About This Release
Released - April 28th 2025
In this version of Analytics for LS Central the focus has been on modularization of the ETL processes, finalization of the change from LS Insight to Analytics for LS Central, new access methods in Azure and new Analytics Data Catalog as well as several other changes and fixes in data warehouse and reports that are described below.
This version of Analytics supports versions 19.0 and later of LS Central On-premises and later versions of LS Central SaaS. Setup of Analytics for LS Central SaaS needs some additional setup from the standard Analytics onboarding process and is explained in detail in the onboarding documentation.
If you have older versions of LS Central or NAV, some parts of Analytics data warehouse and reports might run, but some of the ETL pipelines will fail to run because of missing tables and columns. We have therefore created a special page in the online help where you can learn more about partial loading of the data warehouse.
Note: Updates for version 2024.2 are provided in a special update package. If you have already set up version 2024.2, you can update to 2025.1 without creating a new instance of Analytics. See update guidelines for more information.
Note: If you have customizations in your Analytics instance, you need to make sure before you start that the updates do not affect these customizations.
The following is a list of changes and key features in Analytics version 2025.1.
New or Enhanced Features
Setup
Product package
Prestaging table creation scripts
No change.
Scheduler job header file
No change.
Deployment
No changes were made to the deployment process.
Documentation
Azure data factory and data warehouse documentation has been updated to reflect changes in metadata and control table names.
Information about disabling modules before initial run has been added to onboarding documentation and enabling and disabling modules after Analytics has been running for some time has been added to Operation documentation.
The Extension user guide has been update for this latest version based on the modularization.
New page for troubleshooting missing data has been added.
Azure Data Factory
Pipelines
Changes in pipelines due to name change of control and metadata tables
Almost all pipelines reference one or more of the control tables so these references have been changed because the naming of the tables in the database was changed. These changes were managed through the bicep files that deploy changes to the Azure data factory and are not listed here.
Changes in pipelines due to update to Adjusted cost calculations
A new pipeline called Inventory postfactUpdateInvAdjustedCost has been added to run the postFactUpdateInvAdjustedCost procedure. Runs directly after the fInventory fact table has been populated and updates ItemCost if there have been made any changes to previous posting dates.
This pipeline was added to the 3-Modules > Fact Tables folder in the Azure data factory.
Changes in pipeline due to Modularization
In this version all source tables and stored procedures in Analytics were assigned to a module. The fact table pipelines have also been assigned to module pipelines that can be run as a part of the Scheduled run or not.
This means that you are able to disable a module and thereby not run any pipelines that load data to the dimension and fact tables that belong to that module. This is, for example, convenient and can save time and azure cost if you do not want to run hospitality, bookings or hotel and are not using these reports as part of your Analytics.
Modules are controlled through the SourceTableMap table in Analytics, where each table is linked with a module. The ADF pipeline creates the query base and runs the pipelines according to which modules are enabled at each time.
A new parameter was added to the Add or Delete Source table pipeline and procedure to add new source tables to Analytics. New parameter is for the module name and the default value is Base.
Modules can be enabled and disabled through a new pipeline in the ADF called Enable or Disable Module and was added to the 1 - Query Setup folder.
Information was added on how to use this new pipeline to the onboarding documentation for each scenario.
There are five modules and they roughly correspond to the Analytics report templates.
- Base - All dimension data for Sales and Inventory and Supply chain reports + fact tables for Sales.
- Inventory - No additional dimensions - fact tables for Inventory and Supply chain reports.
- Hospitality - Additional dimensions and fact tables used in Hospitality Analytics report.
- Bookings - Additional dimensions and fact tables used in Booking Analytics report.
- Hotels - Additional dimensions and fact tables used in Hotel Analytics report.
Because of these new modules we have made some structural changes to the folder structure in Analytics Azure data factory.
The new folder structure is as follows and the changes that were made are listed:
1 - Query setup
- Enable or Disable Module pipeline added.
- Other six pipelines are still in this same folder but ModuleName has been added to the Add or Delete Source Tables pipeline.
2 - Staging Tables
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No change
3 - Modules
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Folder three used to be for the dimension tables but has now been renamed to Modules. This folder contains the new module wrapper pipelines that run the appropriate dimension and fact pipelines for each module.
