Orbit release notes 2024

Our Orbit development team works using fortnightly sprints. This helps us get the newest features to you as soon as they are ready.

22 April 2024

Version 1.16.2

Headline feature

Enhanced dashboard tile notes

We’ve dramatically enhanced dashboard tile notes with the introduction of our new rich text notes editor, available on all dashboard tiles under the tile options menu. With this enhancement, you can now add text or images directly into our notes editor, then easily edit and apply html formatting to really tailor your desired tile note content.

The editor adds the following text options:

  • Bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough text formatting

  • Left, right, centre, and justified text alignment

  • Adding, editing, and resizing of images (either via embedded paths or URLs)

Text tiles work as before, in that they fill the whole tile and scroll if there is an overflow. However, scrolling is no longer available in edit mode, and text tiles cannot position text to the top, right, bottom, or left, the text always fills the whole tile.

Note: For security reasons there are limitations on the HTML you can use. Therefore, the notes editor does not allow the introduction of any malicious code.

See Tile options.

New features and improvements

Campaigns

Viewing audience details in campaign journeys

Improve your campaign targeting precision with the new audience selection preview and review feature. Before launching a campaign, quickly validate the audience criteria aligns with your campaign objectives, all from the journey builder.

This feature simplifies campaign management, enabling you to:

  • Check audience qualifications before deployment

  • Ensure target audience alignment with campaign objectives

  • Review audience logic for active campaigns

  • Enhance efficiency and save time in campaign workflows

With this audience selection preview feature, you can launch campaigns confidently, knowing that your messages reach their intended recipients.

See Viewing audience details.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

  • We've updated dialog message backgrounds to appear as blurred, placing extra emphasis on the dialog message content.

  • Number cards can now display cost variables as currency region, for example selecting EN-AU, which then displays in Australian dollars.

  • Dashboards created in one region, then viewed in another, no longer fail/generate an error message.

08 April 2024

Version 1.16.1

Bug fix

  • We've found and fixed an issue preventing percentages from being displayed correctly on charts.

04 April 2024

Version 1.16.0

Headline feature

Orbit connect

We’re excited to announce the release of our powerful new Orbit connect feature, a major milestone in our Apteco software end-to-end solution. Orbit connect gives you the ability to upload, define, build, and access your resulting system in Orbit, hosted in the Apteco Cloud platform.

  • Upload your data directly to Orbit and view the status of any previous or in-progress imports

  • Define how the data you have imported should be represented within Orbit

  • Build your systems, specifying the tables included and relationships between them before manually deploying

  • Access the full power of Orbit’s end-to-end Dashboard, Audience, and Campaign functionality to get the most of your data

Simple to set up and easy to deploy, Orbit connect is the first step in accessing the full potential of your data with Apteco Orbit software. Begin by conveniently uploading your Apteco dataset through our flexible new web browser interface. This interface allows you to accomplish all of your work exclusively via our web platform, reducing your training needs, simplifying your experience, and fully realising the potential of your data in our Orbit end-to-end software solution.

For more information, see Orbit connect.

Note: Orbit connect is currently only available via Apteco Cloud.

New features and improvements

Dashboards

Reordering tabs

You can now reorder multiple tabs in dashboards and audiences to organise your data in a single view via the dashboard ellipsis option menu.

Multiple tabs allow you to display different tools and datasets. Reorder these tabs to a more logical order whenever necessary with a simple drag and drop interface. You can then save your new tab order or cancel and revert back to your previous tab order.

For more information, see Reordering tabs.

 

Dashboard tiles information message redesign

We've redesigned the information messages on dashboard tiles. An icon now appears when you exclude a tile from filters or add a drilldown, displaying the relevant information in a tooltip.

Information message icons are now displayed for the following criteria:

  • Excluding an item from user filters

  • Making an item unselectable

  • Adding a drilldown to an item

  • If the item is a pareto chart

Campaigns

Form builder

In Orbit you can now create forms, confirmation emails/pages, and then embed these assets into a client web page from your existing contacts for use in campaigning.

For more information, see Form builder.

Note: This feature is only available to Apteco email users.

General

Permissions

Permissions are now available for system administrators to control which parts of an Apteco software installation a given profile can access. This allows you to effectively manage user access and interaction with our powerful features and functionality.

Permissions allow system admins to grant or restrict access for the User, Group, and System profiles. To enable Permissions, please contact support@apteco.com and speak to our Technical Services team.

For more information, see Permissions.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

  • We've updated pie and donut charts to display values beginning from '12 o'clock', rather than beginning from '3 o'clock'.

  • Measures using currency variables with a Populated or Count Distinct function now display in general format, rather than as currencies.

20 March 2024

Version 1.15.2

Headline feature

Multi-stage campaigns

Apteco Orbit offers multi-stage campaigning, enabling you to expand a single-stage campaign flow to accommodate your recipients' interactions with previous communications. Utilise your data to create rules for moving recipients through a campaign using the new Audience Splits.

Orbit campaigns have evolved far beyond just a single message. Map out the entire customer journey - plan your conversation points and customise your communication based on their interactions with you or if they've reached a specific turning point in your data.

Visualise your sequence of journey steps in a clear, structured tree diagram for easier campaign management. After mapping your journey steps, schedule the campaign and get ready to engage with your customers in a relevant, timely, and creative way.

Key multi-stage features include:

  • Time Delays: Optimise campaign timing with strategically placed pauses between journey stages.

  • Audience Splits: Segment your audience and guide each group down unique campaign paths.

  • Interaction Splits: Adapt campaigns based on recipient responses, ensuring relevance and impact.

Additionally, our new notification centre offers guidance throughout your campaign creation process with a useful journey to-do list.

Note: Ensure that your licensing bundle is Campaigner or higher to access multi-stage campaigning features.

For more information, see Multi-stage campaigns.

New features and improvements

Dashboards

  • You now have a 'reset filters' option in the main dashboard ellipsis menu, making resetting filters much more convenient.

  • Predefined filter icons on dashboards have a new improved design, reducing confusion caused by the previous 'bin' icon.

  • We've improved number cards in dashboards with currency type selection, allowing dashboard designers to specify any global currency in settings independently of user locale. This only applies to numerical variables, calculated measures, and expressions.

  • You can now easily delete your current dashboard from the 'My Dashboards' dialogue.

  • We've enhanced the performance of tabbed dashboards. Notable improvements include the copying of preview results when duplicating tabs and tiles, as well as optimisation to prevent Pareto recalculation upon user or predefined filter changes.

Campaigns

  • Apteco email users can now access additional navigation options in the image gallery, making image deletion much easier. This update provides a central location in Orbit for managing images across all your templates, enhancing user experience and workflow.

    For more information, see Image gallery.

    Note: This feature is only available to Apteco email users.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

  • Clustered line charts no longer misdraw lines when encountering divide by zero.

  • We've made an improvement to dashboard tile spacing, allowing for easier resizing.

  • Decimal values now correctly use locale separator in audience/dashboard filter chips.

  • Editing a single dashboard tile no longer causes all other dashboard tiles to redraw or create a flicker effect.

  • We've fixed a truncation issue with the Pareto filter badge in dashboards.

Audiences

  • Columns no longer overflow when adding numerous variables in the export solution dialogue.

  • We've fixed an issue in audience workbooks where the auto-generated message incorrectly appeared for manual creation. Now, the message only displays for auto-generated checks as intended.

  • Orbit is now more efficient when saving look-alikes, preventing redundant recalculations upon redirection to the Audience tab.

  • You now have a feedback mechanism for audience saving. The button now displays a 'pending' state and loader dots, ensuring users are informed during the saving process.

  • We've fixed an issue where changing the display style on an audience cube did not save.

