Mathesar 0.2.2 Release

We’re excited to introduce Mathesar 0.2.2! This release improves primary key handling, adds a new UUID type, and adds paste support to streamline data editing. There are also a number of small bug fixes and improvements.

Please see our release notes for all of the changes and instructions on how to upgrade. Here are some highlights of what's new:

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Inserting records when the primary key has no default value

Previously, Mathesar required a default value to be set on the primary key column in order to insert records. However there are some valid use cases for primary keys without default values, such as a TEXT column that receives a manually-supplied value on each insert. In 0.2.2 Mathesar now allows you to insert records into such tables by entering the primary key values during the insert.

Configuring primary keys during import

When importing existing data, Mathesar automatically generates a primary key column. Previously, importing a simple CSV like:

First Name,Last Name
Jane,Park
Steve,Smith
Laura,Stein
Amy,Richards

would result in Mathesar automatically adding an integer "id" primary key column that auto-increments by default.

That's still the default behavior. But now, you can choose the type of generated primary key column: either an auto-incrementing integer or a UUID column with a default value of a random UUIDv4:

Additionally, you can now designate any existing column as the primary key. If you select a UUID or Number column, you’ll have the option to apply the same default value settings that Mathesar uses for generated primary key columns.

Configuring primary keys when creating tables from scratch

When creating new tables in Mathesar, you'll now have the option to set the name and type of your primary key column:

As when importing data, you can choose between an auto-incrementing integer or a UUID column with a default value of a random UUIDv4.

Pasting data into multiple Mathesar cells

Mathesar now supports pasting, making it easy to update multiple cells across multiple rows and/or columns in one go. It automatically handles type conversions, so you can paste data from different formats without hassle. Linked column references work just like any other value. You can also copy-paste multiple cells from a variety of other spreadsheet applications directly into Mathesar.

To paste cells that you've copied, select the top-left cell of the cell range in Mathesar where you want to paste. Then use your system's keyboard shortcut to paste — ⌘ Command+V on macOS, or Ctrl+V on Windows and Linux.

You'll see a confirmation dialog:

After choosing "paste", your selected rows will be updated with the new values.

Improved support for UUID types

We've elevated PostgreSQL's uuid data type to be a fully-supported type from within Mathesar.

• As mentioned in the sections above, you can now configure UUID primary keys for tables created via import and from scratch.
• UUID columns now display with an appropriate icon and column type label.
• Hexadecimal serialization of UUIDs in CSV data will be inferred to the UUID type during import.
• When searching and filtering records, you can now enter a substring of a UUID hexadecimal representation.
• You can now add UUID columns to existing tables from Mathesar. (However you cannot yet define dynamic defaults for those columns from within Mathesar.)

Here’s the link to our Release Notes again if you’d like to see the full list of all changes and bugfixes.

We need your feedback!

It's still early days for Mathesar's beta and we're aiming to increase our production usage. We would really appreciate it if you could try this release and share your thoughts on how Mathesar is working for you.

If you have 20 minutes, please schedule a call using this link - we're happy to offer you a $25 gift card for your time.

Or, if you'd prefer to provide feedback in written form, please email us at hello@mathesar.org. Thank you!