What's new
Learn about the latest features, improvements and bug fixes in our product.
Last updated
Learn about the latest features, improvements and bug fixes in our product.
Last updated
This page will always reflect the latest changes in the CARTO platform. Older release notes will be archived and are available in the left menu and the search bar.
December 13th, 2024
Improvement Workspace
We've introduced several improvements to help Admins of organizations using SSO groups manage them more effectively. Admins can now view the composition of groups, search for specific users within them, and delete unused groups. Additionally, we've implemented a new method to synchronize only a subset of groups into CARTO. For more details, visit our article on SSO Groups.
December 4th, 2024
Improvement Data Observatory
We’re thrilled to announce a major update to the CARTO Data Observatory catalog! The new version introduces a completely redesigned interface, making it easier than ever to browse and discover spatial datasets. Whether you're searching for demographic insights, mobility or environmental data, the improved catalog helps you navigate a vast array of options with greater clarity and efficiency.
In addition to the new design, the updated catalog now includes richer metadata for each dataset. You can access detailed descriptions, links to product documentation, Frequently Asked Questions, and relevant use-cases for each product, enabling more informed decision-making when assessing external datasets to enrich your geospatial analysis.
Log in today to explore the new Data Observatory catalog and unlock the full potential of your projects! Access more information about the Data Observatory in our product documentation.
November 24th, 2024
New CARTO for Developers
There are no trade-offs between simplicity, flexibility and security: developers using CARTO can now use Named Sources to avoid exposing the SQL queries used under the hood in their applications, and without necessarily having to add additional backend or proxy services.
Developers can manage their Named Sources manually via UI or programmatically via API. To get started with Named Sources, check the documentation and the developer guides.
November 21st, 2024
New Deployment Methods
You can now deploy your own instance of CARTO fully inside of Snowflake, as a Native App using Snowflake-managed Container Services.
From additional security benefits (from a closed environment within Snowflake) to streamlined installation, there are multiple reasons to be excited about this new deployment method, currently in BETA for specific customers.
Learn more about deploying CARTO within Snowflake using Container Services in our documentation or read about it in our blog post.
November 21st, 2024
New Builder
Builder users can now modify the location or connection of data sources directly in Builder without breaking the map configuration. This ensures that maps retain their overall configuration, as long as the fields in the updated data source have the same name and type.
For map components such as style properties, widgets, or interactions that rely on properties not found in the updated data source, the configuration will gracefully fall back to its default settings, ensuring the map remains functional.
This functionality allows users to repurpose their maps effortlessly, even when the data source location in their data warehouse changes—eliminating the need to recreate maps from scratch. Learn more in our documentation.
November 11th, 2024
New Builder
Admin users can now define custom color palettes for their CARTO organization, removing the need to manually add custom color styling in each new Builder map individually. This is a quick and easy way to apply styles consistently across various maps, available to all Editors within an organization.
Custom color palettes can be created from the Settings and are applied directly in CARTO Builder. For more information, see our article on creating and applying custom color palettes.
October 31st, 2024
New Workflows
We are thrilled to announce that CARTO Workflows now supports direct connections to Databricks, significantly enhancing our integration capabilities for the Databricks platform. This new feature empowers Databricks' vast community of data engineers, data scientists, and analysts to seamlessly perform geospatial analysis within CARTO Workflows.
This release caps off a series of Databricks-focused updates rolled out over recent months:
We have introduced support for SQL Warehouses and Unity Catalog in CARTO connections.
Made Databricks connections available in Builder and other maps across the platform, as well as geospatial applications developed with CARTO.
Enabled table preparation and tileset creation for high-performance visualizations.
Workflows for Databricks leverages Databricks Spatial SQL, Apache Sedona and the CARTO Analytics Toolbox to make geospatial analysis easier and more performant than ever for data scientists, engineers and analysts on Databricks. Being a cloud-native integration, CARTO pushes down all processing to Databricks, profiting from the massive computation capabilities.
By embedding these tools directly in Databricks, we are breaking down the geospatial data silo, making geospatial insights more accessible and actionable for enterprise teams.
October 17th, 2024
Improvement Builder
Navigating large geospatial datasets is now faster with our upgraded Table Widget, featuring search, highlight, and zoom capabilities.
You can now easily search for specific features within the Table Widget, making them quick to locate. Hover over a table row to instantly highlight the corresponding feature on the map, and with a click, the map will automatically zoom to and center on that feature.
We’ve also improved the widget’s configuration, allowing you to label, format, and reorder columns without altering your data source.
October 15th, 2024
New Builder
Many times, a single basemap doesn't fully meet all of your mapping needs. Now, with the new basemap selector in Builder, users can easily switch between different basemaps available in your organization. This feature allows you to tailor the visual context of your maps to specific use cases, enhancing the overall data exploration experience.
_carto_point_density propertyOctober 14th, 2024
New Builder, CARTO for Developers
We’ve added a new styling property, _carto_point_density, for point dynamic tiling sources, perfect for visualizing point density. You can use this property in Builder or your custom apps to style your points by radius, fill, or stroke color, making your maps more insightful and visually appealing. Learn more about it in our documentation.
October 9th, 2024
New CARTO for Developers
Developers using CARTO + deck.gl are scaling and accelerating their geospatial apps with powerful layers, using live data from their cloud data warehouse. Now, they can also add scalable, interactive charts and widgets to their geospatial applications.
This is what we love about the new CARTO Widgets:
Use flexible and scalable data models to achieve exactly and quickly what you need: From scorecards to bar charts, tables, time series, and everything in between.
Bring your own UI: Use your favorite charting library or custom HTML components.
Easily sync your widgets with the deck.gl map.
Seamlessly use widgets to filter the map and other widgets, fully leveraging your cloud data warehouse computing power.
