Version 2

This page is setup to address and track issues with the new VisTrails 2.0 construction. Please add comments or new issues to this page.

Juliana's notes about new interface

• It seems there are too many windows when we start VisTrails. What about only showing the main window? And fire the spreadsheet and inspector only when 'needed'? for the inspector, when a vt is open and a wf is selected, and for the spreadsheet when a workflow is run.
  • [DK] What do you mean by windows? The tabbed windows or the fact that there is a builder window, "utility" window, and a spreadsheet window?
  • [JF] The latter: 3 windows popup when I start VisTrais: the builder, the inspector and the spreadsheet.
    
  • [DK] Many of the windows in the "utility" window are not dependent on a workflow (for example, the console and messages tabs). We could however, not display them until a user asks to see the given view.
  • [JF] This is what I meant.

• I noticed that the picture-in-picture disappeared. I think that is helpful to give context. At least when we are displaying a workflow, it is useful to see the version tree.
  • [DK] I think it was too small to be useful. I can see the argument for being able to see both, but I think we need more real estate than the PIP had; perhaps we allow the History View to be shown as a tab on the left or as a detached view?
  • [JF] the only issue here is whether this will be too busy
  • [DK] It is, arguably, the same amount of business as the PIP, however.

• We need some indication of which workflow is being displayed. Somewhere, we should display the label that identifies the workflow
  • [DK] In the v2.0 branch, the tab shows this. I have it display "Pipeline: alias" or "Pipeline: ROOT + 3". [JF] Ok.
  • [ES] Dave, it doesn't show anymore. I remember seeing the tab before, but I've just checked out v2.0 and I can't see it either.
  • [DK] Right, when there is only a single tab, I hide the tab bar. You can see the titles when if you create a new view (Ctrl/Cmd+T)

• When I click on the workflow tab (in the main window,lower left corner) it always shows an "untitled.vt". This looks like a bug... And if I click on untitled.vt, nothing happens.
  • [DK] Yes, Emanuele mentioned this at the meeting. I'm also not happy with the current interface.

Dave's List

• Reduce size of palette names so they don't take so much space

• Set default palettes for diff, other views

• Diff currently being shown as a pipeline. Should we create a mode for this

• Buttons in Messages window look bad on the Mac, don't need all of them now as well, I think

• Missing callbacks for Merge and Control Flow Assistant menu items

• Move execute button so it doesn't look like a mode

• Aliases support for parameters.
  • [DK] I really want to see old-style aliases finally go away with the globals for workflow and vistrails taking their place, but we can add them for now.
  • [ES] I just added them in v2.0 branch.

• How do we support functions that have no parameters in the new port configuration?

• Do we need to worry about parameters with default values that won't be saved? For example, a Boolean that we want set to False will not show as a set parameter currently because that is the default. Same for an empty string...

Juliana's notes about the mashup functionality

• Since it is not possible to create aliases with the current 2.0, I used 1.6 to create aliases for brain.vt. But when I loaded brain.vt into the 2.0 version and selected the mashup inspector, no aliases were shown [JF] My bad: it works!

• When I save a mashup, where is it saved? Should it be displayed under the "List" tab in the mashup inspector?

• I changed a tag for a mashup, and clicked "save". But the new tag was not displayed in the "List".

• In the "List", will I be able to select a previously created mashup and change it?

• What is the difference between the "Save" and the "Update"?

• I made some changes to the "Alias Details" and then clicked on "Save" and then "Preview", nothing happened. After I clicked on these two buttons a few times, the workflow executed, but the actual mashup preview was not displayed.

• It would be nice if it were possible to center and resize the workflow to fit in the window (cmd-shift-R)