All primary components in the Syntasa application, i.e. Apps, Dashboards, Notebooks, and the folders they are organized in, are created from Workspace -> Folders -> Create New. Selecting the Notebook option presents you with a new screen to provide the details of the notebook.
Creating a new notebook entails several pieces of information, some only affecting the attributes of the notebook object seen within the Syntasa environment, and others relating to the notebook that is created within JupyterHub.
Syntasa notebook attributes
The following fields define the notebook object within the Syntasa application. The notebook object is connected is a single Jupyter notebook within JupyterHub that can be accessed via the Syntasa application and its specific notebook object.
Notebook Name - Name as seen on the notebook card and searchable within Workspace. This name must be unique across all notebooks in the application, even those that have been deleted and are in the trash.
Copy/Import Notebook - Turning this on allows you to create a new notebook from an existing one instead of starting from scratch. The source notebook may be within the same Syntasa application or from an outside source.
- Copy Notebook - Replicate a notebook from the same Syntasa application. You will only be able to select from notebooks that you have access to given the sharing setting on the source notebook.
- Import Notebook - Replicate a notebook from an outside source by uploading a .ipynb file on your local machine.
Tags - All objects throughout the Syntasa application support tags to help organize and search for related objects.
Folder - The folder path defines the location of the notebook object within the Syntasa folder structure. The default value will be the folder from which you clicked the Create New button, but this can be changed here. The notebook can also be moved to another folder after it has been created.
Description - Provide information explaining the purpose of the notebook. This is especially useful if the notebook is to be shared with other users.
Override Icon - The override icon toggle allows the default icon shown on a component's card to be altered. The default icon is dependent on the type of component. When the toggle is turned on there are two options to associate a new icon with the component, depending on the position of the Existing Icon toggle:
- On - This allows the user to search icons that have already been uploaded to the environment and associate one with the current component.
- Off - This allows the user to upload a new icon for the component. When uploading a new icon it must be given a name so that it can be referenced and searched for and thus is available to be reused on different components.
Jupyter attributes
The following fields are characteristics of the notebook within JupyterHub. The values can be changed or turned on/off after creating the Syntasa notebook object.
Language - This defines the programming language the notebook is using. The accepted values are Python, R, and Scala.
Connect Notebook to Syntasa Runtime - A launched notebook will have a kernel running that can run a variety of functions within the notebook, but at times you may need a bigger cluster or custom libraries loaded that will require a Syntasa runtime to be attached to the notebook.
As is recommended, by default this option is turned off and not connecting a runtime. A runtime can also be attached after Launching the Notebook. The article Notebook Runtimes reviews the best practices and when a runtime may be needed.
Sharing and permissions
When creating a new app or resource, the sharing option selection will be available to make the component available as Private, Public, or Group. Regardless of the selection, a user with the role of System Admin will always have access to all apps and resources.
The sharing option selected at the time of creating the component can be changed by the owner or a system administrator. The owner of the app or resource is by default the user that is creating the component. This can be changed, if needed, by the owner or the system administrator, after the component is created.
When editing a component, the owner and sharing option is visible and can be changed by the owner or system administrator. For other users, when editing a component, the sharing option and owner settings are hidden.
- Private - Private can be set by the owner (or the system administrator) to limit access to the component only to the owner. System administrators can also access components set to private.
- Public - Public is the default setting and is the behavior of all components before Syntasa 5.2, i.e. before the sharing functionality was available, as all users have access to the component (except apps that are in a module, Synthesizer, Composer, Orchestrator, and the user's role is such that they do not have access to that module).
- Group - Group can be set by the owner (or the system administrator) to limit the access to the component to the user group(s) assigned to the component. As with private, the system administrator can view components with the sharing option set to group regardless if they are a member of the group.