Built with JS and Typescript, they are fully compatible with the framework of your choice (Angular, React, Vue...), adding minimal dependencies.
We're excited to see what you build! — To get started, head over to the technical documentation or check the new examples for CARTO Widgets.
October 7th, 2024
New Builder
We've introduced a new functionality in Builder to dynamically visualize your point data as clusters, helping you gain deeper insights and uncover trends more effectively. By aggregating point data into clustering, you can:
Reduce Visual Clutter: Automatically group nearby points into clusters as you zoom out, helping you maintain clarity and readability, even with dense datasets.
Enhanced Performance: Clustering improves performance by reducing the number of individual features rendered, making it easier to handle large datasets without compromising speed.
Meaningful Aggregation: See patterns emerge as points are grouped into clusters, helping you identify hotspots, trends, and areas of interest quickly and effectively.
Interactive Exploration: As you zoom in and out, clusters dynamically adjust, revealing individual points as you get closer, giving you seamless interaction with your data at different scales.
October 4th, 2024
New Accounts
We've introduced a new toggle in the settings that allows Admins to enforce SSO within their organization. When enabled, every single user in that organization will have to authenticate using Single Sign-On, regaldless of their role. Users that try to authenticate with other mechanisms, such as User/Password and Google Account will not be allowed to log in.
For more details, check out our section on SSO.
September 26th, 2024
New Workflows
We’re pleased to introduce several updates to Workflows designed to improve both functionality and security:
Export Data from Any Node
A new Export button is now available on the Data tab for every executed node in your workflow canvas, allowing you to export data directly. This asynchronous export process can be tracked via the Activity Panel, similar to how exports are managed in Builder.
Enhanced Security for Enterprise-Ready Components
In line with our ongoing platform-wide security initiative, we've implemented the following updates:
Send by Email now works without requiring attached data, offering more flexibility in workflow automation.
You can now specify a custom bucket location when using the Send by Email component, giving you control over where your data is sent.
Export to Bucket no longer uses public buckets. Users are now required to specify their own bucket locations, ensuring more secure data management.
These updates make Workflows an even more powerful tool for enterprise users while maintaining a focus on security and ease of use.
September 11th, 2024
New Workspace
Users can now require viewer credentials for their Snowflake OAuth connections. When this option is enabled, anyone accessing data through the connection — whether they're consuming maps, running workflows, or using the data explorer — will need to authenticate with their own credentials.
This ensures that security policies set in the database, such as Row-Level Security, are enforced. For more details, visit our section on Sharing connections.
August 30th, 2024
New Workspace
As organizations roll out CARTO to different teams and larger groups of users, it becomes increasingly important for administrators to understand and monitor how their organization is using CARTO, and this is now easy, powerful and flexible thanks to the new CARTO Activity Data feature
Administrator can now easily export (manually or programmatically via API) a comprehensive data collection of everything that happened within their CARTO organization.
The new Activity Data can be then analyzed to deeply understand things like:
Basic engagement indicators: weekly active users, workflows run per week...
Most used features: most used workflow components...
Quota consumption: who is consuming more quota and why
And many more insights about your CARTO organization
Want to get started? Head over to the CARTO Activity Data documentation. Make sure to also check the full Activity Data Reference, as well as the Examples where we share practical guides and SQL queries on how to analyze this data.
July 31st, 2024
Improvement Workspace
We've introduced an improved flow for transferring user assets (maps, workflows, connections, etc) when deleting a user or when downgrading an Editor/Admin to Viewer. From now on, Admins will be able to select the specific user that will receive the assets.
For more information, check our documentation on Deleting users and Managing user roles.
July 31st, 2024
New Builder
We've introduced a new functionality in Builder to dynamically visualize your point data as H3 aggregations, helping you gain deeper insights and uncover trends more effectively.
By aggregating point data, you can:
Simplify Complex Data: Aggregate large volumes of point data into meaningful patterns and trends, making it easier to interpret and analyze.
Enhance Performance: Improve rendering times and performance, especially with large datasets, by reducing the number of individual points displayed.
Identify Hotspots: Quickly identify areas of high density or activity, helping you make data-driven decisions.
Visual Clarity: Reduce visual clutter by grouping nearby points, providing a clearer and more informative map visualization.
Simply select this new visualization type and enjoy the benefits of aggregated data visualization, all with exceptional performance thanks to CARTO's native support for spatial indexes.
July 29th, 2024
Improvement Builder
We are excited to introduce an improved panel in Builder for configuring your layers. This update significantly enhances the UI and UX of this panel, making the experience of creating visualizations in Builder even more enjoyable and efficient.
The redesigned panel features a cleaner layout and includes a new 'Data' section at the top. In this new section, you can define the spatial definition of the data source linked to your layer. This is especially useful if your source contains multiple spatial columns or if Builder cannot recognize the spatial column by looking at our default conventions.
Learn more about the spatial definition of your sources here. Also, explore our updated documentation section for layers to get the most out of this update.
July 29th, 2024
New Workflows
We are pleased to announce the integration of our collection of Workflow templates directly within the CARTO Workspace. This feature aims to streamline your workflow creation process, making it faster and more efficient to access and utilize pre-built templates.
Integrated Collection: Access a wide range of workflow templates hosted on the CARTO Academy website, now readily available in the CARTO Workspace.
Simplified Process: Users no longer need to visit the Academy site to download and import templates. The new feature allows you to easily recreate templates by selecting ‘New Workflow > From template’ within the Workspace.
Enhanced Usability: This integration ensures that all available templates can be accessed with just a few clicks, promoting best practices and facilitating quicker setup of workflows.
