Voila

Turn Jupyter notebooks into interactive web applications — instantly, with no extra code.

Overview

Voila converts your Jupyter notebooks into standalone interactive web apps. The code cells are hidden; only outputs and widgets remain visible. Share a Voila URL and your colleagues get a polished, interactive interface built from your notebook — sliders, dropdowns, charts, and all — without seeing a single line of Python.

Key Features

• One-Click Publishing — Any notebook becomes a web app immediately
• Widget Support — Full ipywidgets compatibility (sliders, dropdowns, text inputs, buttons)
• Interactive Charts — Plotly, Altair, Bokeh, and other interactive viz libraries work out of the box
• No Code Exposure — Code cells hidden; only outputs displayed to end users
• Live Execution — Widgets trigger real code execution, not static snapshots
• Custom Templates — Style your apps with custom HTML/CSS templates

Getting Started

1. From the Hub, click Voila to launch
2. Voila opens showing your notebook workspace files
3. Click any .ipynb file to render it as a web app
4. Share the URL with anyone who needs access

Or launch directly from the Lab:

1. Open a notebook in AI Notebook Lab
2. Click Voila in the toolbar (rocket icon)
3. Your notebook opens as a Voila app in a new tab

Building Notebook Apps

Design your notebook to work well as a Voila app:

Use ipywidgets for interactivity:

import ipywidgets as widgets
from IPython.display import display

slider = widgets.IntSlider(value=50, min=0, max=100, description='Threshold:')
output = widgets.Output()

def on_change(change):
    with output:
        output.clear_output()
        print(f"Selected: {change['new']}")

slider.observe(on_change, names='value')
display(slider, output)

Organize cells deliberately:

• Put all imports and setup in early cells
• Use Markdown cells as section headers and explanations
• Place interactive widgets before their outputs
• Keep output cells immediately after the code that generates them

Supported Widget Libraries

• ipywidgets — Core widgets (sliders, buttons, dropdowns, text)
• ipyleaflet — Interactive maps
• bqplot — Interactive charts
• Plotly — Full Plotly figures with interaction
• Altair — Vega-Lite charts
• Bokeh — Streaming and interactive visualizations

Custom Templates

Add a custom template to style your Voila app:

1. Create a template directory in ~/.local/share/jupyter/voila/templates/
2. Add nbconvert_templates/base.html with your HTML/CSS
3. Launch Voila with --template=my-template

When to Use Voila