Flow-chart UI for VI orchestration

[linzuzeng]

Maybe we can try node red as VI orchestration UI.
Each VI can be represented as a node in the graph, and the numbers of input channels and output channels can be simply shown as connectors for each VI.

https://nodered.org/
and here is an example
https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/gui/index.html

I found a library for making LabVIEW-like flow charts. Maybe we can consider using it for wiring VIs up, and use the named connectors instead of the globally assigned channel numbers. I put the link in the issues.

But I think we should try it after publishing the paper or find someone who is familiar with JavaScript and GUI development

[gyger]

While I do like the flow, I am against putting Node into the package. It becomes too complicated and bloated. Said that there does not exist a software like this for python or a web-module that can be easily implemented.

[linzuzeng]

No we don't need Node. We only need thier frontend library.

[linzuzeng]

The channel number in ETA was designed as an analogy of the channel number in a real timetagger device. Initially we thought it is nice to give real channels in lower numbers from 0, and leave non-exisiting higher numbers for virtual channels.

However, if we go the LabVIEW-way eventually, we don't need such channel number to connect different VIs together.
We can use diagram with wires instead, and in the state diagram of each VI we only need to refer to the connector name.

The only drawback of the graphical wiring ui is that, it makes * ("catch all") looks like a mess. You will need to connect every channels from time tagged to every VIs, basically. With "catch all" you only need to type one symbol

[gyger]

Ah ok, yeah in that sense splitting of the frontend of their code seems to be an interesting way to go. (I am still dreaming about lab orchestration in the the future, so their such a library would become very handy.

[linzuzeng]

https://reactflow.dev/ Seems to be the new cool thing.

Maybe we could use their https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-flow-renderer as an alternative to our existing table-based main GUI.