Difference between revisions of "Projects:ARRA:SlicerEM:Developer:WorkflowManager"

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* Core functionality in KWWidgets state machines that would be replicated for a "straight-forward" conversion:
 
* Core functionality in KWWidgets state machines that would be replicated for a "straight-forward" conversion:
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** Representation of  
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{| border="1"
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|- bgcolor="#abcdef"
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! KWWidgets functionality !! Present in Qt?
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|-
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| States have enter/leave events || ???
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|-
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| Transitions have start/stop events || ???
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|-
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| State events are processed before transition events || ???
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|-
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| Clusters of states || ???
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|-
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| Can save transition history || ???
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|-
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| Can define custom inputs || ???
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|-
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|  || ???
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|}
  
 
== Transition from KWWidgets workflow manager to a workflow manager using Qt's state machines ==
 
== Transition from KWWidgets workflow manager to a workflow manager using Qt's state machines ==
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== GUI implementation in Qt ==
 
== GUI implementation in Qt ==
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* [http://doc.trolltech.com/4.6/qstackedwidget.html qStackedWidget] and/or [http://doc.trolltech.com/4.6/qtablewidget.html qTabWidget]
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* [http://doc.trolltech.com/4.6/qstackedwidget.html qStackedWidget] (and/or [http://doc.trolltech.com/4.6/qtablewidget.html qTabWidget])
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* plus [http://doc.trolltech.com/4.6/qdialog.html qDialog]
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* simply connect signal to the stacked widget's setCurrentIndex(int) slot to change the displayed widget
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* plus [http://doc.trolltech.com/4.6/qdialog.html qDialog] as well
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* in Qt Designer - could have one .ui file for the entire stacked widget, or, for widgets representing complicated steps, could have a separate .ui
  
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== Considerations to keep in mind ==
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== Concepts to keep in mind ==
 
* Undo / redo and forward/back transitions
 
* Undo / redo and forward/back transitions
 
* Branching workflows / skipped states
 
* Branching workflows / skipped states
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* Design / output of state machines in a graphical format
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* Logging state transitions, user actions, inputs and results thoughout
  
 
== Additional ideas and questions ==
 
== Additional ideas and questions ==
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* Image processing throughout - need to deal with failures in image processing that are unrelated to the GUI
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**
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* Would be a good idea to make the workflow manager as general as possible for CTK - ex. use for management of IGT workflows in Slicer, where you may be coordinating several modules (ex. calibration module -> registration module -> tracking module), and may need to notify other components of current state (ex. over OpenIGTLink) (ex see [http://hdl.handle.net/10380/3075 this IJ paper])
 +
* May even like to provide the option to save the MRML tree at the end of each step (to restore state if there is a crash, for example

Revision as of 18:34, 14 July 2010

Home < Projects:ARRA:SlicerEM:Developer:WorkflowManager

Summary

  • EMSegmenter has a fairly complicated workflow
  • Need a mechanism to validate user input and transition appropriately between steps of the workflow
  • Should be dependent on Qt only (and not VTK)
  • Current plan (subject to change) = use Qt's state machine implementation, with our own workflow manager on top

Previous workflow manager implementation in KWWidgets

Uses:

  • KWWidgets state machines - incorporates states (ex. user interaction within a workflow step, validation of the user input within a workflow step), transitions (between states), and inputs (pushed onto a queue to trigger transitions)
  • KWWidgets wizard workflow - provides additional functionality to manage workflow using a state machine (ex. bundles pairs of user interaction and validation states into a workflow "step", handles a navigation stack of steps encountered along the way that triggers updates of widgets and/or dialogs)

Transition from KWWidgets state machines to Qt state machines

  • Core functionality in KWWidgets state machines that would be replicated for a "straight-forward" conversion:
KWWidgets functionality Present in Qt?
States have enter/leave events ???
Transitions have start/stop events ???
State events are processed before transition events ???
Clusters of states ???
Can save transition history ???
Can define custom inputs ???
???

Transition from KWWidgets workflow manager to a workflow manager using Qt's state machines

GUI implementation in Qt

  • qStackedWidget (and/or qTabWidget)
  • simply connect signal to the stacked widget's setCurrentIndex(int) slot to change the displayed widget
  • plus qDialog as well
  • in Qt Designer - could have one .ui file for the entire stacked widget, or, for widgets representing complicated steps, could have a separate .ui

Concepts to keep in mind

  • Undo / redo and forward/back transitions
  • Branching workflows / skipped states
  • Design / output of state machines in a graphical format
  • Logging state transitions, user actions, inputs and results thoughout

Additional ideas and questions

  • Image processing throughout - need to deal with failures in image processing that are unrelated to the GUI
  • Would be a good idea to make the workflow manager as general as possible for CTK - ex. use for management of IGT workflows in Slicer, where you may be coordinating several modules (ex. calibration module -> registration module -> tracking module), and may need to notify other components of current state (ex. over OpenIGTLink) (ex see this IJ paper)
  • May even like to provide the option to save the MRML tree at the end of each step (to restore state if there is a crash, for example
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