This feature is designed to ease the learning curve by providing immediate access to valuable workflow templates that illustrate both building blocks for common geospatial analytics and more complex use cases, like industry-specific analysis for Telco, Insurance, Retail and CPG, Out of Home advertising, etc
July 19th, 2024
New Builder
We are excited to introduce the zoom to layer functionality in Builder, which allows you to easily zoom to the layer extent, providing an immediate view of your dataset. When layers are filtered by widgets or parameters, the zoom focuses on the filtered data, ensuring you see exactly what's relevant.
Additionally, we have incorporated a "Show only this/Show all layers" feature, allowing you to quickly toggle all layers on and off with a single action, especially useful for maps including multiple layers.
Whether you're exploring vast datasets or gathering insights on geospatially distributed features, these new features will ensure a better exploration experience! Learn more about this feature in our documentation.
July 15th, 2024
New Workflows
We are excited to introduce a powerful new set of components in Workflows that significantly enhance your geospatial data processing capabilities. These components are designed to facilitate the creation of various types of tilesets, allowing for efficient visualization and analysis of large spatial datasets. Here are the key features:
Create Vector Tileset
Generate vector tilesets from point, line, or polygon tables, enabling smooth and interactive map experiences.
Create Point Aggregation Tileset
Aggregate point data along with their properties into tilesets, ideal for visualizing dense point data on maps.
Create Quadbin Aggregation Tileset
Generate tilesets by aggregating quadbin indices, providing a fast and scalable way to manage spatial hierarchies and visualize large datasets.
Create H3 Aggregation Tileset
Utilize H3 hexagonal indexing to create aggregated tilesets, perfect for detailed spatial analysis and representation.
These new components enable you to transform your spatial data into highly efficient and scalable tilesets, which can be seamlessly integrated into your mapping applications. For more detailed information on how to use these components, visit our documentation.
June 28th, 2024
New Workspace
We are happy to announce a new system that allows users to classify and filter maps and workflows in the CARTO Workspace with tags. With this new feature, editor users will be able to create, apply and filter maps and workflows by tags, considerably improving the organization of assets within CARTO. With this new enhancement:
You can create, apply and remove tags by editing the Map/Workflow properties from the Workspace;
We have added a tag filter to the Workspace so you can filter by one or several tags;
Once a tag filter is applied, you can copy the URL for sharing that Workspace view internally;
Tags will be automatically removed when they are no longer applied to any map or workflow.
June 28th, 2024
New Analytics Toolbox
We are thrilled to announce our new functions for line of sight and signal propagation analysis in the Analytics Toolbox for BigQuery. These new procedures, available in the telco module, enable network planners to run coverage analysis natively within BigQuery. With this functions users can now assess the geographical areas where current or potential new network's signal is available and evaluate its quality.
This release includes procedures for:
Path profile analysis to evaluate the line of sight and identify potential obstructions between two points;
Path loss estimation of a signal as it propagates through an environment, with options for the Close In and Extended Hata models.
Learn more about these new features in our documentation, and start testing them by following our step-by-step tutorial.
June 28th, 2024
New Analytics Toolbox
We are excited to announce the addition of two new space-time analyses available in the statistics module of the Analytics Toolbox for BigQuery:
Space-time hotspot classification, to classify hotspots based on changes in their intensity over time, such as strengthening hotspots, declining hotspots, occasional hotspots, and more;
Time-series clustering, to identify locations with similar temporal behaviors.
Learn more on how to perform these spatiotemporal analyses by exploring our tutorials for space-time hotspot classification and time-series clustering.
June 20th, 2024
New Builder, CARTO for Developers
We are thrilled to announce density heatmap visualization supporting very large scale point-based datasets! This new feature allows you to render massive point datasets as a heatmap in a scalable and performant manner. Available now in Builder, you can easily identify hotspot patterns and gain insights from your data.
Developers can also build their own large-scale heatmaps in their apps using CARTO + deck.gl, with the new heatmapTileLayer (Experimental). Learn more from our documentation and examples.
June 19th, 2024
New Workflows
We are excited to introduce enhanced data importing capabilities in CARTO Workflows. This new release includes a variety of features designed to simplify and expand the ways you can import data into your workflows, providing greater flexibility and functionality.
Import from URL Component
This new component allows users to import data directly from a public URL. It is compatible with BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, and PostgreSQL. By leveraging the CARTO Import API, this component ensures seamless data integration across different database systems.
The Import from URL component supports workflows that run on a schedule or are executed via API, providing more robust and automated data management options.
Sunset of Previous Method
The previous data importing method, which was limited to UI-based operations, will be deprecated. The new Import from URL component provides a more versatile and powerful alternative.
Quick Import from your desktop
Users can now quickly import files from their computers directly into the workflow canvas. This feature supports drag-and-drop functionality, making it easier to integrate local files into your workflows.
Files uploaded in this manner remain accessible within each workflow, ensuring consistent data availability and management.
June 3rd, 2024
New Builder
We are thrilled to announce a powerful new feature for Workflows: the ability to connect your workflows with external API services. With this new capability, we enabling use cases like the following:
Retrieve Data from External APIs: Augment your datasets by pulling in information from APIs such as Google Environment APIs, government, cadaster, parcel data, and other specialized data sources.
Trigger Actions via API: Automatically trigger external processes, send notifications, or execute commands directly from your workflows, like:
Notify on chat applications: Send real-time notifications to your company's channels to keep your team updated on workflow executions.
Integrations with automation tools: Integrate with automation tools to trigger external actions from a Workflow execution.
Send data from your Workflows to external APIs: Use data from any node in your workflow to build the body for a request.
Leverage all this new functionality by using the new HTTP Request component: A dedicated Workflows component that facilitates making requests to external APIs, providing enhanced versatility and extensibility. It uses the http_request module from the CARTO Analytics Toolbox.
It also supports custom expressions and variables to embed logic directly into component settings using SQL operators combined with variable and column values.
May 16th, 2024
New Builder
A basemap is a crucial component of any map, providing essential context, spatial features, and the visual foundation for your creations. To meet the unique needs of each organization, we now enable you to bring your own basemap directly into your CARTO organization.
