[kepler-dev] [Bug 3655] - create a Provenance Browser with ability to export Publication Ready Archives

[bugzilla-daemon at ecoinformatics.org]

http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3655





------- Comment #1 from mcphillips at ecoinformatics.org  2008-11-12 19:38 -------
We have a terminology issue here.  The term 'Provenance Browser' has been
applied to the graphical user interface contributed to Kepler by the pPOD
project (and stored in the provenance_apps module in the Kepler repository). 
The term is used to describe this system in the publication describing it
[Bowers et al 2008 LNCS 5272, 70-78], the Kepler newsletter, and 8 bugs (bug
3546, bug 3555, bug 3557, bug 3558, bug 3560, bug 3566, bug 3568, and bug
3552). In particular, bug 3546 proposes that this provenance browser
(optionally ) display the trace of each workflow run in Kepler automatically,
and bug 3568 requests that the Kepler Provenance Recorder be enhanced to
support display of detailed intra-run provenance in this provenance browser for
any recorded run (not just COMAD workflows).

I bring this up because the current functionality of the existing Provenance
Browser is distinct from that proposed here, in that it enables one to browse
the detailed provenance of data products from *within* a run of a workflow,
whereas the proposed features have to do with managing the records of multiple
runs in a project.  It strikes me that what is proposed here could be described
as a 'project workspace view', or a 'workflow run browser'. 

We need both of these sets of capabilities in Kepler.  

Note also that pPOD developed a simple project workspace browser for Kepler as
well, and its functionality overlaps with the features requested in this bug. 
I propose that the REAP and pPOD run browser widgets be merged in Kepler, and
that the current provenance browser be retained as a distinct graphical user
interface element, and integrated with the Kepler GUI.