  • We've resolved an issue with numeric bands where international separator weren't respected in generating bands. Now, the UI correctly displays the international separator, ensuring consistency in the cube display.

06 March 2024

1.15.1

Headline feature

Meta Ads and WhatsApp messaging in Orbit campaigns

We’ve introduced two powerful new integrations in Orbit campaigns to enable messaging with WhatsApp and adverts through a Meta Ads account. These different techniques enable you to leverage the world's most popular messaging platform, WhatsApp, for known recipients and to harness the advertising potential of Meta Ads, on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger using first party data for acquisition and retention strategies in your Orbit campaigns.

Maximise the potential of your first party data using Meta Ads in your marketing strategy.

  • Drive your social ads: Use the power of your Meta Ad account to place adverts on Facebook, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. Manage different ad formats in your Meta Ad account and then drive the audiences for those ads from Orbit campaigns.

  • Enhanced communication reach: Expand your acquisition campaign reach on Meta’s platforms using your target audience or Meta look-alikes to your target audience, or both. To avoid look-alike ad spend on known customers etc. you can upload multiple Customer Exclusions Lists as part of the campaign delivery step.

  • Maintain social audiences: Use the power of Apteco first party data segmentation, targeting and look-alikes to create custom audiences for your AdTech colleagues. A simple, daily scheduled campaign can maintain audiences on Meta for your AdTech and social colleagues to use for ad-hoc activity. Simply define an ‘Upload only’ rather than ‘Upload and Advertise’ channel in the Orbit campaigning channel editor and put the power of your first party data to work.

Get messaging with our WhatsApp direct integration.

  • Direct Integration: We previously re-worked our WhatsApp integration to operate directly with the messaging platform rather than through an intermediary. Now we bring this messaging capability to Orbit campaigns.

  • Versatile messaging: Craft engaging messages using WhatsApp's rich multimedia capabilities with text, images and call-to-action button capabilities.

  • Tailored engagement: Personalise messages based on recipient data to drive higher levels of engagement and conversion.

  • Opt-out management: Easily manage opt-out preferences for WhatsApp messages to ensure compliance and respect user preferences.

For more information, see WhatsApp and Meta Ads.

Note: These features require a FastStats Service version of Q3 2023 or later.

New features and improvements

Campaigns

  • Orbit social campaigning features can now be accessed by all Broadcaster and above Campaign licensed users, rather than just Orchestrator.

Audiences

  • You now have the ability to edit the 'Check My Results Solution' in an audience workbook by adding and removing variables.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

  • We’ve resolved a dashboard issue causing endless data requests until a filter was manually applied.

  • We've fixed an issue where datagrids didn't display results until a filter was applied.

  • We've fixed an issue causing the compression of non standard font German characters when exported to PDF.

  • We've resolved data label inaccuracies in Orbit when 'show as percentage' is applied. The option to activate 'show in percent' in data labelling is now restricted if set in the tile editor.

  • An incorrect dotted border no longer appears on a selector picklist when clicking just to the left of the checkbox column.

  • Cubes with 'day' banded dimensions no longer cause Orbit to crash and now perform as expected.

  • On a dashboard dynamic date range, options selected via the date dialog no longer disappear when selected.

  • An error is no longer generated when resizing an edited dashboard tile.

  • After adding tiles to the bottom of a dashboard tab, the dashboard tab no longer auto scrolls back to the top.

  • When duplicating a dashboard tab with a text tile, an error message is no longer generated.

  • We've adjusted tabbed dashboard user role requirements, with a dashboard role now required rather than an audience role.

Audiences

  • The correct background colour now displays when hovering over an item tab in an audience workbook.

General

  • Addressed an issue where the sharing dialog search placeholder turned red when a user/group was added.

22 February 2024

1.15.0

Headline feature

Tabbed dashboards

We’re excited to announce that ‘tabbed dashboards’ are now available in Orbit. Tabbed dashboards allow you to split a dashboard into multiple ‘tabs’, greatly increasing your data analysis capacity from a single dashboard. Previously, you were restricted to a dashboard with a fifteen tile limit. Now you can distribute your data across multiple tabs, with each tab displaying up to fifteen tiles.