It also contains three sub folders:
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Dimension tables (used to be folder three) but now contains pipelines that run dimensions for each module as well as special pipelines for the outrigger dimensions. Now all pipelines that run as part of a module are prefixed with the module name. These new wrappers are triggered from the Scheduled run pipeline, instead of the Scheduled run pipeline triggering each pipeline individually. This makes the Scehduled run pipeline diagram much easier to understand and will help partners and customers to easily setup their own modules with customizations if they are interested.
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Extension fact tables (used to be folder 4.a) like before this folder contains the Hotel fact pipelines.
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Fact tables (used to be folder 4) like before this folder contains all standard fact pipelines but they are now prefixed with module name instead of PL-SP-.
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4 - ETL Flows
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This folder used to be called 5 - Pipeline run diagrams and it still contains the same pipelines as before this just felt like a more descriptive name.
There are significant changes in the Scheduled run pipeline in this version because of this. Now, instead of listing all fact table pipelines that need to be run, the Scheduled run checks whether a module is active and only runs the inner pipelines if the module is active. Saving lots of checks and runs for unused tables which should both save space in the database, ADF cost and decrease the time it takes the Scheduled run pipeline to run each day.
When you setup a new Analytics environment all modules are enabled by default and the same is true if you update an existing environment with this latest version. You find more detailed information about updating existing environments to this version in the update guidelines.
Like stated above, the modules can be disabled by running theEnable or Disable Module pipeline. Documentation about the usage of this pipeline has been added to the online help.
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How to disable pipeline before running initial load sections have been added to onboarding documentation for each scenario.
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How to enable or disable pipeline in an environment that has been running for some time has been added to Operation documentation.
Maintenance
A new pipeline called DatabaseMaintenance to invoke the AzureSQLMaintenance maintenance procedure from the ADF.
Linked services
Changes due to new access
In new Analytics installations the passwords for on-premise LS Central databases are now stored in a Azure Key Vault, which is created during the installation process instead of being stored as free text parameters in the linked service. The Azure Data Factory (ADF) uses User-Assigned managed identity for authentication when using Azure SQL databases.
New objects in Azure
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Azure Key Vault (name: kv-analytics-$randomString)
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User Assigned Managed Identity (name: msi-analytics-adf-id)
The new Managed Identity is assigned to Analytics ADF and a user is created in the Analytics database with the same name.
ADF identity is granted get and list privileges to secrets in the new Key Vault, so that it can fetch passwords during runtime on pipeline.
This change only affects the Linked services in the ADF and the authentication and makes Analytics deployments more secure.
Privileges needed to run the Key Vault deployment in Azure: User Access Administrator and Key Vault Administrator in resource group.
Data Warehouse
Database
Tables
Prefix of control and metadata table names was changed to Analytics$ instead of LSInsight$. This is the last part of the process of rebranding the Analytics product. Below you can see the new names of the tables that have changed.
- Analytics$Companies
- Analytics$LSCentralColumnMetadata
- Analytics$PublisherAffixReg
- Analytics$QUERY BASE
- Analytics$SourceTablesMap
- AnalyticsAudit
- AnalyticsVersion
Modularization
Module name column was added to Analytics$SourceTablesMap table.
Update to Adjusted cost calculations
Two new columns were added to the fItemCostAdjustment table, to link with the ItemVariant and Location dimension.
Purchase and transfer order review
SK_Company field was added to all tables (see list at bottom). CompanyPrefix column was not removed for backwards compatibility.
- fTransferOrderShipments
- fTransferOrderReceipts
- fTransferOrders
- fPurchaseOrders
- fPurchaseCreditMemo
- fPurchaseInvoice
- fPurchaseReceipts
Document No column added to fTransferOrderShipments and fTransferOrderReceipts to help with duplicate issues that were had through support.
Stored procedures
Maintenance
A new procedure called AzureSQLMaintenance was added. The code in this procedure comes from Microsoft for Azure SQL Maintenance.
Modularization
Added new parameter to pipeline and procedure to add new source tables to Analytics. New parameter is for the module name and the default value is Base.
Several dimension stored procedures have a new name because of module assignment. Before all dimension stored procedures were prefixed with dimMerged but now dimension procedures that are specific to modules have a new naming convention.
