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Release 26.3

Timextender Data Platform 26.3+Timextender Orchestration & Data Quality 26.3+

All 21 package types are now created and configured in TDP

Before 26.3, most package types could only be created in the Orchestration & Data Quality desktop client. From 26.3 every one of the 21 types has a full editor in the Timextender Data Platform web interface, and the New Package picker groups them by area so a type is findable without knowing its name.

Existing packages migrate and open unchanged. Nothing needs reconfiguring after upgrade.

See Packages in the Timextender Data Platform for the overview, or go straight to a type:

Timextender

  • Timextender Ingest — run a TDI ingest task
  • Timextender Prepare — run a TDI prepare execution package
  • Timextender Deliver — run a TDI deliver execution package
  • Timextender SaaS — run a job in Timextender Data Integration
  • Timextender Classic — run an execution package on a Classic repository
  • Jet Analytics — run a Jet Analytics execution package

Azure

  • Azure Data Factory — trigger a pipeline and wait for it to finish
  • Power BI Refresh — trigger a dataset refresh
  • Azure PowerShell — run a PowerShell (Az) script in an Azure context
  • Azure Function — invoke an HTTP-triggered function
  • Azure Synapse — trigger a pipeline in a Synapse workspace
  • Azure Databricks — run a job on a Databricks workspace
  • Microsoft Fabric Notebook — run a notebook in a Fabric workspace

Four package types manage cloud spend by sizing resources to what is needed:

  • Azure Virtual Machine Start/Stop
  • Azure SQL Database Scaling
  • Fabric Capacity Scaling
  • Fabric Capacity Pause/Resume

Data movement

  • Data Transfer — move and map data between a source and a destination

Scripts & commands

The New Package picker is organised by area

The picker groups the 21 types into Timextender, Azure, Data movement and Scripts & commands, with a count against each and a searchable list across all of them. Selecting a type shows what it does and, importantly, what it needs first — either a Requires line naming the connection, or a Runs on line saying where the work happens.

Package editors behave consistently

Field behaviour and wording were unified across every package editor, so a field that fetches its options from an external system looks and behaves the same whichever type you are editing: the same loading indicator, the same refresh button, and the same message when a list comes back empty.

Azure data provider problems now say what is actually wrong rather than blaming the client secret for every authentication failure.

Save tells you what is missing

The Save button shows a completion percentage until every required field is filled, and hovering it lists the specific fields still outstanding — rather than leaving you to hunt for the one that is red.

Global parameters move into TDP

Cloud customers now create, edit and delete global parameters in TDP under Settings → Global Parameters, including encrypted secrets. They used to be managed only in ODQ Desktop.

  • Parameters you already have in ODQ Desktop appear in TDP automatically at the upgrade, encrypted ones included. Nothing needs re-entering.
  • PowerShell script fields gain an {$} Insert Parameter picker, so a token no longer has to be copied by hand. Other command and script fields get the same button as they move to TDP.
  • Deleting or renaming a parameter now tells you, first, which packages, queries and datasets still use its token.
  • Opening the Global Parameter screen in ODQ Desktop directs cloud customers to TDP. On-premises customers are unaffected and continue to manage parameters in ODQ Desktop.

See Global parameters.

You choose when TDP upgrades

Cloud upgrades used to happen to you on Timextender's phased-rollout schedule, with no advance notice and no way to move the date except emailing support. From 26.3:

  • At least 7 days' notice before an upgrade Timextender schedules for you.
  • An Upgrade available banner in the sidebar lets an administrator take a new release immediately, or book it for any day up to 30 days out.
  • A scheduled upgrade can be postponed — capped at 30 days from the original date, so it cannot be deferred indefinitely.
  • Downtime is about 30 minutes. Running jobs finish first, queued jobs resume afterwards, and data, models and version history are preserved.

Gateways and ODQ Desktop are still upgraded by you, on your own machines.

See Upgrading TDP.

Schedules become a first-class object

Before 26.3 a schedule was only visible as a read-only dropdown on a dataset's properties. It now has its own page under Orchestration → Schedules, laid out like the Packages page.

  • Seven frequency types, from One-time through to SQL-defined, each with a plain-language summary generated from the configuration.
  • Daily, Weekly and Monthly now require a start date and time. Without one, a schedule used to run silently at midnight UTC, and "every N days" patterns began on an unpredictable day.
  • Weekdays start on Monday in every picker.
  • A one-time schedule now genuinely runs once instead of re-firing about once a minute.
  • Bulk enable and disable from the list, and Duplicate that no longer creates anything until you press Save.
  • The Add-task picker is grouped into Data Quality, Orchestration and Legacy, each category showing how many objects are still available to add.
  • Schedules can be run on demand from Orchestration → Executions, and appear only under the environment they execute in.

On cloud tenants, schedule groups are managed in TDP — ODQ Desktop redirects you, with a deep link that now opens the specific schedule rather than the list.

See The Schedules list and Creating a schedule.

Known limitations

Azure types that need a resource group require a service principal that can list resource groups. Subscription and resource-group fields are populated from Azure and are selection-only, so a service principal without permission to enumerate resource groups cannot complete an Azure PowerShell, Azure Synapse, Azure Databricks, or one of the four resource-sizing package. Grant the App Registration subscription-level Reader, or at minimum Microsoft.Resources/subscriptions/resourceGroups/read.

Power BI Refresh needs the service principal enabled in Power BI. The workspace list stays empty until the tenant setting Allow service principals to use Power BI APIs is on and the App Registration is a member of the workspace. See Create a Power BI Refresh package.

Microsoft Fabric Flow is not available. It exists in the codebase but is disabled in both TDP and the desktop client, so it does not appear in the picker.

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