Platform
September 27, 2023
Spaces
We’ve added Portuguese (Brazilian) translations!
Building upon our existing language support (based on your customers’ browser locale), which already included French, German, and Spanish translations, we’ve expanded our capabilities to cater to an even broader audience.
Need another language? Let us know and we’ll prioritize getting it added.
Spaces
Enhanced Document Customization with Markdown & HTML Support
Until now, you could only utilize Markdown for your Documents. However, we’re excited to inform you that HTML support has been seamlessly integrated, offering you even more versatility to tailor your Documents exactly to your liking.
September 22, 2023
Data XP
We’ve revamped the way partial replaces work, enhancing your data editing experience for maximum smoothness and intuitiveness. In the past, when you attempted to replace specific characters with an empty string (""), it occasionally resulted in the cell value becoming null, which wasn’t quite what you had in mind.
For instance, if you needed to eliminate dashes from UUID fields, you’d naturally want “abc-123” to transform into “abc123” rather than mysteriously turning null.
We value your feedback. Now, you can confidently perform partial replacements without the hassle of unexpected null values.
Mapping
We’ve made improvements behind the scenes to ensure that your data gets mapped with more precision. Previously, some data could be missed during mapping, but now, we’re considering both the option labels and values, making sure nothing is left behind. This means you’ll have a smoother and more reliable experience when mapping your data, ensuring that everything is captured correctly.
September 20, 2023
Spaces
Localization is Now Available
We are excited to introduce localization features in Flatfile! Now, your customers will enjoy automatic translations based on their browser locale, including French, German, and Spanish.
Key Features:
- Translations are exclusively applied in Spaces (guest areas).
- Our user-friendly guide will assist you in effortlessly translating and personalizing the content within your space, whether it’s custom actions, documents, and more.
- Require another language? Send us a note, and we’ll make it a priority to include it.
Follow the guide or try the Localization demo Space to get started.
Data XP
New: Promote Sheet Actions
Previously, the primary:true
concept on Actions didn’t affect Sheet actions, leaving them all in the “more actions” drop-down. But now, setting primary to true will showcase these actions right in the Sheet toolbar, as buttons with clear, user-friendly text.
Data XP
You can now effortlessly view up to 500k records at once. When you reach the end of the table, a helpful message will appear, reminding you that there’s more data waiting. Simply search or filter to reduce the size of your dataset and access it all. This change was added due to browser limitations that restrict maximum height in the DOM.
September 15, 2023
Spaces
Introducing: Code Blocks for Documents
We’ve introduced the ability to add code blocks to your Documents. You can now use the following syntax to define code blocks and specify the language:
Your code will be formatted accordingly, enhancing the clarity and presentation of your content.
Spaces
Previously, guests without access to the specific workbook would encounter a “Workbook Not Found” error. Now, a fallback mechanism has been implemented to validate access to the primaryWorkbook
, ensuring a smoother experience for users.
September 13, 2023
Data XP
Introducing support for finding empty fields in ffql using the syntax:
filter: first_name eq ""
.
Now, you can easily query and filter records with empty values.
Core
Resolved an issue where attempting to upsert an Environment secret that was already defined within a Space was not functioning as expected. This fix ensures proper handling when upserting a secret into an Environment after specifying a Space ID.
Mapping
Resolved an issue where the import button could prematurely appear before a file was ready to be imported. This was due to an early update of the file’s status with a workbook ID, which has now been adjusted to wait until the data is queriable before updating. The import process now aligns better with the file’s readiness.
Data XP
Experience improved performance (for instance, when scrolling to the bottom of the data table) with large workbooks as we’ve optimized query clauses and updated indexes. Plus, we’ve seamlessly migrated all existing workbooks to benefit from these enhancements.
September 11, 2023
Mapping
When a file stream becomes unreadable due to file malformation, improvements were made to ensure that any errors are correctly communicated to the UI.
Mapping
Experience improved performance (for instance, when scrolling to the bottom of the data table) with large workbooks as we’ve optimized query clauses and updated indexes. Plus, we’ve seamlessly migrated all existing workbooks to benefit from these enhancements.
September 8, 2023
Data XP
Documents in the sidebar are now organized based on their creation date. This enhancement helps developers have more control the order of their Documents.
Spaces
If you have access to multiple Spaces, you’ll notice a dropdown menu at the top left corner of each Space. Previously, there was an issue where all the data within the Space would update correctly, except for Workbooks/Sheets in the sidebar. This issue has been successfully resolved.
Data XP
2 new Demo spaces were added: Documents & Theming. In these demo Spaces, you’ll learn how to:
- Add Markdown + HTML Documents to your Space
- Customize the look and feel of Flatfile to match your brand
Data XP
We’ve extended the job:ready
timeout to 10 minutes, aligning it with the extractor timeout. This adjustment provides more time for all jobs running within an Agent.
