Welcome to the JMP Development Update for March 7, 2025!
We are quickly approaching QA signoff for JMP 18.2. Audrey anticipates final signoff may come several days ahead of schedule due to a relatively smooth validation phase. Final preparations are being made to deploy and test various builds of localized JMP Help. Thanks to everyone for all the work on our last planned “dot” release of the JMP 18 cycle!
Meanwhile, the JMP 18.2.1 track is open for third-party library fixes by security champions. If you have source code changes that you would like to include in 18.2.1, please remember that we are working on a very short timeframe for this release. All source code changes pushed to dot-dot release tracks require approval by the JMP Approvers list and priorities include items that are holding up customer deployments, causing widespread crashes, and numeric issues.
Next week is JMP Discovery Summit Europe in Berlin, Germany. If you’re attending the conference, please don’t forget to capture your notes on this page in Confluence kindly set up by Mia Stephens. I know that customers always have plenty of new ideas for future releases at Discovery. However, please do not add any more items to the JMP 19 Late features page as we are now nearly 2 months past JMP 19 feature freeze! Teams are currently working to clean up story items in the track and finish up remaining work in JMP 19 and there is plenty of bug fixing and cleanup still to do. Safe travels to everyone going to Discovery!
As we continue to wind down the JMP 19 feature cycle, a few additional reminders. Please take the time to
Thanks to very much to Ryan Lekivetz for presenting at this week’s JMP Dev meeting. And congratulations to Ryan once again on his recent promotion from Senior manager to Director of the DOE and Reliability group! Ryan followed up our recent JMP R&D colloquium with a talk about statistical software testing with a particular focus on JMP’s capabilities. Every time I hear Ryan (or covering arrays expert Joseph Morgan) talk about these tools, I am amazed at how much mathematics can simplify the testing of complex processes and software interfaces. While covering arrays have been in JMP Pro for some time, the team continues to extend their research. In JMP 19, they plan to add new tools for helping zero in on the cause (or causes, in the case of interactions) of failures generated from the results of designed experiments. If you missed the meeting, you can find a recording here with more details!
Finally, thanks very much to Tonya Mauldin for sharing the summary reports for preEA-EA6 for JMP 19 here: JMP 19 EA Summary Reports | JMP Live
There are many available graphs, but here are two.
General Announcements
Important Upcoming Dates
- JMP 18.2 QA Signoff – 3/13/25 (or possibly even earlier, if all signoffs are completed sooner)
- JMP 19 Sample Data Freeze – 3/14/25
- JMP 18.2 Release in MyJMP - 3/18/25
- JMP 19.0 Developer String Deadline for Handoff 2 – 3/28/25
- JMP 19 EA8 Freeze – 4/17/25
- JMP 19 EA9 Freeze – 6/5/25
- Please visit Confluence for a full list of JMP 18 and JMP 19 dates.
JMP Development Updates
Technical Support and Engagement
- Wendy:
- Happy Employee Appreciation Day! Gary and I are so appreciative of everyone we work with at JMP. Here’s a user comment from this week: “Wow, you guys are amazing…..best and easiest subscription software company that I have dealt with! Thank you for your wonderful customer service, Cathy”
- 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
- Bob: Modified installer code to remove 32-bit Previewer files and change source of Previewer files from Perforce to the nightly build. Please look at the System requirements information for version 19 and let me know if you have modifications to make. Responded to questions about source for Student Addin to best process translations. The Student Addin currently lives in Perforce for the installer and GitHub for JMP Marketplace. Meeting scheduled to discuss. Completed required ACT classes on data privacy and code of ethics.
- Melanie:
- General DevOps: Continued refining the Unit Test analysis project, adding new graphs. Thanks to Krzysztof for summarily removing the use of the deprecated plugin from two handfuls of localization Jenkins jobs. Many thanks to Jim and Nick Ruva, who have made watching Unit Test streams very boring, as they just work! :party_popper:
- Localization: Analyzed JSL Conflicts for remaining languages for handoff 1.
- Documentation: Created Jiras and started organizing work for automating some parts of the JMP Live Help process. Fixed the Release Notes PDF filename (Thanks to Susan Conaghan for reporting the issue!)