Update to Adjusted cost calculations
A new method of calculating the item cost was introduced in the prefactItemCostAdjustment stored procedure. The most significant change is that, when there are adjustments to previous value entries, the adjustment to the original entry is applied, meaning that item cost is updated but the posting date of the original entry is kept. This means that, when multiple adjustments are made after the original entry has been posted there are errors gotten rid of.
Other changes include two new columns to link with the ItemVariant and Location dimension. Also, a filter was added to get rid of duplicate rows in staging table.
A new procedure called postfactUpdateInvAdjustedCost was added. This procedure checks if the ItemCost in the fInventory should be updated because adjusted cost values in fItemAdjustedCost table have changed and updates ItemCost column to the correct value.
Purchase and transfer order review
All procedures that populate these tables were reviewed and unnecessary temp tables and joins were removed. All procedures had f.x. tStore dimension, which was never used.
In factPurchaseInvoice, all references to Purchase Line and Purchase Line Archive were removed since the data from these tables was never used in the results.
Added row parameter to factTransferOder procedure.
Document No column added to fTransferOrderShipments and fTransferOrderReceipts procedures to help with duplicate issues that were had through support.
Reports
New report pages
Ask your Data
In our latest reports version, you can now experience our new and fresh Q&A reports.
At these new report pages "Ask your Data", you have the opportunity to use natural language querying for retrieving quick insights from your data.
Dataset Items
Users are offered the convenience to explore directly and easily any report semantic model data objects within the report itself.
A new "Dataset Items" report page was added to all Analytics reports. Here, it is possible to search and explore the Tables and their Relationships, Measures and their respective DAX formulas present at any particular individual report.
New Report
Analytics Data Catalog
Following the previous "Dataset Items" vein of report discovery, LS Retail ehf. formally presents the new Analytics Data Catalog.
This new catalog offers a detailed inventory for all Analytics data assets and their lineage. This is a relevant addition and fundamental improvement in assisting data management, quality and governance.
You can find a short video tutorial for the Analytics Data Catalog report and others at the new YouTube Analytics for LS Central playlist.
Report Updates
Aggregated Inventory Analytics
Part of our report updates for this version, is the update made to the Inventory Analytics report to accommodate for the new LS Central module; the Aggregated Inventory.
A new filter was added to the existing report, that allows for store aggregated locations analysis.
The filter can be ignored, and has no effect, if you are not benefiting from the Aggregated Inventory module.
All reports
All references to Analytics$ control tables have been updated in all reports. This means that if you update Analytics to this latest versions but are using reports based on older report templates you will need to update the references to these tales in those reports.
This is a simple change that can be done manually by following these steps:
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Open Transform Data.
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Select the table that has warning from Information tables folder.
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In list of Applied steps on the right find the Navigation step.
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Change the value for the Item object in the code/formula bar from LSInsight... to Analytics...
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Once this is done the table should be populated with data.
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Click Close and Apply to apply the change.
Bug fixes
Data warehouse
Fixed bug where duplicate lines were created in Analytics$LSCentralColumnMetadata table if pipeline to populate table was run while stores were open and data was being written to LS Central. This duplication of data caused issues in other pipelines.
Hard Attributes added back to the item dimension procedures for versions 15 and newer. Dimension hierarchy rows also added for hospitality. The addition of these columns had been reverted by mistake.
Fixed join in factRetailSalesBudget stored procedure. Join now includes join to company, otherwise we get errors when multiple companies have same budget names.
Bug in DiningReservations fact table procedure caused duplicates. There were two separate problems that have now been fixed:
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For SaaS logic needed to be added so that there are no duplicate rows from the entry and archive tables because rows that are archived are not removed from the Entry tables during the replication process.
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For some reason there can be two separate receipts with different transaction status for a dining reservation. Added the status to the match clause in the merge statement.
Fixed issue in v15factKOTLines stored procedure. Because data is never deleted from pre-staging tables, used when loading data from LS Central SaaS to Analytics, we needed to add logic so that we don't get duplicate rows from the entry and archive tables after archiving.
The column [Next Display Station ID] in KDS Display Station table was replaced with [Next Display Stations IDs] which can contain multiple stations. The table structure is the same but now the field can contain multiple stations with "|" as a separator.
Reports
There are no new bug fixes to be communicated in this release.