Superset v6 SQL Lab

[hoebling]

We are in process of transitioning from v5 to v6. One of the changes in the UI is the way it displays available schemas and tables. As we have end-consumers which we do not want to confront with too many changes, we would like to know if there is a way to keep the "old" UI from a look and feel perspective in v6.

Thanks
Michael

[dosubot[bot]]

Hi @hoebling — good question. Here's what I found:

The SQL Lab schema/table sidebar was redesigned as part of SIP-111, introduced in PR #37298 (merged January 2026). This replaced the classic dropdown-based TableSelector with a new treeview (TableExploreTree) built on react-arborist, which shows schemas and tables in a hierarchical tree. The PR description mentions a segmented UI that lets users switch to the traditional select-dropdown method within the new panel — but this is a UX affordance inside the treeview, not a way to fully restore the old sidebar [1].

There is no feature flag or configuration option to toggle back to the old SQL Lab sidebar UI in v6. The treeview replacement was designed as a full UI change, not a togglable option.

The treeview has received several follow-up fixes addressing usability concerns — PR #39173 fixed schema filtering, pin/unpin UX, copy actions, and toolbar styling, while PR #39396 added schema pinning, column sorting, and table schema refresh. So the v6 experience is actively improving.

If preserving the old look and feel is important for your end-consumers, your practical options are:

1. Stay on v5 until your users are ready for the UI change.
2. Customize the frontend — the left bar component is well-isolated in SqlEditorLeftBar/index.tsx [2], so a fork or patch to swap back to the old selector is technically scoped to that file.
3. Watch for upstream improvements — the follow-up PRs above are smoothing out rough edges in the new tree UI.

Would you like more detail on the specific component files involved in case you want to evaluate a frontend customization?

To reply, just mention @dosu.

---

Share context across your team and agents. Try Dosu.

[hoebling]

Thank you for the quick reply.

It is actually a better way of displaying information!