- Shannon L: Continued with 18.2 end-of-cycle tasks. Assist with 18.2.1/19.0 security scanning tracking. Meetings with project teams on lending assistance for program management and general process improvements. Weekly technical meetings plus meetings on improving security scanning. Reunion week planning for technical discussions. Atlassian administration tasks, including planning for rolling out Jira issue-level security to additional project teams.
- Jim: Added Previewer builds to the daily process for JMP 19 (thanks John Schroedl). Reported JIRAs for assertion failures from Mac and Win, ASAN and Debug, respectively, runs. Perforce license renewal through SAS Procurement; support.
- Myron: Worked on telemetry cleanup, text exports, and a web UI, debugging Mac crash issues, and the jmptool/SQL Server database migration to Postgres/AWS.
- Shannon C: Reunion planning. Investigated several mystery crashes from customers and looked into a vexing timeout happening intermittently in the nightly UT runs on Windows. Attended various group technical meetings.
Localization
- Allison: Worked on validating the localized 19.0 Portable UI strings and handed them off to Melanie for JSL conflict check. Responded to translation queries on JMP Live UI strings. Validated and finalized JA 18.2 Release Notes pdf file; validated and handed off JA 18.2 JMP Documentation Library pdf file to QA for testing. Looked at 19.0 release schedule with Trish to plan on handoff dates of various JMP 19 projects and updated relevant jiras with dates.
- Trish: Kyoko Takenaka requested translation changes to Student Menu Add-in which let to conversations with Kristen Slappey about processes for updates to this add-in (source management, Jiras, etc). Kristen scheduled meeting w/stakeholders to discuss on 21March. Goals conversations complete. Reunion planning continues – have some meetings scheduled.
- Ying: Continuing to check EN screenshot scripts for UG and retaking screenshots if needed (JMPLOCTOOL-717). Currently, the first 12 chapters have been completed. Eight Jira bugs opened for the Documentation team to make corrections to some screenshot scripts. Two days of vacation this week!
- Krzysztof: Finished processing drop 1 of PortableUI returns (validations & pushes) for all languages. Further tune-ups to Marketplace description automated machine translation process. Updated all L10N Jenkins jobs to use Choice Parameter instead of Extended Choice Parameter. Testing new L10N workflow automation features.
- Howard: Finalized Project template with integration of planned version and pattern. Planning for PDF naming change for l10n related Jenkins. Bug fixes.
- Sohail: Continued fine-tuning script work for small LLMs and debugged memory issues. Attended EnCORE LLM Workshop and explored RAG pipeline options for keyword extraction.
- Sandy: Continued testing and refinement of new string return process program.
Documentation
- Susan C:
- Working on HTML5 dates and JMP Live dates. Updated Jiras & smart checklist templates accordingly. Working with Chris to implement the new headers into the JMP Live help. Published the 18.2 JMP Live help. Sent the JMP Live Updater documentation for review. Worked on HTML5 notes for meeting.
- Roger published the 18.2 RNs PDF (thanks, Roger!) and I have verified it on jmp.com. Working on UI strings for March. Working on a copyright NoLoc issue in all books.
- Devon: Continued work on screenshot reviews, updating lots of scripts and some big chunks of two Using JMP chapters, prepping to write Column Tagging docs, building and handing off the localized 18.2 documentation libraries.
- Khawar: JMP Preferences window: Listed all the issues/concerns and discussed the next steps with Devon. Oxygen callouts: Finished working on EG; Made a list of DJ images to work on.
- Qiana: Continued working on 19.0 sample data. Made updates to JMP 18.2 help. Made updates to the 18.2 Doc add-in. Project planning and coordination.
- Chris: Built JA and KO 18.2 help and am ironing out those and also the Chinese and English builds from last week.
System/Host Testing-Cary
- Mandy: Worked on a JMP Clinical crash, replication, and then tested a few fixes for that as well, installing JMP C on mac and windows; Opened a number of tags JIRA’s and Data table issues, while the amazing developers I work with fixed a lot of them quickly, then tested those; added a few JIRA fixes test cases to JSL framework; Responded to just a few TS tracks from users; Entered JMP-25193 for a Sample data table contain Tags and Filter view examples for JMP 19, before 3/14 deadline; Working on Abstract submission for Discovery Summit America and also a Journal and demo for Dev team on 3/27.
- Hunter: Completed JMP 18.2 final installer testing. More configuration and testing with an update for JMP-22400 which adds support for authorization during the grace period in JMP 19. Verifications and investigation of an issue with the JMP Add-In for Excel.
