Introduction to materialized views
Views can become slow as your data volume and the number of views stacked on top of one another grow. This happens because when doing a search, each view is computed on the fly. To improve the performance of a view, you can materialize it. Materializing pre-computes the view and stores it in memory, just like a table. You can expect a materialized view to be three to six times faster than a view that is not materialized, on average.
To materialize a view, you must have the Can administer ThoughtSpot privilege.
Row Level Security does not apply to materialized views. All users will see the same data when using the materialized view as a data source.
These are the operations you can do on a view:
- Materialize a view to improve performance,
- Dematerialize a view to save space, or
- Refresh a view to synchronize its data with the latest data load to the underlying tables.
- Check the status of a view.
After materializing, a view can have one of three statuses. You can see the status of a view by selecting Data, clicking on Views, and finding your view in the list. The status is shown next to the name of your view.
Materialization status
A materialized view can be in one of the following states:
| Status | Description | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Queued | View is waiting to be materialized. | Click Update status. |
| In Progress | View is being materialized. | Click Update status. Wait for materialization to finish. |
| Materialized | View has been materialized into memory. | You can now search the materialized view. |
| Stale | View has become out of sync with the data in the tables that make it up, usually due to an incremental data load. | Refresh the view by clicking Refresh Data*. |
| Unknown | View status could not be determined. | Click Update status. |
| Error | An error occurred. | Refresh the view by clicking Refresh Data*. Optionally run a report. |
* You can refresh data only if you have the Can administer ThoughtSpot privilege.
Freshness of data
Your view can become stale, if it isn’t refreshed when the data in the tables used to create it is updated. There are two ways to refresh the data:
Here are some conditions that could lead to a view becoming stale:
- Changes to the view definition
- Changes to the fields used in the view
- Changes to the join relationships used in the view
- Change to formulas in the view
- Change the datatypes in the underlying tables