs upon completion. The configurable value allows for customized notification settings based on the job statuses, ensuring better visibility and communication. (AL-183855)

  • Implemented a retry mechanism in the save_with_retry utility function to handle operational error exceptions during database save operations. This enhancement ensures more reliable execution of failed Snowflake MDE jobs. (AL-181503)

Lineage

Classic Layout Deprecation Update

The horizontal-level configuration settings associated with the Classic Layout are removed from the Load Settings tab under Admin Settings > Lineage Settings. The sample chart image displayed alongside settings is updated to reflect this change. (AL-184091)

Enhanced Viewing Experience in Incremental Lineage

Added an ability where users can now personalize their Lineage Chart experience in Alation by setting a preferred default layout: Compound or Incremental to load automatically. A new dropdown menu next to the Metadata Layers menu is available for seamlessly switching between layouts and setting a default preference.

Note

For optimal performance, large lineage charts with a larger number of nodes will automatically load in Incremental Layout, regardless of the user preference. (AL-184664)

Alation Analytics

  • Added support for custom fields in the glossaries table of Alation Analytics. This includes adding, updating, and removing field values. (AL-181783)

  • Added Limitation on Alation Analytics Snowflake replication to truncate data from large text columns greater than 16,777,216 bytes (16 MB) due to a limitation in Snowflake. For more information on this, refer to Snowflake Documentation. (AL-173976, Alation Cloud Service on the cloud-native architecture)

  • Enhanced handling of Compose-related failures in Alation Analytics. The flow has been modified to terminate running queries only when necessary, such as during complete replacement, addition, update, or deletion of custom fields. This change enhances system stability. (AL-183602)

Compose

Query Form Variables for Column Names

Query forms now support the use of variables for column names in the SELECT, ORDER BY, and GROUP BY clauses of a query. Column name variables must have the type: raw parameter. (AL-170741)

Improved Filter Search String Visibility in Compose Sapphire Theme

Enhanced search string visibility experience in the Compose Sapphire theme, where the filter search string was not visible in the Open Query modal. (AL-182308)

User Management

Enhanced Sorting of Active Users by Last Login

Improved the sorting functionality for Active Users by Last Login in Admin Settings > Users > Licensed Users. Users who have never logged in are consistently listed at the bottom. In addition to that, the user-selected sort order is preserved, ensuring a more reliable and intuitive sorting experience without affecting ordering based on other fields. (AL-179682)

Search

Security

Secure Credentials Management - Integration with Hashicorp Vault

Alation Cloud Service on the cloud-native architecture

Alation now supports integration with HashiCorp Vault for securely retrieving data source (DS) credentials during metadata extraction (MDE) and Query Log Ingestion (QLI).

This enhancement enables server admins and data source admins to configure credential retrieval from HashiCorp Vault, eliminating the need to store service account credentials in Alation and helping meet enterprise security and compliance requirements.

The integration supports both cloud and on-premise data sources, including those hosted via Agent, and allows authentication using LDAP and AppRole methods.

This feature is available under Settings > Authentication > Authentication Configuration Methods for External Systems and on the DS Settings page, similar to the existing AWS Secrets Manager integration. To use this feature, customers must upgrade to Agent version 1.8.10-5149 or later and ensure the Auth Service on Agent is updated to 5.14.0.2303 or above—failure to do so will prevent vault configurations for DS settings credentials. (AL-180791)

New User Experience Updates

Alation Cloud Service on the cloud-native architecture

Improved Table Border Styling in Rich Text Editor

Table borders have been reset to the default black color, and support for border-left, border-top, border-right, and border-bottom styles has been added by default in the rich text editor. This enhancement gives the user greater flexibility and control over table formatting, allowing for customized borders directly within the editor. (AL-185289)

Bug Fixes

Compose

  • Fixed an issue to support the export functionality in Compose that ensures query results are downloaded as XLSX correctly and includes headers for all columns. This update improves the logic for column indexing based on the metadata of the result set, ensuring accurate data representation in exported files. (AL-179272)

Curation

  • Fixed an issue by removing an unnecessary tooltip when a user confirms an Allie-generated title. (AL-67793)

  • Fixed an issue where Allie suggested some inappropriate words that are not safe for work (NSFW). (AL-157176)

  • Eased permission restrictions that previously blocked users from suggesting changes if they lacked access to all objects in a workflow. Now, users can propose changes to an object if they have access, regardless of their permissions for other objects in the workflow configuration. (AL-177544)

  • Introduced the Select All option for the Add/Remove Domains flow in the Stewardship Workbench. This enhancement allows users to select objects easily for domain updates. (AL-180921)

