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Posted to dev@nifi.apache.org by "Peter Wicks (pwicks)" <pw...@micron.com> on 2019/07/30 16:19:33 UTC
Adding Color to Connections
You know when you have a crazy complex flow, and it's hard sometimes to even tell where things are going? Especially those failure conditions that are all going back to a central Funnel or Port? I thought it would be visually very helpful if you could add Color to your connections, using the existing UI components in place for doing that.
I have a working POC, https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NIFI-6504. Which includes a screenshot and link to the branch.
There are a number of open questions:
* Should the markers (arrows) be colored also?
* Should there be an option to color other components such as funnel's or ports?
* I've also considered adding some additional line formatting options such as thickness and dashes, like the dashed green lines you see when creating a new relationship, or the extra thick lines that represent multiple relationships use now.
* Should there be an option to adjust connection z-index so that users can make sure a connection isn't overlapping things in a weird way.
The goal of this ticket is fully on making it easier and faster for users to visually understand a flow. Any feedback is appreciated!
Thanks,
Peter
RE: [EXT] Re: Adding Color to Connections
Posted by "Peter Wicks (pwicks)" <pw...@micron.com>.
Pierre, There are a few other indicators of back pressure, including the red shadow around the queue and the queue status bars. Do you think these are enough for a user to distinguish between a back pressure queue and a connection that someone marked as red? Any thoughts on how to keep these separate?
Matt, I see that the Bring to Front affects the entire connection, and not just the label. This makes sense, so no complaints there. I can see where we might make it possible for a user to duplicate an existing style, and thus confuse themselves, such as creating a connection that looks just like a Ghost connection, but isn't.
--Peter
-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Gilman <ma...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2019 10:58 AM
To: dev@nifi.apache.org
Subject: [EXT] Re: Adding Color to Connections
A couple of other things to note:
- Connections can already be gray and dashed when the underlying relationship no longer exists. This condition happens often using any Processor whose connections are dynamic (like RouteOnAttribute).
- Also, there is already an option to adjust the z-index of a connection.
However, the concept of 'z-index' is not surfaced to the user. The action available is 'Bring to front' and this affects the connection label.
One thing that's been discussed in the past is offering different modes (or
layers) based on specific use cases. Supporting different visualizations when the user is configuring versus when they are monitoring could possibly allow us to introduce more visualization while not conflicting with existing ones.
Thanks
Matt
On Tue, Jul 30, 2019 at 12:37 PM Pierre Villard <pi...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hey,
>
> I like the idea but we need to have a clear differentiator compared to
> the situation where backpressure is enabled (and connection is
> coloured in red).
>
> Pierre
>
> Le mar. 30 juil. 2019 à 18:19, Peter Wicks (pwicks)
> <pw...@micron.com> a écrit :
>
> > You know when you have a crazy complex flow, and it's hard sometimes
> > to even tell where things are going? Especially those failure
> > conditions
> that
> > are all going back to a central Funnel or Port? I thought it would
> > be visually very helpful if you could add Color to your connections,
> > using
> the
> > existing UI components in place for doing that.
> >
> > I have a working POC, https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fissues.apache.org%2Fjira%2Fbrowse%2FNIFI-6504&data=02%7C01%7Cpwicks%40micron.com%7C46a4f5c714424a9fd6a008d7150f2480%7Cf38a5ecd28134862b11bac1d563c806f%7C0%7C0%7C637001027091402448&sdata=dlbuypeUDXN7wE7CtvuqcCcnbXV2GrOEFEv14LYeCMQ%3D&reserved=0.
> > Which includes a screenshot and link to the branch.
> >
> > There are a number of open questions:
> >
> > * Should the markers (arrows) be colored also?
> > * Should there be an option to color other components such as
> funnel's
> > or ports?
> > * I've also considered adding some additional line formatting options
> > such as thickness and dashes, like the dashed green lines you see
> > when creating a new relationship, or the extra thick lines that
> > represent multiple relationships use now.
> > * Should there be an option to adjust connection z-index so that
> users
> > can make sure a connection isn't overlapping things in a weird way.
> >
> > The goal of this ticket is fully on making it easier and faster for
> > users to visually understand a flow. Any feedback is appreciated!
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Peter
> >
>
Re: Adding Color to Connections
Posted by Matt Gilman <ma...@gmail.com>.
A couple of other things to note:
- Connections can already be gray and dashed when the underlying
relationship no longer exists. This condition happens often using any
Processor whose connections are dynamic (like RouteOnAttribute).
- Also, there is already an option to adjust the z-index of a connection.
However, the concept of 'z-index' is not surfaced to the user. The action
available is 'Bring to front' and this affects the connection label.
One thing that's been discussed in the past is offering different modes (or
layers) based on specific use cases. Supporting different visualizations
when the user is configuring versus when they are monitoring could possibly
allow us to introduce more visualization while not conflicting with
existing ones.
Thanks
Matt
On Tue, Jul 30, 2019 at 12:37 PM Pierre Villard <pi...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hey,
>
> I like the idea but we need to have a clear differentiator compared to the
> situation where backpressure is enabled (and connection is coloured in
> red).
>
> Pierre
>
> Le mar. 30 juil. 2019 à 18:19, Peter Wicks (pwicks) <pw...@micron.com> a
> écrit :
>
> > You know when you have a crazy complex flow, and it's hard sometimes to
> > even tell where things are going? Especially those failure conditions
> that
> > are all going back to a central Funnel or Port? I thought it would be
> > visually very helpful if you could add Color to your connections, using
> the
> > existing UI components in place for doing that.
> >
> > I have a working POC, https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NIFI-6504.
> > Which includes a screenshot and link to the branch.
> >
> > There are a number of open questions:
> >
> > * Should the markers (arrows) be colored also?
> > * Should there be an option to color other components such as
> funnel's
> > or ports?
> > * I've also considered adding some additional line formatting options
> > such as thickness and dashes, like the dashed green lines you see when
> > creating a new relationship, or the extra thick lines that represent
> > multiple relationships use now.
> > * Should there be an option to adjust connection z-index so that
> users
> > can make sure a connection isn't overlapping things in a weird way.
> >
> > The goal of this ticket is fully on making it easier and faster for users
> > to visually understand a flow. Any feedback is appreciated!
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Peter
> >
>
Re: Adding Color to Connections
Posted by Pierre Villard <pi...@gmail.com>.
Hey,
I like the idea but we need to have a clear differentiator compared to the
situation where backpressure is enabled (and connection is coloured in red).
Pierre
Le mar. 30 juil. 2019 à 18:19, Peter Wicks (pwicks) <pw...@micron.com> a
écrit :
> You know when you have a crazy complex flow, and it's hard sometimes to
> even tell where things are going? Especially those failure conditions that
> are all going back to a central Funnel or Port? I thought it would be
> visually very helpful if you could add Color to your connections, using the
> existing UI components in place for doing that.
>
> I have a working POC, https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NIFI-6504.
> Which includes a screenshot and link to the branch.
>
> There are a number of open questions:
>
> * Should the markers (arrows) be colored also?
> * Should there be an option to color other components such as funnel's
> or ports?
> * I've also considered adding some additional line formatting options
> such as thickness and dashes, like the dashed green lines you see when
> creating a new relationship, or the extra thick lines that represent
> multiple relationships use now.
> * Should there be an option to adjust connection z-index so that users
> can make sure a connection isn't overlapping things in a weird way.
>
> The goal of this ticket is fully on making it easier and faster for users
> to visually understand a flow. Any feedback is appreciated!
>
> Thanks,
> Peter
>