How do I enable support for arbitrary files in Databricks Repos? Public Preview feature doesn't appear in admin console.

[tomsyouruncle]

"Arbitrary files in Databricks Repos", allowing not just notebooks to be added to repos, is in Public Preview. I've tried to activate it following the instructions in the above link but the option doesn't appear in Admin Console. Minimum requirements are stated as "you must be running Databricks Runtime 8.4 or above". My cluster is running Runtime 10.3.

I have successfully integrated with my repos in Github but only notebook files are shown.

Repos section of Admin Console (with no "Files in Repos" toggle):

Repos screenshot showing I can only create a folder or a notebook (not a file):

How do I enable this feature?

[Hubert-Dudek]

Files in Repos have to be enabled in admin console than you can create python files in IDE. Just clone repo to your local machine and create files there, push to git and pull in databricks.

[tomsyouruncle]

Thanks for your help. Unfortunately the option to enable this feature is not available to me in the Admin Console (see screenshot in my original post). I have cloned a repo from github that contains numerous files but none of these are available in Databricks (only the empty folders are shown).

[User16413245720]

What environment is your deployment in?

[tomsyouruncle]

AWS

[User16413245720]

are you on single tenant by any chance?

[tomsyouruncle]

I'm not sure. I'm using the AWS Standard (rather than Premium or Enterprise) version. I believe this is multi-tenant?

[tomsyouruncle]

Deployed on eu-west-1

[Kaniz]

Hi @Tom Turner​ ,

An admin can enable this feature as follows:

1. Go to the Admin Console.
2. Click the Workspace Settings tab.
3. In the Repos section, click the Files in Repos toggle.

After the feature has been enabled, you must restart your cluster and refresh your browser before you can use Files in Repos.

Additionally, the first time you access a repo after Files in Repos is enabled, you must open the Git dialog. A dialog appears indicating that you must perform a pull operation to sync non-notebook files in the repo. Select Agree and Pull to sync files. If there are any merge conflicts, another dialog appears giving you the option of discarding your conflicting changes or pushing your changes to a new branch.

You can use the command 

%sh pwd

 in a notebook inside a Repo to check if Files in Repos is enabled.

• If Files in Repos is not enabled, the response is

 /databricks/driver

• If Files in Repos is enabled, the response is 

/Workspace/Repos/<path to notebook directory>

SOURCE

[tomsyouruncle]

Thanks Kaniz. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, the "Files in Repos" toggle is not available in my admin console. Please see the below screenshot:

[Hubert-Dudek]

Please write to AWS support. This option is in public preview and should be available. It seems that your databricks control panel in eu-west-1 is in older version

[tomsyouruncle]

Thanks but I suspect Databricks support are better placed than AWS support to fix this. AWS are only providing the infra layer (which is working fine), not the software.

[Kaniz]

Hi @Tom Turner​ , After the feature has been enabled, you must restart your cluster and refresh your browser before you can use Files in Repos.

[tomsyouruncle]

@Kaniz Fatma​  Thanks but how can I enable the feature if it is not available in the admin console?

[Hubert-Dudek]

they collaborate on higher level, with development support in AWS you can sent request. If you don't have support plan in AWS please submit ticket here https://help.databricks.com/s/submitrequest