You can add new, duplicate, rename, edit, and delete these tabs as needed, providing you with a high degree of customisation. In addition, any dashboard filters that you select are applied across all tabs, streamlining your data analysis user experience with intuitively applied filters.

See Tabbed dashboards.

New features and improvements

Campaigns

  • Unsubscribe link validation

    Apteco email offers two types of template, Marketing and Transactional:

    • Marketing templates have an unsubscribe link as default which you can’t remove

    • Unsubscribe links in Transactional templates are optional

    When using a transactional template without an unsubscribe link, you’ll receive a corresponding warning message. However, you can choose to disregard this warning message and continue to publish the campaign.

    Note: If you’re using a promotional sub account, then you can use both template types.

    See Unsubscribe link validation.

  • Personalisation splits

    The Orbit journey builder now offers you the ability to add personalisation splits to your campaigns. You can define splits via the personalisation section of the journey builder, using either percentage allocation or audience criteria.

    See Personalisation splits.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

  • Category colours can now be applied to stacked bar and column charts, improving the visual display customisation options for your data.

  • We've fixed an issue causing calculated measures with a divided measure to fail when including 'unidentified' updated data.

  • We've fixed an error occurring when adding tiles with the 'Only show results when a user filter is applied' option selected.

06 February 2024

1.14.6

Headline feature

Look-alike analytics

Unlock deeper insights into your customers with new look-alike analytics. Using predictive modelling, you can now identify prospects who closely resemble your best customers. You can then apply further analysis using the look-alikes model in Apteco Orbit. This provides enhanced insights for data-driven decisions regarding the size and composition of your target audience.

You can use model score variable dimensions on cubes or model score columns on a data grid to maximise the effectiveness of your look-alike analysis and insights.

See Look-alike analytics.

Note: This feature requires a FastStats Service version of Q4 2023 or later.

New features and improvements

Dashboards

  • We've added a setting allowing you to hide all data grids records/results when a filter is not applied.

Audiences

  • You can now create a new audience directly from a selection of one or more cells within a workbook cube. This new feature makes the audience creation process more accessible on the fly via full screen cubes.

    See New audience from a cube.

  • We’ve introduced the following cube functionality to improve statistical analysis in audience workbooks:

    • Row and Column Percentages: These new insights provide deeper statistical analysis and reporting opportunities within workbook cubes.

    • Introduction of Index in 2D Cubes: Index in 2D cubes is a new statistic reflecting the ratio between row and column totals. This allows you to gauge over-representation or under-representation within your datasets. An Index above 100 indicates over-representation, while below 100 indicates under-representation.

    Note: Only available on full-screen cubes within audiences.

    See Additional cube statistics.

Campaigns

  • You can now quick save campaign journeys in the journey builder with the CTRL + S keyboard shortcut, making campaign management more efficient.

  • We’ve refined the list of journey warnings/notifications in the journey builder to better reflect the actions you can take, making the process more efficient and user-centric.

General

  • You can now easily add, edit, and delete custom numeric bands in cubes and filters through a user-friendly interface in dashboards and audiences. This streamlines the process of segmenting numeric values into meaningful ranges without complex calculations for dimensions and filters.

    See Adding, editing, and deleting custom numeric bands.

  • We've reworked the Orbit input text to align with our Orbit design principles.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

  • Fixed an issue causing the addition of multiple custom banding to generate multiple ‘stay and saves’.

  • 'No results' is no longer displayed when attempting to find look-alikes of a look-alikes audience. Instead, a message is now displayed when attempting to create a look-alikes solution on a 'New Item' page, or analysing dimensions on a look-alikes page.

Audiences

  • You must now choose a limit type before you can apply audience limits. This structured audience creation flow ensures that you can produce valid results.

