[tracecompass-dev] Visualize trace analyses for experiments

[Bernd Hufmann <bernd.hufmann@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello

I was investigation how to visualize trace analyses when the trace is 
part of an experiment. Right now, there are different behavior depending 
on the type of view.

For Time Graph views like Control Flow view, Resources view, Call Stack 
view all LTTng kernel traces are shown in the same view. The entries 
(rows) are grouped by traces. The XML time graph view is designed the 
same way, however, it's seems to be broken currently.

For XY chart views, like CPU usage view, memory usage usage etc. now 
trace data is shown if they are in an experiment. Not sure yet about the 
XML XY chart view, but it's probably the same

Other views, like the System Call table or Stream List view (pcap 
traces) won't be populated either for experiments.

The Statistics view and Histogram view show an aggregation of the data.

The approach for Time Graph views where the data is grouped by trace is 
acceptable and can stay.

In the following I'd like to discuss a view options to visualize trace 
analysis when part of an experiment for the other types of views:

1) Show the trace data of one selected trace of the relevant trace type
1.1) The view could select the first trace of the relevant type. This 
this would not cover the case if there are multiple traces of the same 
trace type that could fill the view.
1.2) Add a view widget to select the trace to be used for populating the 
view. This could be drop-down menu in the toolbar where the user can 
change the trace of interest.

2) Visualize the data of all traces of the relevant trace type
This approach could be take for some of the views where it is possible 
to group the data per trace. For example, in a XY line chart, each line 
can represent the data of one trace. For tables, like the System Call 
Table, the data could be grouped by traces (similar to the way it is 
done in the Time Graph views). However, for views showing density, this 
approach might not be the best, because user would like to see the 
density per trace.

Right now I'm leaning to option 1.2). If needed, option 2 can be 
implemented afterwards and it could be a separate entry in the drop down 
menu.

Any thoughts?

Cheers
Bernd