Admin users at CARTO can now upload custom basemaps and tailor the basemap gallery options available to Editor users in Builder. Unleash your creativity and enjoy an enhanced map-making experience while maintaining a cohesive and consistent selection of basemaps throughout your organization. To learn more about how you can upload custom basemaps to the CARTO platform and the supported formats, check this page. For a step-by-step guide on custom basemaps, check out our new tutorial in the Academy.
May 14th, 2024
Improvement Builder
We are excited to introduce a set of enhancements in CARTO Builder designed to further improve the performance of our interactive map visualizations. With these improvements, Builder will:
Load only essential properties: Builder will now load only the essential properties from your tables or SQL queries when they are needed in the map. This reduces unnecessary data transfer and speeds up processing.
Reduce tile requests: The number of tile requests has been significantly reduced, resulting in faster map loading times and a smoother user experience.
Limit simultaneous queries: To enhance stability and prevent overload, Builder will limit the number of simultaneous queries, ensuring a more reliable performance.
These enhancements are part of our ongoing commitment to providing the best possible experience with CARTO Builder.
April 29th, 2024
Improvement Workspace
We believe that all paths to success start from the CARTO Workspace, and the path to successfully developing powerful geospatial apps isn't an exception. With this in mind, we've carefully redesigned the experience when accessing the Developers section, and these are the highlights:
New Overview with a curated list of documentation, guides and examples.
A simplified Credentials system to manage all your authentication methods.
This change unifies the management of API Access Tokens and OAuth Clients (previously known as Applications) in a single section, making more clear what each method is best for.
A new list containing all your API-enabled Workflows, for easy access.
Additionally, we've simplified the way that organizations decide the content in their Applications section. Before, it was a mix of developer credentials and apps registered by the administrator. Now, administrators in CARTO are in full control of managing Applications, including the visibility/sharing settings.
Developer credentials created before April 25th have been duplicated as applications to maintain the same visibility level as previously. Read more here.
April 24th, 2024
New Workspace, Workflows
We're happy to introduce a suite of powerful new features that are set to enable working with raster data in CARTO. Before these were available, working with raster data required using external CLI applications and dealing with SQL queries manually in order to leverage the analytical capabilities of the CARTO Analytics Toolbox for Snowflake and BigQuery.
Import Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs: We have made raster data ingestion processes a lot easier: with our latest enhancements, you can now effortlessly import Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs to Snowflake and BigQuery via both the Import API and the Workspace UI. This provides a streamlined and efficient method for ingesting raster files into BigQuery and Snowflake, ensuring optimal storage efficiency and fast query access.
Raster Tables in Data Explorer: Dive deeper into your raster data in the data warehouse with full support for raster tables in the Data Explorer. Gain access to a specific set of metadata and custom actions for raster tables.
Workflow Components for Raster Analysis: Take your spatial analyses to the next level with our new Workflow components designed specifically for working with raster data sources. Whether you're looking to extract raster values or perform complex intersect and aggregate operations, our new components, including "Get Raster Values" and "Intersect and Aggregate Raster", provide you with the tools you need to unlock valuable insights from your raster datasets.
April 17th, 2024
New Builder
We’ve launched a new feature that allows you to download detailed PDF reports of your interactive Builder maps. These reports capture everything from the current map extent to widgets, parameters, and the map description.
Whether you're sharing insights with colleagues, presenting to stakeholders, or documenting your analysis, this new feature packs the richness of your interactive maps into a portable, easy-to-share format.
April 11th, 2024
Improvement Workspace
A new AI-powered help assistant can now be found in the Help sidebar, available at all times from CARTO Workspace, Builder and Workflows.
It will provide quick answers based on our documentation and will link to the most relevant resource. With our documentation evolving and growing in size and depth, this AI-powered tool will save precious time and will guide you in the right direction without leaving CARTO. Ask anything!
March 31st, 2024
New Builder
This new feature simplifies the map-making process by letting Editor users switch seamlessly between editing and previewing. With Preview mode, these users can easily see how the map will look like to viewers, allowing them to review and refine it before sharing. This smooth workflow ensures that maps are well-presented and meet the highest standards of clarity and effectiveness.
Additionally we've enhanced our map-sharing functionality to deliver a smoother and more intuitive experience. This update focuses on streamlining the process of sharing maps with others, ensuring a more seamless interaction. Dive into the details of these improvements in our documentation.
March 27th, 2024
New CARTO for Developers
A new major version of deck.gl is out. deck.gl is the open-source visualization library that powers all CARTO visualizations, and one of the main components of CARTO for Developers.
For a complete changelog, visit the official deck.gl what's new.
To address breaking changes, read the official deck.gl upgrade guide. Changes in the CARTO module are also addressed there.
We have also published a complete set of new examples using CARTO + deck.gl.
We're very happy to see CARTO joining efforts with many other contributors from the vis.gl and OpenJS Foundation communities. Read more about this release in the CARTO blog.
March 21st, 2024
New Workflows
With this new capability, analytical pipelines created with Workflows can be scheduled so they are executed on a specific period:
Hours: The workflow will be executed every X hours, at o'clock times.
Days: The workflow will be executed every day at a specific time.
Weeks: The workflow will be executed weekly, on a specific day, at a specific time.
Months: The workflow will be executed monthly, on a specific day, at a specific time.
Custom: Use a custom expression to define the schedule.
CARTO leverages native scheduling capabilities on each data warehouse to provide this functionality in all CARTO Data Warehouse, BigQuery, Snowflake and PostgreSQL connections.
March 14th, 2024
Improvements Builder
Maps created with CARTO Builder can now be embedded anywhere — even when they're not shared publicly. With private embedding you can restrict and maintain control over who can view these maps when embedded on web pages or apps.
