Superset Repo Update: August 2025

Hello Superset community!

We're excited to share another packed month of improvements to Apache Superset. August 2025 (thus far) brought in an impressive 192 PRs merged, bringing significant enhancements across the platform. Actually, this edition is a bit early, since the month ends on a holiday weekend, so we may get a few more... but I digress. This update covers everything from powerful new features like SQL expression validation and dataset timeshifts to important bug fixes for CSV exports and theming improvements. Let's dive into what's new!

User-Facing Improvements

UI/UX Enhancements

Improved Query Display in Explore - Fixed undefined errors when viewing queries in Explore mode, with enhanced visual consistency for buttons and icons. PR #34869

Better Dark Mode Support - Multiple improvements for dark mode users:

• Series chart labels are now clearly readable with proper text color PR #34815
• Native filters empty state has improved contrast PR #34812
• Visualization creator tags have better visibility PR #34811

Dashboard Tab Improvements - Fixed highlight alignment and anchor link positioning issues in dashboard tabs, creating a more polished experience. PR #34843, PR #34602

Chart Background Options - The "White" background option has been renamed to "Solid" to better support theming across light and dark modes. PR #34655

Filter Bar Orientation Fix - The "Orientation of filter bar" submenu no longer stays permanently highlighted, providing a cleaner interface experience. PR #34900

Data Handling & Export

Unicode Support in CSV Exports - CSV exports now properly handle Unicode characters including Chinese, Arabic, and other international text. This fix ensures data integrity when exporting reports with multilingual content. PR #34802

Improved CSV Upload Performance - Significant performance improvements for CSV uploads through:

• Increased chunk size for reduced I/O overhead
• PyArrow engine support with automatic fallback
• Better encoding detection supporting UTF-8, Latin-1, CP1252, and ISO-8859-1
• Smart engine selection based on file characteristics PR #34603

Dataset Export Enhancements - Dataset exports now include the dataset ID in filenames, preventing overwrites when exporting datasets with identical names. PR #34782

Visualization Features

New Matrixify Feature - Create small multiples (trellis charts) from any Superset visualization! This powerful feature allows comparing metrics across dimensions in a grid layout, similar to Tableau's Trellis charts. PR #34526

Time Series Enhancements:

• Fixed bar chart X-axis time formatting that was stuck on "adaptive" mode PR #34436
• Improved label handling for time series with multiple time shifts PR #34541
• Added support for date range timeshifts, allowing comparisons like "Compare Jan 2024 with June 15-July 15, 2023" PR #34375

Table Chart Improvements:

• Fixed percentage metric column display in Customize Columns PR #34175
• Server-side pagination now works correctly on dashboards PR #34660
• Added string conditional formatting with "begins with", "ends with", "containing", and "not containing" operators PR #34330
• Fixed BigInt value rendering in raw mode PR #34556

DeckGL Enhancements:

• Added cross-filter indication for selected elements PR #34322
• Fixed aggregated chart rendering issues PR #34690
• Added dark mode map tiles support via CartoDB PR #34697

Performance & Speed

SQL Lab Performance:

• Query History now shows actual execution duration instead of including queue time PR #34511
• Reduced tab re-rendering caused by ID updates during synchronization PR #34720
• Fixed invisible grid table issues caused by invalid height calculations PR #34683

Dashboard Performance:

• Fullscreen mode toggling now uses React Router for smoother transitions PR #34857
• Improved undo/redo functionality for layout changes PR #34777

Internationalization

Translation Improvements:

• Fixed time-related strings like "7 seconds ago" to properly translate when switching languages PR #34051
• Updated Russian translations with better quality and consistency PR #34005
• Improved capitalization standards across UI text PR #34508

Developer Experience

SQL Expression Validation - New real-time validation for SQL expressions with visual feedback, helping users catch syntax errors early. PR #34642

New Extensions Architecture - Foundation for plugin development with new CLI tools for building and managing extensions. PR #31934

Enhanced Documentation:

• New Developer Portal with comprehensive guides for extending Superset PR #34271
• Multi-versioning support for documentation sections
• Improved API documentation with missing schema definitions PR #33202

Drilling in Embedded Mode - Added secure drilling capabilities (Drill to Detail and Drill By) in embedded dashboards with proper permission controls. PR #34319

Additional Bug Fixes

Charts

• Fixed ECharts aggregator issues with BigInt values PR #34580
• Resolved bar chart crashes when switching from Big Number visualization PR #34671
• Fixed missing executed SQL values in SQL Lab results table PR #34846
• Corrected pie chart total positioning with different legend placements PR #34435
• Fixed heatmap x-axis label rotation PR #34239
• Restored initial chart animations in ECharts PR #34516

Dashboards

• Fixed cross-filter scoping references during dashboard import/export PR #34418
• Resolved description height issues causing x-axis cutoff PR #33843
• Fixed native filter errors with BigInt values PR #34539
• Corrected pivot table Excel export to select the right chart PR #34793

Data Sources

• Fixed Presto column type information display PR #34304
• Resolved DuckDB numeric type recognition PR #34743
• Added proper error handling for missing database tables PR #34584, PR #32640
• Fixed Athena boolean filter SQL syntax PR #34598

Under the Hood

Performance Optimizations

• Migrated from react-color to AntD ColorPicker for better theming support PR #34712
• Increased webpack TypeScript checker memory limit PR #34653
• Improved bootstrap data handling for missing application root PR #34680

Code Refactoring

• Completed migration from deprecated theme colors to Ant Design semantic tokens PR #34732
• Standardized Flask configuration access patterns PR #34345
• Refactored menu components to use Ant Design 5's items prop PR #34536

Testing Improvements

• Added pytest support to docker-compose-light.yml PR #34373
• Enhanced test coverage for EncryptedField component PR #34442
• Modernized Chart List tests with Jest/React Testing Library PR #34393

Build System Updates

• Updated base Docker image to Debian 13 (trixie) PR #34821
• Added Python 3.12 Docker images PR #34853
• Downgraded pyarrow to v16 for compatibility PR #34693

Security & Reliability

Security Enhancements:

• Fixed cache timeout logic to properly handle -1 values (bypass cache) PR #34654
• Enhanced error handling for screenshot generation PR #34801
• Improved security for user-provided Jinja template parameters PR #34802
• Fixed TableSchemaView permissions to align with SQL Lab role PR #32340

Reliability Improvements:

• Fixed MessageChannel mocking in tests to prevent Jest hanging PR #34871, PR #34878
• Added proper database revision checks during initialization PR #34679
• Fixed release script variable initialization order PR #21083

Breaking(ish) Changes

While August brought many improvements, there were minimal breaking changes:

• ENVIRONMENT_TAG_CONFIG color values now only support Ant Design semantic colors ("success", "processing", "error", "warning", "default") - custom hex colors are no longer supported PR #34536

Looking Ahead

This month's updates demonstrate Superset's continued evolution toward a more powerful, accessible, and developer-friendly BI platform. The new Matrixify feature opens up exciting visualization possibilities, while the SQL expression validation and extensions architecture lay important groundwork for future enhancements.

The numerous bug fixes and performance improvements show the community's commitment to stability and user experience. We're particularly excited about the internationalization improvements that make Superset more accessible to users worldwide.

Community Contributors

We're grateful to ALL 52 contributors who made this release possible!

• @kgabryje (17 PRs)
• @justinpark (11 PRs)
• @mistercrunch (7 PRs)
• @michael-s-molina (5 PRs)
• @sadpandajoe (4 PRs)
• @msyavuz (3 PRs)
• @github-actions[bot] (2 PRs)
• @Vitor-Avila (2 PRs)
• @betodealmeida (2 PRs)
• @eschutho (2 PRs)
• @rusackas (2 PRs)
• @rebenitez1802 (2 PRs)
• @yousoph (2 PRs)

Contributors with 1 PR:
@amaannawab923, @alekseyolg, @PolinaFam, @SBIN2010, @DamianPendrak, @LevisNgigi, @villebro, @richardfogaca, @gabotorresruiz, @dpgaspar, @kasiazjc, @geido, @drummerwolli, @oscep, @trentontrees, @martyngigg, @abhinav-1305, @natilehrer, @dogfootruler-kr, @codenamelxl, @hainenber, @xneg

First-Time Contributors:
Welcome to our new contributors who made their first PR to Superset! 🎉

• @Joel-Haeberli
• @dankor
• @brandon-kaplan
• @padbk
• @prochac

Get Involved

Want to contribute to Apache Superset? Check out our contributing guide and join our vibrant community on Slack.

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