September 6, 2023
Data XP
New Job Outcome Acknowledgements
acknowledge: false
By default, job outcomes are reported through a toast notification in the top-right corner. To utilize this, simply set outcome => message
. This approach ensures that your job completion status is promptly communicated to the end user.
acknowledge: true
When the acknowledge
option is configured as true
, a persistent full-screen modal is presented. This modal remains visible until the user interacts by clicking the “Continue” button, acknowledging the outcome.
Usage
await api.jobs.complete(jobId, {
outcome: {
acknowlege: true,
message:
"Text here.",
},
});
This enhancement provides flexibility in how you choose to inform users about job outcomes. Learn more.
Data XP
Enhanced Job Outcomes with Next Action Links
Job outcomes have been upgraded to support next
action links. Now, you can display links to external URLs, Flatfile resources, or trigger downloads upon job completion.
Usage
await api.jobs.complete(jobId, {
outcome: {
next: IdNext | WaitNext | UrlNext | DownloadNext,
message:
"Text here.",
},
});
This improvement adds versatility and flexibility to your job outcomes, enhancing user interaction and experience. Learn more.
Data XP
Enhanced Action Button Behavior
Two key enhancements to Actions have been introduced:
Disable Actions When Invalid Records: Developers can now add an optional requireAllValid
flag to Actions, preventing users from initiating Actions when Sheets or Workbooks contain invalid records. This helps avoid unnecessary job failures and ensures Actions are performed on valid data.
Disable Actions When No Selected Records: To enhance the user experience, we’ve introduced the requireSelection
flag. When set to true
, this flag disables Actions if no records are selected in the Sheet or Workbook, ensuring Actions are only triggered when relevant data is chosen.
September 1, 2023
Data XP
Improved FFQL handling of dates and number comparisons
Enhanced Number Field Queries: When conducting equality or inequality FFQL comparisons for number
fields, the query value is now cast to a number and then compared with the parsed “shadow” value. This rectifies issues related to numeric comparisons. Additionally, we’ve resolved a bug where numbers with no digits before the decimal point (e.g., “.3”) were not being properly parsed into shadow values.
Advanced Date Field Handling: For date
fields, query values are now attempted to be parsed into dates. On the SQL side, a CASE
statement is employed to parse the stored values into dates for accurate comparison. To accommodate SQL-side date parsing requirements, we’ve integrated a regex pattern to detect YYYY-MM-DD
, m/d/yy
, and m/d/yyyy
formats. This ensures correct parsing and comparison of date values.
Fix for Invalid Number Input: We’ve resolved a bug where changing a number field to an invalid number left the previous “shadow” value intact. Now, in such cases, the previous shadow value is properly cleared, leading to consistent and accurate behavior.
These updates contribute to improved query handling, better data integrity, and a more seamless experience when working with number and date fields.
Core
Introducing caching for record counts, resulting in significantly improved performance for API requests.
Core
The PATCH /sheets
endpoint has been upgraded to accept both an array of SheetUpdates and an array of SheetConfigs (backwards compatible). This expanded capability empowers users with more flexible and efficient options when updating Sheets.
Data XP
We’ve introduced a new parameter: tooltip
to Actions, allowing the addition of tooltips. These tooltips are now visible in the user interface for both buttons and list items whenever the associated Action is enabled. This enhancement provides users with clear and context-aware explanations for enabled Actions, contributing to an improved overall user experience.
Data XP
Fixed a cosmetic issue with scrolling through Workbooks. The problem stemmed from the outer container scrolling based on the inner content’s height. By applying overflow properties to the inner component, which holds a list of items within a flex container, we have resolved this issue.
August 30, 2023
Spaces
🚀 4 New Example Spaces
Visit the Getting Started page on your Dashboard to discover four new options for effortlessly generating demo spaces:
- Namespaces
- Metadata
- Egress
- Sidebar Customization
Similar to the rest of the options, we’ve provided the underlying code for each Space, simplifying the process of breaking down and comprehending the elements on display.
Core
Authentication Query Enhancement
The authentication query has been streamlined for optimized performance. Extensive benchmarking has revealed that this refinement contributes to a reduction of approximately 20 milliseconds for each request. This enhancement results in faster overall processing and improved response times.
Data XP
The Data Checklist now includes data types that correspond to each field. Additionally, the searchable dropdowns are now more user friendly.
Core
A pagination logic issue concerning Environments has been resolved. The correction ensures accurate calculation of the number of pages and consistent delivery of valid responses in accordance with the Pagination type.
Furthermore, the default page size for Spaces has been set to 10, aligning it with the specifications outlined in the API documentation.
