Release Notes

2024 Data Services Change Log and Known Issues

2023 Change log is here.

Data Analytics Maintenance

Starting Sunday, December 18, 2022, and continuing each Sunday, Bitfocus engineers will perform maintenance on the Looker system from 6 AM - 7 AM PST (9 am - 10 am ET). To ensure the best performance possible for Looker, we are making necessary improvements to the infrastructure of the Clarity Looker configuration. The Looker application may be unavailable to customers during that period of time. Standalone, embedded, and API Looker functions may be unavailable for 1 hour. Looks and Dashboards scheduled for 6-7am Pacific Time on Sundays may not run and should be changed from this time. Please avoid scheduling any new looks or dashboards from 6 am - 7 am Pacific time on Sundays. No action from customers is required.


Known Issues

We use Looker as our analytics tool. There are some issues that are vendor specific issues and require support from Looker engineers. Our Data Services engineers work with Looker engineers for investigation, troubleshooting and fixes. 

Here is a list of the current known issues:  Known Looker Issues


Change Log

  • 7/24/2024
    • The "Previous Exit in Same Program" and "Previous Exit With Stable Housing in Same Program" date dimension groups from the "Inbound Recidivism" view have been updated to pull the previous exit date from each previous enrollment into the same program even if there exists other program enrollments with different project type between the program enrollment progression. The "Inbound Recidivism" view is used on "HMIS Performance" and "Population Over Time" models.
    • Persistence added to improve performance of “Outbound Recidivism Reentry” fields that do not utilize the Project Type filter in the HMIS Performance model.
    • The dimension "Assigned Staff Home Agency" has been hidden from the "Project Descriptor Model". If this dimension was used in any user content, the content will continue to work. However, this dimension can no longer be used in the "Project Descriptor Model" in new content. In the "Project Descriptor Model", “Assigned Staff Home Agency’ contained the same information as the "Agency Name" field.
    • In the “Project Descriptor” model, updated the relationship for the Agency Site, Funding Source Services, Referral Community Queue, Referral Settings, Sharing Group Agency and Vendor views, to ensure the agency count measure produces accurate results.
    • Optimized the Filter Suggestion query for the Service Category field in the “Client”, “Coordinated Entry”, “Data Quality”, “HMIS Performance”, “Project Descriptor”, “Reservations”, and “Services” models.
    • Updated calculations for System Performance Measure 1b in the "HMIS Performance" Model so that all relevant dates are included in the calculation.
  •  7/17/2024
    • Optimized the Filter Suggestion query for the Service Category field.
    • Removed deleted enrollments from calculations underlying "Head Of Household Start Date" and "Targeted Annual Assessment" fields in the "DQ Annual Assessments" view of the Data Quality model.

  • 6/26/2024
    • The Utilization Looks on the “LSA Data Cleanup: Length of Stay and Utilization Overview” LookML dashboard had their program universe updated to include “Active, Expired” programs.

    • The client universe for the “Clients/Enrollments Active in Data Quality Reporting Universe” Look on the “HMIS Data Quality Supplemental Dashboard” was updated to reorganize the project type logic in the custom filter.

    • The Project Descriptor Model has been updated to fix an issue between the 'Agencies' view and the 'Staff' view, which caused duplicative counts in the 'Agency Count' measure. This change only impacts the Project Descriptor Model.

    • An update to System Performance Measure 1b Measures in the HMIS Performance Model in was made so that clients who had a Permanent Housing enrollment with a program start date prior to the reporting period start date, no housing move-in date, and a program end date after the reporting period end date are no longer included in the report calculations.

    • Corrected logic and error label which inaccurately returned a DQ error for the "Private Disability Insurance Errors" field when "Private Disability Insurance" was not selected and no PDI amount was claimed. Description now indicates "*No* Private Disability Insurance Income reported but Private Disability Insurance Income amount is greater than 0.

  •  6/12/2024
    • Updates were made to the "Enrollment Household" Filter only Field to improve query performance. This field is used in the Client Model, HMIS Performance Model, and Coordinated Entry Model

    • Some aliased dimensions caused issues for some users when their aliases are used in custom dimensions and measures. This has been detected in the Program Performance dashboard, specifically on the UDE Completion tile. To fix this unusual behavior, the `client_location_error` alias has been replaced by `enrollment_coc_error` measure for the "DQ UDE - None Enrollments Count" custom measure.

    • The “Enrollment Connected Assessments” filter-only field in the HMIS Performance model was updated so that when the filter is active, only assessments linked to the enrollment in the “Enrollments” view are included in the "Client Assessments" view. 

  •  6/5/2024
    • Changes were made to the "Error In Project Descriptor Count" measure in the "DQ Project Descriptor" view of the Data Quality model. The count for the "Project Description Contains Error" dimension incorrectly reported "No" as an error. The count measure now shows a 0 when the dimension's value is "No".
  •  5/22/2024
    • Changes to the Inventory dashboard to account for pending unit occupancy are now live. See release notes: https://help.bitfocus.com/data-analysis-release-notes-5/20/2024

    • The join strategy of the views that involve the relationships between assessments and enrollments has been refactored for the HMIS Performance model to match the Coordinated Entry model.

    • In the Outreach V2 Model, improvements have been made to the way "Geolocation History" and "Encampment Stay" information are brought in to avoid missing records.

    • The "Is Last Update Assessment per Enrollment (Filter Dependent)" dimension in the "Status Update Screen" view of the "HMIS Performance" model has been updated to appropriately determine the most recently updated assessment.

