Parameter tree vs flow chart control

[Marmaduke Woodman]

Hi

I'm trying to work out the basics of time series and analysis app. I like both the flowchart/nodes and the parameter trees, but I'm having trouble understanding how they might work together. 

I have nodes w/ dataflow I/O & parameters controlled  in the same way as the filters in pg.flowchart.library, and I have other parameters that don't belong in the flowchart. I can also imagine having many flowcharts, depending on the analysis. 

I'd like to display all that in the nicely organized parameter tree, but the parameter tree model seems not to be integrated with the flowchart controllers, at least this is my impression on seeing that flowchart.lib.common.generateUi doesn't build a parameter tree. 

Could it be a good idea to have something identical to generateUi, but generateParTree? 

Sorry for the disorganized thoughts, but what it is a good way to make these things work together?

Thanks,

Marmaduke

[Luke Campagnola]

On Sat, Feb 23, 2013 at 7:52 PM, Marmaduke Woodman <mmwo...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm trying to work out the basics of time series and analysis app. I like both the flowchart/nodes and the parameter trees, but I'm having trouble understanding how they might work together. 

I have nodes w/ dataflow I/O & parameters controlled  in the same way as the filters in pg.flowchart.library, and I have other parameters that don't belong in the flowchart. I can also imagine having many flowcharts, depending on the analysis. 

I'd like to display all that in the nicely organized parameter tree, but the parameter tree model seems not to be integrated with the flowchart controllers, at least this is my impression on seeing that flowchart.lib.common.generateUi doesn't build a parameter tree. 

Could it be a good idea to have something identical to generateUi, but generateParTree? 

This has been on my to-do list for a long time. Basically, flowcharts were written before parameter trees and I have not had the time to integrate the two. The approach you suggested is pretty much what I had in mind. I would probably implement this by creating a new Node subclass similar to CtrlNode (to preserve backward compatibility, CtrlNode would be left unchanged). 

Once that is done, then it would be possible to take any part of the controls in a flowchart and re-display them in another parameter tree. I have also considered having a simplified display mode where you would select specific parameters of interest from the flowchart, then switch to 'simple' mode and everything else would be hidden. This would make it possible to provide complex flowcharts along with a more user-friendly control interface. 

..alas, all this is doomed to wait on my to-do list at least until my dissertation is complete ;)

Luke

[m...@eml.cc]

Were you thinking to keep the uiTemplate style and generate the parameter style spec or switch to the parameter style? It seems they are quite close, but not identical. I may take a shot at this.

 

..alas, all this is doomed to wait on my to-do list at least until my dissertation is complete ;)

Understood; I submit mine at the end of next month... 

 

Luke

[Luke Campagnola]

The latter; the parameter style is much more flexible and it doesn't really make sense to have two different high-level UI specs. So uiTemplate and CtrlNode would become deprecated (but still usable) and ParameterNode would embrace the parameter-tree style as much as possible. All of the nodes which currently depend on CtrlNode would be rewritten, and the flowchart control widget would be based on a ParameterTree widget. 

That last part is the trickiest bit--the flowchart control widget provides a couple of features that would take a little work to implement in ParameterTree: the first is the ability to just add any custom widget directly into the tree. This can be done by making custom Parameter/ParameterItem classes, but it would need to be streamlined a bit for flowcharts. The second feature is the use of the second tree column for 'disable' buttons. There are a variety of solutions to that, but some consideration is needed..

 

Luke

[Ellery Russell]

Any update on this? Would be a great addition, and save a lot of time connecting slots and signals between the two!

[Marco Antonio]

I just came across the same idea/need ...  Any update on this?