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Changelog

Note

Release candidates are not included in this changelog; there may be more recent changes described in the release notes on GitHub.

v0.7.1 (June 2026)

Minor release with bug fixes and usability improvements relative to v0.7.0. Highlights include:

  • better handling of item versioning with respect to scripted updates that may not actually change the item data,
  • electrochemistry block now reprocesses properly in async mode when its source file is updated,
  • item graph layout and UI optimisations to prevent complex graphs locking up the app,
  • better mobile scaling for the edit page navbar
  • improved sharing UI with clear distinction between read and write permissions

What's Changed

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.7.0...v0.7.1

v0.7.0 (May 2026)

This is a major release with significant new functionality, refined over many months and pre-releases. This release roughly coincides with the publication of our preprint on datalab, available from ChemRxiv:

Matthew L. Evans, Joshua D. Bocarsly, Benjamin Charmes, Ben E. Smith, Gian-Marco Rignanese, David Waroquiers, Clare P. Grey, datalab: Federated data management infrastructure for materials chemistry and beyond, ChemRxiv (2026). DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv.15001945/v1

The headline changes are:

  • Users can now be assigned to groups, and groups can be given read permissions over different items and collections
  • ELN file format exports: collections, items and subgraphs of an item's relationships can now be exported in a single .eln zip file, with all attached data and metadata.
  • Revision control of items: updating an item now triggers a version snapshot, which can be rolled back to at any time.
  • New plugin build system for easier customisation of datalab instances.
  • Item models:
    • Status fields for items (e.g., active, disposed, planned, ordered)
    • New substance fields and UI for recording hazards and chemical identifiers (CAS, SMILES, Inchi, InchiKey)
  • Data block updates:
    • New measurement types:
      • Cyclic voltammetry,
      • XPS,
    • Support for new file formats:
      • Battery Data Format (BDF) for time-series cycling data,
      • Bruker's .raw and .brml files for XRD,
      • Neware cycler Excel exports,
      • JEOL's NMR format,
      • BioLogic .mpr for EIS measurements,
      • .vgd files for XPS.
    • The NMR block now supports auto-phasing and processing of raw FID data.
  • An experimental backend for processing block data asynchronously (see Asynchronous Processing).

In addition, there are several new plugins available, many of which can be found on the GitHub datalab-plugins topic.

There is also a new tool called beholder which can be configured to perform automated data capture, as well as several improvements to the cloud deployment rules at datalab-ansible-terraform.

What's Changed

New Contributors

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.6.7...v0.7.0

v0.6.7 (December 2025)

Another patch release with several UI usability improvements, with highlights including:

  • Migration from TinyMCE to TipTap for all free text editors, which features mermaid diagram editing, cross-referencing and markdown support.
  • QR codes can now be generated for samples that give public access to sample data to those that scan them.
  • Multiple electrochemical cycling files can now be plotted alongside one another in "comparison mode" for the echem block.
  • Clicking on the sample table will now open in the current tab by default, with modified click opening in a new tab.
  • The media data block now supports SVG files for vector graphics and plots.
  • Rule-based chemical formula formatting has been expanded to cover more cases.
  • Admins can now assign managers to users through the UI alone, and will now receive email notifications when a user registers, plus users can now verify their contact email addresses via magic links.
  • Email authentication no longer requires a global allow list of domains.

What's Changed

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.6.6...v0.6.7

v0.6.6 (November 2025)

This patch release includes several quality-of-life changes (asynchronous loading of item relationships, filtering by date in the sample table, chemical formula formatting, block plotting improvements), as well as new block options (in situ XRD, extensions to FTIR to Shimazdu output files), in preparation for the upcoming 0.7.0 release.

What's Changed

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.6.5...v0.6.6

v0.6.5 (October 2025)

This patch releases includes several quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes, including improvements to full-text search, file permissions and the item relationship graph.

What's Changed

New Contributors

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.6.4...v0.6.5

v0.6.4 (September 2025)

This patch release simply fixes a few UI bugs introduced in v0.6.3 (and earlier). It also signifies the adoption of the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct (v2).

What's Changed

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.6.3...v0.6.4

v0.6.3 (September 2025)

This patch release primarily improves block serialization performance and extensibility, as well as improving error handling for both developers and users.

Warning

This release hardens the SECRET_KEY configuration to enforce setting a custom key with a minimum entropy; old keys may need to be rotated.

