3.8.3 - Release Notes#

Squirro 3.8.3 was released July 24, 2023.

Reference: Learn more about the Squirro Release Process.

What’s New#

  • Introduced the beta feature Hybrid Search, which retrieves results based on semantic/vector processes and keywords. This feature was created by adding the scoring profile semantic, allowing users to perform approximate vector searches on paragraph embeddings. Note that this feature is currently in beta, and the pipelet and the semantic search components only work if a separate model is available (which is not the case for current Squirro out-of-the-box deployments). For more information, see Scoring Plugins.

  • Added the scoring profile extractive-qa. This highlights the answer to a query within the top-ranked paragraphs.

  • Added the scoring profile cross-encoder. This allows for top-N paragraph reranking based on contextualized similarity of query and paragraph.

  • PDF inline search, which appears within the item detail screen, now uses the same query processing as global search. This significantly improves search quality inside the item detail scren and allows for future improvements on the backend.

  • Added query to community subscriptions collection, allowing for community subscription filtering via query. This is currently available in the Items Table widget.

  • Admins can now access query-processing results in dashboard query templates using the queryContext variable.

  • Introduced a new pipeline step called Archive Extraction that extracts archive files. At the moment only ZIP files are supported. Each file in the archive becomes an individual item, and the archive itself is removed.

  • Created a new index manager service for Elasticsearch maintenance.

Improvements#

  • If pasting text into the global search bar is long enough to trigger concept search, Squirro will check now check for filters. If there are more than two found then concept search is not triggered and the search string is treated as a complex query.

  • ItemDetail will now include additional widget queries from ItemsWidget and use it for highlights.

  • Added query_template_clause, also known as ACL handling, to the entities query endpoint.

  • The QA widget configuration within project configuration is now displayed in a user-friendly way.

  • Reset SELinux content from unconfined_u to system_u for the /var/{lib,log,run}/redis folders.

  • The connectors for Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive have been moved from the Enterprise tab to the Web tab for better discoverability.

  • Added special facets to the Items Table widget

  • It is now possible to hide the sort options from Items widget.

Bug Fixes#

  • Fixed an issue with CommunitiesList widget not reacting to global search being cleared.

  • Fixed missing body content in document bulk labelling within AI Studio.

  • Fixed an issue with the Timeline widget not displaying on the Explore dashboard.

  • Fixed several issues relating to how multiple Items widgets interact on the same dashboard.

  • Fixed an issue that occurred when, in some cases, Item detail opened multiple times when multiple Items widgets were present in a dashboard.

  • Fixed ItemsWidget infinite loading loop if the widget had an additional query in the configuration.

  • Fixed an issue with missing global search queries in the requests from the Labels widget.

  • Fixed an issue with original global search queries in query visibility conditions.

Breaking Changes#

  • The perform_on_languages option in the QA widget configuration no longer supports the None value. To find an answer regardless of the language of the question, set this option to *.

  • The terminate_after option in the content typeahead configuration no longer supports boolean values. To stop query execution from terminating early, set this option to 0.

Installation and Upgrade#

For new installations, find step-by-step instructions in Install and Manage Squirro with Ansible (recommended) or Installing Squirro on Linux.

To upgrade an existing installation, see Upgrading Squirro.