Planned deprecations - June 2022
We are planning to deprecate the following product features, in order to continuously streamline and simplify our user experience, and because these are either no longer used, or have been replaced by other functionality.
Prediction models - "exclude companies" field
Planned removal date: July 2022
Today, when you configure a model's target companies/entities with a tag, a new field pops up allowing you to selectively exclude companies from the model (see screenshot below). This was originally added to allow users to re-use the same tag but selectively remove 1 or 2 companies for specific model runs. We are planning to remove this functionality as it has not been used widely, and in our opinion today adds more confusion vs the marginal benefits it brings.
In its place, we are making improvements to the tag editing interface to make it easier to add & remove companies / entities.
After the removal date, existing models that are configured with excluded companies will still work as before, but new models will no longer allow this field to be configured.
Library - editing of uploaded signals' data points
Planned removal date: July 2022
Today, when you import raw data signals by uploading Excel files in the Exabel app, the uploaded signals' data points may be edited by finding the signal in the Library and clicking "Edit". We are planning to remove this functionality as it has not been widely used, and also does not scale well to larger signals with hundreds/thousands of entities.
After the removal date, old uploaded signals will still work as before, but you will no longer be able to edit individual data points from the Library.
Additionally, we are planning to migrate the File Uploader to use our Data API for processing uploaded files. This migration also means that we will not be able to support editing data points of uploaded signals. We will be publishing a separate post summarizing these planned changes shortly.
Background on the File Uploader & its planned migration
The File Uploader currently processes and stores raw data signals in a different manner to those imported via the Data API or Exabel SDK. We are looking to harmonize all imported signals to use the Data API. This will provide several benefits, such as full point-in-time support for uploaded signals, and support for importing raw data signals on non-company entities.
DSL - legacy forecasting functions
Planned deprecation date: July 2022 (functions will work as before, but with warnings when evaluated in Signal Explorer)
Planned removal date: December 2022 (functions will stop working)
With the DSL improvements for univariate forecasting, we are planning to deprecate these DSL functions:
prophet()unobserved_signal()forecast_extension()
These are now superseded by the forecast() function that supports the legacy functionality and more, in a cleaner interface.
During the deprecation period of 6 months (July-December 2022), warnings will be issued when plotting / evaluating any derived signals using these functions in Signal Explorer. After the removal date, derived signals using these functions will fail to evaluate.