What's Changed

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.6.2...v0.6.3

v0.6.2 (August 2025)

This patch release adds a hotfix for broken media blocks when encoding TIF files (datalab-org/datalab#1318).

What's Changed

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.6.1...v0.6.2

v0.6.1 (August 2025)

This patch release adds an API config option CONFIG.ROOT_PATH to allow deployments to easily serve the API under a subpath (e.g., \api) on the same subdomain as the app. It also features a new validation model for block data, which should currently have no user-facing effects, but will allow for more formal extensions of block schemas in the future.

What's Changed

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.6.0...v0.6.1

v0.6.0 (August 2025)

This release includes significant new functionality and UI redesign, a
fledgling plugin ecosystem, as well as several bug and quality-of-life fixes, performance improvements and backwards-compatible API enhancements.

Warning

This release also bumps the supported MongoDB version all the way from v3 to v8. Whilst older MongoDB versions should still continue to work, version 8 will now be tested and used in the docker builds, so we recommend you upgrade. For existing databases this requires you to first dump the database using mongodump with the old MongoDB version, then upgrade to the new version and restore the database with mongorestore. If you unsure about this process then please ask us for help!

Highlights

  • Extra functionality for all data tables: column selection, persistent user preferences and improved filtering.
  • Improved inventory management: native UI for hazard labels, CAS numbers and external barcodes, complementing the first release of the datalab-cheminventory-plugin for two-way sync with cheminventory.net.
  • Starting materials can now also have synthesis information recorded for them.
  • New blocks for UV-Vis data and in situ NMR data (developed in separate core plugin at datalab-app-plugin-insitu), as well as new file formats supported in the XRD (Rigaku's .rasx, variants of .xy), NMR (JCAMP-DX) blocks and media block (PDF documents).
  • A fledgling plugin ecosystem with ways to easily add new blocks to a specific datalab instance (docs), with datalab-server PyPI package for easier dependency management.
  • Improved item search throughout the API, removing the need to search on whitespace or punctuation delimited words (e.g., ID matches will now begin after just 3 characters, rather than needing to type a full ID).
  • More powerful UI block interactions via "events" that can be written purely Python (docs).

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.5.2...v0.6.0

v0.5.2 (March 2025)

This patch release makes several visual/interactivity improvements around loading states in the UI, and adds two new blocks: FTIR and a tabular data block for plotting data from within generic CSV/Excel files.

What's Changed

New Contributors

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.5.1...v0.5.2

v0.5.1 (January 2025)

This patch release simply pins the uv version used in builds to avoid future breakages.

What's Changed

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.5.0...v0.5.1

v0.5.0 (December 2024)

This release is long overdue following the 8 pre-releases. The 0.5.x series now provides a stable base for us to begin some major overhauling of how we handle custom schemas and data blocks, both of which will form the basis of 0.6.x in the new year.

The Ansible playbooks at datalab-ansible-terraform and the Python API package at datalab-api already both support this release.

Many thanks to all contributors: developers, user feedback and deployment managers!

Breaking changes

  • The Python server has been entirely repackaged with uv for much more streamlined dependency management (especially for external plugins). If you are using the docker deployments, then nothing should change for you, but developers may need to adjust their development setups following the installation instructions.

Highlights

  • The table component used to display all items has been entirely rewritten, and is now more visually responsive and can accommodate custom schemas/components.
  • QR code generation and scanning for all items, optionally using the new datalab pURL service when configured with VUE_APP_QR_CODE_RESOLVER_URL.
  • Following from the block info from the last release, the API now reports the schemas it is using at /info/types, ready for these to become more easily configurable at the deployment level. The edit page and item table are beginning to dynamically use this information.
  • Improvements to the collections UI, allowing items to be added to collections more easily after creation.
  • Ability to selectively share items with certain users; this will soon be expanded to user groups and projects (via collections) with configurable defaults.
  • Several bug fixes to the UI, API (timezone consistency, tweaks to the LLM integration, better handling of permissions edge cases)
  • Ease-of-use features and new configuration options for deployments.

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.4.4...v0.5.0

v0.4.4 (August 2024)

This release primarily contains some bugfixes for the echem block, as well as tidying in preparation of the next release.

What's Changed

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.4.3...v0.4.4

v0.4.3 (July 2024)

This release simply re-enables Firefox testing in the CI, and reorganises the associated cloud runs.

