The limits page still listed REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW ... CASCADE as
parsed but not implemented, while the refresh page says it depends on
the deployment's version. The row now says the same and links there.
The refresh page told deployment users to create a view's source with
new_table_enable_stable_row_ids. A db:// connection never sends that
option: RemoteOptions keeps only the Azure account name, and a remote
create_table sends only its mode and data. The page now says stable row
ids are set up on the deployment, which depending on its version may
give new tables them, refuse a view created through SQL over a source
without them, or convert the source when a view is created through its
REST API, and to check with its administrator.
The architecture, limits, table and database pages no longer say stable
row ids can never be enabled after creation, which that REST conversion
contradicts; they say the SDK can only give them to a table it creates.
The local heading now names the removed stable-row-id requirement
instead of promising that any table can be a source, and notes the
write-ahead-log checks that remain.
The earlier change dropped every statement that a materialized view's
source needs stable row ids, because main no longer requires them. That
holds for the local SDK only. Sophon main creates a view through SQL by
default with the creation checks of its pinned lancedb (00f5dd6f), which
predates #4373 and still rejects a source without stable row ids.
The refresh and management pages now say a local view needs no special
source and a deployment may still require stable row ids, and the
architecture, limits, table and database pages note that requirement.
The summaries say a refresh brings a view up to date instead of saying
it recomputes it, since a deployment may reconcile changes rather than
rebuild.
Main now rebuilds a materialized view completely on every refresh
(#4373): there is no incremental mode, no `full` argument and no
stable-row-ID requirement on the source. The example ran against the
SDK built from this branch (0.40.0b13) failed, because a refresh after
adding Bea writes both matching rows, not one.
The example now creates its source with the default options and expects
two rows written by the refresh, and its generated snippet is
regenerated. Separate tests cover `with_no_data` (one matching row on
the first refresh) and refreshing to an earlier source version. The
refresh page explains the full rebuild and keeps the #incremental and
#stable-row-ids anchors for the sections that replace them. Its version
note now says what the published 0.39.0 does differently, as observed
with that release.
The management, table, database, limits, architecture and data-types
pages no longer say a view's source needs stable row ids, and the
feature-engineering and tutorial summaries no longer call refreshes
incremental.
SQL now leads with why you'd reach for it beyond analytics: it's served over
Flight SQL, so it's the way in for any language without a native LanceDB SDK,
and broadly every public SDK method has a corresponding SQL statement. Closes
by pointing at the SQL Reference as the spec that defines the precise
behavior behind both the SQL surface and the SDK operations it mirrors.
Moving both into Getting Started (before Agentic Skills) means a reader knows
what the API surface even is before being told how to hand it to an agent.
FAQ content is redistributed into the pages it actually belongs to: license
and Parquet-comparison notes into the Lance format page, scale guidance into
Architecture, index-necessity and refine_factor guidance into the vector
index page, the multiprocessing/fork gotcha into SDKs and SQL, and the
weak-consistency recommendation into Consistency. General query-performance
issues are dropped since Explain and Explain Analyze already cover that
ground.
The new Support page under Deployment carries the OSS Discord and Enterprise
support-email channels that used to live in Troubleshooting.
Every group now answers exactly one question. Get started and Concepts cover
what the system is; the verb groups cover doing something with it; Operate,
Secure and Deploy cover running it; SQL reference is lookup. Maintenance becomes
Operate, Governance becomes Secure, and the rest take verbs to match.
Three new pages in Concepts and Get started:
Guarantees states what a write promises when it returns, which version a reader
sees, what survives a failure, and -- the half usually missing -- what is not
guaranteed: no multi-table transactions, no read-your-writes across processes
without an interval, unenforced primary keys that do not enforce, no background
compaction.
Limits collects bounds that were stated in passing across a dozen pages, with
the numbers verified against the code rather than inferred: name lengths, job
event caps, SHOW ERRORS bounds, the sampling range that is refused rather than
clamped.
Architecture illustrates embedded against distributed as the one deployment
decision, and is written to cover both rather than only Enterprise.
Indexing splits by question. Choosing an index is a Query decision and moves
there; building, repairing and GPU-building it stay in Operate.
SQL becomes a top-level reference of fifteen pages instead of a sub-group of
Query. Auditing sophon-sql turned up a large undocumented surface: ALTER TABLE
ADD COLUMN in its plain, computed and function forms with FILTER, IGNORE NULLS
and OVER modifiers; SET UNENFORCED PRIMARY KEY; SET and UNSET WAL with sharding;
CREATE FUNCTION with its dependency options; REFRESH COLUMN and REFRESH
MATERIALIZED VIEW; and the SHOW family. None of it was written down.
Brendan Clement
Jack Ye