New User Experience

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Beginning with Alation release 2023.3.1.2, a new user experience is in Public Preview on select catalog pages. In order to participate in the New User Experience Public Preview, you must have Beta language contained in your contract or have a Beta addendum signed. Reach out to your Alation account manager for more information if you would like to access the Preview.

You will have the choice of whether or not to enable this functionality, but you won’t want to miss out on these benefits:

• Preview the exciting new next generation look and feel of Alation

• Influence in-process development directly (we want to hear what you like and don’t like!)

The following experiences will be visible once you turn on the New User Experience:

• Data Source Catalog Details Page

• Schema Catalog Details Page

• Table Catalog Details Page

• Column Catalog Details Page

• Catalog Navigation

• Search (Basic)

We expect to make new releases with new functionality and bug fixes every 2-4 weeks. We will communicate these updates via email to all participating Cloud Native customers. General Availability is expected early 2024 but is subject to change based on customer feedback.

Scope of the initiative through General Availability:

• Cloud Native customers only

  • On-Prem support timing to be decided on closer to the General Availability

• All Catalog pages except any Settings or Configuration pages

  • Other Apps, including Governance, Compose, and Analytics, are not included in the scope of this initiative

• Once GA, all Cloud Native customers will be switched to the New User Experience automatically but will have the capability to switch back to Classic for a time

Why Are Certain Pages Labeled “Currently Visible Experiences”?

We are taking the approach of prioritizing the most used pages, functionality, and user journeys first. Table object pages are high-traffic pages and the pages that surround them are a critical part of the Data Analyst’s journey through Alation, as is the left-hand navigation and basic search.

Definitions

Currently Visible Experiences: Pages/experiences that are not blocked by an Under Construction page visual

New features/functionality: Features and functionality that have been added as part of the New User Experience Public Preview #1

Not yet complete features/functionality: Features and functionality we plan to build a direct path to within the New User Experience but have not yet

Removed features/functionality: Features and functionality that we have learned are not particularly valuable in their current state:

• Utilize Classic app where these features are needed

• Please provide feedback if we have omitted functionality that supports a critical customer use case

Configuring Your Users’ Experience

You will see three new Feature Configuration options in your Admin settings:

Flag 1: The Enable Public Preview UI flag defaults to ON, meaning any user that adjusts the Alation URL to add /app after .com will be able to experience the New UX/UI. You can easily switch this flag to OFF if you do not want your users to access this experience.

Flag 2: The Enable removability of ‘Object defined fields’ flag defaults to OFF. If you would like to experience this new feature that is available as part of the New User Experience change this flag to ON. (Note: this also enables this functionality on Alation ‘Classic’). See Edit Object Templates for additional details on this flag and its use.

Flag 3: The Enable the promotion of the Public Preview UI flag defaults to OFF. If you would like your users to see a “promotion” message to help them more easily access the New User Experience, change this flag to ON:

The “promotion” message will look like the below (full view on the left and collapsed view on the right), and will show up on any Catalog page that is “currently visible,” which currently includes Data Source, Schema, Table, Column and Search (basic) pages.

Your users will always be able to revert back to the Alation ‘Classic’ experience at any time via 1 of 2 banners that will show up at the bottom of each page within the New User Experience.

Summary of New Features, Not Yet Complete Features, and Removed Functionality

This section summarizes new features and functionality available in the New User Experience, together with features and functionality not yet complete for the Public Preview, and functionality that previously existed but has been removed from the New User Experience.

The summary begins with three tables showing new features, not yet complete features, and removed functionality common to the main RDBMS-based pages (Data Source, Schema, Table, Column). A fourth table lists known bugs. These tables are followed by sections showing comparison screenshots of the Classic page versus the New User Experience page for each of the Currently Visible Pages and calling out new features, not yet complete features, and removed functionality specific to the individual page. Additional sections describe changes to the Search and Navigation functionality.