Data XP
Previously, attempting to navigate into a dropdown using the keyboard’s tab key was unresponsive. This issue has been addressed, and tabbing via keyboard now smoothly activates dropdowns, accompanied by a focus outline for the custom trigger.
Core
The API specification has been updated to facilitate the mapping of enum
values of various types such as string
, integer
, or boolean
. This modification effectively resolves a server error response that was previously encountered when utilizing such enum
values within the API.
In addition, the loading state of the “Continue” button has been refined to ensure smooth recovery from server errors. This adjustment enhances the overall user experience by providing more graceful handling of unexpected issues during the process.
August 25, 2023
Spaces
🚀 Instant Extraction for CSV/TSV/PSV Files
We’re thrilled to introduce a significant enhancement to our import process. With the removal of the extraction step for CSV/TSV/PSV files, the import experience is now more seamless than ever. As soon as the upload is complete, these files are instantly extracted, ensuring an efficient and immediate handling of your data.
The impact of this change is remarkable. What used to take approximately 3 and a half minutes to extract now concludes in less than 10 seconds.
In addition, we now natively support TSV and PSV files meaning you don’t need to use an extractor plugin to support these file types.
While speed is the prime advantage, this upgrade doesn’t merely boost performance. It also simplifies and enhances reliability in our system. Previously, concerns about only a fraction of a file being extracted are now history. Furthermore, this approach strategically eases the load on our database, reducing the likelihood of encountering resource limits.
In essence, it’s a win-win for both efficiency and user experience.
August 24, 2023
Spaces
🚀 A Revamped Starting Point
Navigate to your Dashboard’s Getting Started page to find an array of new options for effortlessly creating demo spaces. Additionally, we’ve included the underlying code for each Space, making it straightforward to deconstruct and understand what you’re seeing.
Platform
🚀 Major improvements to our queue system
We’ve implemented a state-of-the-art technology to substantially enhance the reliability and performance of our queue system. This improvement has a profound impact on the execution of asynchronous tasks, like data validation.
Mapping
Now, you can set a description for each Option Field value via API. End users can then view this description as a tooltip during mapping.
Data XP
We’ve added new API routes to capture up to 5 snapshots of a Sheet, with the flexibility to restore any of them using the API at your convenience. Stay tuned as we prepare to bring this functionality to the UI as well.
Data XP
A Sheet with no access enabled (access:[]
) now shows a lock icon on the
Sheet tab.
Mapping
We opted to hide the files count on the Files page if there are no files.
Mapping
A shrimp size update to the colors of the sidebar toggle so it looks good with all themes.
Spaces
Info inside metadata
> userInfo
will now display in the Spaces list.
Spaces
Metadata allows you to store and retrieve additional data about a Space,
Record, or Field without exposing it to end users. Now, Environments also
have a metadata
string array.
Spaces
We made a small fix to allow better vertical scrolling in the Dashboard sidebar.
Data XP
CTRL + Z wasn’t working for a minute. This is now fixed.
Data XP
If a boolean cell is empty, we only show the toggle on hover now.
Mapping
We were seeing issues where corrupt files that ran through extraction did not fail but simply skipped over the lines affected. This is now resolved.
August 20, 2023
Data XP
🚀 Introducing Command+k Triggered Search and Transformation (Early Access)
This update enhances your workflow by centralizing experiences under the Command+k shortcut.
A straightforward forward slash, followed by these options, grants access to our data transformation and query tools:
/transform
(AI-powered)/query
(AI-powered)/search
(global search)/filter
(Flatfile Query Language, ffql)/in
(field-specific search)
Chat with us or email support@flatfile.com to have this feature flagged on in your Account today!
Data XP
There is now a count at the top of the files list that shows the total number of files.
Spaces
The Sidebar now has three different states:
- Collapsed state
- Open state
- Totally hidden state
Additionally, the Sidebar will now automatically collapse itself on smaller screens.
Spaces
We now handle overflowing space name(s) by:
- Breaking the word
- Limiting the name to two lines and giving it an ellipsis if it overflows
- Adding a tooltip with the space name to truncated names
- Previously, badge names in the data checklist could break to two lines making them hard to read. This is also fixed.
Theming
When determining the lighter shades of each main theme colors, i.e. primary, danger, warning and success, there are now checks to ensure no colors end up as white.
Mapping
The filename was added to the mapping scene so users can now see which file they are currently mapping.
Mapping
Cells with no data can now be unmapped using “Do not import”, if previously mapped to a value.
Data XP
Filter: “Last Name” like A% will now retrieve all records where Last Name starts with “A”. Previously, it was retrieving records that contained “A”.
Data XP
The continue button is now disabled on mapping scene while mappings are loading. This ensures user can only advance to review scene after mappings are saved.