[kepler-dev] custom actor MOML question

[Matt Jones]

Hi Paul,

Kepler stores a variety of things in the MoML document that ptolemy
does not, including documentation for entities and ports, semantic
types for entities and ports, and other things.  For a variety of
reasons, which I could go into in more detail if I chat with Chad a
bit, the MoML parser does not deal well with these uses, even though
they are syntactically valid MoML.  Turns out that the MoML parser has
expectations that are not declared in the MoML DTD itself (such as
that there can be no representation in MoML of a port defined in Java,
else the MoML parser will not be happy).  The bottom line is that
Kepler stores an extended version of MoML, but strips out these
extensions before passing the documents onto the ptolemy MoML parser
(much of this is handled in the core module under
objectmanager.ActorMetadata and the org.kepler.moml package).  So if
you are not using Kepler to do your parsing, you'll find that the
ptolemy MoML parser chokes on Kepler's MoML (even though it is
syntactically valid).

I realize this is not an ideal solution for our extensions because it
breaks compatibility with ptolemy.  We've discussed various
alternative approaches to representing the extensions we need -- such
as MoML-based semantic types for all ports (whether defined in moml or
in java).  Is there a reason your tools can't use Kepler to do the
parsing for now? Hope this helps,

Matt

On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 11:53 AM, Paul Allen <pea1 at cornell.edu> wrote:
> Could somebody explain why Kepler adds a "kepler:" prefix to the port names
> in my custom actors when I instantiate the actor by class name and then save
> the kar for that component via the Kepler GUI? That change is confusing some
> downstream tools I'm using mainly because the port names in the <link>
> section of the MOML don't use the "kepler:" prefix.
>
> Here's the MOML from the KAR for the actor.
>
> <?xml version="1.0"?>
> <entity name="GoogleBarChart" class="ptolemy.kernel.ComponentEntity">
> <property name="entityId"  value="urn:lsid:sciencepipes.org:actor:1:1"
> class="org.kepler.moml.NamedObjId"/>
> <property name="class" value="edu.cornell.birds.is.bap.actor.GoogleBarChart"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute">
>  <property name="id" value="null"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
> </property>
> <property name="kepler:url" class="org.kepler.moml.PortAttribute">
>  <property name="direction" value="output"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
>  <property name="dataType" value="string"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
>  <property name="isMultiport" value="false"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
> </property>
> <property name="kepler:title" class="org.kepler.moml.PortAttribute">
>  <property name="direction" value="input"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
>  <property name="dataType" value="unknown"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
>  <property name="isMultiport" value="false"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
>  </property>
> <property name="kepler:secondary title"
> class="org.kepler.moml.PortAttribute">
>  <property name="direction" value="input"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
>  <property name="dataType" value="unknown"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
>  <property name="isMultiport" value="false"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
>  </property>
> <property name="kepler:values" class="org.kepler.moml.PortAttribute">
>  <property name="direction" value="input"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
>  <property name="dataType" value="unknown"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
>  <property name="isMultiport" value="false"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
> </property>
> <property name="kepler:labels" class="org.kepler.moml.PortAttribute">
>  <property name="direction" value="input"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
>  <property name="dataType" value="unknown"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
>  <property name="isMultiport" value="false"
> class="ptolemy.kernel.util.StringAttribute"/>
> </property>
>
> <property name="height" class="ptolemy.data.expr.Parameter" value="240">
> </property>
>
> <property name="width" class="ptolemy.data.expr.Parameter" value="240">
> </property>
>
> <property name="show zero" class="ptolemy.data.expr.Parameter" value="true">
> </property>
>
> <property name="orientation" class="ptolemy.data.expr.StringParameter"
> value="horizontal">
> </property>
>
> <property class="org.kepler.sms.SemanticType" name="semanticType00"
> value="urn:lsid:localhost:onto:1:1#ExternalGraphicalOutputActor"/>
> <property class="org.kepler.sms.SemanticType" name="semanticType11"
> value="urn:lsid:localhost:onto:2:1#TextualOutput"/>
>
>
> <property name="_location" class="ptolemy.kernel.util.Location"
> value="[260.0, 60.0]">
> </property>
>
>
> </entity>
>
> I've attached the MOML for the model in question.
>
>
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>
>



-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matthew B. Jones
Director of Informatics Research and Development
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
UC Santa Barbara
jones at nceas.ucsb.edu                       Ph: 1-907-523-1960
http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinfo
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~