Welcome to the JMP Development Update for January 24, 2025!
JMP 18.1.2 was released in MyJMP this week! Thanks to everyone who worked on this “dot-dot” release – in addition to third party library updates, 18.1.2 also had a bug fix for JMP and several additions for JMP Clinical that restored a handful of legacy reports from JMP Clinical 8.1 (detailed in release notes here). JMP 18.2 will be the next in our lineup of JMP 18 maintenance releases, planned to be released in March. The 18.2 track is currently frozen for bug fixes but verifications, deliverable production and security scanning tasks will continue until their own respective freeze dates next month.
JMP QA teams in Cary and Beijing signed off on JMP 19 EA6 today and installers have been released in MyJMP! Product management plans to notify customers of EA6 availability next week and will share details about features that are ready to test on the EA page. We are coming up on our next EA freeze pretty quickly with JMP 19 EA7 currently set to freeze on Valentine’s Day.
Now that we have passed JMP 19 Feature Freeze, all Story and Epic items that have not yet been marked Fixed but currently have 19.0 in the Planned Version field in the JMP project need to be evaluated. Please remove the Planned version (if the item is not planned for a specific release at present) or add an appropriate new version (if an item is definitely planned in a different release track). If an item is going to continue to be worked on for JMP 19, it needs to be added to the JMP 19 Late Features page and evaluated for impact on downstream teams.
Also, I added comments to some Feature Request items this week that had 19.0 in Planned Version to either remove the version or ask developers or PM for triage help. In general, we do not assign Planned Version values to Feature Requests. If a Feature Request is selected for a specific release, it should be converted to a Story and a Planned Version assigned at that time. However, sometimes a Story gets demoted to a Feature Request and Planned Version is not removed, or an item is accepted but we forget to change the issue type – hence the need for a quick triage step. Thanks again for your help cleaning up these items!
Thanks also to Tonya Mauldin for sharing this week’s beta/crash report with crashes selected!
(Tonya noted that when she tried to publish to JMP Live, she encountered an error obtaining a valid connection to the server.)
General Announcements
Important Upcoming Dates
- JMP 18.2 Security Freeze – 2/21/25
- JMP 18.2 Final Image Candidate – 2/24/25
- JMP 18.2 QA Signoff – 3/13/25
- JMP 18.2 Release in MyJMP - 3/18/25
- Please visit Confluence for a full list of JMP 18 and JMP 19 dates.
JMP Development Updates
Interactive HTML
- John Powell:
- Fixed an issue with the Color Gradient column property when Scale Uniformly is enabled in Cell Plots(JMPHTML-14313).
- Working on an issue where Alarm Graph in Process Screening(Environmental Monitoring) is not launching control charts(JMPHTML-14330).
- Working on suppressing Outline Boxes hidden in Process Screening without suppressing Outline Boxes that are closed via the disclosure icon(JMP-24553).
- Fixed an issue when a user deletes a column from the data table that is used in a Scatterplot 3D, then exports to Interactive HTML(JMPHTML-14327).
- Committed implementation for the Display3DBox lights border(JMPHTML-14276).
- Added support for jittering points on categorical variables in Scatterplot 3D(JMPHTML-14279
- Mike Stickles: Completed final tweaks to JMPHTML-2022 (Legend does not show size settings on Parallel plot) and JMPHTML-2023 (Legend does not respect horizontal setting for size variable). Currently working on JMPHTML-14338 (Bar: Label: Need to support custom Number Format).
- Michael Senoyuit: Finished JMPHTML-14201 Removing in-use data filter in report script can result in error, continued work on getting tooltip graphlets into JMP Live, and started working on JMPHTML-13838 Change HTML5 tooltip hover locations to match JMP.
- Paul Spychala: JMPLive/HTML now support custom color GroupBoxes (for Wrap/GroupX/GroupY roles) (JMPHTML-14326). More ongoing work however.
JMP Live
- Aurora: Control chart warning improvements (be more explicit in notifications about assignment to group, bug fixes, prep for Discovery Europe).
Statistics
- John Sall:
- In Process Screening, added a legend to the Alarm Graph (JMP-24030), fixed sorting for non-normal (), and worked with HTML group to make Local Data Filter work (JMP-22074 and WEBJMP-9665).
- In Categorical, fix drag/drop for 'Column(dt,expr)' expressions (JMP-21907), and suppress FDR options for 'Specify Comparison Groups' (JMP-22603).
- Prepared and delivered Kickoff presentation.
