Datasette 0.59 adds column descriptions in metadata, a new register_command plugin hook, enhanced --cors support and a bunch of other fixes and documentation improvements. See also the annotated release notes.

Datasette Desktop is a new macOS desktop application version of Datasette, which supports opening SQLite files on your computer, importing CSV files and installing plugins. I wrote more about how it works in Datasette Desktop—a macOS desktop application for Datasette.

The Baked Data architectural pattern describes a pattern commonly used with Datasette where the content for a site is bundled inside a SQLite database file and included alongside templates and application code in a deployment to a serverless hosting provider.

Datasette 0.58 has new plugin hooks, a huge performance improvement for faceting, support for Unix domain sockets and several other improvements. Read the annotated release notes for extra background and context on the release.

Datasette 0.57 is out with an important security patch plus a number of new features and bug fixes. Datasette 0.56.1, also out today, provides the security patch for users who are not yet ready to upgrade to the latest version.

Django SQL Dashboard is a new tool that brings a useful authenticated subset of Datasette to Django projects that are built on top of PostgreSQL.

Datasette 0.56 has bug fixes and documentation improvements, plus some new documented internal APIs for plugin authors and SpatiaLite 5 bundled with the official Datasette Docker container.

Datasette 0.55 adds support for cross-database SQL queries. You can now run datasette --crossdb one.db two.db and then run queries that join data from tables in both of those database files - see cross-database queries in the documentation for more details.

sqlite-utils 3.6 adds similar features: a db.attach(alias, filepath) Python API method and --attach alias filepath.db command-line option, both for attaching additional databases in order to execute cross-database queries.

This new Video introduction to Datasette and sqlite-utils provides a full introduction to both Datasette and sqlite-utils in 17 minutes, including a live demo of creating a database from a CSV file and publishing it to Google Cloud Run.

Serving map tiles from SQLite with MBTiles and datasette-tiles. datasette-tiles is a new plugin that adds a tile server to Datasette, serving map tiles from databases that conform to the MBTiles specification. download-tiles is a tool for building these databases, and datasette-basemap is a plugin that bundles a 22MB SQLite database with OpenStreetMap tiles covering zoom levels 0-6 for the entire world.

Datasette 0.54 is out today. Highlights include the new _internal in-memory database exposing details of connected tables, plus support for JavaScript modules in plugins and add-on scripts. More commentary on this release is available in the annotated release notes.

Drawing shapes on a map to query a SpatiaLite database introduces the new datasette-leaflet-freedraw plugin, which adds support for drawing shapes on a map to specify a GeoJSON MultiPolygon that can be used to query SpatiaLite databases.

APIs from CSS without JavaScript: the datasette-css-properties plugin introduces datasette-css-properties, a highly experimental plugin that can output table rows and SQL query results as CSS stylesheets defining custom properties that can then be used to customize a static HTML page.

New on this site: a Datasette Tools directory and a search engine that covers documentation, tools, plugins, releases and more. The search engine uses Dogsheep Beta - I wrote about how that works in Building a search engine for datasette.io.

I wrote more about how this site works in Weeknotes: datasette.io, an official project website for Datasette.

• Fix compatibility with Python 3.10. (#1482)
• Documentation on how to use Named parameters with integer and floating point values. (#1496)

• Fixed compatibility with Datasette 0.59. #49

• New param plugin configuration option for specifying a query string parameter that can be used instead of the Authorization: Bearer header - thanks, Jannis Leidel. (#5)

• Columns can now have associated metadata descriptions in metadata.json, see Column descriptions. (#942)
• New register_commands() plugin hook allows plugins to register additional Datasette CLI commands, e.g. datasette mycommand file.db. (#1449)
• Adding ?_facet_size=max to a table page now shows the number of unique values in each facet. (#1423)
• Upgraded dependency httpx 0.20 - the undocumented allow_redirects= parameter to datasette.client is now follow_redirects=, and defaults to False where it previously defaulted to True. (#1488)
• The --cors option now causes Datasette to return the Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Authorization header, in addition to Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *. (#1467)
• Code that figures out which named parameters a SQL query takes in order to display form fields for them is no longer confused by strings that contain colon characters. (#1421)
• Renamed --help-config option to --help-settings. (#1431)
• datasette.databases property is now a documented API. (#1443)
• The base.html template now wraps everything other than the <footer> in a <div class="not-footer"> element, to help with advanced CSS customization. (#1446)
• The render_cell() plugin hook can now return an awaitable function. This means the hook can execute SQL queries. (#1425)
• register_routes(datasette) plugin hook now accepts an optional datasette argument. (#1404)
• New hide_sql canned query option for defaulting to hiding the SQL quey used by a canned query, see Additional canned query options. (#1422)
• New --cpu option for datasette publish cloudrun. (#1420)
• If Rich is installed in the same virtual environment as Datasette, it will be used to provide enhanced display of error tracebacks on the console. (#1416)
• datasette.utils parse_metadata(content) function, used by the new datasette-remote-metadata plugin, is now a documented API. (#1405)
• Fixed bug where ?_next=x&_sort=rowid could throw an error. (#1470)
• Column cog menu no longer shows the option to facet by a column that is already selected by the default facets in metadata. (#1469)

• Initial release.

• Markdown image tags of the form ![alt text](URL-to-image) are now supported by default. This change could break backwards-compatibility for some installations, hence the 2.0 version number. #10

• sqlite-utils memory now works if files passed to it share the same file name. (#325)
• sqlite-utils query now returns [] in JSON mode if no rows are returned. (#328)

• twitter-to-sqlite import now imports app.js to archive_app table.
• Small fixes for twitter-to-sqlite import reflecting changed filenames in the Twitter export.
• Fix for remaining since_id bug, thanks Ruben Vermeersch! #58

• Fixed bug where application would not start without a working internet connection. #115
• The "Debug -> Open Chromium DevTools" menu item no longer shows an error if no windows are focused. #113
• Fixed bug where the datasette-leaflet plugin could be uninstalled despite being automatically re-installed. #118
• Time limit for facet calculations increased from 1 second to 3 seconds. #114

The first major update to Datasette Desktop. New features include:

• A new plugin directory for installing new plugins and upgrading or uninstalling existing ones. Open it using the "Plugins -> Install and Manage Plugins..." menu item. #74
• Five plugins are now installed by default: datasette-vega, datasette-cluster-map, datasette-pretty-json, datasette-edit-schema and datasette-configure-fts. #81
• The application loading screen now shows a log of what is going on. #70
• The welcome screen now invites you to try out the application by opening interesting example CSV files, taking advantage of the new "File -> Open CSV from URL..." feature. #91
• .db and .csv files can now be opened in Datasette starting from the Finder using "Right Click -> Open With -> Datasette". #40
• Recently opened .db and .csv files can now be accessed from the new "File -> Open Recent" menu. Thanks, Kapilan M! #54
• A new Debug menu can be enabled using Datasette -> About Datasette -> Enable Debug Menu".

See Datasette Desktop 0.2.0: The annotated release notes for more background on the new features and how they work.

If you have already installed Datasette you should delete Datasette from your /Applications folder before installing this.