July 24, 2023

Published

July 24, 2023

This release improves the developer experience within the ValidMind Library and introduces an updated notebook to demonstrate support for NLP models, now using CatBoost for greater performance.

Moreover, we've upgraded our platform with several major new features, including an all-new text editor, the capability to insert new content blocks into model documentation, template swapping for keeping your model documentation current, and much more.

Release highlights

ValidMind Library (v1.16.0)

Updated notebook for NLP use case

Now with enhanced performance by using CatBoost compared to the original PyTorch-based notebook, this updated notebook showcases natural language processing (NLP) data analysis and text classification using the ValidMind Library with emphasis on the in-depth analysis and preprocessing of COVID-19 tweets.

Improved developer experience when you encounter error conditions

  • Unhandled errors now return an error code with a more descriptive message that can help you with looking them up in the troubleshooting section of our documentation.
  • We also improved error handling when tests fail to run and the test results summary widget now display error information for each test that fails to run.

ValidMind Platform (v1.4.1)

New full-featured text editor

When collaborating on model documentation in the platform with others, you now have a new text editor at your disposal.

Collaborate with others

  • The interface should be intuitive and familiar, allowing you to manage model documentation and validation reports with greater ease.
  • In addition to the new editing features, you can use the editor to participate in comment threads, track changes, see the revision history, enter math formulas, and more.

Add new content blocks to model documentation

You can now add new sections to existing model documentation, providing additional space for text and test results — simply by hovering over the dashed line between sections.

Work with content blocks

Supported content block types:

  • Simple text block: Can be added anywhere on model documentation pages and edited to include additional documentation in text format.
  • Test-driven block: Can be added to display one of the supported test results collected by the library.

Swap templates for model documentation

We've now enhanced the flexibility of documenting models by allowing you to swap documentation templates.

Manage document templates

  • Seamlessly update existing model documentation by either switching to an entirely different template or by simply upgrading to a more recent version of the template currently in use.
  • The ability to swap templates ensures that your model documentation remains up-to-date and aligns with your latest preferred template without the need to start from scratch.

ValidMind Platform enhancements

  • Renamed Client Integration page to Getting Started. To better reflect when you use the credentials to generate model documentation with the ValidMind Library, we have renamed the Client Integration page to Getting Started.
  • Improved activity widget. We enhanced the user interface with new tabs, enabling you to filter events based on activity type.
  • Improved Findings section and Findings Details page. We made enhancements to the ValidMind Platform for both model findings and the findings details sections for a better look and feel.
  • Refined Models and Projects lists. We refined the user interface, featuring more intuitive default sorting and more user-friendly filtering.

Install and initialize the ValidMind Library

Working with model findings

View model activity

Working with the model inventory

Documentation

Code samples

To make it easier to try out our Jupyter Notebooks, we now provide a download button for all notebooks used in our documentation:

Download Jupyter Notebooks

This download includes:

  • Quickstart notebooks
  • Use case notebooks
  • Testing notebooks

How to upgrade

ValidMind Platform

To access the latest version of the ValidMind Platform,1 hard refresh your browser tab:

  • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + R OR Ctrl + F5
  • MacOS: ⌘ Cmd + Shift + R OR hold down ⌘ Cmd and click the Reload button

ValidMind Library

To upgrade the ValidMind Library:2

  1. In your Jupyter Notebook:

    • Using JupyterHub: Hard refresh your browser tab.
    • In your own developer environment: Restart your notebook.

  2. Then within a code cell or your terminal, run:

    %pip install --upgrade validmind

You may need to restart your kernel after running the upgrade package for changes to be applied.