To leverage private embedding simply share your map with the organization or with the specific groups you want to share the map with. These users need to be previously logged-in to CARTO to view the embedded map. Learn more at our Embedding maps documentation.
February 29th, 2024
New Workflows
During the last few weeks, we’ve been progressively adding new and improved components in CARTO Workflows:
Case When component for supporting column values based on conditional expressions.
Edit Schema component (replacing Refactor Columns): clean schemas, rename and cast columns.
Added ‘Append’ mode to Save as Table.
Added ‘Maximum distance’ setting to K-Nearest Neighbors.
Added Extract from JSON for extracting values from JSON columns using the native syntax from each data warehouse.
Added ‘Mode’ setting to H3 Polyfill and Quadbin Polyfill components.
Subdivide to split larger geometries into easier-to-process smaller features.
New UI for Draw Custom Features component
Composite Score Supervised: Create composite scores with the supervised method using this component. Take a look at the example template.
Composite Score Unsupervised: Create composite scores with the supervised method using this component. Take a look at the example template
February 21st, 2024
Improvements Builder
Exciting news – CARTO Builder has expanded its URL parameter capabilities to include widgets, SQL parameters, search locations, and feature selections. Now, when viewers interact with these elements, the URL updates in real time, making it easier to share customized map views. This update opens up possibilities for creating varied views from a single map, simplifying sharing, and minimizing the need for multiple map versions. It also enhances the embedding of maps into websites or apps, providing a seamless user experience without unnecessary redirections.
February 19th, 2024
Improvements Workspace
We have added a new column to the Users and Groups table of the Organization Settings which displays the authentication method used by each user (Google Account, Username/Password, SSO or Github). This will help Admins better manage their organization, avoid confusion and identify users quickly.
February 8th, 2024
New Workflows
We are excited to announce the release of a comprehensive set of new features in CARTO Workflows designed to provide the ability to trigger the execution of your workflows by calling an API.
Variable definition: Define variables that can be used within components' settings. These variables can also be configured as parameters, allowing for inputing dynamic values during API calls.
Expression support: Introducing expressions! Embed logic directly into component settings, enabling the use of SQL operators in conjunction with variable and column values from your data.
API endpoint for triggering workflows: Enable an API endpoint to initiate a workflow execution. This endpoint exposes all parameters set as variables, facilitating smooth integration.
Workflow status polling: Easily monitor the status of workflow execution.
Output definition and storage: Define the output of a workflow API execution, which will be stored in a temporary table. The Fully Qualified Name (FQN) of this table is included in the API response for effortless access post-execution. This output can be used along with other options like exporting result to a bucket, saving to a static table or send an email with the result.
Controlled caching behavior: Have control over caching behavior across all execution modes: UI, Scheduled (Beta), and via API.
All these elements have been built to enable users to integrate workflows into larger analytical processes, and to embed asynchronous analytical capabilities into web applications.
January 15th, 2024
Improvements Workspace
We have released a set of improvements that affect the experience of new users when they open a shared map or shared workflow for the first time. Previously, you had to invite those users or have them sign up manually. Now:
If your organization uses Single Sign-On (SSO), all maps and workflows shared links will redirect to your SSO login page for easier adoption and onboarding of new users
The unauthenticated screen for all shared maps and workflows has been redesigned for clarity
Users can now login or signup through the map/workflow link, and they will be automatically redirected to the desired map/workflow once successfully authenticated
January 11th, 2024
New Documentation
We are happy to announce the launch of our new CARTO Academy, with detailed tutorials, videos and templates to boost your spatial analysis skills and make you a proficient user of the CARTO platform.
Among others, in this new CARTO Academy you will find materials to get you started with Spatial Indexes, tutorials to help you build stunning visualizations and spatial analyses with CARTO Builder, step-by-step tutorials and templates for Workflows, and guides to develop your advanced spatial analysis skills with Google BigQuery, Snowflake and AWS Redshift.
December 20th, 2023
Improvement Builder
We've upgraded the export functionality in Builder maps, shifting the data export process to work in server-side mode for an enhanced efficiency and data integrity. This improvement ensures a more reliable data retrieval experience.
Additionally, when exporting data as CSV, it now includes the geometry column in WKT (Well-Known Text) format, if applicable. This enhancement simplifies data handling and boosts compatibility with various geospatial tools, making integrations smoother.
Looking to leverage this enhanced functionality for RDS for PostgreSQL data sources? Don't forget to set up the necessary S3 bucket integration to enable the export feature. For more details and guidance, check out our documentation.
December 18th, 2023
New Workflows
We have added a new component to Workflows that leverages BigQuery ML Generate Text capabilities to allow embedding Generative AI functionalities into your geospatial analytical pipelines.
It can be used to interpret results from an analysis, using different variables on your data to compose a prompt that will be evaluated on each row.
With this new addition, Generative AI capabilities are handy and readily available from Workflows.
November 28th, 2023
New Workflows
We have just released a new component in Workflows that allows exporting the result from any node in a workflow to a storage bucket.
The node's data will be exported as a series of files, which URLs will be stored in a table. Just inspect the Data tab in the results panel to access the links to each file.
This component is currently available for all CARTO Data Warehouse and BigQuery connections.
November 27th, 2023
Improvement Workflows
We have added a few improvements to the results panel in Workflows that are focused on better usability and data exploration capabilities:
Renovated, sleeker design;
See when the workflow was executed for the last time;
Easily find the number of columns and rows of a result;
Explore the complete result with pagination for optimal performance;
Copy the content of a page to the clipboard, ready to be pasted into a spreadsheet;
Analyze statistics of each column:
Frequency of the Top 20 categories for string, date and timestamp columns;
Maximum and minimum values, average and sum for numeric columns.
SQL control code is hidden to facilitate readability.
Find all the documentation about these improvements here.