Web Testing – Cary
- Anna: Verifying fixes and testing new features in JMP. Testing JMP Live with reports published when not synced with data table. JMP 18.2 JMP Live server installation testing. :crying_face:
System/Host Testing-Beijing
Core
- Xan: Removed almost all the strings using the deprecated form “cmd//tip” in favor of explicit ScriptItem::enumTips() or Combobox::setEnumStrings(). These will get re-extracted – not sure if Stringbot will send them to me or to the file owners; if the latter, feel free to forward them to me. The only ones not done are in prinComp where I wasn’t sure of the JMP vs JMP Pro implications.
- Dan S: Continued work on image output for light/dark and other options. Fixed an image save issue for graphs with JSL graphics scripts. Fixed a few platforms that did not have a PlatformContainerBox container in the report. Update to data filter to avoid filtering and invoking callbacks when the selection has not changed.
- Morgan: Added functionality to the Script Editor that highlights the word the cursor is in and instances of the currently selected text. I also changed up code folding to avoid huge time loss on large scripts, and I’ve added a “toggle code folding” edit command.
- Dave B: Reproduced a couple of customer crashes and fixed two of them. Worked with Michael H on a threading issue with MFI. Working on contrast issues with NumericalCustomFormats.
- Evan: More work trying to wrap up Column Filtering feature. Prep for Discovery Europe. Resurrecting some covering array testing infrastructure.
- Ernest: Tag cleanup, Column property cleanup.
DOE and Reliability
- Caleb: Working to finalize some testing on the sample size explorers. Also made some improvements to a shape profiler tool I’ve been working on.
- Irene: Working on Bayesian Fault Localization UI and C++ implementation, submitted revised paper to AoAS.
Hosting and Interfaces
- John Schroedl:
- Worked with Jim Borek and Bob Hickey to build our shell extensions nightly instead of relying on a developer to push built binaries.
- Updated the password-style text display to draw with host-appropriate placeholder characters instead of asterisks. Password field styling was updated to match the normal text box.
- Pushed fix crash in Clinical due to reentrancy if JSL script uses Wait() while processing a filter field callback.
- Investigated a performance regression in SVD calculations due to a compiler change. Confirmed the slowdown was due to compiler update and that the latest compiler update does not fix the issue. Will need help if we want to make a repro case for Microsoft. While investigating, the preview VC compiler crashes building makeValidation.cpp; narrowed it down to a single line of code and bug has been filed with Microsoft. Working on changes to the WinResource project. Busy week fielding VS questions and dealing with build hiccups.
- Paul N:
- Helping Evan practice his Discovery Lightning talk
- JMP-25175 – R Matrix results transposed
- JMP-25176 – Extra None printed in R results
- Security Meeting and review
- Stringbot fixes
- ACT-Now training from HR
- Review of open Python 19 Jira’s
- JMP-22585 – Support Python equivalent of Select Columns()
- Working on jmp.Matrix a wrapper for JMP’s Matrix class. Currently JMP transfers a copy to Python as a numpy.ndarray, and converts back as a copy of the numpy.ndarray as a new TopMatrix.
Interactive HTML
- Paul Spychala: Since I didn’t send an email last week, here is an update for the last two weeks. The demoed Red Triangle (or perhaps Three Dot) Menu in JMPLive support for Oneway (JMPHTML-13834). Add support for PopupDisplay Red Triangle Menu in JMPLive (JMPHTML-14403). Add support for Normal Log Distribution Operation on JMPLive (JMPHTML-14392). Fix some Fit to Window Quirks/Bugs: (JMPHTML-14288, JMPHTML-14280, JMPHTML-14261, JMPHTML-14384, JMPHTML-14409, JMPHTML-14281, JMPHTML-14386). Fix some Histogram Bugs (JMPHTML-14366). Fix some Red Triangle on JMPLive Quirks/Bugs (JMPHTML-14391, JMPHTML-14402, JMPHTML-14410, JMPHTML-14412, JMPHTML-14417).
- John Powell:
- Participated in a sprint retrospective. Started a new sprint with a goal to finalize features and fix bugs. Completed the Q1 Check-in: Goal Setting (2025) course. Worked with the Help Desk to get Firefox working on my Mac again. Working on a project with Marketing for the JMP Reunion.
