pothosware / pothosflow

GUI frontend and designer tool for the Pothos framework

Pothos Flow - graphical topology designer

Pothos Flow is the GUI frontend and designer tool for the Pothos framework.

Documentation

• https://github.com/pothosware/PothosFlow/wiki

Dependencies

• Pothos library
• QT5 C++ development libraries and headers

Building

Configure, build, and install with CMake

Licensing information

Use, modification and distribution is subject to the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)

qtcolorpicker

The source for the qtcolorpicker is available in the pothos-gui source tree. qtcolorpicker is built as a stand-alone library and used under the terms of the GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE. See qtcolorpicker/LICENSE.LGPL

pothosflow's Issues

global cache for block descriptions

• need to fill the cache at init time
• need to query blockdesc given a path
  • the blockdesc lookup is performed when loading a block from saved state

deal with crashed/disconnected servers

• A server for a given zone could crash because of a segfault in a block
• A monitor thread could check for this condition and restart the server

block eval and topology engine performance improvements

We cant allow block evaluation to slow down the GUI. The evaluation and topology execution should happen in a background thread and not block directly on GUI updates.

type-string to color mapping dialog

• Create a dialog in the about/help menu which displays the type names for the various colors used in the properties panel and IO ports.
• This dialog is generated from the mappings that have passed through
  QColor typeStrToColor(const std::string &typeStr);
• Put typeStrToColor declaration and implementation, and new color cache/color table in its own cpp/hpp files
• add API call to query the mapping of type string to color
• also, use the color cache/color table in the lookup to speed up results

configuration panel for breakers

• edit id
• edit node name
• display list of breaker IOs on that node

pothos-gui: support affinity settings for hierachical-based display widgets

The widget block itself has to be in the GUI process, but if the block is actually a hierachy of blocks, the other non-widget blocks can follow the affinity setting. This can be advantageous to offload the processing for a graphical widget, or to minimize intra-process/host traffic.

message window logger splitter

message windows need to create poco logger splitters when registering themselves into the logging system. This avoids displacing an already registered subscribed logger.
The splitter should be removed and logger reconnected on destruction. Probably need a mutex as well.

Thoughts: Poco should make this automatic, so we dont need this bug.

cache block port configuration

in the case of evaluation errors, the gui need to know the available ports that should be on the block. We can usually determine this by the last good values or by the defaults. This information should be available when evaluation fails.

breakers support continued

• auto combine breakers logic when moving objects between pages
• support for breakers in the properties window to edit the node name
• show all breaker connections in the properties window
• jump to page context menu when right clicking on a breaker
  • the context menu lists all pages with breakers of the same node name

fix the catch exception TODOS

We should be writing the exception message to the logging facility in most of these cases.

multi-line text edit widget and multi-line support

We need a text edit widget that be be a single line, expanded to multi-line when more text is entered or special button clicked; and can exec an external editor and monitor saves to resync after changes.

Also, the JSON value currently cannot support multi-line. We need to split the value into an array of strings (string per line). Currently in BlockPropertiesPanel:

newValue.replace("\n", ""); //cannot handle multi-line values

readonly file support

For readonly files we should:

• Show that they are readonly in the title bar
• Always force use of the save-as dialog when saving

delete connection when block port is removed

Currently, the connection is drawn on a non-existant pad at point 0, 0

graph block should directly connect to zone changed signals

Currently, the graph editor connects to the zone changed signals, and iterates through the graph objects to alter the blocks. There is no reason not to handle this directly in graph block.

detect and error when creating duplicate connections

• check if a connection between endpoints already exists
• dump a nice error to the logger

block tree - drag and drop shows preview of block

The drag and drop object will not be a title text for the block, but rather a rendered image of the block itself

stats visualization for connections

What stats would we like to display on a connection and what are there configuration options?

• Example: Colourized connections based on data flow
• Example: Numeric display of average throughput

static qt link for windows

QT_IS_STATIC?

objects pasted out of bounds

Objects can be pasted out of bounds:

• provide a clipping mechanism in general so nothing can be drawn out of bounds
• determine that the bounds are not in the drawing area and use a known good position

snap to grid option

permanent affinity zones for the GUI

We should require two zones that can never be deleted -- only modified (partially):

• gui - this zone represents the gui process, blocks can run directly in the gui with this affinity, and widget blocks must run in this zone
• default - this is the localhost on the default port that pothos gui init spawns, this is the default process for blocks to be evaluated and executed in

These two zones should exist as options, but cannot be user modified.

