Hi, I've just been thinking of a google-android-like 'drag and move' style interface for Taverna, and eventually focussed on the creation of a workflow and the service palatte.
I mentioned this to Dave De Roure when he was last in Manchester. Sorry for posting this as a brain dump more than anything else. Damn my inability to program properly and my abilty to think of random ideas. Commence brain dump........ I think it would be extremely cool to have the service palatte movable up and down from the top menu system when you don't need it. The android interface has a menu system that looks like a small arrow at the bottom of the home screen. I imagined this to be at the top of the screen, and instead of containing the various applications it would contain the services available to me. I was thinking of Biocatalogue in particular as this service palatte. I would click on the button for this tab at the top of the screen and watch it scroll down, where I could then drag a service onto the workflow diagram window. I would then be able to move this service around to any location, as with the android interface, so that I could arrange the services into sectors, e.g. protein classification, text mining, ...... etc. When I click on the service, I select an input or output (probably output), from a list that appears next to the service box. I would then have an arrow appended to my pointer so that even if I let go of my mouse button, it would remain. I am then free to navigate around the workflow until I find the next service to connect it to. When I find that service, I click on it and then from a list that appears next to the service box, choose the right port to connect it to. This would effectively combine the AME window and the workflow explorer, and would leave me with only a service palatte and a workflow diagram - similar to that of Pipeline pilot. I know there was something similar to this in one of the Taverna 2 downloads. I guess you could loose the arrow if you right clicked on the workflow diagram or something, so that if you made a mistake, it wouldn't annoy the hell out of the user. I also imagined dragging the whole workflow window around like I can do in a PDF document, using the grabbing hand thing. That way I can move around really quickly without having to use the scroll bars, and without the pan functions at the sides of the windows. And...... I also thought of a workflow status tool for my android phone - and yes I am obsessed. I could then use the remote execution tool to run worklfows from my phone (loaded onto a server), preview the outputs depending on the size (maybe a sample if it is massive), and even create a simple workflow editor for my phone where i select the service to replace those in my original workflow should they fail. I could then send the workflow file across the network using 3G or something, and re-upload i tot the server. The Taverna monitor application could displays a message like....."This workflow has failed due to Paul's services breaking AGAIN!!!". I could then open the Taverna monitor on my phone, while on the bus (like the paper retraction you talked about Carole), or in the pub (like those ingenious chemists talked about on the bbc), and replace the service with one I know about or one suggested by Biocatalogue, and re-run the workflow at the remote location. All the application would do is tell me about my workflows. It' not a substitute for a full-blown Taverna, nor is it intended to run workflows. ......... end brain dump. Phew! Now where is that 'Teach Yourself Java in 24 hours' book ?? Paul. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ taverna-users mailing list [email protected] [email protected] Web site: http://www.taverna.org.uk Mailing lists: http://www.taverna.org.uk/taverna-mailing-lists/
