[kepler-dev] Displaying repository results in component search pane

[Sean Riddle]

Now that a given KAR file can contain multiple items (like a workflow  
and a report), I'm trying to rethink the way repository results are  
displayed in the component search pane so that relation isn't lost.  
For instance, consider the following: There are two items, a workflow  
W and report R, in a KAR file. A user searches on the LSID of the KAR  
file, so both results have to be displayed. The workflow and report  
have semantic types S_W and S_R, respectively. At the moment, the  
system would display this:

S_W
|
|
--W
S_R
|
|
--R

There's no hint that W and R are related. So here are a few ideas for  
preserving that information.

Option 1, I was thinking, is to introduce an extra top level to show  
containment in a KAR file, like so:

K
|
|
--S_W
      |
      |
      --W
--S_R
      |
      |
      --R

The downside to this approach is that S_W and S_R could appear  
multiple times if other search results in other KAR files share those  
semantic types. This could clutter up the search results.

Another option, rather than trying to overload a single tree with this  
additional data, would be to introduce another mode for the search  
result pane, where it just shows containment. In this case, the  
semantic type mode would be what the system currently does, and the  
containment mode would show the following:

K
|
|
--W
--R

Of course, this introduces the problem of the best way UI-wise to  
switch between the two modes, etc. I think this would be good for some  
point in the future, but not for 2.0.

My preferred option, at the moment, is similar to what the system does  
now. It relies a bit on the fact that from what I've seen, reports  
don't get semantic types (Let me know if I'm wrong about that). For  
the purposes of display, I figured give them the same semantic type(s)  
as the actor/workflow (this assumes there is one), and then  
communicate the relationship between the two through the displayed  
name of the report:

S_W
|
|
--W
--R (W report 1)

So those are just some ideas I've been kicking around. Please reply if  
you have a preference or other ideas.

- Sean