- Triaged new and existing open Jira Issues.
- Addressed the use of the new, unsupported “Forced Values” column property by detecting it and rendering static (JMPHTML-14063).
- Found and prevented a JMP crash when trying to export the report generated by the Star Add-in (JMPHTML-14404). (I don’t know if this an edge or corner case. Maybe it’s a black hole.
)
- Fixed marker tooltips to use the formatting of the axes when this format differs from the column formatting (JMPHTML-13887).
- Discussed reducing the height of rows in report tables with the JMP Live Theme while trying to remain consistent with the look of tables in JMP Live.
- Discussed what new features and differences between JMP and JMP Live should to be documented.
- Mike Stickles: Fixed bug JMPHTML-14413 (Legend not properly located when using "Inside Bottom Left" on legend position on JMP desktop). Began investigation of story JMPHTML-1407 (Legend setting on size role does not work on HTML5). Also began review of existing HTML bugs (both to determine what to work on next and to see if any had been resolved by recent work), and submitted two apparently resolved issues – JMPHTML-1908 (Can't select from legend) and JMPHTML-13548 (The legend box missing when opening the outline node on HTML5) – to testing; the former was confirmed as resolved.
JMP Marketplace
- Kristen: The marketplace team released updates for the JMP Marketplace on Tuesday. Add-in owners can now update their documentation and submit new versions directly through the website (< 50MB limit )– vs creating a Jira or emailing us, though those avenues are still available to staff members as well. A few sections were added to the FAQ (conveniently located at the top right corner of the site) if people have questions about how to make and submit these updates. All new versions of add-ins submitted by JMP staff will still be tested by the JMP Marketplace team prior to the new version going live.
JMP Live
- Aurora: Control chart warning improvements (bug fixes, add report title to downloads). Talking through loss of access to shared credentials with Justin Chilton. Jira triage.
Statistics
- John Sall:
- In the Profilers, added a submenu command "Predict For Another Table" that uses the Predictor callback rather than make a formula column (JMP-25166).
- In Fit Response Screening, added a report on how many tests were significant of the effect test population (JMP-25174).
- In Response Screening, added ability to multithread the subgroup category scoring (JMP-25195), added Selector Tables for effects and responses to the right of the Effect Size plot (JMP-25240), and fixed a crash due to subgrouping due to integer modulo zero (JMP-25243).
- In Process Screening, tightened up column options (JMP-25210), add examples (JMP-25223, JMP-25222).
- In Explore Outliers, respect locked columns for "Change to Missing" (JMP-25279).
- Laura C-S: Fixed many bugs in SEM; from a crash, to JSL improvements and assert failures in a few corners of the code. Met with Haley to answer questions about platform functionality. Submitted two examples for sample data tables showcasing the new SEM estimator (MIIV-2SLS). Sent an abstract to the Quant Family Collective for an invited presentation on March/19.
Stat Documentation
- Michael C: Reviewing strings in preparation for the next string handoff for 19.0; reviewing potential sample data tables for Fit Causal Treatment; preparing for Discovery Europe next week.
Stat Testing
- Haley: Verified numerics for a variety of cross-lagged panel models that are now easy to fit in SEM via new model shortcuts. Verified improvements to the Model Comparison table, Chi-Square Difference Test table, and longitudinal model shortcuts. Gave a talk at the Central Region JMP Pro Users Group meeting about my moderation and mediation add-in.
- Jacob: Testing updates to Covariates in Custom Design and adding unit tests. Testing updates to Design Explorer and adding unit tests. Making final updates to Easy DOE usability study for Discovery, incorporating feedback from Bryan Fricke and Sarah Sylvester. Preparing Roadmap presentation for Discovery.
- Tonya: Working on beta reports and testing Process Screening changes.
Life Sciences Updates
- Drew: JMP Clinical 19 features/bugs. Triage issues at FDA installation.
Note from Shannon
JMP Life Sciences tester Peggy Finch shared that her first grandson, Tate James Corkins, arrived yesterday at 7lbs 13 oz. She says, “Mama and Baby are doing well. And new Grandma Peggy is overjoyed!” Big congratulations to Peggy and her family as they welcome this adorable new family member!
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! My oldest “baby” comes home from college for a week-long break tonight and I’m looking forward to seeing her. :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:
