[kepler-dev] Creating kar files

[Matt Jones]

Uggg.  I was under the impression that the 'Upload to repository...' was 
working when Chad last left it. I even saw it working myself on both 
linux and windows when I was prepping for my site review demo. Did 
something change?  We really need regression tests that can pick up when 
a change in the code causes a related feature to break!

AFAIK, both the 'Save in library' and the 'Upload to repository' used to 
create KAR files as Chad had implemented it, and then those KAR files 
were imported into the cache as needed.  Hopefully Chad and Shawn can 
clarify what has happened.

Thanks,
Matt

Dan Higgins wrote:
> Hi All,
>    I have been looking at the latest version of Kepler and the ability 
> to save new actors. Just before the Beta1 release, Shawn reworked the 
> action associated with the 'Save in Library...'  context menu. His new 
> 'SaveInLibraryDialog' class (in $Kepler/src/org/kepler/ksw/gui/) makes 
> it much easier to associate actors with several ontology categories. So 
> putting a new/revised actor into the actor tree is pretty easy.
>    However, it looks like the code puts the actor directly into the 
> object cache in the form of a serialized object, rather than creating a 
> *.kar file and there is no obvious way of creating a *.kar file from the 
> cache object. I think the earlier version (CreateKSWDialog by 
> Chad)actually created a kar file.
>    First of all, I am not sure why the cache uses a serialized object 
> rather than a kar file (perfomance?). And it seems to me that we do need 
> to create a kar at times, if only for local storage. (I assume the 
> 'Upload to Repository' sends a kar file, but that code appears to be 
> broken currently) Also, there is a commented out line in the 
> uiContextMenuMappings file for a menu item 'Export as Kepler Archive'.
>    So, my question is:
> 
>    Do we want to just add the 'Export as Kepler Archive' menu, or 
> perhaps modify the new 'Save in Library' dialog to also allow the user 
> to create a local kar file?
> 
>    Or perhaps we should just use serialized objects like the cache does? 
> Of course, these are not human readable/editable files, but presumably 
> when the actor has been added to the list, it can be dragged to the work 
> area and edited there.
> 
> Dan
> 

-- 
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Matt Jones                                   Ph: 907-789-0496
jones at nceas.ucsb.edu                    SIP #: 1-747-626-7082
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
UC Santa Barbara     http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinformatics
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