New features/functionality	Data Source	Schema	Table	Column
New look and feel with clearer visual boundaries for scanning
Adjustable table column width				N/A
Number of rows selected for table will become the user’s default state across all other objects of they same type				N/A
If user paginates to page 3 of table results, clicks on an object and then clicks Back they will be returned to page 3 of table results				N/A
If user clicks on an object in the table and then clicks Back the table will retain all sorting and filtering previously imputed				N/A
Star and Watch converted to Bookmark with or without email notifications enabled
Open with expanded beyond Compose to include any Open with options available
Main panel and right panel independent scroll
Collapsible right panel
Clear labels aligned to object icon
Warning Trust Flag renamed to Important Info
New rich text editing capabilities (text coloring, highlighting, paragraph and table formatting)
Ability to hide Field History if desired
Catalog Customization enhancements
Ability to group both default fields and custom fields together
Ability to collapse or expand field groups by default
Ability to move rich text default and custom fields to the right panel
Ability to remove default fields
More scannable Query tab

Not yet complete features/functionality	Data Source	Schema	Table	Column
Snowflake tags visibility in the New UX
Upload Data experience in the more actions menu				N/A
Conversations feature
@ mentions in rich text fields are currently missing [+] functionality that expands mentioned object
Group backreferences and allow group to be collapsed or expanded and moved around on templates
Lineage	N/A	N/A
Data Source-targeted templates	N/A
Markdown capability in the Rich Text Editor
NoSQL Support
Data Dictionary Support (Beta only)				N/A

Removed features/functionality	Data Source	Schema	Table	Column
Star functionality in table				N/A
Trust Flag aggregation in table				N/A
Queries tab History sub-tab				N/A
Ask to Title

Known bugs	Data Source	Schema	Table	Column
If you edit or create a description or title of an object contained within a table in Full View, then navigate to the view on the object Overview page, you will not see the newly created or edited content				N/A

Data Source Catalog Details Page

Classic:

New:

New features/functionality specific to Data Source:

• None

Not yet complete features/functionality specific to Data Source:

• Not removable: Description, Stewards, Backreferences

• Not moveable (left or right): Properties, Tags, Domains, Backreferences

Removed features/functionality specific to Data Source:

• Upload Queries

Schema Catalog Details Page

Classic:

New:

New features/functionality specific to Schema:

• None

Not yet complete features/functionality specific to Schema:

• Not removable: Description, Stewards, Backreferences

• Not moveable (left or right): Properties, Tags, Domains, Backreferences, Top Users, Source Comments

Removed features/functionality specific to Schema:

• None

Table Catalog Details Page

Classic:

New:

New features/functionality specific to Table:

• Removed Sample Content tab and embedded on the Overview tab with Columns

• Sample Content can be removed just like any other field from the Table page template by Admins

• Consolidated tabs Queries, Filters, and Joins to a single tab

Not yet complete features/functionality specific to Table:

• Not removable: Description, Stewards, Backreferences

• Not moveable (left or right): Properties, Tags, Domains, Backreferences, Top Users, Source Comments

• Data health tab content

Removed features/functionality specific to Table:

• None

Column Catalog Details Page

Classic:

New:

New features/functionality specific to Column:

• None

Not yet complete features/functionality specific to Column:

• Not removable: Description, Stewards, Backreferences

• Not moveable (left or right): Properties, Tags, Domains, Backreferences, Top Users, Source Comments, Data Type

Removed features/functionality specific to Column:

• Expressions tab

• Sample feature

• Profiling feature

Search Page

Classic:

New:

New features/functionality specific to Search:

• New look and feel with clearer visual boundaries for scanning

• Consolidated filters on left-hand filter menu

  • Object Type filter, previously across the top of the page, and the Domain filter, previously attached to the search bar, have been relocated

• Applied Filters section added at the top of the filters panel

• Clear All option for easy removal of all applied filters

• Can now select multiple objects within object filters and see ALL relevant default filters for the selected objects

  • Classic behavior: - If a user selects Object Type A, default + additional filters x, y, z show up - If a user selects Object Type B, default + additional filters q, r, s show up - If a user selected Object Type A and then selects Object Type B, Object Type A default filters AND Object Type A selection are cleared, so that only Object Type B is selected and additional filters q, r, s show up.

  • New behavior - If a user selects Object Type A, default + additional filters x, y, z show up - If a user selects Object Type B, default + additional filters q, r, s show up - If a user selected Object Type A and B, both objects remain selected and ALL default filters show up (that is, additional filters x, y, z, q, r, s show up) - Saved Search relocated to the top of the left-hand panel (note feature not complete)

Not yet complete features/functionality specific to Search:

• Saved Search

• Table View

• More Filters

• Automatically updating result counts next to each filter

• Filters that, if selected, product no results are filtered out automatically (including Object Type filters)

• Bulk Actions

• Object Preview for search results

Removed features/functionality specific to Search:

