Welcome to the JMP Development Update for February 10, 2023!
We have now passed the freeze dates for JMP 18 EA1. Thanks to all for getting initial features ready to go and testing the installers! Mia shares that if all goes as planned (and all signs are pointing in the right direction!), the JMP 18 EA program will launch for customers next week. Product management will send invitations to join the program early next week, and EA members should be able to download JMP 18 EA1 via My.JMP by the end of the week.
If you have additional users you’d like to invite to the program, please hold tight until after EA1 is out. Please note that one big change for the JMP 18 EA program is that all JMP staff will have access to the EA downloads and content via My JMP – there will be no need for us to join the EA program. You can still join the EA program if you want to see email announcements and updates that go to customers, but if you want to keep the clutter out of your inbox then there’s no need to join.
Speaking of features, Bryan Fricke shared the following opportunity for us to help improve a future version of JMP Live. Bryan says, “As we continuously strive to improve our products and services, we would like to invite you to participate in a usability test for JMP Live. Your feedback is invaluable in helping us create a better user experience for everyone. To participate, simply follow this link: https://app.usabilityhub.com/do/9792b0a1ea62/3e01. The test should only take a few minutes of your time and your contribution will make a big impact. Thank you in advance for your participation!” (I did it and yes, it’s quick!)
Thanks to Sara Doudt for sharing that product management has kicked off the Sales Training Series for 2023 with a JMP Clinical training last week. Teams learned more about how JMP and JMP Clinical fit into the drug development process, how to find prospects for Clinical, and how to position JMP Live to life sciences customers. For more details, please see Kaylee Warren’s article about the training in the Community here.
Finally, thanks very much to Meichen Dong for presenting at this week’s JMP Dev meeting on the Multivariate Embedding platform, new for JMP 17.0! If you were not able to join the meeting live, you can find a recording here in Sharepoint. Meichen shared more details about this platform using some very interesting example data tables. (I bet you’ve never seen a mammoth skeleton rendered in 3D from data before!) As John Sall pointed out in his comments after the demo, the algorithms implemented in the platform are being adopted quickly by researchers in various domains, and JMP Pro now offers both the t-SNE algorithm as well as UMAP (which will be the default method in JMP 17.1). Thanks again, Meichen!
General Announcements
- If you’re willing to be a featured employee on Inside JMP, please download a copy of the Get to Know form. Simply fill out the questions and when you’re done, upload it, along with 3 photos of you to the folder. Thank you for helping to make our JMP family a little more familiar!
Important Upcoming Dates
- JMP 17.1 Final Installer Candidates – 3/8/23
- JMP 18 EA2 Freeze – 4/7/23
- JMP 18 EA3 Freeze – 5/12/23
- JMP 17.2 Code Approval – 6/13/23
- JMP 18 EA4 Freeze – 6/23/23
- JMP 17.2 Code Freeze – 6/30/23
- Please visit Confluence for a full list of JMP 17 and JMP 18 dates.
JMP Development Updates
Statistics
- John Sall: (JMP-14042) Fit Response Screening now supports G-side as well as R-side REML mixed models. G-side is important when there are few random effect columns and many rows, otherwise R-side is faster. The graph below shows the performance on various numbers of rows and numbers of random columns, on a logarithmic scale of seconds.
We also support a Mivque estimator that is much faster for very large problems, but does not have all the REML properties. For an example with 3527 rows and 1000 random columns, the times are:
- Laura C-S: Gave SEM presentations at UCDavis and at the Conference for Statistical Practice—both went very well and resulted in inquiries about how to get JMP Pro to start using SEM! Provided edits and feedback on an academic case study for showcasing SEM. Wrote an extensive explanation of longitudinal modeling in SEM for Carrie Garter at P&G. She’s already fitting multivariate models so it’s very exciting! I’m translating my email to Carrie into a blog post so I can share with a larger audience. Lastly, I pushed an initial changelist for Robust Inference in SEM and wrote a feature page.
- Elizabeth: Added the Beta distribution to GLMM, which possibly wraps up distributions for now. Multinomial and zero-inflated distributions are requested, but as they’re not true exponential family, they raise a whole host of issues to overcome. Having some repeated measures structures is a higher priority. Other bug work/triage.
Stat Documentation
- Karen: Working with IT to figure out why I can't connect to my JMP machine – the latest theory is maybe contractor permissions on the new network it is now on.
- Michael C: Finished Scripting Index updates for Generalized Regression, CUSUM, and EWMA; worked on triaging stat doc work for 18.0.
