To Snowsight or Not To Snowsight - TAKE #2 - May 2022: 

 

Back in October 2021, I published my original take on reasons why to move to Snowsight. It is in GA but based on my LinkedIn Polls and other DSH chatter, Snowsight is still not being embraced by many experienced Snowflake users it seems. I think if some of these changes below are made then users will begin to embrace the new interface!

 

ORIGINAL POLL ON LINKEDIN:	MAY 2022 POLL ON LINKEDIN:
October 2021 102 Votes - Classic Console wins at 54% to 46% against Snowsight	May 2022 53 Votes - Classic Console wins at 55% to 45% against Snowsight - 8 months later

 

In my original Snowsight Article, I made a case that the new functionality in Snowsight makes it much better to use than the Classic Console Especially in these departments: Autosuggest/AutoComplete, Versioning, Sharing Worksheets, and Dashboards. These features take Snowflake's ease of use related to query and code collaboration to a much higher level of efficiency and collaboration.

All of that being said, I still see a huge resistance to using Snowsight in the Data Superhero (DSH) community and among experienced Snowflake Internal Sales Engineers. I guess part of the reason is that humans have a tough time with change. The other issue though is some MAJOR "inefficiencies" and "transparency" issues with Snowsight have been occurring in the last few months.

So, this grid below goes in-depth on the differences between Snowsight and Classic Console. In some cases, I consider that the Classic Console still outperforms Snowsight, but hopefully, the guys at Snowflake are working hard to improve these issues.

 

Snowflake versus Classic Console [May 2022]

Web Interface Functionality	Classic Console	Snowsight	Comments
Show SQL based on GUI Form	WINNER		One of the great features of the Snowflake Classic Console was you could start creating just about any object in the GUI and then get the code syntax by using the Show SQL functionality.  Why this was left out of Snowsight seems like a tragic miss.
Create Procedure Example Listing Procedures		WINNER	Classic Console doesn’t have this functionality.
Create Function Example Listing Functions		WINNER	Classic Console doesn’t have this functionality.
Create Task Example Listing Tasks		WINNER	Classic Console doesn’t have this functionality.
Create Pipe Example Listing Pipes		WINNER	Classic Console doesn’t have this functionality.
Create Stage Example		WINNER	Classic Console doesn’t have this functionality.
Create Table Example		WINNER	Classic Console doesn’t have this functionality.
Create View Example		WINNER	Classic Console doesn’t have this functionality.
Usage Reporting	WINNER		While Snowsight has many more screens and better reports, the fact that it has default misleading reports and bugs makes the Classic Console the winner here.
Dependability	WINNER		Sadly, Snowsight still has weird bugs that happen all the time and you often come to a screen with an endless spinner.
New Worksheet Navigation		WINNER	One nice new feature of Snowsight is you can open worksheets in new windows.  This was not possible in the Classic Console.  Also, you could not share links with others.
Worksheet Sharing		WINNER	This is one of my favorite features of Snowsight.  This is not possible within the Classic Console.
Dashboards and Dashboard Sharing		WINNER	Dashboards are not in the Classic Console
Auto-Complete		WINNER	This is another one of my favorite features of Snowsight.
Executing highlighted code correctly	WINNER		Sadly, Snowsight often takes code above or below the highlighted code and tries to execute it which results in errors.  It becomes annoying.
Failure Reporting	WINNER		Sadly, Snowsight within the query history does a horrible job of surfacing the error while the Classic Console easily displays an error with 1 click.  So so so much better and makes troubleshooting on Snowsight ...  pretty much suck ...

 

Conclusion:

 

There you have it. This is just a highlight of features that I care about. Let me know what you think and what features you still love on the Classic Console work better there than on Snowsight.

To Snowsight or Not To Snowsight:

Back in June 2021, I was writing a chapter for our new Snowflake Essentials Book on the Snowflake Web User Interface. I intentionally delayed writing that chapter, expecting that Snowsight would be the primary Snowflake Web User Interface as part of Snow Summit 2021. Although that didn't happen, I quickly realized that, given the circumstances and the timelines for the Snowflake Essentials book, I needed to write two separate chapters in the book to cover both the Snowflake Classic Console UI and the Preview App (Snowsight).

As I was writing Chapter 5 – Snowsight, I wondered if Snowsight was now ready to be used as the primary interface with the new changes. The UI changes that came in June/July 2021 finally made Snowsight better than ever before. Before June 2021, it was missing just too many features and the navigation was incredibly inefficient.

The new functionality in Snowsight makes it much better to use now versus the Classic Console (Autosuggest/AutoComplete, Versioning, Sharing Worksheets and Dashboards) These features enhance Snowflake's ease of use in query and code collaboration, increasing efficiency and collaboration. While many of us who have worked with the Classic Console for years may be accustomed to it, it's time for us to learn new UIs because the Classic Console has its limitations, particularly around sharing code and versioning. However, as of October 2021, Snowsight still has a few clunky problems you need to be aware of when switching over. We are working with the Snowsight Product Management team to get these issues fixed, so hopefully, it will happen sooner rather than later.

Let’s cover the amazing new features in Snowsight first and then cover both the Classic Console and Snowsight.

Top Snowsight Improvements:

Here’s an article by Veronika Durgin on Medium where she gives her feedback on Snowsight, the Snowflake Web Interface.

However, here's my perspective:

1. AutoSuggest & AutoComplete

My vote by far is that the combination of what I call AutoSuggest and AutoComplete is a huge improvement and probably has already saved thousands of hours of errors and misspellings of tons of functions, tables, views, procedures, schemas, etc. This is significant and not found in the Classic version.

2. Collaboration

Collaboration is the future. While I still love using the Classic Console, it unfortunately lacks any collaboration capabilities. With Snowsight, I now have the ability to easily share Worksheets, which is huge for me because it allows me to collaborate on queries or help others with their Snowflake work - assuming we are in the same account. I'm hoping that at some point, we will be able to share it with other accounts as well.

3. Visualizations

Visualizations and Collaborations - Using Dashboards. To be frank, when Snowflake first previewed their dashboards in 2020, I didn't find them compelling. After all, I already had tools like Sigma and Tableau that could perform all of those functions, so it was confusing to see this new feature without core administration features. The preview app wasn't fully functional for anyone doing real Snowflake administration until roughly June 2021.

4. Versioning of all Queries

Versioning of queries is a feature available in Snowsight that allows users to save and track different versions of their SQL queries. This feature allows users to easily revert to previous versions of their queries, compare different versions, and collaborate more efficiently with others. It is a significant improvement over the Classic Console, which lacks any versioning capabilities.

 

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Snowsight is an exciting new addition to the Snowflake Web User Interface that offers many valuable improvements over the Classic Console. With features like AutoSuggest and AutoComplete, collaboration capabilities, and query versioning, Snowsight is a more efficient and effective tool for working with Snowflake. While there are still some clunky problems that need to be addressed, Snowsight is definitely worth exploring for anyone who wants to optimize their Snowflake experience.

If you want more information on Snowflake updates be sure to check out our blog for more news.