[kepler-dev] Icons in the *DataSource actors

[Dan Higgins]

Matthew,
    There was some discussion of this but I am not sure that any 
decision got made!

    The previous discussions were mainly driven by memory use questions. 
But let me try to summarize what I understand. When an eml datasource 
actor is dragged onto the workspace, various AttributeChanged events are 
triggered. One of the methods downloads the eml metadata so that the 
various ports corresponging to the columns in the data table can be 
created. Currently, the data associated with the eml metadata is also 
downloaded if not in the local cache. The actor is 'red' while this is 
done and it turns to 'yellow' when successfully' finished (0r pink if 
there is some problem). There is also some text displayed the says 
'Working' or 'Ready'. This is done in seperated threads so that the user 
can be working on other things in the workflow. But the workflow will 
not execute until all the datasources turn yellow. The situation is 
essentially the same for the Digir datasources. [The simplest example is 
'eml-simple-plot.moml'.]

    For memory and performance reasons, I think we should move the 
downloading of data out of the AttributeChanged event and put in the 
Initialize method which occurs only when the the workflow is executed. 
The metadata would still need to be downloaded initially when the actor 
is dragged to the canvas to dynamically configure the workflow. In many 
cases, however, the metadata is much smaller than the data and should 
thus be available quickly.

    Note that we also need to consider what happens when someone loads 
an existing workflow with datasource actors for the first time. 
Currently, the data and metadata is downloaded when such an existing 
workflow is first opened, just as if it was dragged from the actor list. 
In this case, we wouldn't even need to get the metadata immediately 
since all the ports should be described in the associated MOML. So maybe 
we can put off all the downloading until workflow execution.

Dan

---

Matthew Brooke wrote:

>Laura (also Kevin & Dan) -
>
>Sorry - the states that I know about are 'busy' (currently red), 'ready' 
>(currently yellow) and 'error' (currently pink). Not sure if there are 
>any more.
>
>I also think I recall seeing a discussion on IRC or by email about 
>having the datasources *not* get their data before the workflow is run - 
>was that conversation between Dan and Kevin? Can either of you guys 
>summarize what you decided?
>
>m
>
>
>Laura L. Downey wrote:
>  
>
>>Before I make a recommendation I'd like to understand what "states" these
>>icons have to display?
>>
>>And it does seem a bit unusual to me to have processes doing something when
>>the user hasn't instructed the workflow to execute.  But I'm not familiar
>>with these specific actors or the specific workflow you are referencing.
>>
>>Is it some kind of polling thing?
>>
>>On a general note, I pretty much agree with Matthew's suggestion of having
>>the icons fit in with the general scheme then doing something else to
>>indicate state changes (highlighting, superimposing, putting some symbol
>>above or below that indicates state change etc.)  There are a variety of
>>ways we might do this.
>>
>>Laura L. Downey
>>Senior Usability Engineer
>>LTER Network Office
>>Department of Biology, MSC03 2020
>>1 University of New Mexico
>>Albuquerque, NM  87131-0001
>>505.277.3157 phone
>>505.277-2541 fax
>>ldowney at lternet.edu
>> 
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: kepler-dev-bounces at ecoinformatics.org
>>[mailto:kepler-dev-bounces at ecoinformatics.org] On Behalf Of Matthew Brooke
>>Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 2:16 PM
>>To: Kevin Ruland; kepler-dev at ecoinformatics.org
>>Subject: Re: [kepler-dev] Icons in the *DataSource actors
>>
>>
>>Kevin -
>>
>>I'd noticed (and ignored ;-) the eml200datasource actor; I agree with 
>>you that it's not visually compatible with the new icon scheme, and had 
>>meant to discuss it with Laura.
>>
>>I'm wondering if a better way to do this would be to use an assigned 
>>icon that doesn't change, but then the actor superimpose something on 
>>top of it that gives the user some feedback on status/progress (instead 
>>of switching out the entire icon or changing its color).
>>
>>This way, the background icon would always "fit" with the color scheme, 
>>and if the icons change in future, we probably won't need to change 
>>anything specifically for these actors, since they are superimposing 
>>their "status message" on top of the icon.
>>
>>Laura - do you have any comments?
>>
>>m
>>
>>
>>
>>Kevin Ruland wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>Matthew, et al
>>>
>>>Both Eml200DataSource and DarwinCoreDataSource actors have hard coded 
>>>icons.  They are not exactly using the same code but it looks like one 
>>>was cribbed from the other.  They set the folder shape, then make calls 
>>>to control color/text changes to indicate state.
>>>
>>>Since the icon system is/has gone through a major overhaul, I would like 
>>>to discuss how we can get compatible icons for these actors.  I think it 
>>>is still good for them to be able to control some indication of state 
>>>since they do perform background tasks even when the workflow is not 
>>>running.
>>>
>>>BTW - by "compatible" I mean in the visual sense.  These icons are very 
>>>boxy and the colors are much too vibrant -- they would look horrible 
>>>with the new icons.
>>>
>>>Kevin
>>>
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>
>  
>