  • We’ve disabled the ability to change the audience resolve table when limits are applied, with an improved explanation of why this change is invalid.

Campaigns

  • Fixed an issue preventing you from setting the schedule via journey warnings.

General

  • Factory default Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Single Sign-On (SSO) keys are now long enough to successfully create the JSON Web Token (JWT) required to perform a SAML SSO login.

25 January 2024

1.14.5

Headline feature

Administrator defined time window for Orbit updates

Administrators can now define a time window for the Orbit Updater to check for and apply updates. This means that you can set the Orbit updater to run overnight, freeing you up to work with updated Orbit features and enhancements during your day!

Previously, the Orbit updater periodically checked and then immediately applied Orbit updates if they were available. This enhancement ensures that users are guaranteed uninterrupted access to Orbit outside of their specified time window.

See Orbit updater configurator, Advanced settings.

New features and improvements

Dashboards

  • You can now display up to two dimensions per axis in Audience full screen cubes, i.e. that is two rows and two columns, equalling up to four total dimensions.

Campaigns

  • We've added a Webhook endpoint to Apteco responses. This endpoint can take a valid push, write content to a Webhook table in the RS database, and return a 200 response.

Configuration

  • The Orbit updater now runs successfully when configurator utilities are open. Previously, the Orbit updater would abort if used when other configurator were utilities open.

General

  • Orbit now supports all the latest expression features added in the Apteco Software Q4 2023 release. Orbit also now checks to make sure that your expression is compatible with the version of the FastStats service that you're using.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

  • Decimal places are now consistently respected in cube expression measures on a dashboard when the cube totals setting is turned off.

Audiences

  • Users can now successfully delete an audience reference chip in Orbit without encountering an error.

General

  • Users can now get the list of dataviews available to log in to Orbit without encountering errors when entering a .com email domain.

10 January 2024

1.14.3

Headline feature

Personalisation validation using Apteco email in Orbit campaigns

We have a notable improvement for users of the new Apteco email mechanism. With the desired Apteco email template selected for use as your campaign message, Orbit now validates the content fields required to fulfil all personalisation within the email. This includes any contact property and data requirements set up as dynamic or conditional fields.

To streamline the Apteco email process, you can now choose to let Orbit set up your required content fields automatically. Enabling this option prompts Orbit to add a text content field as a placeholder. You can then easily customise this field to meet your specific requirements. After adding content fields to the campaign journey, any validation warnings disappear.

Through the validation and automatic generation of content fields, the Apteco campaign system effectively mitigates the risk of overlooking essential data fields specified by the template. This proactive approach minimises the potential for incomplete or missing information, ensuring a robust and error-free campaigning experience.

See Personalisation validation.

New features and improvements

Dashboards

  • You now have greater control over your data visualisations with our latest sorting functionality for pie and donut charts, allowing you to establish a default order in the editing panel and dynamically modify it in view mode.

Campaigns

  • The content configuration process in the journey builder is now more user-friendly with the removal of the Field Value input from the Add Content Field dialog, allowing you to streamline your tasks.

  • Users now benefit from a unified, native language experience as the Apteco email builder aligns with the chosen language across Orbit, ensuring consistency and ease of use.

General

  • We have improved the Orbit user experience with updated input fields, aligning more closely with the Orbit design principles.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

  • Fixed a dashboard error occurring when changing the level of a selection file. This previously caused dashboard tiles using the selection as a filter to remain in perpetual loading state until the filter was removed and then re-applied. This applies to dashboard filters, tile filters and user filters.

  • Fixed an issue causing missing values on a cube to display as ‘MISSING TRANSLATION’. This issue occurred when creating a cube via audience workbooks, adding a numeric variable, and providing a missing values symbol.

  • When you receive a shared dashboard, duplicate a tile, and edit the shared dashboard, the duplicated tile is now displayed as expected.

General

  • Orbit systems that use SSO and only have one data view enabled no longer crash upon log-in for a user with a manually expired password.