- Elizabeth: Pushed support for ordinal multinomial responses in GLMM (JMP-24492) and have most everything except the save column options working (as of this writing). Nominal multinomial work forthcoming; its downstream impacts are nominal (no pun intended), as the doc changes, etc, required for the ordinal will almost completely cover the nominal.
- Laura C-S: Fixed a few bugs in SEM related to the cross-lagged panel model and strings, investigating an optimization bug, finding data and exploring examples for the longitudinal SPSP workshop along with Haley.
Stat Documentation
- Michael C: Interviewed candidates for summer internship position (with Colleen). Reviewed strings. Watched JMP 2025 kickoff videos.
Stat Testing
- Mark: Drafted a presentation with Jacob about using covering arrays in unit test scripts. Also fixed several unit test failures related to recent changes in the UI of the response simulator in Easy DOE and differences in random number generation between Mac and Windows. Currently writing a script for the IndPenSim 2 emulator to evaluate optimal factor settings, and attended the virtual JMP kickoff meetings.
- Jacob: Testing Design Explorer, verifying Jira tickets and adding new unit tests. Preparing usability study with Mark on enhanced simulate responses feature in Easy DOE, planned for Discovery Europe. Updating Usability Study Tool, adding ability to ask check all that apply questions and include optional exercises. Testing new Sample Size Explorer for Nonparametric Tolerance Intervals, working with Yeng.
Life Sciences Updates
- Richard:
- Our paper “Aggregation of Adverse Event Terms for Signal Detection and Labeling in Clinical Trials” was accepted to the journal Drug Safety. It should be published in the near future.
- Continuing work for Subgroup Screening as my last final report for JMPC 19.0. Hope to give a demo in the next several weeks.
- Drew, Valerie, and I are reviewing some issues related to network plots.
- One major challenge we are trying to address has been using JMP data filter for edge-level covariates so that corresponding nodes filter when all edges connected to a node are absent (or if at least one is present).
- Creating a circular network plot is straightforward, and if issues related to item 1 can be solved then this will become a student project to build a JMP add-in.
- Some discussions with Xan may occur to see what, if any, improvements to GB are needed to support these plots. The approach taken is very similar to how forest, upset, or swimmer plots are built with one set of records summarizing node coordinates and one set of stacked edge records drawing lines between pairs of nodes (i,j, where i < j).
- It may be that the only additional piece needed is to include additional methods for determining coordinates, which would happen outside of Graph Builder. If so, the add-in can offer options for producing various coordinates.
- Some additional features beyond producing edges based on sample size would be to use more statistical criteria so as correlations or odds ratios.
- Drew: Assist Novo with JMP Clinical implementation questions. Triage and fix JMP Clinical 19 bugs and review code for performance improvements.
Product Management and Product Marketing
- Dieter, Sara, and Dan V presented sessions at the Americas Sales Kickoff on the JMP Marketplace, JMP Live, and Strategic Sales Plays created by the Product Management and Product Marketing teams.
- Bryan F: Conducted and documented a competitor analysis of statistical process control (SPC) systems in coordination with Dieter, prepared learning transfer materials on prototyping with Sarah Sylvestre, continued developing a splash screen banner for JMP 19 with feedback from Aaron Kennedy, and coordinated with Dieter, Justin, and Michael on a design for a to-do list feature for JMP Chart Triaging.
- JMP 19 Launch: What’s Coming and When
As you heard from Dan and Jules during day 2 of the JMP 2025 Company Kickoff, JMP will unveil version 19 in September, featuring a host of exciting new functionalities designed to enhance JMP’s market position.
- What is our plan for the future? How can we enable our teams to share information effectively while ensuring that our user base fully recognizes the value of the latest version? We work to improve our processes with every release, but this release is particularly noteworthy. Our goal is to take a fresh approach by preserving the successful elements that have proven effective while also introducing innovative strategies to generate and maintain excitement. LEARN MORE HERE.
- How Sales Teams are Using the JMP Marketplace To Drive the Value of an Organization's Investment in JMP
The JMP Marketplace was launched in October 2024, and in just three short months, we’ve already exceeded all of the goals we had set out to accomplish in Phase I of the rollout. As mentioned in the 2024 Product Management Readout, the launch of the JMP Marketplace has been a great success.
- As more users and customers see the JMP Marketplace and start to download useful Add-Ins, Extensions, Python Add-Ins, and Data Connectors, sales teams are strategically positioning the value afforded by the JMP Marketplace in conversations, annual business reviews, events, and workshops with customers and users.
- Read this article to see how sales teams are using the JMP Marketplace in customer conversations.
Technical Support and Engagement
- Wendy:
- The Support teams have been catching up from last week’s User Enablement Planning sessions and the MLK holiday.