  • Added an info message to the workflow overview to inform users that modifying a workflow will close any active suggestions. This enhancement ensures better transparency and understanding when changes are made to workflows. (AL-181611)

  • Improved Data Dictionary upload process by fixing the key resolution logic for multi-part schema in the data dictionary upload process for Salesforce and MongoDB data sources. (AL-185543)

Other Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where Compose serialize arrays using square bracket syntax [ ] as opposed to curly brace syntax { }. (AL-182126)

  • Fixed an issue where the Invite Conversation action displayed a blank popup when opened a second time until the page was refreshed. The form now retains and shows the most recent state when reopened. (AL-101118)

  • Fixed a performance issue where the GET /integration/v2/term API exceeded the 5-second service-level agreement (SLA). The API now performs within the expected time limits. (AL-183008)

  • Fixed an issue where the Children column in the Document table did not update correctly when subdocuments were added. The child document count is now accurate. (AL-184396)

  • Fixed a formatting issue where the Created Date and Update Date fields in the Folders table did not display the time. Both fields now show both date and time. (AL-185331)

  • Fixed an access issue where users were blocked from the ELT Source Settings page after their access was changed to Viewer for a Private source, and the expected error popup did not appear. Server admins are now prompted with a dialog to add themselves to private asset sources. (AL-186172)

  • Fixed an issue where a Viewer with Private Access could access all ELT Source tabs. During the upgrade, permissions are now added to ensure:

    • View access for all asset sources to the Builtin Field - Everyone

    • Admin access for all asset sources to the Builtin Field - Server Admin

    This ensures that the Server Admins receive a prompt to add themselves as source admins. (AL-186396)

  • Fixed an issue where invalid error logs were generated and inserted into the etl_job_event_log table, even when the ETL process was successful. The table now correctly logs only valid errors. (AL-186545)

  • Fixed an issue where switching from New User Experience to Classic User Experience while viewing the lineage graph would incorrectly load the classic view. The classic experience now correctly retains and displays the Compound Layout. (AL-184814)

  • Fixed an issue where the Incremental Load toggle was incorrectly displayed on Lineage Chart for attributes. The toggle has now been removed to prevent confusion. (AL-184497)

PATCH RELEASE 2025.1.0.2

build 20.0.2.98126

Released March 24, 2025

Note

This patch release is available for Alation Cloud Service instances on the cloud-native architecture. This patch release doesn’t apply to customer-managed (on-premise) instances and Alation Cloud Service instances that haven’t been migrated to the cloud-native architecture.

  • Fixed an issue where the Trust Check Flags API returned UUIDs for the subject ID instead of integers. In versions prior to 2025.1.0.1, the list flag API returned an integer in the subject field for asset types that use integer IDs. Due to a bug introduced in 2025.1.0.1, the API began returning UUIDs instead. This fix restores the original behvior: assets with integer IDs now correctly return integer values in the subject field. If you had scripts that expected integer IDs, they should now work as before. (AL-186638)

RELEASE 2025.1.0.1

build 20.0.1.97285

Released March 6, 2025

Note

This release is available for all Alation instance types: customer-managed (on-premise) and Alation Cloud Service.

In this release:

Connected Sheets Deprecation

Alation Cloud Service on the cloud-native architecture

The Connected Sheets feature will be discontinued by the end of April 2025 due to low adoption, allowing Alation to focus on higher-value features for customers.

  • Key dates:

    • March 2025: The installation link will be removed.

    • April 2025: The feature will stop working; existing sheets will remain but won’t update with live data.

  • Customer impact:

    • No impact for most customers who don’t use Connected Sheets. For users of Connected Sheets, existing sheets will remain but lose automatic data updates.

  • Workarounds:

    • For data retrieval: Users can create reports via queries and manually download and upload them to spreadsheets.

    • For spreadsheet governance: Alation is exploring new capabilities to govern diverse data assets. Contact your Account Manager for details.

New User Experience Updates

Alation Cloud Service on the cloud-native architecture

  • For Alation Analytics V2, added a New ETL Monitoring Status page under Admin Settings > System Monitor to monitor the status of the latest ETL run for all tables, highlighting table name, status, ingestion timestamp, and a unique ETL identifier in a sortable dashboard. (AL-183833)

  • In Document Hubs, the Folder page is enhanced with a toggle control to switch between all listed items or only top-level items. In the Folders table, the changes include the following:

    • A toggle switch where top-level is the default.

    • The count of the number of documents listed is based on the total count of documents and navigation links.

    In the Documents table, the changes include the following:

    • A toggle switch where all the items are listed by default.

    • A parent column that establishes parent-child relationship for the documents.

