Wyatt Alt
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A view definition was a structured record under a `kind` tag, one kind per query shape, and a Function returning `list<struct>` was about to add a third. That names shapes instead of describing a relation. A materialized view is now a relation defined by a query, stored as one canonical SQL string under a format number: ```sql SELECT columns FROM [ns.]table [, function(args) AS alias | , UNNEST(column) AS alias] [WHERE predicate] [LIMIT n] ``` Any other clause is refused at parse time. Older readers report the view as unrefreshable, the pre-format layouts still read, and a legacy view is rewritten on its next refresh that commits, rebuilt only where its raw text meant something else under lance's parser. A Function in FROM position yields one row per element it returns, as a table function does in any dialect. The server stages its list output in a hidden table and records that binding beside the query, which stays as the user wrote it; refresh scans the staging and unnests the column, the same operator as UNNEST over a list column the table already holds. Row ids repeat per element, so eviction and incremental append are unchanged. A local database refuses a Function in FROM position, since it has no executor.
LanceDB Documentation
LanceDB docs are available at docs.lancedb.com.
The SDK docs are built and deployed automatically by Github Actions
whenever a commit is pushed to the main branch. So it is possible for the docs to show
unreleased features.
Building the docs
Setup
- Install LanceDB Python. See setup in Python contributing guide.
Run
make developto install the Python package. - Install documentation dependencies. From LanceDB repo root:
pip install -r docs/requirements.txt
Preview the docs
cd docs
mkdocs serve
If you want to just generate the HTML files:
PYTHONPATH=. mkdocs build -f docs/mkdocs.yml
If successful, you should see a docs/site directory that you can verify locally.
Adding examples
To make sure examples are correct, we put examples in test files so they can be run as part of our test suites.
You can see the tests are at:
- Python:
python/python/tests/docs - Typescript:
nodejs/examples/
Checking python examples
cd python
pytest -vv python/tests/docs
Checking typescript examples
The examples depend on @lancedb/lancedb at file:../dist, so the package must be
built before running the tests. This uses pnpm; see the
Typescript contributing guide for the toolchain setup.
pushd nodejs
pnpm install
pnpm build
popd
Then you can run the examples by going to the nodejs/examples directory, which is a
separate pnpm package with its own lockfile:
pushd nodejs/examples
pnpm install
pnpm test
popd
API documentation
Python
The Python API documentation is organized based on the file docs/src/python/python.md.
We manually add entries there so we can control the organization of the reference page.
However, this means any new types must be manually added to the file. No additional
steps are needed to generate the API documentation.
Typescript
The typescript API documentation is generated from the typescript source code using typedoc.
When new APIs are added, you must manually re-run the typedoc command to update the API documentation. The new files should be checked into the repository.
pushd nodejs
# `pnpm docs` would invoke pnpm's built-in `docs` command, not the script.
pnpm run docs
popd