- Below are the usual graphs for case volume as well as topics for both Tech Support and Engagement. Here are the TS JMP Live reports and the link to the Jira filter showing the tickets reported by Support for the last 14 days.
- Technical Support Case Volume by week:
- Case Topics for Technical Support queue, last week:
- Engagement Support Case Volume by week:
- Case Topics for Engagement queue, last week:
Development Operations
- Jim: Created EA branch in Perforce for JMP Pro 19 EA #6, then built executables and installers for both Mac and Win (thank you, Bob Hickey, for the necessary script); performed JIRA verification for fixed issues and reported new JIRA items from the latest mac OS ASAN run; integrated changes from the JMP 18.1.2 branch into 19.0 for copyright format (JMP-24499 and JMP-24500); worked with Nick Ruva and Hunter Weaver to gain remote access to mac unit test machines from my laptop – partly because SAS CIS declared that VNC Viewer violated SAS policy. Decommissioned two older mac mini testing machines for trade-in on a new M3 mac; and deregistered many older AWS testing AMIs.
- Melanie:
- Consulting: Helped Sohail with a script to write a data table to JSON. Yes, we know about JSON To Data Table(), but Sohail had reasons to write his own function to produce what he needed. That was fun!
- Branching: Created 18.2.1 branching tasks. [JMPTOOL-1461] JMP branch event tasks for 18.2.1. Note that Jim will not be creating the 18.2.1 Perforce branch yet – probably not for another week or two.
- Copyrights: Discussed copyright strategies with Audrey – we came up with a few questions to ask JMP (and maybe SAS) legal.
- Documentation Support: Worked with Steve Nickerson in SAS IT to decommission a very old vm for creating JMP Help – Chris Barrett has been able to generate English and localized help on the new AWS vm. [JMPTOOL-861] Migrate the Help jobs from help-pdf-builds to AWS.
- Jira Work: Updated the page with instructions on bulk issue import (available to Admins only). Lots of experimentation to discover what can and can’t be done – more to come.
- Stringbot: Coordinated with Michael Hecht to get a test for handling special characters to test a fix in production that Myron has been working on in the dev Stringbot environment. Fingers are crossed for this weekend’s run.
- Thanks: To Nick Ruva, who recreated the Jenkins agent scheduler on the new MIF-PDF vm to fix a frustrating font problem that prevented certain PDFs from being created. With luck, these jobs will be back in business next week, at last. [JMPDOC-2286] Update MIF-PDF VM
- Shannon L: Assisted with 18.2 security vulnerability reviews. Reported bug to Atlassian on missing Jira filter subscription emails. Weekly technical meetings. Working with Doc team on upcoming project deadlines. Enjoyed watching the 2025 JMP Kickoff recordings. User assistance with Atlassian tools, including Confluence table filtering. Created documentation for our Jira issue-level security configuration, set up for a POC for WebJMP next week. Jira API testing/investigations.
- Bob: Release to MyJMP of 18.1.2 software installers for JMP, JMP Pro, and JMP Clinical on Mac and Windows and also JMP Live on Windows. Tested downloads. Added 18.1.2 files to updater table so that when users "check for updates", they will be led to MyJMP if they have 18.0.0 -> 18.1.1. Cleaning up log files for installers and prepping for 18.2.1 branch. Release to My JMP of 19.0 EA 6 for JMP, JMP Pro, and JMP Clinical on Mac and Windows.
- Myron: Worked on JMPTOOL-1460 – sample data Jenkins job failure, JMPTOOL-1438 – moved hopeful fix to production for this weekend’s Stringbot run, and jmptool SQL Server migration – started process to move to Postgres on AWS (affecting all data in the XDB and JMPTRACK databases – unit tests, crashes, etc.) .
- Shannon C: I enjoyed the kickoff videos this week! 2024 was a year of great change in development and throughout the company - I’m looking forward to continued progress in 2025! This week, I continued Q4 wrap-up meetings and 2025 planning with various team members, investigated crashes, and started triaging JMP 19.0 feature items.
Localization
- Krzysztof: Testing new automation features (Jira integration with localization dashboard, new Commit job for UI). Designing new Return script for UI. Answering translator questions on PortableUI strings. Worked on the new drop of Marketplace. Wrapped up Release Notes (18.1.2). Testing new MT features and functionalities in memoQ.
- Sandy: Verified new functionality on the project creation dashboard. Worked with test framework for project creation dashboard. Finished file name conversion script for Oxygen conversion. Began working on new string return process.
- Howard: Testing and Bug fixing for Dashboard Jira integration. Discussed and researched new use case with PMs on how to handle drops, continuous translation.