    • In the Data Quality Model, refactored the "Number of Data Collection Assessments" field in the Data Quality model so it reports the number of Assessments rather than Enrollments when Aggregate fields were also included in the query.

  •  5/8/2024
    • The Program Performance LookML dashboard was updated so that deleted bed inventories were excluded from the utilization Looks.

  •  5/1/2024
    • In the "DQ Project Descriptor" view of the Data Quality model, the "Residential Affiliation Error" field has been updated to reflect the appropriate logic for valid and invalid Residential Affiliation values.
    • Some fields in the Data Quality model that were meant to apply to only HOPWA Homelessness prevention projects had been counted for all Homelessness Prevention Projects. They now count the errors for only HOPWA Homelessness Prevention projects. The fields impacted are:
      • Housing Assessment at Exit: Subsidy information Error
      • Housing Assessment at Exit: Ongoing Subsidy information Error
      • Housing Assessment at Exit: Able to Maintain Housing at Project Entry Error
      • Housing Assessment at Exit: Entry Error Count
      • Housing Assessment at Exit: Entry Subsidy Information Error Count
      • Housing Assessment at Exit: Entry Subsidy Information Ongoing Error Count
    • The fields 'Housing Assessment at Exit: Subsidy information Error' and 'Housing Assessment at Exit Entry Subsidy Information Error Count' have been updated to ensure the error only applies if 'Housing Assessment at Exit' is equal to 'Able to maintain the housing they had at project entry'.
    • The fields 'Housing Assessment at Exit: Ongoing Subsidy information Error' and 'Housing Assessment at Exit Entry Subsidy Information Ongoing Error Count' have been updated to ensure the error only applies if 'Housing Assessment at Exit' is equal to 'Moved to new housing unit'.
    • In the "DQ Project Descriptor" view of the Data Quality model, the "Residential Affiliation Error" field has been updated to reflect the appropriate logic for valid and invalid Residential Affiliation values.
  •  4/3/2024
    • In the Inventory model, the fields 'Current Status End' in the 'Unit Availability Status' view, as well as 'Status Start' and 'Status End' in the 'Unit Status' view have been updated to remove a 'datatype' setting which limited to object type to a 'date', and removed the timestamp value. With this setting removed, these fields will now properly include the date and timestamp as recorded in the database.
    • In the Data Quality model, Refactored "DQ Client Program Specific" > "Income Errors" fields to ignore the status of "Income from Any Source" as this was failing to return valid errors when "Income from Any Source" and to address unresolvable conditions. Corrected language in the "DQ Client Program Specific" > "Income Errors" fields values. (Ex: "TANF Income reported but TANF Income amount is greater than 0." to "No TANF Income reported...") Corrected the "Income from Any Source Error" description.
  • 03/21/2024
    • The field 'Is Current Unit Status' in the 'Unit Status' view has been updated to compare the units 'Status Start Date' and 'Status End Date', as recorded in Clarity to the current date and time as of the Looker report run time. Previously the field only compared the status start and end dates to the current date, without using a timestamp. This change will impact the Inventory and Project Descriptor models. This will not require any updates to content.
    • Refactored the table behind the  "Age of Youngest/Oldest HH Member", "Count Adults", and "Count Children" fields to exclude deleted clients in the "Profile Household" view. Affected models: Client Model, Coordinated Entry, HMIS Performance, Services.
  • 03/12/2024 - Fixed a bug in the import_logs view in the Import Model
  • 03/10/2024 - Looker A and B have been upgraded to 24.0.
  •  03/06/2024
    • The "Annual Enrollment Counts" Look on Program Performance LookML dashboard was not accurately calculating the prior year's enrollment totals due to how the custom logic was configured. The Look was updated for accuracy.
    • In the Inventory and Project Descriptor Models, the "Is Current Unit Status" field was refactored to account for future-dated Status Start Dates (Current Status = "No"),  and the description has been updated.
    • Custom Fields in Looker
      • Custom multiselect fields are now available in custom field views in looker. Each selected option is returned, separated by a semicolon. If a user selects "Dog" and "Cat" in a multiselect field with each of those options, the field will return "Dog; Cat". 
      • Updates were made to the Encampment Custom view to account for changes in the database schema. 
    • Updated settings to disable In-App guides.
  •  02/26/2024
    • Updated the Static Demographic Custom view label to Clients Custom View for consistency across models.
    • Updated the client_assessment_custom join in the services model to fix a bug.
  •  02/06/2024
    • The count near the bottom of the Data Quality LookML dashboard for "Deceased and Active Count" was updated to fix an issue.
  •  01/24/2024
    • Fixed a bug where the "Last Assigned to the Queue", "Last Denied", "Last in Process", "Last Program Referral", and"Last Reassigned"  dimensions in the Referral History view in the CE model were returning the incorrect dates.
    • "LSA Data Cleanup: Funding Source and Configuration Issues" dashboard was updated to resolve a bug. Both the "C vii) Changes in Bed Inventories Over the Analysis Year" and "C viii) Bed Inventories with Beds but No Units" Looks were updated so that deleted bed inventories were no longer included.
    • "LSA Data Cleanup: Overlapping Enrollment LookML dashboard was updated.
      • On the Entry/Exit Look, swapped out assigned staff dimensions for aggregate list measures to eliminate fanout for enrollments with multiple assigned staff.
      • Also made the Overlapping Enrollment CoC an aggregate list to eliminate additional fanout and added an overlapping Enrollment CoC dashboard filter.
      • Updated the list of program names column name on the NBN Look to “Programs with a Bed Night.” 
  •  01/10/2024
    • Updated the client service notes field to use a Regular expression instead of a function, to be more performant.