March 2022¶

Snowpark Stored Procedures for Java — Preview¶

With this release, we are pleased to announce support for Snowpark stored procedures for Java, which allows you to write stored procedures in Java using the Snowpark API.

In your stored procedure, you can use the Snowpark API for Java to host your data pipelines in Snowflake. For example, you can write stored procedures in cases where you need to execute your Snowpark code without running a client application (e.g. from a task).

For more information, see Writing stored procedures in Java.

Snowpark API for Java — Preview¶

With this release, we are pleased to announce the preview of the Snowpark API for Java.

Snowpark is a new developer experience that provides an intuitive API for querying and processing data in a data pipeline. Using this library, you can build applications that process data in Snowflake without moving data to the system where your application code runs.

Preview features are intended for evaluation and testing purposes, and are not recommended for use in production.

For more information, see Snowpark API.

SCIM Updates: Support for Password Synchronization¶

With this release, Snowflake adds support to enable or disable synchronizing passwords from Okta as part of a SCIM API request to Snowflake.

For details, see CREATE SECURITY INTEGRATION & ALTER SECURITY INTEGRATION: New SCIM SYNC_PASSWORD Property (in these release notes).

CREATE SECURITY INTEGRATION & ALTER SECURITY INTEGRATION: New SCIM SYNC_PASSWORD Property¶

With this release, the Okta and Custom SCIM security integrations support the SYNC_PASSWORD property to allow user passwords to synchronize from the SCIM client to Snowflake:

• If the property is set to TRUE and password synchronization is enabled in Okta, password synchronization occurs. If not specified in the CREATE SECURITY INTEGRATION statement, the default value is TRUE.

• If the property is set to FALSE, password synchronization does not occur.

Note the following:

• Password synchronization using this property is not supported for Microsoft Azure SCIM integrations because Microsoft Azure does not support password synchronization. To request support, please contact Microsoft Azure.

• Synchronizing passwords could potentially allow a user to bypass SSO to Snowflake, if SSO is enabled. Prior to enabling the SYNC_PASSWORD property, contact your internal administrator to ensure that password synchronization does not interfere with SSO to Snowflake.

ALTER PIPE Command: Support Added for Tags¶

With this release, Snowflake adds support to set a tag on a pipe with the corresponding ALTER PIPE statement:

Snowflake SQL API — General Availability¶

With this release, Snowflake is pleased to announce the general availability of the Snowflake SQL API. The Snowflake SQL API is a REST API that you can use to access and update data in a Snowflake database via SQL.

Latency and Concurrency Improvements — General Availability¶

With this release, we are pleased to announce the general availability of latency and concurrency improvements in all regions. These changes improve concurrent query processing and throughput, and facilitate faster query execution. For customers with interactive use cases, a dashboard or a data application for example, these changes improve data freshness and reduce query latency. These improvements are enabled for all warehouses by default.

For more details, see the Snowflake blog.

Detection of Column Definitions in Staged Apache Parquet, Apache Avro, or ORC Files — General Availability¶

With this release, we are pleased to announce the general availability of support for retrieving the column definitions from a set of files in cloud storage containing semi-structured data. The column definitions include the names and data types of columns in the files. Use the column definitions to simplify the creation of standard landing tables, external tables, or views to query the data.

Note that this feature is still limited to Apache Parquet, Apache Avro, and ORC files.

Streams on Views — Preview¶

With this release, table streams have been extended to track change data capture (CDC) records for views, including secure views. Note that materialized views are not supported.

Currently, streams are limited to views that satisfy the following requirements:

• All of the underlying tables must be native tables.

• The view may only apply the following operations:

  • Projections

  • Filters

  • Inner or cross joins

  • UNION ALL

For more information about the streams on views requirements, see Introduction to Streams.

Data consumers can create streams on secure views shared using Snowflake Secure Data Sharing. This feature enables data consumers to track data manipulation language (DML) changes made in the shared views. Before changes to a shared view can be tracked, the data provider must explicitly enable change tracking for the source view. Data consumers can then create one or more table streams on the shared view in their own account.

Note that table streams are generally available, but the functionality to track changes in views is currently in preview. Preview features are intended for evaluation and testing purposes, and are not recommended for use in production.

Directory Tables and External Tables: Refresh Metadata Automatically Using Google Pub/Sub¶

With this release, you can configure automatic metadata refreshes of directory tables or external tables that point to cloud storage locations in Google Cloud Storage. A refresh synchronizes the object metadata with the changes to the set of associated files in the external stage and path. The refresh operation can be triggered automatically by object create or object remove events using the Google Pub/Sub event notification service.

To configure automatic metadata refreshes for a directory table or external table, set the AUTO_REFRESH = TRUE parameter for the object: a stage on which a directory table is layered or an external table. The parameter can be set when the object is created (using CREATE <object>), or later (using ALTER <object>). Create an event notification for your storage location through Google Pub/Sub to notify Snowflake when data files are created or removed.

Prior to this release, the object owner (i.e. the role that has the OWNERSHIP privilege on the stage or external table), or a higher role, had to update the directory table or external table metadata manually (using ALTER STAGE … REFRESH or ALTER EXTERNAL TABLE … REFRESH, respectively).

Object Tagging: Support Added for Pipes¶

With this release, Snowflake is pleased to announce a new object that can be tagged:

Schema-level object: Pipe

For more information, see ALTER PIPE Command: Support Added for Tags (in this topic).

New Location for the Connector, Driver, and Library Release Notes¶

Starting with the January 2022 releases, all release note information for connectors, drivers and libraries is now published on the Snowflake Community site. The Snowflake connector, driver, and library monthly releases lists the updated versions of these components by month.

For release note information for versions prior to January 2022, see the release notes for the Snowflake server releases.