    • A sorting feature for the table where you can use Last Updated or Created Date to sort. By default, Last Updated is used in descending order. (AL-181983)

Alation Analytics

  • Added the data_quality table to the Alation Analytics V2 database. This table stores Data Health information uploaded to the catalog via the Data Health API that is now extracted during the Alation Analytics ETL process. The data_quality table can be used for potential integrations with other systems and serves as a centralized source for data health insights in Alation Analytics. (AL-174343)

  • Enhanced the terms table in Alation Analytics V2 by adding the private column to indicate the access level to term objects. The private column reflects either the explicit privacy setting of the term or reflects the privacy inherited from its glossary. The value True means that a term is private and False that it is public. (AL-183282)

Search

  • Added support to enable semantic search only when the search query exceeds a minimum word limit defined by alation.search.semantic_min_word_limit flag. The default value of this flag is 1, which means that the semantic search is triggered for two or more words. (AL-184099, Alation Cloud Service on the cloud-native architecture)

  • Added improvements for handling Japanese text in titles, names, and article bodies, including mixed Japanese-English content. This greatly improves recall and precision when using Search with Japanese text. The feature is currently in beta release in the ap-northeast-1 AWS region. (AL-180245, Alation Cloud Service on the cloud-native architecture)

    Note

    Contact Alation Support to enable the feature flag alation.search.enable_japanese_search.

    For existing Japanese content, Alation Support will need to rebuild or update your index so that all tokens are properly generated.

  • In the tabular view of the Search results page, the Description column replaces the existing Snippet column to give more details about the asset.

    Note

    By default, this feature is disabled. Contact Alation Support to enable it using the feature flag alation.feature_flags.DEV_enable_prepare_search_description to rebuild the index and see the desired details. (AL-165173)

Public APIs

Public Joins API

Added new endpoints to get information on joins that have been cataloged in Alation. The endpoints are part of the Relational Integration API.

  • Get joins by table ID

  • Get joins by table name

  • Get joins by data source

  • Get joins by column (attribute) ID

  • Get joins by column (attribute) name. (AL-183255)

Addition of the “values” Parameter to Relational Integration API

Added a new values parameter that will enable you to specify which fields to return when getting schemas, tables, and columns. Limiting which fields to return can improve API performance, especially when you exclude the custom_fields field.

The fields parameter offers the same functionality with lower performance over values and is still available for compatibility purposes. The values parameter is preferred and is added for better consistency with other APIs. (AL-179358)

Data Dictionary API Update

API specifications are updated to include the Document object type in the Upload Data Dictionary and Task Info APIs. (AL-182642)

Template Visual Config API Update

Added a new property, collection_type_id, to the Create a new visual config endpoint of the Template Visual Config API. This property is required when creating Document templates and will enable you to assign a Document template to a Document Hub. (AL-182252)

Lineage

Classic Layout Sunset Update

With the sunsetting of the Classic Layout, the following changes are made:

  • The option to switch between the Compound and Classic layouts has been removed.

  • The information banner regarding the classic layout deprecation has been removed.

The Compound Layout is now the main view of the lineage chart with the following benefits:

  • Advanced filters for better data exploration.

  • Enhanced features for improved usability.

  • Incremental lineage loading support, allowing on-demand expansion, easier navigation, and exploration of dependencies step by step. (AL-184291)

Manual Lineage Creation in the Compound Lineage View

With the sunsetting of the Classic Layout, the manual lineage feature that was part of the Classic Layout is now fully integrated into the default Compound Layout to ensure a consistent experience across all views. From the Compound Layout, you now can:

  • Perform manual lineage editing

  • Add, modify, or manage lineage relationships directly (AL-177675)

Incremental Lineage for Improved Chart Navigation

Introduced a new feature Incremental Load that enhances lineage chart navigation by allowing users to load data step by step, reducing complexity and improving usability. In the Lineage chart, you can enable it by clicking the Incremental load button located next to the Metadata Layer filter.

This feature offers the following key benefits:

  • On-demand graph expansion: Load the lineage chart incrementally by clicking on it to easily navigate large charts.

  • Improved readability: Hide or show only the necessary paths to keep the chart manageable and clear.

  • Customizable expansion depth: Define the number of nodes loaded per click using the Initial Vertical Nodes (Depth) setting in Admin Settings > Lineage Settings > Load Settings.

    Note

    Setting a lower Initial Vertical Nodes (Depth) value optimizes the chart loading performance. (AL-183555)

Lineage Delete API V3 for Enhanced Efficiency and Control

Introduced an improved Lineage Delete API V3 based on the existing Lineage V2 Delete API to provide a more streamlined and efficient approach to delete objects from the lineage chart.

  • A new parameter dataflow_key in the Lineage Delete API V3 allows you to define the dataflow object for deletion in addition to specifying the source and target object for more precise lineage removal.