November 22nd, 2023
New Workspace
You can now set up an OAuth integration to connect CARTO and Snowflake. This allows users to follow their usual Snowflake login flow (Snowflake OAuth) to set up their connections in CARTO, which has security benefits and is a more familiar process for all Snowflake users.
If you have an external identity provider integrated in Snowflake such as Azure Active Directory or Okta, we also support External OAuth to achieve the same process.
Read more about Configuring OAuth connections to Snowflake.
November 16th, 2023
New Builder
We're excited to announce the latest feature in CARTO Builder - a distance measure tool that will allow users to measure distances between two points on their maps.
This new functionality is ideal for a diverse range of use cases, from planning tasks to gaining a deeper understanding of spatial relationships between various map elements.
November 6th, 2023
New Builder
In Builder, you now have the capability to style your qualitative data using hex color codes pulled directly from your table or SQL query sources. If you're curious about generating these hex color codes, we've prepared a tutorial to assist you, detailing the steps using either Workflows or SQL. What's especially exciting? The range of possibilities this opens up. Whether you're aligning with your company's branding, looking to automatically style a high number of categories, or exploring diverse color schemes, the choice is all yours.
October 25rd, 2023
New Workflows
We have just published a new collection of workflows examples, designed with a hands-on approach to empower users and ease the learning curve for using CARTO Workflows.
It showcases a wide range of scenarios, from simple building blocks for your geospatial analysis to more complex, industry-specific workflows tailored to suit specific use cases.
Take a look at our catalog of workflows examples here!
October 25th, 2023
New Workflows
We have added a new mechanism to import a workflow into your account. Just download an example from the gallery, drag and drop into your CARTO Workspace (or browse a file from your computer) and the workflow will be automatically re-created in your account.
And also we have just added a new way to import data into a workflow. Either from a local file in your computer, or from a URL, this new feature facilitates the task of incorporating data into your analytical pipelines.
October 18th, 2023
New Builder
The new Pie Widget is designed to simplify the visualization of complex categorical data in Builder, making it more user-friendly and insightful.
Thanks to this new feature you can quickly and easily analyze data proportions and category weights, allowing for better understanding of each data category within your dataset. This enhancement empowers users to make more informed decisions by providing a clearer view of their data.
September 30th, 2023
Improvement Builder
We have upgraded our Time Series Widget in Builder to boost your temporal data analysis experience. These enhancements bring a new level of customization to your data exploration, offering:
Enhanced temporal precision: Our upgraded Time Series Widget empowers you with precise control over temporal data aggregation. You can now extract insights using custom time intervals and enjoy greater granularity, resulting in more accurate analyses.
Analysis of multiple time series: Unlock the ability to analyze multiple time series simultaneously within the widget, enabling seamless concurrent analysis over time.
September 30th, 2023
New Workflows
We have released a new set of components in Workflows for Data Enrichment:
Each of them allows to enrich different types of geospatial data, and all of them allow using both a Data Observatory subscription or a custom table as source for the enrichment data.
Additionally, we have released a new component for advanced Statistics and for Retail Analytics, initially supported in Google BigQuery:
Commercial Hotspots
These additions to Workflows will make it a lot easier to leverage data enrichment and advanced statistical capabilities in CARTO, integrating these complex processes as just another step in a workflow.
September 7th, 2023
Improvement CARTO for Developers
Developers building applications with CARTO can now leverage their existing Single Sign-On (SSO) integration enabled in their organization to authenticate users.
Given the right setup, these applications will now be able to manage existing users and also first-time users coming from the SSO Identity Provider (IdP) that didn't exist previously in CARTO. The experience for these new users is seamless, without any action or step required. This is an extension of the Just-in-time provisioning setting available in CARTO Workspace.
The changes needed to fully leverage SSO and Just-in-time provisioning are covered:
For custom applications: in a new Build a private application using SSO guide.
For new and existing CARTO for React applications: in the Authentication guide.
September 5th, 2023
New Workflows
We have just made Data Observatory subscriptions available in the Data Sources panel in Workflows.
This will make premium and public datasets a lot easier to work with: just drag and drop your available samples or subscriptions to the canvas and start building your workflow.
With this new addition to Workflows, the largest catalog of curated geospatial datasets is readily available to be integrated with your cloud native analytical pipelines with just a few clicks. Check this new feature documentation here.
September 4th, 2023
New Builder
We're delighted to announce the next level of map description functionality in CARTO Builder: Richer map descriptions with support for Markdown. This upgrade takes our previous map description feature to a whole new level.
With the new richer map descriptions, you're not just adding text; you're crafting a more engaging user experience. The support for Markdown syntax allows you to include various text formats, headers, links, images, and even bullet-point lists, elevating the user's understanding and interaction with your map. To learn how to add Richer Map Descriptions to your maps, click here.
August 9th, 2023
New Builder
We're thrilled to unveil our newest addition to CARTO Builder - the Numeric SQL Parameter, expanding our portfolio of supported SQL parameter types. This innovative feature offers users enhanced interaction with numerical data within Builder.
Leveraging the Numeric SQL parameter, users can seamlessly retrieve single or pair numeric values from a Control UI to update the underlying data sources. It's an excellent option for those requiring to filter data by specific numeric ranges or adjusting analytical outputs based on numerical inputs.
Learn more about how to set up and use SQL Parameters in your maps here.
August 7th, 2023
New Analytics Toolbox
We have added the new procedures CREATE_SPATIAL_SCORE and CREATE_SPATIAL_PERFORMANCE_SCORE in the Analytics Toolbox for BigQuery. With these new functions available in the cpg module, users are now able to generate more insights when analyzing a network of CPG merchants. It's now possible to create scores against business performance metrics or geospatial attributes and rank merchants to understand their performance and business suitability for the CPG brand. You can learn more on how to use these new functions by following this example on "Measuring merchant attractiveness and performance in CPG with spatial scores".
