[kepler-users] Kepler hosed with bad User Library

[Shawn Bowers]

Hi, some more comments interleaved below.

> What I actually did, by mistake, was to add a Constant actor (renamed to
> "Hello World" and outputting some hello string) to the library.  In the
> dialog I probably renamed it to HelloWorld.  I added it to Computer Science
> for lack of a better place (like My Actors ;-).  I then removed it from
> Computer Science, but I suppose it got confused between Constant and
> HelloWorld. In any event I couldn't start Kepler after that.

Hmm.  Not sure what happened. Typically something like this would
happen if two actors with the same name occur under the same
folder/category. As I mentioned previously, there are outstanding bugs
for the actor library that we are still working on.

> I am sorry to hear there is no way to fix it other than deleting .kelper.
> That is not a good solution.

Yeah, this is not the solution, it is a bug and the code for
adding/removing actors from the actor library is still being
developed.

> I have so far been unsuccessful in making a KAR file that Kepler will
> import.  I don't yet understand the syntax of the XML file, especially how
> to specify the LSIDs.

You can look in src/actor for examples. For the LSID, these typically
take the form (for the Kepler "sanctioned" actors)
urn:lsid:kepler-project.org:actor:7:1.
In this case, kepler-project.org is acting as the "authority", actor
is acting as the "namespace", 7 as the "object id", and 1 as the
"version".  LSIDs are described in various places, e.g., see
http://lsids.sourceforge.net/.

For your own actors, you might try making up your own namespace to
replace "actor" with.  Creating a directory with your actor, etc.,
under src/actors will allow you to run the buildkarlib target to
automatically load your actors into the library.  The INSTALL file
under the kepler directory has instructions on how to do this.

> The problem with Kepler for me is
> that it is not easy to use my own actors, something I need to do.

I agree -- and we are working on this.  Others have been able to
successfully make custom versions of kepler with only the actors and
categorizations relevant for their project. However, from these
experiences and our own, we realize the process is difficult and
inconvenient right now.


Thanks,
-shawn

>
> Thanks for your interest.
>
>        -Ken
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: smbowers at gmail.com [mailto:smbowers at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Shawn
> Bowers
> Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2007 12:03 PM
> To: Kenneth Evans, Jr.
> Cc: Kepler Users
> Subject: Re: [kepler-users] Kepler hosed with bad User Library
>
> > >> A better method is when you have Kepler running, right click on the
> > actor in the canvas and select "add to library".
> >
> > Actually, that is what I did.  I don't know what you mean by "this
> > particular method".
>
> Sorry, I assumed by "I tried adding an actor to the library" you meant
> by building your own library as opposed to using "add to library".
> There are multiple ways to add actors to the library, and I didn't
> think you were using the GUI for this.
>
> What version of Kepler are you using?  In particular, there have been
> some recent modifications in the way in which the actor library works
> -- and I've noticed a number of bugs that have cropped up from this.
> In particular, using the "add to library" component should have told
> you that there was already an actor with this name in the library
> prior to trying to add it. This worked prior to the new changes --
>
> > The immediate question is how can I undo what I did or recover from
> Kepler's
> > screwing it up.
>
> At this point, because of the errors, you'll have to delete .kepler,
> etc.  In general, removing an actor from the library is a bit tedious,
> but can be done by removing the actors assigned "categories".
>
> > The longer-term question is trying to figure out how to manage my own
> actors
> > in a reasonable way.  Vergil seems to be much more sensible in handling
> > this.  Or perhaps I am not sufficiently informed.  I am new to both.
>
> I am assuming you are refering to Ptolemy when you say Vergil ... In
> Kepler, we also use Vergil, but have modified it to support actor
> search and what we call KAR files -- archives of kepler actors.  In
> the short term, this might be one way for you to add your own actors,
> and was the way I assumed you were doing it in the first place.
>
> -shawn
>
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> >        -Ken
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: smbowers at gmail.com [mailto:smbowers at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Shawn
> > Bowers
> > Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2007 10:52 AM
> > To: Kenneth Evans, Jr.
> > Cc: Kepler Users
> > Subject: Re: [kepler-users] Kepler hosed with bad User Library
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > This particular method you are using to add to the actor library is
> > meant to be used for deployment or to add an actor permanently to the
> > actor library for distribution of kepler.
> >
> > A better method is when you have Kepler running, right click on the
> > actor in the canvas and select "add to library".  You will have the
> > option of renaming it, sticking it somewhere else in the library, or
> > creating a new version of the actor if one already exists with the
> > same name. Thus, existing actors can also be added to the library in
> > this way. For example, a typical use case is when someone writes a
> > configured web service actor or R actor, which they give a specific
> > name, and then add to the library.
> >
> > We do not have gui support for adding new categories right now.  It
> > can be done by changing, e.g., the file kepler-component.owl under
> > kepler/configs/ptolemy/configs/kepler/ontologies/. But again, this is
> > meant for creating custom deployments or changing a release version of
> > Kepler.
> >
> > -shawn
> >
> > On 10/28/07, Kenneth Evans, Jr. <evans at aps.anl.gov> wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I tried adding an actor to the library.  Now I can't start Kepler.  I
> get:
> > >
> > > Could not set the EntityTeeeModel form the LibraryIndex:: Error building
> > > tree model: Error building tree model: Error building tree model: Error
> > > building tree model: Attempt to insert object named "HelloWorld" into
> > > container named
> > > .<UnnamedObject>.Components.DataInput.WorlflowInput.Constant", which
> > already
> > > contains an object with that name.
> > >
> > > I fixed it by deleting the .kepler directory (while writing this), but I
> > > would rather not have to do that again.
> > >
> > > So my questions are:
> > >
> > > 1. How do you fix up the actor tree without destroying .kepler?
> > > 2. How do you _remove_ something from the tree?
> > > 3. Is there some way to make a new category like MyActors.
> > >
> > > I tried editing .kepler/actorLibrary.  It just overwrote my changes.
> > >
> > >  -Ken
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Kepler-users mailing list
> > > Kepler-users at ecoinformatics.org
> > >
> http://mercury.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinformatics/mailman/listinfo/kepler-users
> > >
> >
> >
>
>