New Features in Version 11

Select Just the Columns You Need

The new Select Columns feature lets you choose just the columns to import and their order. This simplifies the Import form by displaying only the source columns you need.

Add Calculated Columns

Calculated columns let you transform and combine source data without modifying the original data. Create formulas that reference source columns and other calculated columns.

Create a Calculated Column by Referencing Columns and Using Formulas

A calculated-column's formula can:

• Reference column names.
• Reference other calculated columns.
• Support any expression and function the source data allows.
• Be referenced later in the WHERE clause.

More about Customizing Columns

Import Named Ranges and Tables in Excel Spreadsheets

When an Excel spreadsheet is selected for import, choose from its named ranges and tables. You can still specify an explicit cell range, but selecting a named range or table eliminates the need to define one manually. This is especially helpful when importing files generated by systems that export data as predefined Excel tables or named ranges.

Sheet dropdown includes worksheet names, named ranges, and tables

When import settings are saved, the named range or table automatically adjusts to its current location and size the next time the spreadsheet is imported.

When importing relationships, Sentinel Visualizer needs to determine if it is new or already exists. Version 11 adds support for a Unique ID column and provides three ways to determine whether a relationship is unique:

• Entity From, Entity To, Relationship Type, Start Date, End Date, and Value
• Relationship Type and Unique ID
• Entity From, Entity To, Relationship Type, Start Date, End Date, Value, and Unique ID

Data Preview

• Blank rows are excluded
• Relative image paths resolve correctly
• Date columns show their time portion
• Brief field text is shown

Validate the Entire Data Source Before Importing

Before importing begins, Sentinel Visualizer validates the entire source and reports up to 100 errors at once, letting you correct multiple problems in a single pass. For large datasets, the validation process can be canceled.

Previously, only the first 500 rows were validated and processing stopped at the first error. Errors later in the source could therefore cause the full import to fail.

Improved Date Parsing

You can specify a custom date format, such as YYYYMMDD. If the value cannot be converted using that format, your Windows date format is applied. If neither format produces a valid date, the error is logged.

Add Topic to Existing Entities and Relationships

Topics are used to tag related entities and relationships. They are also used with Advanced Security Features to control the data users can see. All imported new entities and relationships are assigned the specified topic.

If an import encounters an existing entity or relationship, it isn't added again. However, if the specified Topic isn't already assigned to it, Version 11 adds the Topic. This lets an import assign additional Topics to existing data, rather than assigning the Topic only to newly created entities and relationships.

Import Form Enhancements

• WHERE clause is kept when source data changes.
• Multiple rows in a box can be deleted by pressing the delete key.
• Improved placement of the Import and Query Builder user interface boxes.
• When saving the import specifications, the SVIX’s folder location is remembered.

Additional Enhancements

• Improved handling of source data that is locked, unavailable, or corrupt.
• Import of text files converted to UTF-8 format for improved support of international data.
• Text files with periods in their name or in READONLY folders can be imported.
• SQL Server tables in addition to the dbo schema can be selected for import.
• Improved performance with only the selected columns retrieved.
• If an existing entity or relationship is detected, it is skipped and not imported.

Select all Entities; Zoom, Stretch and Compress Your Diagram

Simplify and quickly view your diagram in different ways with a single click:

Stretch versus Zoom

Stretch and Compress change the spacing between entities without changing the size of entity images or label text. Zoom changes the scale of the entire diagram.

Stretch is useful when long entity names need more room, while Compress brings widely spaced entities closer together.

Zoom In and Out

The Zoom In and Out menu items let you adjust the zoom level of your diagram. Rather than specifying a specific zoom level, use Ctrl+Up to Zoom In and Ctrl+Down to Zoom Out. Zoom with Ctrl plus mouse scroll wheel up and down remains.

Run a New Tiled Network Layout

Easily rearrange the location of your entities and relationships with Ctrl+T. Selecting this multiple times can quickly show different layouts that may improve your network visually.