• Sort by: - Last Updated - Last Created

Navigation

Classic:

New:

New Features/Functionality:

• My Stuff section added to the left-hand navigation containing personally relevant content Bookmarks and Recently Visited

  • Recently Visited ordered by most recently visited at the top

• Wayfinder feature containing all primary catalog Objects for easy browsing in the left-hand navigation

• Wayfinder will auto-adjust to locate the user in the left-hand navigation where they are in the catalog to orient the user

  Note

  This feature is somewhat limited and is expected to be enhanced

• Resizable left-hand navigation panel to eliminate truncation of long names

• Alphanumeric sort

• Contains technical names of all Data Objects (not titles)

• App Menu containing Catalog, Compose, Governance, and Analytics entry points without having to click into the previous Apps dropdown

Not yet complete features/functionality:

• Curate functionality entry point to be relocated into the Governance app

• Bookmarks list sorting/filtering

• Settings entrypoint in the top-right corner

• Marketplaces

Removed features/functionality:

• Conversation browse

• Advanced Search

• Query Search

  • Why? Consolidate all search activities to the full Search experience to focus our development efforts and better support our customers

• Additional sort and filter options in the left-hand navigation [Recommend using Full Search + upcoming left-hand navigation locate me capability for this browse use case]

Providing Feedback on the Public Preview

Please use the Alation Customer Ideas Portal to submit your feedback on the visible experiences. You will be directed to the portal if you click the Submit Feedback button on the banner that shows up on every New User Experience page in the Public Preview:

Select New UX/UI under Previews as your Category when creating a new idea:

The Alation team will review and provide feedback to improve the experience. All statuses will adopt their standard meaning except:

• On the Roadmap means we will plan to address within the General Availability timeframe or as a fast follow.

• Future Consideration means we will consider in the future but it will not be part of General Availability.

• If a suggestion is not under consideration for this initiative, the idea will be moved into a different Category, OR, if it will not be considered across any Category, it will be listed as Not Under Consideration.

What User-Requested Changes Have Been Integrated into the New UX or Added to the Roadmap?

Private Preview Customer and Alation Employee Feedback

Process: During Private Preview, customers provided feedback via a Community microsite and via calls with Product and Design. All feedback was recorded and triaged regularly. The most common and impactful updates within scope of the new user experience were Completed or Added to the Roadmap of the New User Experience. 17 ideas were deemed not under consideration due to lack of demand or impact or out of scope of this project.

Completed (9):

• In-line edit of Description column on the Column table*

• Want View to show up as the label next to the Table icon if the object is a View and not a Table

• Improve the Trust flag modal design to ensure there were no inadvertent deletions*

• Want the Column table on the Table page to auto-adjust in size to show more or less rows without scrolling within the table*

• Want to see more rows in the Column Table on the Table page and have that row selection stick for the individual across all Table pages*

• If a user paginates to page 2 of results in the Column Table on the Table page, clicks on a Column object and goes to that page, then selects Back, user is dropped back on the 2nd page of results*

• Wanted a full view of the table to default to showing all rows*

• Ability to remove Samples from the the Table template and still have Columns show

• If a user sorts by Title paginates to page 2 of results in the Column Table on the Table page, clicks on a Column object and goes to that page, then selects Back, the results are still sorted by Title*

* Implemented across all objects where relevant

On the New User Experience Roadmap (9):

• User-set width of columns within the Column Table should “stick” across a full session*

• Enable users to add and rearrange Custom fields as columns in the Column table on the Table page and allow users to edit custom fields in-line or in a modal on the page in question

• Enable admins to set the default columns and order of columns in the Column table on the Table page

• Enable users to add Source Comments as columns on the Column Table on the Table page*

• Enable certain fields to be moveable left and right that currently cannot be moved left and right (Data Policies (backreference), Properties, Source Comments, Domains, Tags)*

• Improved filtering on the @ mention picklist for quicker navigation*

• Presence of the Sample tab on the Table page should be controlled by the configuration of Sampling vs the visual configuration templates

• Make it more obvious when SQL is collapsed

• Improve experience—full text does not show in samples when long

* Implemented across all objects where relevant

Issues Where Previous Settings and the New UX May Conflict

• You may not see all new Rich Text Field features if you have adjusted your Rich Text Defaults in the past - if you are not seeing Rich Text Field features you expect to please reach out to Alation Support

• If customer does not see the new RTF features it could be because sometime in the past they adjusted the RTF defaults