Stat Testing
- Mark: Created concept for new model validation feature in Easy DOE. Developing a new power analysis for guided user in Easy DOE with Ryan, Caleb, and Jacob. Met Nicole and Mia to discuss how to include usability tests in EA program. Evaluating initial version of new R&D area in JMP Community with Caleb and Ryan G. Assisted Davetta (SAS Education) with student having a problem in Stability Analysis training course. Answer questions in JMP Community.
- Tonya: Testing new color out of spec feature for distribution and new short run control charts. Bug verification. Documentation review.
- Jacob: Writing unit tests for Sample Size Explorers, assisting Yeng Saanchi. Working on the Usability Study Tool. Testing Compare Designs.
Product Management
- Bryan F: Discovery logistics usability tests, splash screens and icons, JMP Live designs, prototyping, and usability test setup.
Technical Support
- Duane: TS is involved in many projects in addition to our cases and tracks. We are definitely excited to have Sneha Vanga looking at some of our needs in our Service Cloud implementation (thank you, Candice and team!). Here are the TS JMP Live reports and the usual plot below. Also, you can see the Jira tickets reported by TS for the last 14 days.
Development Operations
- Jim: Big kudos to Michael Hecht for fixing an issue with the notarization process used during the EA creation. Thanks to Bryan Boone for the fixes and updates for the jmptojava 9.4 jar files. Reported new assertion failures and crashes; verified fixed issues of the same sort. Perforce support.
- Melanie: Testing some new processes. Migrating 17.1 Builtins strings into main/18.0 (not yet finished). JSL Debugging.
- Bob: Created V18 EA 1 installer for windows. Tested EA 1 on Mac and Win. Worked on securing EA1 files to be released via My.JMP.
Documentation
- Qiana: Documented a process for making changes to other writer’s books and a process for reviewing changes to FrameMaker templates and formats. Created the JMP Live Help for 17.0 in the localized languages. Reviewed the Release Notes for 17.1. Reviewed the JMP Quality Statement page. Created an epic for the JMP 18.0 sample data Jiras. Triaging old Jiras. Project planning for JMP 18.0.
- ChrisB: Added new styles to WebWorks, and then traced out why the expected output wasn't happening. Good talk with Myron about it. Mapped out a possible new workflow for doc for when we move to AWS. Mia Stephens and Hyde Miller explained to us how they develop their new feature content so that we might eventually share.
System/Host Testing-Cary
- Mandy: Zipped up my paper for Discovery Summit Europe, tested and uploaded it. I am working on the plenary part of Workflow builder, refining workflows and what I want to share during that time. Worked on verifying some defects – namely Summary Header graph changes Xan put in – adding image tests and also a small preference test in the framework. Worked on the new Compress column option that Dave White added for EA1 as well as the Summary Stats on columns feature that Ernest added. Installed JMP 18 EA1 and tried all the different Data table features – to ensure they are working.
- Nick: This week Audrey and I have been reworking how we plan identify known issues once fixVersion in Jira no longer contains :OPEN and we transition to using plannedVerison – there is still some work left to do. Worked with Myron to create an index for a new query for an enhancement to the testing dashboard (more on this once plannedVerison Jira work is done). I also tracked down some failing unit tests that were caused by a data table being locked up stream in the unit tests which Evan has since fixed.
- Mike M: Pinged Aaron Kennedy to update SAS web pages that pointed to outdated JMP versions. Started EA1 testing. Opened Jiras for: session script not saving selection data filter selection, columns viewer better error message for pasting formats to cols with different data types, EditFocus change made keystrokes drop characters (thanks to Evan McCorkle for helping me debug this on my Sikuli environment!!)
- Lisa: Worked on testing font customizations for barseg, EA1 testing, and removing Release Notes Affected from the Feature Request screen in Jira.
- Audrey: Working with Nick H on changes needed for the UT framework before we can get rid of the :OPEN tag everywhere in Jira.
- Hunter: Defect verification and JMP 18 EA 1 testing.
- Anna: Adding test programs for Jira issues.
System/Host Testing-Beijing
- Beijing team:
- JMP 18 EA1 Installer testing and sanity check for our major feature areas, details in JMPTESTBJ-2014. In Progress
- JMPC 17.1 reports testing, details in JMPTESTBJ-1896 - Done
- Eric Wang: (1) Updated JMP Live JSL unit tests, E2E tests and Stress tests since recent JMP Live behavior changes. (2) Fixing Stress testing bug. Current test incorrectly counts the regeneration failures. (3) Jira stories/bugs verification. (4) Tested new feature publish/update standalone data.
