I have been using Dato’s GraphLab Create for Coursera’s new Machine Learning Specialization that uses Python. Like me, if you’ve been facing trouble obtaining scatter plots on your canvas in GraphLab Create despite the following code:

graphlab.canvas.set_target('ipynb')


…then no worries, there is a quick fix. I’ve been deliberately lousy with the presentation, so sorry about that. Chances are that no one’s going to end up reading this anyway. I saw this problem being discussed on a Dato forum, so I decided to blog about the fix.

EDIT: Note that this problem is in GraphLab Create v1.6 only. They came up with v1.6.1 a few days after the problem was escalated on their forum, so a good option would be to upgrade GraphLab Create.

The problem you face should looks something like this (click images below to enlarge):

To solve the problem:

Locate sframe.py from your home directory by searching for it from your desktop environment (applies to Windows users too). I found it in the following path on my computer:

~/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/graphlab/canvas/views

The file sframe.py should look like this:

Then replace the code in lines 255-227 of the opened .py file with the code highlighted below:

This should take care of the problem for good.

Now you have your desired result: