[kepler-dev] [Bug 5283] UI for saving workflows as xml is confusing

[bugzilla-daemon at ecoinformatics.org]

http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5283

Matt Jones <jones at nceas.ucsb.edu> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |jones at nceas.ucsb.edu

--- Comment #1 from Matt Jones <jones at nceas.ucsb.edu> 2011-01-26 11:32:43 PST ---
We discussed this extensively before 2.1.  My 2 cents:

The main issue is that the xml format is incomplete and does not include
critical information that is found in a KAR file, so it is lossy. 
Consequently, we decided that creating the xml file was really an export
function, as it involves a lossy conversion to a format that is not the native
kepler format for saving workflows (kar).  By placing this function under
export, it makes it clear that it is not the native format, and that an import
will be needed to get it back in kepler, and that some information may be lost.
 File-Save and ctrl-s save changes to the current KAR file, and are not
mechanisms to export the XML.

Also, after exporting, the KAR should still be marked as dirty, as the native
kar format for the workflow hasn't been saved.  So it is appropriate that it
prompts the user to save the changes in the KAR file.

If we wanted the XML format to be the native format for kepler, then it would
need to support all saved artifacts from all modules, and not just the MoML. 
We decided earlier that this would be hard and wouldn't gain us anything over
using an archival format like KAR.

-- 
Configure bugmail: http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email
------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
You are the QA contact for the bug.