What's Changed

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.4.2...v0.4.3

v0.4.2 (July 2024)

This release adds an update to the batch item creation UI to include other item types, and includes a new preview of the tabular UI which can be accessed at the path /next, as well as several UI tweaks and fixes.

What's Changed

Full Changelog: github.com/datalab-org/datalab/compare/v0.4.1...v0.4.2

v0.4.1 (July 2024)

This minor release adds some quality-of-life fixes to the UI, a new cell format type "in situ (optical)" and tweaks to our development workflow.

What's Changed

Full Changelog: github.com/the-grey-group/datalab/compare/v0.4.0...v0.4.1

v0.4.0 (June 2024)

This release of datalab contains significant new functionality whilst broadly maintaining compatibility with the 0.3.x series.

It is also accompanied by the first release of the datalab Python API package (datalab-org/datalab-api), as well as the first release of the Ansible playbooks and Terraform rules (Azure only, for now) to automated datalab deployments (datalab-org/datalab-ansible-terraform).

Special thanks go to @vrajpatel9988 and especially @BenjaminCharmes who both made their first contributions to datalab in this release!

Highlights

  • User accounts: users can now update their name and contact info, as well as connect external accounts and regenerate API keys directly from the web UI. The ability to login via ORCID is now enabled by default (but must be configured at the instance level).
  • Admin dashboard: adds the ability for admins to do user management from the UI directly.
  • Electrochemistry block: support for Neware file formats, MPR files written by ECLab > 11.50 and cyclic voltammetry data.
  • Equipment: A new entry type has been added to record the equipment in the lab used for certain operations
  • Better default permissions on inventories: users can now create and edit inventory entries without requiring an admin.
  • Automatic random IDs: The ability to generate random IDs for new samples was added, allowing datalab to be used as the source of IDs.
  • Enhanced block-level documentation in the UI, and dynamic syncing of block-type metadata for improved extensibility.
  • Added the admin ability to verify all user accounts before they can use datalab.
  • General improvements to block error reporting and reactivity, as well as several bug fixes.

Notes for upgrading to v0.4.0

  • Users now have an "unverified" status by default. For some deployments, this may require an admin to first self-verify their account directly with a database update ("account_status" -> "active"), after which they can verify all other users in the UI.
  • The data mount point of the database container in the default ./docker-compose.yml has changed to use /data/db on the host system. Deployments using this configuration should be careful to backup and restore from their existing database, or continue to use the docker volume approach (feel free to raise an issue with any questions).
  • Similarly, the development set up has changed slightly and may need to be remade after upgrading.

What's Changed

New Contributors

Full Changelog: github.com/the-grey-group/datalab/compare/v0.3.2...v0.4.0

v0.3.2 (February 2024)

This is a build hotfix for 0.3.x, where the incorrect versions of navani and galvani were being installed in docker builds (leading to missing support for ECLab >= 11.50).

What's Changed

Full Changelog: github.com/the-grey-group/datalab/compare/v0.3.1...v0.3.2

v0.3.1 (February 2024)

This release makes a few fixes relative to 0.3.0, primarily around file uploads and internal database storage.

It also adds the ability for data blocks to pass errors and warnings to the front-end, which can be useful for helping describe incompatibilities in data, analysis or plotting dynamically.

What's Changed

Full Changelog: github.com/the-grey-group/datalab/compare/v0.3.0...v0.3.1

v0.3.0 (Feburary 2024)

This is the long overdue v0.3.0 release of datalab, which coincides with many new deployments popping up. It is strongly recommended to upgrade and continue to keep up-to-date with releases as they come out. There are no intentional breaking changes between this release and the previous release candidates, so please report any issues you come across on the GitHub issue tracker.

Thanks to new contributor @elbee99 who has added support for Raman spectroscopy, plus new contributors with as-of-yet unreleased changes!

Highlights

  • Support for Biologic data files created with the most recent versions of ECLab 11.50+, plus enhanced support for Arbin data files
  • A new 1D Raman block that can parse both Renishaw WDF and Oxford Instrument's spectra
  • Ability to group samples and other entries into collections
  • Support for new authentication methods, such as magic links via email
  • Significant refactoring and modularization to ease the process of new contributions
  • Simplified deployment procedure via Docker
  • Automated snapshot backups

What's changed?

New Contributors

Full Changelog: github.com/the-grey-group/datalab/compare/v0.2.5...v0.3.0