- Trish: Completed Q4 check-ins; triage localization queries; coordinating with doc team on template files needed for localized 18.2 JMP Help; working on localization group goals for 2025.
- Ying: Testing screenshot scripts for UG and detailing out issues found. Retaking English screenshot if updates are needed.
Documentation
- Devon: Returning from Honeymoon and getting back up to speed, met with Susan and Aaron Andersen to discuss documenting 19.0’s JMP Live and Python integration, reviewing UG for all areas that need screenshot updates for 19.0, working on an issue with broken cross-references in FrameMaker > XML conversion.
- Khawar: Working on the sample index project; Reorganizing the pages and adding suggestions; Separating the script name issues from the text with the data table name issues.
- Chris: Worked on updating the 18.2 templates for translation, updating the 18.1 help job, and getting Jill’s DJ edits in.
System/Host Testing-Cary
- Mandy: Finished up JMP19EA6 testing and worked on changes t the Data Grid, Column tags, and Tabulate. Made an EA6 video and helped update the Column tags confluence page for the users, attaching my sample edited tables, and a journal. I sure hope they try it out, along with the filtered Views of the data table! Watched the Kickoff videos and responded to a handful of JMP19EA5 TS tracks – nice to be able to answer that several issues will be improved or fixed in JMP19EA6. Working now on some immediate changes to column tags and emojis for consistency between Mac and Windows. Need to verify JIRA issues for Tabulate changes and add testing scripts to the JSL framework; I also believe Evan and David will have scripting available early next week for the Filtered View dialog. This screenshot is from windows – without changing the font! :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes: Tags have moved up to the top of the column just today!
- Hunter: Investigated several items before completing JMP 19 EA 6 installer testing. Responded to JMP 19 EA 5 cases. Applied Mac Sequoia 15.3 Release Candidate on the Intel and Apple Silicon host testing Macs in the lab and ran tests with JMP 18.2 and 19.0.
- Audrey: JMP 19 EA6 testing. Set up the schedule for all maintenance tracks for JMP 19 and added to the JMP 19 Dates page. Q4 discussions with team members, starting work on branching tasks for 18.2.1 related to automated tasks for testing.
- Lisa: Worked on EA feedback tracks and am very grateful to Dave Barbour and John Schroedl for tracking down 3 crashes during the investigation. I am also continuing testing on vector fields and new treemap bar style in graph builder.
System/Host Testing-Beijing
Core
- Dan S: Added Group Platform functionality (Layout, Order-By, etc) to Functional Fit Group. Added Column Group scripting support to Column Switcher. Fixed data filter issues with Inverse(1), Count Excluded Rows(0), and focus navigation in the global filter. Fixed Summary Report View in Combine Windows.
- Xan: Working on Col XXX functions: additions, code cleanup, and speedups.
- Evan: Emoji work for Tags.
DOE and Reliability
- Caleb: Finalizing work on my nonparametric tolerance bound explorer, which will be a late feature (hopefully pushed later today!). I’ve also been addressing some sample size explorer bugs and preparing for mine and Ryan’s tutorial on Modern DOE which we’ll be presenting at the RAMS conference next week in (hopefully) balmy Florida.
Hosting and Interfaces
- Michael H:
- Implemented the interactive dialog for the AspenTech IP.21 Importer.
- Restored the ability to “pop” a Combo Box display on Mac using the space bar.
- Added a Mac implementation for the new Emoji Picker.
- Fixed some parsing issues in the TestBot Log summarizer for Mac.
- Added a temporary C++ unit test, to test StringBot’s ability to extract a string that contains non-ASCII characters.
- Paul N:
- JMP-23469 Working on the R integration. JSL calling Python which connects to R using rpy2.
- Created a ‘jmpex’ import package that contains the majority of the Python R code within a Python R class. This allows JMP to call the R interface via JSL and allows Python code to import jmpex to use the same interface from Python. Set it up so the package is automatically installed if called through R Init() or R Connect(). The package contains it’s own requirements file so all rpy2 dependencies get installed when jmpex is installed.
- Cleaning up of Scripting Index R samples. Still some work here.
- Brian C: Neal Siekierski, Kristen Slappy, Evan Carr and Aurora Tiffany-Davis will be representing my group at Discovery Berlin. I am going as well.
Note from Shannon
We may be headed for a Fool’s Spring next week with temperatures predicted to be in the 50s and 60s during the day, but frankly I don’t care! Like someone said to me today…it’s amazing how warm even 45 degrees feels after the weather we’ve had lately! Hope you all have a great weekend!
