PV Information Page Replacement

Figure 1: The filter Information tab, from ParaView 2.4

This page captures the re-design of the ParaView Information panel (see Figure 1) This tab will be eliminated in ParaView 3.0, and we need to design how the information will be displayed. Note that we have moved the information contained in the Data Arrays section to the front panel, as in the case of the Exodus Reader. This section should no longer be buried - though there is work involved in getting this information onto automatically generated pages.

Thus, the task is really to re-design the layout of the Statistics and Bounds sections of this tab.

Proposal

The proposal is for a new Statistics View, with the following characteristics:

• It shall be a dockable toolbar.
  • It shall have 'normal' controls, like hidden/shown, and will appear in the 'View' Menu.
• Its default position shall be at the bottom of the Main Window.
• The view is a spreadsheet, with labelled columns which can be re-arranged.
  • The following fields shall be supported initially, though more can be added.
    • Name (icon and name are the same as the ones in the Pipeline Browser)
    • Type
    • Number of cells
    • Number of points
    • Memory
    • Bounds (this may not be the best place for this information - access it elsewhere, perhaps in the Pipeline Browser's right mouse menu on a particular filter)
    • Others?
      • Edge sets (as this comes online with Exodus data)
      • Side sets
      • Node sets
• There is a line in the spreadsheet for every item in the current ParaView Pipeline. This is an alternate view to the Pipeline Browser.

View Behavior

Figure 2: Sketch of proposed information view, showing four columns of information. Note: per group suggestions, the 'Memory' item need not include the bar as shown, as it is difficult to explain the relationship between a filter and the 'whole memory' footprint. Users will likely just get confused by this.

• The view is a spreadsheet, with the expected functions:
  • Columns on/off
  • Order by column
  • Draggable columns
  • Column Titles on/off
• When an item is selected (outside the view), the view shall scroll so that the selected item is shown. If multiple items are selected, the last item selected shall be the one shown.
• Selecting an item in the view highlights that item, and signals the highlight to others.
• Column title right mouse menu

      Columns   ->List of columns, with a check beside those that are 'on'
    X Titles

• The column titles can be turned off or on through a right-mouse menu, accessible when the user right mouse clicks on the column titles.
• All cells have a 'help' balloon that includes the description of the cell's data, in case the titles are off.
• Whenever possible, column items should have graphics within them that provide additional information.
  • Data type: graphic for unstructured grid, etc.
  • Cells: graphic for the types of cells (if uniform), and a 'zoo cell' if there are many types. Clicking on the 'zoo cell' would expand a list of type/number pairings.
  • Points: A point graphic, to be consistent with the rest of the interface.

Tasks

1. Each inspector page for a filter must contain the Data Array information, whether the page is auto-generated or hand-coded.