Apply a New Tiled Network Layout with Ctrl+T

Data Refinement lets you use the Dataset Builder to:

• Filter and select entities and relationships on your diagram.
• Limit the new items added with Get Links.

Previously, the same criteria were used for both. Version 11 lets you define separate criteria for filtering/selecting items on the diagram versus limiting new items added with Get Links. For instance, you may want to add only linked phones rather than all linked entities. Each Data Refinement section has a […] button for specifying the criteria and a checkbox to enable it.

Advanced Entity Search is redesigned to make complex searches easier to build. Search criteria are reorganized into four tabs, with new options for multiple names, metadata values, lookup lists, and date ranges.

• Search for a list of entity names in a grid.
• Metadata type search for multiple values.
• If a Metadata type has lookup values defined, a new selection form is available.
• Find most recently modified entities.

New Name and Type Tab

The Name and Type tab supports multiple entity names that can be copied and pasted from another source like a spreadsheet. Options let you search for Exact, Starts With or Contains.

General Tab

General Tab has many values, ranges, distance, and count searches.
[Retrieve Ranges] button loads the low and high values for each column.

Metadata/Lookup Tab

Search Metadata and Lookup Values for Classification, Dissemination, Entity Status and Topics
Multiple metadata values are separated by semicolons including wildcard searches.

Created/Modified Tab

An entity or relationship always has a Created Date, but if it wasn’t modified later, the Modified Date is blank.
A new Last Changed search finds recently changed records. It uses the Created Date when the Modified Date is blank.

Previous Next

Metadata Type: Lookup List Picker

For Metadata searches, if the Metadata Type has a lookup list, a new selection form lets you pick one or more of them.

Easily select entities and relationships based on their type. Previously, this was available under Dataset Builder.

Three new search options: Exact, Starts With, Contains.

Search Multiple Values

Search for multiple values separated by semicolons.

The Search and Query Builder results show lists of entities and relationships with improvements:

• Brief text is shown.
• Time is omitted for date-only values (midnight).
• Entity Latitude and Longitude are shown with greater precision.
• Numeric values are right-aligned for easier comparison.
• Taller rows and word wrapping display more information.
• Data grids consistently use Calibri font.
• Copy rows from any data grid with Ctrl+C and paste them into Excel with column headers.

Improved Unicode searches, so international words in any script (Chinese, Arabic, etc.) match correctly. Large numeric ranges are also handled more precisely.

Version 11 improves performance throughout Sentinel Visualizer, with particularly noticeable benefits for large databases and complex Visualizer diagrams:

• Quicker loading of databases, especially previously opened databases, including search lists showing counts by lookup value.
• Visualizer offers faster incremental layouts, network metric calculations, dataset filtering, and online map loading.
• Optimized entity thumbnails reduce image-processing overhead and improve performance.
• Optimized searches for linked entities and relationships by type.
• Faster entity name and metaphone searches.
• Faster searches for entity and relationship counts of documents, metadata, and notes.
• Quicker saving of entity and relationship edits.

The first time Sentinel Visualizer Version 11 runs:

• If the product key was provided in the setup program, the program is automatically activated if there’s an internet connection.
• While the sample database is being created the first time, a progress meter shows the steps and opens the database once it is created.
• If Group Policy prevents writing to the shared Public Documents folder, the My Documents folder is used.
• When a database is opened for the first time, the Most Recently Used (MRU) list that appears on the home page is pre-populated with entities that have the most relationships.

Database Updates

The first time an existing database is opened with Version 11, the database is backed up and upgraded while retaining its previous settings.

• DateTime columns are updated to higher precision DateTime2.
• Binary columns are updated.
• Additional database indexes improve search and query performance.
• Updated metaphone storage.
• Cached values for database, entity, and relationship counts.

[Browse…] button replaced [Add to List].

Version 11 can restore a Sentinel Visualizer database directly from a backup file. When no database is open, select File > Restore from Backup to restore the database to your local SQL Server without using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).