July 24th, 2023
New Workspace
We have added the possibility to control the visibility of Applications in CARTO through the usual sharing options (private, entire organization...), including the ability to share an application only with specific groups of users.
This is especially interesting to customize what applications are shown for each user in the CARTO Workspace depending on the groups that they belong to, and also to start developing applications privately, without the app shortcut being shown to other users. You will find more information for these use cases and other details in the Managing Applications section in this documentation.
July 20th, 2023
Improvement Workspace
Administrators in CARTO now have the possibility to automatically assign a role to their users based on the groups that they belong to. To do so, just enable this feature and map each group to a user role. For example, you can map the group acme_data_analysts to get the editor role in CARTO, and new users belonging to that group will automatically get the editor role as well.
This is a powerful approach to quickly onboard dozens or hundreds of users into CARTO while maintaining effortless and enterprise-grade controls over the privileges of each user. Learn more about mapping groups to user roles.
July 13th, 2023
New Workspace
Previously, whenever you created a BigQuery connection using OAuth ("Sign in with Google") it had to remain private, to prevent other users from impersonating your personal credentials.
With the addition of the new viewer credentials mode when sharing connections, we're unlocking several benefits for organizations using BigQuery:
Now you can collaborate in maps using a shared BigQuery OAuth connection
Instead of creating one connection per user, you can create just one connection and share it with everyone, with fewer management issues.
By requiring viewer credentials, you can leverage row-level security and other policies set in your data warehouse.
July 6th, 2023
New Builder We are thrilled to introduce the enhanced Search Location Bar, formerly known as the Address Search Bar. This feature now includes the ability to search for locations using coordinates. Simply input latitude and longitude values, and instantly visualize the corresponding location on the map.
Whether you're exploring remote areas, analyzing specific points of interest, or seeking valuable insights, our coordinate search feature empowers you to navigate with precision and seamlessly uncover new possibilities.
June 30th, 2023
New Workflows
We have just added a couple of new features in Workflows that are going to improve a lot the explainability of your multi-step analytical pipelines.
Rich notes supporting Markdown syntax.
Update nodes with more relevant and descriptive names.
June 30th, 2023
Improvement Workspace
Starting today, users with the ability to customize branding and appearance can also remove the CARTO brand and social icons from their public and embedded maps.
This is a setting that is applied to all maps created in the organization. Additionally, administrators can decide whether new users receive the generic CARTO onboarding materials, to further customize the experience for new users. Learn more about how to activate these customizations.
June 27th, 2023
New Builder
We are excited to introduce the latest enhancement to the Formula Widget in Builder, which allows users to create their own custom aggregation operations.
This new feature provides advanced capabilities for users to tailor calculations and derive precise insights from their data using SQL Expressions.
With custom aggregation operations, users have the flexibility to define calculations that align precisely with their unique analytical requirements. They can incorporate business-specific formulas and apply complex mathematical operations to single or multiple columns from their data source.
This level of customization empowers users to unlock valuable insights and perform advanced calculations that go beyond standard aggregations.
June 26th, 2023
New Workflows
While working with Workflows, in some occasions a component needs to be defined as a custom geography (point, line or polygon). This is currently the case with "Table from GeoJSON" but this tool will also be used in other components that might need a custom geospatial input.
We have developed a new tool, accessible through the "Draw features" button to define custom geographies as inputs for components.
This new tool come in quite handy in cases where one or more steps in an analysis have to be defined by a manual input, allowing faster prototyping a providing a much better user experience.
June 20th, 2023
Improvement Workspace
When importing geospatial data to a cloud data warehouse, one of the challenges is to select the correct data type for each of the columns in the file, also known as schema. And in most cases, CARTO automatically does the job for you, because we analyze a sample of the data and infer the data type from it.
For those cases where the automatic detection isn't exactly what you need, CARTO now allows you to manually defined the schema of the imported file, both through CARTO Workspace and Builder, and through our Imports API.
An example where this new feature is useful is when dealing with postal codes, that depending on the country could be automatically detected as numbers instead of strings — it doesn't make sense to calculate the average postal code.
To read more about how to select a custom schema in your imports, read our Importing data documentation.
June 14th, 2023
New Workflows
We have released a new batch of components in Workflows to keep increasing the possibilities and the value of this tool to enable the creation of data pipelines and spatial analyses for our users. The majority of components in this new batch are oriented towards providing more flexibility when manipulating and getting your data ready for the analysis. Here's the list of new components:
Multi-Col Formula: it computes new values based on a given expression and a set of fields to apply the expression to;
Multi-Row Formula: it creates a new table containing a new column computed using a multi-row formula based on one or several input columns;
Find Replace: it finds a string in one column of a table and replaces it with the specified value from another table;
Refactor columns: it refactors the columns in a table, allowing to change names and data types, and to select only certain columns from a table;
Transpose: it rotates table columns into rows;
Text to Columns: it adds new columns based on splitting the text string in a text column;
Unique: it separates unique rows and duplicated rows;
Row Number: it creates a new table with an additional column containing row numbers;
Quadbin To Parent: it adds a new column named quadbin_parent with the value of the parent quadbin at a specific resolution;
H3 To Parent: it adds a new column named h3_parent with the value of the parent h3 at a specific resolution;
H3 KRing: it returns the neighboring indexes in all directions under the K distance size;
H3 Distance: it computes the H3 grid distance between two H3 index column.
June 6th, 2023
New Analytics Toolbox
In the lds module of the last release of the Analytics Toolbox for BigQuery, Snowflake and Redshift we have now added the function to CREATE_ROUTES between given sets of origins and destinations (points) in a query, supporting different transportation modes and other advanced parameters. The function generates a new table with the columns of the input query plus a column with the resulting routes. Note that the routes are calculated by calling one of our external location data services providers. This functionality is also available from CARTO’s LDS API.
