VOExplorer.

Lets you browse registry resources, filter them incrementally, and invoke them. The ui design of the registry view is inspired by iTunes - which isn't as daft as it sounds - large catalogue of resources with semi-standard metadata which may or may not be present...

Note : science design page now at VoExplorerScienceDesign

Part Of: DesktopAstroGrid

See Also:

• RegistryExplorer - documents the resource discovery portion of voexplorer
• SimpleRegistryQueryLanguage - the query language used
• VoExplorerAnnotations - annotation of resources.
• VoExplorerSubscriptions - subscribe to external resource lists.
• RegistryScope - a preliminary design & prototype that lead to VoExplorer

Presentations

• VOTech Presentation
• IVOA Apps Presentation
• IVOA Registry Presentation

Demo Movie (of an early version)

• http://software.astrogrid.org/voexplorer/voexplorer-demo.mov , (probably requires quicktime)
• alternate format - you tube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4PhfdkXCb4

Screenshot

• screenshot of voexplorer:
  

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Temporary Documentation

Needs to be extended to include file view, etc.

See Also; RegistryExplorer

Folders

The pane on the top-left side of the window controls the mode/ view of the explorer - either resources (registry), storage (vospace, myspace, files in general) or tasks (running jobs). Only resources is implemented at the moment - hopefully we can slot variations on the existing myspace and lookout UIs in here later. Click on the 'storage' or 'tasks' buttons to see what I mean..

Registry View

Ok, this lists a series of 'resource lists'. There's 2 kinds of list

• a static list of resouces, which the user can manually add items to
• a smart dynamic list of resources, who's members are defined by an xquery. * and there's two types of dynamic list - those defined by a filter, and those defined by a full xquery. * TODO: add ability to use SimpleRegistryQueryLanguage to define a filter, instead of xquery

On startup, ui comes with some predefined resource lists. (all resources / all catalogues / all image servces), etc. The user is able to define their own lists - either by dragging and dropping, or by using the 'add button'.

Clicking on one of the resource lists defines which subset of the registry you want to search over. 'All Resources' is selected by default to start.

If the selected resource list is a static list, or a small dynamic list (<500), then the contents of this list are fetched from the registry and displayed on the right. There's no need to search - filtering is all that's necessary to find stuff. You can see this behaviour by clicking on the 'images' list.

If the list selected is a large dynamic list, then the results aren't fetched - instead, the user has to enter a query to start the ball rolling.

Buttons

• add - adds a new static or dynamic list.
• remove - removes a user-defined list
• properties - rename / alter a user-defined list.

Registry Explorer

The main part of the UI is taken up by the registry explorer - this allows search terms to be entered, and then the results filtered - either using an incremental search box, or by clicking the 'expand' arrow to browse through different categorizations of the results. See documentation for RegistryExplorer for more info.

From the list of resources, one or more reosurces can be selected.

Dragging a set of resources over an existing static resource list adds these resources to the list.

Dragging a set of resources over empty space in the folders view creates a new static resource list from these items.

Actions

The bottom left side of the window displays a list of actions possible with the currently selected resources. Some of these actions only appear when a single resource is selected, while others apply to any number of resources.

Invoke Actions

This section contains ways of running / using / consuming the selected resources.

Astroscope

Launches an instance of astroscope that will query just against the catalog (including vizier), image and spectrum services in the current selection.

Helioscope

Launches an instance of helioscope that will query against just the stap services in the current selection.

BuildQuery

launches query builder on a selected database description (not implemented)

Invoke Task

runs a cea application (only for single selected cea application)

Catalogue Search

runs a catalogue search (only fort a single selected catalog or vizier service)

Generate Script

prompts for input parameters and uses these to generate a python workflow that will query the catalog / images /spectrum / cea services in the current selection (not implemented)

Image Search

runs an image search (only for a single selected image service)

Spectrum Search

runs a spectrum search (only for a single selected spectrum service)

Open Web Interface

if the resource has a web interface (denoted by a WebBrowser capability), open this interface in the system browser.

Info Actions

contains a summary of the selected resources

See Also Actions

(only available) when a single resource is selected) provides links to further information for the resource. At the moment it;ll allow you to open a webpage giving more info for a reource, and email the curator for that resource (if this information is provided)

Metadata Actions

provides operations on the resource entry itself. Lets you export the registry xml for a resource; export a textfile listing resource ids; and pass resources via PLASTIC, if any suitable applications are connected.

-- NoelWinstanley - 27 Feb 2007