  • Only Server Admins and Source Admins can perform deletions using this new endpoint.

  • A streamlined workflow ensures better efficiency and reduced complexity in managing lineage paths while maintaining security controls. (AL-179124)

Bug Fixes

API Fixes

  • Fixed an issue in the Documents and Terms APIs where an error would occur when the folder_id parameter value referred to a folder that contained subfolders. (AL-183044)

  • Fixed an issue with GET {protocol}://{base-url}/integration/v2/column/ API to optimize performance, ensuring it meets the required Service Level Agreement (SLA) of five seconds. (AL-183003)

  • Fixed an issue where OCF public API throws an error response when you create a data source without a database password. (AL-180160)

  • Optimized the performance of the Terms API endpoints when listing the contents of folders that contain several documents. (AL-181817)

  • Added server-side validation on the GET Relational Columns API to check the 1800 characters limit in URLs to ensure server stability. (AL-180993)

Alation Analytics V2 Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where the Alation Analytics V2 built-in article (Introduction to Alation Analytics) displays suspended users in the Last Edited By section. (AL-113713)

  • Enhanced the internal APIs that power the Governance Dashboard to skip restrictive role checks to make them accessible to all user roles. (AL-181391)

Lineage Fixes

  • Fixed an issue on the Admin Settings > Customize Catalog > Lineage > Default Filters page to provide the ability to search and filter schemas and data sources separately across parent and child lists. (AL-182476)

  • Fixed an issue where expanding the dataflow preview in the column-level lineage trace view was throwing a 500 internal server error when a BI column was used as a source or target. (AL-182653)

  • Fixed an issue with cross-system lineage between PowerBI and Databricks where lineage wasn’t generated for reports whose datasets were created with custom queries. Added support for query extraction for cross-system lineage between PowerBI and Databricks datasets. (AL-181967)

Document Hubs Fixes

  • Fixed an issue by removing referencing duplicate object set values when you migrate an article to Document Hubs. (AL-182007)

  • Fixed an issue to ensure no folder creation is allowed inside a deleted folder. (AL-181090)

OCF Platform Fixes

  • Added support for new query expression for lineage generation between Google BigQuery and PowerBI. (AL-180806)

  • Added support for displaying descriptions of columns in tabular format for Struct data type when there are source comments from the source and the add-on connector. (AL-181287)

  • Fixed the timeout error when the connector takes a long time while fetching the query log ingestion data. (AL-179213)

Other Fixes

  • Fixed an issue to ensure the endorsement flags are editable when the schema granular permissions feature flags are turned off. (AL-184272)

  • Fixed an issue to ensure the Alation logo is visible on the Password Reset page. (AL-156521)

  • Fixed an issue to ensure the Alation logo is visible on the Password Reset Confirm page. (AL-183117)

  • Enhanced the pagination to reflect the correct schema count on catalog pages of data source objects. (AL-180785)

  • Enhanced the query log ingestion test to correctly parse the timestamp for the last seven days using values from event data. (AL-180639)

  • Added support to read the files in lowercase to resolve issues around scheduled metadata extraction after a reboot. (AL-180578)

  • Fixed an issue where navigating for a document containing multiple sub-documents freezes the rendering table on the user interface. (AL-180398)

  • Fixed an issue to ensure deleting users is possible with the X option (the Delete icon) from the Top Users list. (AL-175111)

  • Added the ability to update the Domain for terms using the Bulk Utility tool. (AL-167986)

  • Added the table object type to the list of supported object types with the GONE prefix so that it appears as GONE in articles. (AL-140498)

  • Added ability to suggest changes to an object if you have access to that specific object, regardless of permissions for other objects in the workflow configuration. (AL-177544)

  • Fixed an issue where the Health Check option appears on the Admin Settings page even when the feature is disabled. (AL-174896)

  • Fixed an issue where multiple values appear for the same Request ID in a Search query. (AL-167501)

  • Enhanced custom fields in Search by fixing the issue in New User Experience where query parameters are removed in the URL. (AL-181632, Alation Cloud Service on the cloud-native architecture)

Known Issues

  • Stewardship Workbench in the New User Experience might update the wrong items when you select all items in the Stewardship Workbench using the Select All feature and enact a bulk change. As a workaround, you can safely update items on a single page at a time (25 items by default), or expand to 100 items per page. Switching pages can cause selected items on the previous page to hinder updating.

  • It is not recommended to use the Add Objects to Domains or the Remove Objects from Domains features in Stewardship Workbench due to recently identified technical limitations. (AL-183826)

  • When the schema privacy feature is enabled, the schema will not show up in the smart suggestions in Compose regardless of whether the user has access to the schema or not. (AL-182315)