Hi Alex
Glad to see that this is being productified for Trace Compass. See
below for some comments.
On 02/15/2016 05:37 PM, Alexandre
Montplaisir wrote:
Hi
all,
I am currently working on finishing up the integration between
Trace Compass and the lttng-analyses project [1]. For those not
familiar with it, this is a set of scripts that can be run on
LTTng traces to extract statistics, graphs etc. in different
categories (I/O, scheduling, CPU usage, and so on). The
integration with Trace Compass will allow calling these scripts
directly from the UI, and reporting the resulting in tables or
charts in Trace Compass.
One thing I am wondering is how to present this new feature in the
UI.
Some background information first:
Trace Compass has the notion of "analysis", which means "something
that runs on a trace". Typically those analyses first create some
indexes, statesystems, etc., and then show their results in views
(like the Control Flow view, CPU Usage view, etc.). These views
are dynamic, which mean they will follow time range selections and
update what they show accordingly.
However, "external" analyses like the lttng-analyses function a
little bit differently. They do not run automatically on a trace,
instead the user decides to run them, either on the whole trace or
on a given time range. The results are then shown in static tables
or graphs. Unlike the "dynamic" views from before, these tables
will not update their contents. They just show the static results
of the analysis, which we've been calling "report".
So it goes like this:
(standard) analysis -> dynamic views
external analysis -> report -> static tables/graphs
Note that subsequent runs of a given external analysis would
produce separate reports. It could be useful to have each one of
those reports remain available, until they are explicitly deleted.
In my current prototype, I just display all available external
analyses under the trace, just like standard analyses are (see
attached screenshot). They can then be invoked by right-click on
them and choosing "Run External Analysis" from the contextual
menu. The results are displayed in non-singleton views, one per
table of output of the analysis.
I think it's not ideal to show them on the same level as "standard"
analysis. One reason is that they are different (as you already
described). Another reason is that the list might get very long.
Would it be a valid option to add a separate node under the trace
for external analysis and have the list there. By doing that users
could select one and right-click on one and run it. The advantage of
doing this is that you can provide properties for the properties
view that gives some details about the analysis.
Alternatively, you could have single entry in the tree under the
trace. When user right-click on this element a context sensitive
menu could open and the user can select the analysis to run.
However, this approach won't give you the possibility to show the
details of the analysis in the properties view. You would have an
alternative way for the displaying description/details of external
analysis.
This
is not ideal, because it's confusing which analysis are supposed
to be run manually, and which are just there for listing their
outputs. A potential alternative would be to have a new "Run
External Analysis" option, from the context menu of the *trace*,
which would open a dialog to handle all available external
analyses.
Also, we'd probably need a new name instead of "External
Analysis". These may not even be external eventually, they could
be defined in Java, shipped with Trace Compass, and be able to be
called on demand by the user.
Good point. External doesn't fit.
Thoughts?
One thing is needed a way to manage the external analysis (I mean
the ones that actually external). I'm thinking of a dialog like the
"Manage Custom Parsers" or "Manage XML analyses" where users can
import/export/delete/edit external analysis.
Thanks,
Alex
[1] https://github.com/lttng/lttng-analyses
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