Deep Roassal integration in the Moose Finder

Since quite a while, prototyping Moose visualizations (originally using Mondrian and more recently Roassal) was mainly supported through the concept of an Easel: a dedicated editor that allows one to prototype and preview the visualization.

Easel.png

While developing the GTInspector we discovered that we can also integrate Roassal visualization directly in the analysis workflow, simply by making the Roassal builders be able to display themselves. I took the lesson and extended the Moose Finder with that ability.

For example, in the picture below, we see a workflow formed of four steps. The first pane shows script that is applied on a model of a Pharo system (namely, Glamour). The result is shown to the right. Selecting a circle opened the corresponding class in the third pane. There we played with another script to show relationships between attributes and methods from the class, and the fourth pane shows the preview.

Finder.png

One thing the easel offers is a way to obtain examples. To support that in the context of the Moose Finder, we now have another option. Inspecting the class of a builder (e.g., RTMondrianViewBuilder) or of the raw RTView offers the examples. Clicking on an example shows the actual visualization.

Eg.png

The more interesting thing is that next to the visualization, we also get the ability of looking at the actual source code of the example.

Eg-source.png

All in all, visualizations just got even more integrated in the analysis workflow supported by the Moose Finder, the default model browsing interface.

Posted by Tudor Girba at 1 December 2014, 11:25 pm with tags moose, analysis, tooling link
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