Available in October 2023, Syntasa version 7.2.0 introduces an expansion to notebooks with JupyterLab integration, an upgrade to the embedded visualization tool, several new database connection integrations, and user experience improvements.
JupyterLab
Introduced in Syntasa 6.2, Syntasa notebooks combine the power and ease of Jupyter notebooks with the Syntasa ecosystem that manages cloud environment resources. This provides notebook functionality with shareable autoscaling Spark cluster notebooks supporting Python and Scala languages.
In conjunction with Syntasa notebooks, Syntasa 7.2 includes integration with JupyterLab. Expanding the possibilities of your notebook experience, JupyterLab brings more possibilities and an advanced experience to your experiments.
The JupyterLab integration also includes the Git extension, enabling users to perform git actions such as check-in and check-out notebook code and files.
Visualization tool update
The embedded visualization tool, Helical Insight, found under the Analytics portion of the Dashboards module, has been updated to Helical's recently available version 5.0. This version utilizes a new framework and thus brings a new and improved user interface and experience.
The summary of changes can be found in the Helical Insight 5.0 Walkthrough.
Integrations and adapters
Syntasa empowers you to use the many off-the-shelf connections and processes to quickly ingest data from many sources and build data pipelines and models. We're constantly adding new connections and processes to increase the ingredients at your disposal.
-
New database connections - In this version, we've added the following options within the Database connection type:
- DocumentDB
- MongoDB
- Oracle
- SQL Server
-
Custom Shell process improvements
- Previously, the process only accepted a dataset as an input; now any connection can also be used as an input.
- The process now accepts a shell script file, not just a zip file, as input.
- Delta format - This is now supported in code processes, no-code processes, and notebooks.
- Presto -> Trino - Keeping up with the rebranding of 3rd party software, we've updated all Presto references to Trino.
Platform
Following platform updates have been made to keep up with security standards and the latest versions of third-party software:
- AWS EMR runtime version update - Runtimes of type AWS EMR Cluster have been updated to utilize EMR version 6.6.
- Platform services update - TLS 1.0 and 1.1 versions on all HAProxy and ingresses across Kubernetes and Docker installations have been disabled.
User experience
There have been various improvements to the application to enhance your daily experience using the software.
- Admin Center - All system administrator functionality, i.e., Security, Settings, and Infrastructure, have been reorganized into a single Admin Center menu under the gear icon in the screen's upper right.
- About Syntasa - The previously dedicated "About Syntasa" menu, i.e., the Info icon, has been folded into the question mark Help icon, now shared with the Documentation and Give Feedback menus.
-
Workspace and Apps - The main working area of the platform and the Audience module's workspace and apps have been polished with these improvements:
- Workspace folders collapse/expand - The folder navigation has been enhanced to expand and collapse all folders directly under the home folder.
- App editing, pencil icon - While editing an app, a pencil icon previously allowed users to drag a box around multiple nodes to bulk-select them. This icon was unintuitive and thus changed to a multi-select icon to better inform users of its function.
- App editing, home icon - While viewing or editing an app, if a user has shifted the zoom and center of the app nodes, there was a home icon that allowed users to return to the default centering and zoom of the workflow canvas. This icon was updated to better inform users of its function.
- Notes - The notes that can be added within an app and the processes used in an app have been updated with a new style to better the usability.
-
Audience module - The apps section of the Audience module has been smoothed with the following improvements:
- The Filters area of the apps section has new options for Attribute, Audience, and Sync to find the needed app(s) quickly.
- Workspace has been renamed Audience Workspace to avoid confusion with the non-Audience apps and Workspace module.
- Pagination - For most screens, when more than 50 rows of information are displayed the page will be separated into multiple pages.