GraphDraw/GraphEditor -> get objects flags to filter specific types

Example:

this->getObjects(GRAPH_OBJ_BLOCK | GRAPH_OBJ_BREAKER);

properties panel: add tab support for properties

• specify a tab name with a parameter (like advanced, or related controls)
• properties panel creates tab widget when there are multiple tab names specified
• modify block description parser and markup to include the tab name (just like preview flag)

start syslog server in GUI process

• start syslog server in GUI process
• on each affinity zone, connect client
• TODO: how do the remote hosts know the IP to connect to? (similar to pothosware/pothos-library#58)

execute topology and merge changes into live topology

signals and slots gui support

The signals and slots ports will need a graphical representation, allow for connections, disconnections, discerning between different signals and slots, etc...

The current thinking is to use the north position to provide a slot connection point, and the south position to provide a signal connection point. To select individual signals and slots by name, the user will have to configure the connection.

GraphEditor error report dialog

This dialog amalgamates evaluation errors on a GraphEditor, collecting the errors from all blocks.

• Add an action to the view menu that triggers the view error report dialog.
• The GraphEditor has the handler for this action and call the dialog factory.
• The report should detail the graph page name, the block ID, the block title, and errors.

block properties dialog type string displays

• display property type in property entry tooltip
• display port dtype in the documentation panel

split show port names into two: 'indexed' and 'named' ports checkboxes

block tree - tooltip preview shows image of block

poco json serialization support

we use poco JSON array and object extensively in the gui support modules

• create a module to support serialization of these two types

configuration panel for connections

we want to configure what a connection shows while the topology is executing

• average rates, variance, bytes vs elements
• current queue depth or average depth, etc

affinity panel deals with host uri table changes

• Update the combo box in the panel based on the currently available list of host URIs.
• Support adding in custom uris that the user places in the combo box
• The original setting no matter what the uri list changes to is always valid to keep

block tree search should auto expand tree

Perhaps some expansion right after the find operation calls populate: https://github.com/pothosware/pothos-gui/blob/master/BlockTree/BlockTreeWidget.cpp#L115

graph widgets support

The graph will have live display widgets. We need to be able to:

• query available widgets in the plugin registry
• determine widget api for factory/control/config/feeding calls
• standard way to access and edit the properties of a widget
• widgets can have multiple input controls and display mechanisms
• widgets should tie into the topology to deal with streams and registered calls

properties panel switching issues

dont switch properties panels when modifications are present, make the panel visible and provide a dialogue about uncommitted changes.

Block tree requires two clicks if not highlighted

first file open dialog isnt following the setDirectory()

The first file dialog that is opened shows the CWD despite the caller using setDirectory(). Subsequent file dialogs do not have this issue. This may be a Qt bug, I cannot tell why its happening.

improvements to data type colors

Replace some of the random hash of the type string to pastel with default colors for builtin data types. The colors can be mutated for different widths -- like float vs double, int vs short.

See https://github.com/pothosware/pothos-gui/blob/master/ColorUtils/ColorUtils.cpp

properties panel - support combo box + text edit

• using the block description widget parameter setting: |widget ComboBox
• comboBox -> setEditable(true)
• allow 1 user-specified option + param options |option [name] key
• when the user specifies options but not |widget ComboBox -- use a non user editable ComboBox

signal when host becomes online/offline

• example: use this signal to update affinity zone node selection
• example: use this signal to update block cache

affinity zones editor panel

• create zone of affinity to processors, numa nodes, and processes (local and remote)
• ability to highlight/select groups of blocks and assign affinity zones
• zones will probably be saved the global config, but affinity assignments will be saved with the topology

unit test panel to view+run available unit tests

• probably integrated with the remote nodes window because tests are specific to the node
  • so just another tab in the remote nodes window

affinity zone integration

• apply affinity zone to selection menu
• color blocks based on affinity zone
• topology executor - per zone server

add/remove remote nodes causes block cache update

• connect and emit the necessary signals

block tree - search feature

Search through the available block resources, inspecting

• category
• block name
• tags

...to produce a search result

save and restore page display settings

• page H and V scroll setting
• zoom setting

query + store data types for all block params and ports

Datatypes are used to determine parameter and port colors and even validation. Colors should probably be queried in GraphBlock::initPropertiesFromDesc(void)

message window logger designer panel

GUI controls to create custom message windows

• choose logging sub-space filters
• choose priority filters
• Message windows saved with the global config
• Message windows saved with individual topologies

block property control to set the num ports

• add an enabler for this gui control in the block desc
• this gui control sets the number of indexed ports: in or out