Release notes

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Observable Canvases, June 17 release

  • The default font on canvases is now sans-serif instead of handwritten script.

  • You can now toggle column summary charts in tables’ “⋮” menu (upper right).

  • Duplicating nodes now maintains upstream inputs.

  • Line charts’ y-axes now include 0 if the data’s minimum is a small fraction of the maximum.

  • AI now takes better advantage of available chart options.

  • AI now shows an error when it cannot connect.

  • Categorical column summaries now alphabetize values with equal counts.

  • Nulls in column summaries now have a hatched background, and “Others” are cross-hatched.

  • Long column names in the data pane now truncate instead of wrapping.

  • Fixed dates from Snowflake sources to display in UTC instead of local time.

  • Fixed tables losing scroll position when blurred.

  • Fixed syntax highlighting in SQL nodes.

  • Fixed intraday brushing of line charts.

Observable Canvases, June 9 release

  • Added new line charts with smart collision-avoidant labeling.

  • Temporal histograms now have configurable bin interval and rolling averages.

  • Bar charts now have configurable sorting.

  • Density plots now have configurable scales.

  • The AI now understands top column values and more about histograms.

  • The AI now understands which nodes depend on which.

  • The AI’s filtering is more reliable and adds new nodes instead of editing existing ones.

  • The AI can now use the UI to group, limit, and sort rows, and to derive new columns.

  • The AI no longer writes SQL and JavaScript nodes by default. (Toggle them in Menu → “Developer tools” → “Show AI options”.)

  • You can now press Shift-Return to run a code node.

  • You can now set arrows to the “elbow” style. (tldraw v3.13)

  • Fixed numbers and bullet points disappearing in lists. (tldraw v3.13)

  • Fixed scrolling nodes’ side panels, including SQL and JavaScript editors.

  • Fixed some transient errors while loading charts.

  • Fixed some bugs in filtering histograms.

Observable Canvases, June 2 release

  • The AI can now add columns based on existing tables.

  • Charts more smoothly update to reflect new data.

  • Cleaned up some unused, outdated, or broken menu items.

  • Fixed creating a chart from a temporal column summary.

  • Fixed scrolling in code nodes.

  • Fixed adding database tables with zero rows to the canvas.

Observable Canvases, May 27 release

  • Temporal histograms can now be weighted by a “value” channel.

  • Stacked bar charts now collapse less frequent categories into an “Other” category.

  • Histogram axis ticks now avoid colliding with each other.

  • Charts’ PNG downloads now include the title and caption.

  • AI can now use the new scatterplots.

  • You can now press the up and down arrow keys in the AI prompt to navigate its history.

  • Adding a new node to the canvas now places it in an emptier initial spot.

  • Fixed zooming the canvas while pointing at a selected node.

  • Fixed errors in the initial states of nodes.

  • Fixed bug where “New canvas” modal listed workspaces without access to the beta.

Observable Canvases, May 19 release

  • The chart node has been redesigned, and its options have expanded.

  • The AI can now make more kinds of charts and filter existing nodes.

  • AI options are now hidden behind Menu → “Developer tools” → “Show AI options”.

  • The data panel now shows more information about your data source’s schema.

  • The JavaScript node can now render the output of expressions, not just statements.

  • Creating a new node now selects the node.

  • Nodes better detect stalled data loading and show clearer errors.

  • Fixed uploading images to the canvas.

  • Fixed bug where dropdown menus wouldn’t close.

  • Fixed the left outliers bin for ordinal histograms.

  • Fixed downloading charts as PNG.

Observable Canvases improvements

  • Queries are now more reliable.

  • The Plot node is now known as the JavaScript node.

  • The data panel in the upper left has been refined.

  • The button to add a SQL node has moved to the bottom toolbar.

  • The AI can now see nodes’ rows of data.

  • Null values are better filtered out of summary histograms.

  • The hi-res heatmap now supports negative numbers.

  • The “New canvas” modal now only lists eligible data sources.

  • Early beta access now applies to workspaces, not users.

Observable Canvases early access

Early access is now available for Observable Canvases, a collaborative, visual medium for exploring, analyzing, and communicating with data. Learn more

Deprecating Observable Cloud

We are deprecating building and hosting data apps on Observable Cloud on the following timeline.

On April 15 (today), we are discouraging deploying new data apps to Observable Cloud by hiding data app-related pages in the Observable workspace for users who do not already have a data app hosted on Observable Cloud. These users will still be able to navigate to data app-related pages directly, and to deploy new data apps from the command line.

On May 15 (in one month), any users that do not already have a data app hosted on Observable Cloud will no longer be able to deploy new data apps.

On October 15 (in six months), or at the end of your Enterprise customer contract if it is later, we will discontinue building and deploying of data apps to Observable Cloud. We will continue serving traffic to data apps hosted on Observable Cloud until at least this date.

If you are a current Observable Cloud customer, we encourage you to migrate any Observable-hosted data apps to your preferred static site hosting provider at your earliest convenience. You can host data apps built with the open-source Observable Framework on a wide variety of providers, including GitHub Pages, Render, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages, and Netlify; see also our guide on automating deploys on GitHub. If you have any questions or concerns, please email support@observablehq.com. After migrating your data app to a new provider, please contact support if you would like us to set up a redirect from Observable Cloud.

For more context on this deprecation, please read our blog post about what’s next.

Embedded analytics

For Enterprise workspaces, Observable Cloud now lets you embed components from your Observable Framework data apps into other websites and applications. Learn more in the documentation.

  • Export JavaScript modules to power interactive components in other apps.

  • Export static files (like SVG, PNG, CSV, or JSON) that update whenever your app builds.

  • Configure CORS to choose which domains can embed your components.

  • Configure URL signing keys to securely embed private components.

  • View analytics about which exports are being used.

Also, for all users:

  • The “Analytics” tab in data app settings is now called “Pages”.

  • Data app sharing settings have been consolidated in the new “Access” tab.

  • When new users sign up, it’s easier to join or create a workspace at the same time.

Observable Framework 1.13

New features

Bug fixes and other improvements

  • Fix automatic cleaning of dist when building on Windows

  • Add explicit <html>, <head>, and <body> tags to generated HTML

  • Suppress checkboxes on tables in SQL code blocks

  • Fix resolution of absolute paths in SQL front matter

  • Avoid a top-level await bug on Safari in SQLite

  • Fix importing of npm:sql.js by adding an ES module export shim

  • Fix resolution of absolute global imports

  • Fix deduplication of resolved imports

  • Fix parameterized routing when a parameter value is its name in brackets

  • Support the NO_COLOR environment variable (via picocolors)

  • Remove automatic redirect to strip basic authentication

  • Fix updating the app title when deploying to Observable Cloud

  • Various documentation improvements

See release notes on GitHub for more details.

Observable Framework 1.12

New features

Bug fixes and other improvements

  • Allow import.meta.resolve to be used for local files

  • Favor observablehq:stdlib over npm:@observablehq/stdlib

  • Detect broken links during build

  • Detect missing files during build

  • Detect file name conflicts during build

  • Fix crash during preview with temporary files (e.g., Vim)

  • Fix content hashes for modules that import builtins

  • Fix reactivity during preview for data loaders from modules

  • Fix reactivity during preview for parameterized modules

  • Use registry.npmjs.org instead of data.jsdelivr.com to resolve npm package versions

See release notes on GitHub for more details.