June 6th, 2023
New Analytics Toolbox
In the last release of the Analytics Toolbox for BigQuery we have available a new set of functions in order to perform space-time cluster analysis, for when data has both a spatial and a temporal component and you want to identify clusters looking at both dimensions at the same time (e.g. hotspots of demand for food delivery services in different periods of the day). Our implementation computes the space temporal Getis-Ord Gi* statistic for each area and timestamp according to the method described in this paper. This is supported now with two new functions in the statistics module of the toolbox, namely GETIS_ORD_SPACETIME_QUADBIN for quadbin indexes and GETIS_ORD_SPACETIME_H3 for H3 indexes.
May 16th, 2023
New Builder
Finding your current location on CARTO maps is finally possible. This feature is specially helpful when users require the map zoom in to their current position in a seamlessly manner to obtain insights from their surroundings.
This is how it works:
Click the Focus on User's Device Location button.
Enable Location Services on your browsers if required.
The map display zooms in to your current location and a blue icon indicates your position on the map.
May 8th, 2023
New Workspace
The CARTO Data Warehouse is a connection that comes pre-created for every CARTO organization, and it's fully managed by CARTO.
Until this release, it wasn't possible to manage the data available to this connection other than what was already available through Builder and Workflows.
Now, all users can introduce a Google account that they'll use to access the console. Once inside, you can run any SQL query, copy and edit existing tables or use other built-in features to import and migrate your data. Read more on how to get access to the CARTO Data Warehouse console.
May 5th, 2023
New Analytics Toolbox
Users of our Analytics Toolbox for Snowflake have now access to a new module named “statistics” offering functions to compute statistical measures on top of your spatial data. In this last release we have added support for computing the Moran’s I spatial autocorrelation and the Getis-ord Gi* statistics used for the identification of hotspots based on an input feature.
May 5th, 2023
New Analytics Toolbox
In this last release of the Analytics Toolbox for PostgreSQL, we have added a new module named “h3” with a set of functions providing users support for operating over the H3 spatial index. H3 is a multi-resolution hexagonal global grid system with hierarchical indexing developed by Uber, offering important benefits when performing spatial analytics at scale. To learn more about Spatial Indexes and H3 in particular, please have a look at our Spatial Indexes 101 report and our documentation.
May 5th, 2023
New Analytics Toolbox
Some areas due to their intrinsic characteristics or the data available are not suitable for running the predictive models given the large differences within the data used when training those models (e.g. training a model on big cities and then running predictions in areas of low population density). We have added new functions in the statistics module to allow users to compute the Area of Applicability (AOA) of a BigQuery ML model. It generates a metric which tells the user where the results from a Machine Learning (ML) model can be trusted when the predictions are extrapolated outside the training space (i.e. where the estimated cross-validation performance holds).
In the case of our Analytics Toolbox for BigQuery, this functionality is particularly useful when working with our BUILD_REVENUE_MODEL and PREDICT_REVENUE_AVERAGE procedures of the retail module.
April 24th, 2023
New Builder
SQL Parameters are placeholders that can be used on any SQL Query data source in Builder.
Once defined, the actual value for the parameter can be set through a control UI in the right side panel’s 'Parameters' tab. This allows to manipulate the actual SQL Query through an UI, by both Editor and Viewer users.
Among many different use cases, some applications for this new feature are:
Create 'Text' or 'Dates' parameters.
Reduce the size of a data source before rendering the map.
Allow viewer users to define custom values in the data source in a controlled way.
Use the same parameter in one or more queries.
Filter a dataset before aggregating it to a spatial index grid (H3 or Quadbin).
Learn more about how to set up and use SQL Parameters in your maps here.
April 21st, 2023
New Workspace
Developers looking to create geospatial applications at scale usually face an authentication challenge: how to build the application so that data is accessed in a granular and secure way. And there are different solutions depending on your needs: from static API Access Tokens for simple, public applications to dynamic authentication using the CARTO login (with or without Single Sign-On).
Today we're making the creation and management of API Access Tokens much simpler, with a complete user interface to create, edit and delete tokens.
API Access Tokens are now the recommended method to start working with CARTO for deck.gl and the CARTO APIs, and we've updated the documentation and API reference accordingly.
Learn here how to create and manage your API Access Tokens.
April 13th, 2023
New Workspace
CARTO is the ideal solution for geospatial visualization and analysis of large scale datasets, due to the scalability of the cloud data warehouses (eg: BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, Databricks...). However, dealing with such large datasets requires special attention into performance and optimizations.
Now, whenever we detect that one of your tables could perform better according to our performance considerations, we'll show a warning in Data Explorer and Builder, and you'll be able to take action immediately.
In just a few clicks, you'll overwrite or generate an optimized copy of your data, that will perform faster and save computing costs.
To understand in detail how these optimizations work, head to the Optimizing your data guide.
April 10th, 2023
New Workspace
We are adding two new features for admins to manage new users more easily and predictably:
Default role for new users: Admins can now choose which role should be applied to new users, and by default it will be set to "viewers" following the least-privilege principle. Find more information about roles in CARTO and about this setting.
SSO Just-in-time provisioning: Admins that have integrated their own SSO login can now decide whether new users will get additional questions when onboarding or not. If it's enabled, we'll just provision their user as soon as they login, without any needed step. This new setting has been included in the documentation about SSO at CARTO.
April 6th, 2023
New Builder
CARTO Builder now supports adding labels to point layers loaded via tiles, with a set of improved features:
Support for primary and secondary label on each point.
Now using a better typography, increasing readability.
Collision control: Now labels are displayed in a way that they don’t collision with each other, adapting dynamically on each zoom level.
Custom colors for the font and outline, allowing much better customization capabilities.
