Workspaces and Notebooks: How to Share and Collaborate Effectively

Syntasa provides a robust, enterprise-ready environment for data science and data engineering through its integrated Notebook management system. This article explains how Workspaces and Notebooks are structured in Syntasa and outlines the supported sharing and collaboration models that enable teams to work together effectively, without compromising governance or security.

Understanding the Hierarchy

To collaborate efficiently, it is important to understand how Syntasa organizes notebook resources.

Core Components

  • Notebook Workspace
    The top-level container that represents a project or logical environment. All notebooks must belong to a workspace.
  • Notebooks
    Individual notebook assets within a workspace. Syntasa supports two distinct notebook types:
    • Notebook Cards – Workflow-integrated notebook objects
    • Lab Notebooks – Files managed directly in JupyterLab

This hierarchy ensures a clear separation between exploratory development and production-ready workflow components.

Notebook Workspaces

A Workspace is the primary entry point for notebook creation, organization, and collaboration.

Workspace Governance and Role-Based Control

Workspace lifecycle management is restricted to maintain governance and consistency across the platform.

System Admin Role

  • Only users with the System Admin role can:

    • Create workspaces

    • Edit workspace configuration

    • Delete workspaces

Non-Admin Users

  • Other roles cannot create, modify, or delete workspaces.

  • However, users may access workspaces depending on sharing settings.

  • Access to a workspace does not grant permission to modify or delete the workspace itself.

This model ensures centralized governance while still enabling collaboration through controlled sharing.

Creating and Configuring a Workspace

When creating a workspace, you define:

  • Name – A unique, user-friendly display name
  • Key – A unique system identifier used in backend storage paths (for example, default_workspace)
  • Description – Optional context describing the workspace purpose
  • Icon – A custom or system icon for easy visual identification

Workspace Sharing Settings

Each workspace has a Sharing property that controls its visibility:

  • PRIVATE
    Only the workspace owner and System Administrators can view or access it.
  • PUBLIC
    The workspace is visible to all users in the system.

Validation Rule
Workspace names and keys must be globally unique. Syntasa enforces this rule and prevents creation if a duplicate is detected.

Notebook Types: Cards vs. Lab

Notebook Cards

Notebook Cards are first-class objects in Syntasa and are designed for production workflows.

Key characteristics:

  • Workflow Integration
    Notebook Cards can be added to applications by dragging a Notebook Process node onto the workflow canvas.
  • Scheduling
    Once included in a workflow, the notebook can be scheduled and executed as part of a job.
  • Parameterization
    Notebook Cards support Code Parameters (prefixed with @ in the notebook), which can be overridden at runtime.

Lab Notebooks

Lab Notebooks are files created and managed directly within the JupyterLab environment.

Typical use cases:

  • Exploratory data analysis
  • Rapid prototyping
  • Experimentation before converting logic into a Notebook Card

Lab Notebooks are ideal during early development stages, while Notebook Cards are intended for reusable, production-ready logic.

How to Share and Collaborate

Syntasa supports three primary collaboration mechanisms, each serving a different purpose.

Sharing the Notebook Workspace

Setting a workspace to PUBLIC enables broad visibility.

  • Visibility
    All users can see the workspace in their workspace list.
  • Access
    Users can view notebooks within the workspace, subject to each notebook’s individual sharing settings.

Best For:
High-level project discovery and open collaboration across teams.

Sharing Notebook Cards

Notebook Cards have their own sharing configuration, independent of the workspace.

Key behaviors:

  • Granular Sharing
    A Notebook Card can be shared even if the parent workspace is private.
  • Reuse and Collaboration
    Shared cards can be used as source notebooks when other users Copy or Import notebooks.
  • Workflow Enablement
    Sharing a card allows other users to include that notebook in their own application workflows.

Best For:
Reusable logic, standardized transformations, and shared analytical components.

Workspace Shared Folder (JupyterLab)

Within JupyterLab, collaboration is governed by the workspace file system structure.

  • Private Folder
    Files stored under:

    users/{your_username}/

    are private and visible only to the owner.

  • Shared Folder
    Files stored at the root of the workspace, outside the users/ directory, are automatically shared with all users who have access to that workspace.

  • Path Logic
    The system scans:

    syn-workspace/workspaces/{workspace_key}/

    Any files not located in a user-specific subfolder are treated as Shared Lab Notebooks.

Best For:
Sharing exploratory notebooks, utilities, and reference files across users in the same workspace.

Collaboration Workflows

Copying and Importing Notebooks

When creating a new notebook, you can leverage existing work:

  • Copy Notebook
    Select a shared Notebook Card as a source to create a new instance with the same code and configuration.
  • Import Notebook
    Upload a local .ipynb file to create a new Notebook Card in Syntasa.

Notebook Processes in Workflows

Collaboration is amplified by building modular, reusable notebooks.

When a notebook is added to a workflow:

  • Input and Output
    It can consume inputs from upstream nodes (Datasets, Streams) and produce its own Notebook Output node.
  • Preview Capability
    After execution, Syntasa generates a rendered preview of the notebook’s output cells directly in the UI, allowing teammates to validate results without opening JupyterLab.

Permissions and Security

Syntasa enforces clear ownership and role-based access controls:

  • Owners
    Can edit, delete, and change sharing settings for their workspaces and notebooks.
  • System Administrators
    Have full access to all resources, regardless of sharing configuration.
  • Deletion Safety
    A workspace cannot be deleted while it contains active notebooks. Notebooks must be deleted or moved first.
  • Runtime Access
    Notebooks must be connected to a Syntasa runtime (such as EMR, Dataproc, or Kubernetes Spark) to execute.
    Sharing a notebook does not automatically grant access to the owner’s private runtime instances.

Summary

Syntasa’s Workspace and Notebook model is designed to balance flexible collaboration with enterprise governance. By clearly separating workspaces, notebook types, and sharing mechanisms, teams can collaborate confidently from early experimentation in JupyterLab to fully productionized workflows while maintaining control, security, and reusability across the platform.