- Da Li: (1) DONE with 17.1 JMP Clinical report testing. (2) Verify and close JMP Live and JMPC bugs. (3) TS: Answer question from Kai Janson for Minitab. (4) JMP 18.0 EA1 testing, done for windows platform.
- Mike Wu: (1) JMP 17.1&18.0 bugs regression testing. (2) Discussion with Jim for reconfiguring the lab Windows machine’s Oracle configuration due to recent Oracle database migration from old wmc server to the new fedora21c server – JMPTOOL-697. Jim has completed the re-configuration. (3) Completed the JMPC Report Testing. (4) Started the JMP 18.0 EA1 testing – JMPTESTBJ-2014. (5) Completed the security training of “SIRT” and “Protecting Your Privacy Using Proper Data Classification and Handling”
- Kimi: (1) JMP 18.0 EA1 Testing – Windows Done (2) Fix the UT failure of Formula Depot (update bench files). (3) Verify JMP Live and JMPC bugs. (4) Completed JMP Clinical 17.1 Report Testing.
- Da Zhang: (1) Completed the JMPC 17.1 reports testing. (2) Bug Verification. (3) JMP 18.0 EA1 Testing.
- Nala: (1) Completed the JMPC 17.1 reports testing. (2) Bug Verification. (3) JMP 18.0 EA1 Testing.
Data Discovery
- Evan: Fixed issue with Open(…, Selected Columns(…)) leaving files locked. Fixed issue with Filter Each and platform launch expressions. Looking at possible improvements to scripting surrounding Multiple Response columns. Working on second pass of Where function focusing on performance.
- Dan S: Adding some missing JSL implementation for Spacer Box transparency, fixes for opening of JRP files that appeared dirty on open and changed the document title. Met with JMP Clinical and others to discuss an issue exporting virtual join tables with linked row-states to JMP Live. Continued work on focus issues.
- Ernest: Workflow Builder - adding looping. Columns Viewer - tweaks and visualizing properties.
- Dave B: Fixed a table box “make combined data table bug”, recreated a CCB crash reported by a customer in JMP 17.0 (JMP-15554), fixed a plotcol journal bug, and updated jmprunner for better error message when network drives are unavailable
DOE
- Caleb: Fixed a few sample size explorer bugs, finished reviewing a paper, and also worked on some new metrics for MSA design. The new metrics will do better at accounting for the uncertainty in the variance components. The current metrics mask the fact that they really only hold for the average value of the prior/simulation distribution. These new metrics are relative metrics and so should be more interpretable. The people I’ve shown them to so far have given positive feedback. It’s slated to appear in JMP for EA2. Also, confirmed a switch to my primary plan for JMP 18. I’ll now be revamping the current ALT platform with a new platform that can accommodate multiple factors and improved diagnostics. The platform will also serve as a basis for future reliability design platforms going forward.
- Brad: Working with Ryan Lekivetz, Chris Nachtsheim (U Minn), Dibyen Majumdar (U of Illinois at Chicago) on a new paper on mixed level screening designs.
- Peng: Maintenance work on newly surfaced issues: JMP-15467, JMP-15469, JMP-15483, JMP-15527. The rest is on new development work in JMP 18.
Host
- Paul: Optimization and tuning of Open Street Map server and database. Significant performance gains and greater utilization of the capabilities of the server. Asked testing to revisit testing JMP against the new map server. My tests looked promising. Also, security scans of new SAS jars which replaces the older SpringFramework 3.x jars with newer 5.3.x jar files. With the new jars we trade new security vulnerabilities for the old vulnerabilities. Bryan is continuing to prune away jars that we don’t believe we need, trying to eliminate issues by not including problematic jars. SAS does have security exceptions in place for jars in the 94M8 ship event which upgrades SAS 9.4 to use Spring Framework 5.x. Once we hit the limit of what is able to be pruned, we’ll piggyback on the SAS exceptions.
HTML5
JMP Live
- Michael G: 18.0 Feature planning regarding handling data in publish operations & prototyping new report view. UI work to enable changing post list sorting preferences. Fixing breakages in 17.2 and 18.0 to prepare to upgrade to Node 18. Various small changes.
- Aurora: 18.0: Finished server-side implementation of post sorting. Stopped requiring HTML during certain publish & replace operations. Started setting up access control for upcoming file import (e.g. CSV) feature. More feature planning & discussion.
Note from Shannon
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!
