Proposed Usage Scenarios for the Module Manager GUI

General Strategy

In order to allow scientists to monitor, share, download, and change usage of different modules in an installed instance of Kepler, a Module Manager GUI shall be provided.

Major Usage Scenarios

Start the Module Manager

1.    There are two ways to start the module manager.

2.    First, you can selected the Tools->Module Manager... file item.

3.    Second, you can run the Module Manager, which is a peer program to Kepler.

Change an installed instance of Kepler to an existing suite.

Description: Use the scenario to switch to a suite already developed.  If the suite was appropriately developed, the modules in it are guaranteed to work appropriately together.

1.     Start the module manager and navigate to the “Available Modules” tab.

2.     Select the desired suite in the “Available Suites” list.

3.     Select the "-->” button to move the suite to the “Selected Modules” list.

4.     Push the “Change To” button, which will cause all necessary modules referred to by the suite to be downloaded and Kepler to be restarted with the appropriate module configuration specified by the suite.

5.     As each module is download, if the module takes a significant amount of time, a progress indicator will appear. Otherwise no progress indicator will appear. After the module is downloaded, if unzipping takes a significant amount of time, a progress indicator will appear, otherwise, no progress monitor will be evident.

6.    Kepler will restart with the module configuration specified by the selected suite.

Change an installed instance of Kepler to an ad-hoc module configuration.

Description: This is an advanced task. This is the only way to mix multiple suite, or modules in a way that has not beend one before without developing your own suite. There is no guarantee that the modules selected in the ad-hoc module configuration will work together.

1.     Start the module manager and navigate to the “Available Modules” tab.

2.     Select the desired modules and suites in the “Available Suites” and “Available Modules” lists and select the “à” and “ß” buttons as appropriate to construct a “virtual” suite in the "Selected Modules" list. A virtual suite is just a list of suites and modules that behave in the exact same manner as a suite would with a modules.txt.

3.     Push the “Change To’ button, which will cause all the necessary modules referred to by the “virtual” suite to be downloaded and Kepler will be restarted with the appropriate module configuration specified by the “virtual” suite.

4.     As each module is download, if the module takes a significant amount of time, a progress indicator will appear. Otherwise no progress indicator will appear. After the module is downloaded, if unzipping takes a significant amount of time, a progress indicator will appear, otherwise, no progress monitor will be evident.

If Module Manager is not accessible from a particular configuration of Kepler from the file menu, your installation of Kepler is corrupted, or you want to switch to a different module configuration without the overhead of starting Kepler.

1.     Instead of starting Kepler and accesing it from the File menu, start the Module Manager, which is a stand-alone peer program capable of running seperately.

2.     Use the Module Manager with one of the usage scenarios above to change to the desired configuration of Kepler.

Download a set of existing modules, which will be available in the future, whether or not an internet connection is available. This would be desirable if you do not want to immediately switch to a different configuration, but anticipate switching later when an internet connection might not be available.

1.     Start the module manager and navigate to the “Downloaded Modules” tab to confirm whether the modules you want to download are already present or not. If one or more modules you want to have available later is not available, continue to the next step.

2.     Navigate to the “Available Modules” tab.

3.     Selected the desired suites and modules using the “Available Suites” and “Available Modules” lists along with the "<--” and “-->” buttons.

4.     Push the download button. The desired modules will be downloaded to the extent they are not already present.

5.     As each module is download, if the module takes a significant amount of time, a progress indicator will appear. Otherwise no progress indicator will appear. After the module is downloaded, if unzipping takes a significant amount of time, a progress indicator will appear, otherwise, no progress monitor will be evident.

6.    After you are done, a dialog with the message "Download Finished" will appear. Hit the OK button to continue working.

View and Save the current configuration of modules used by Kepler.

1.     Start the module manager and navigate to the “Active Modules” tab.

2.     The current module configuration, including patch level, will be displayed.

3.     Push the “Save Configuration” button in order to save the current module configuration to file. The resulting file can be emailed or otherwise shared with other Kepler users.

Load a custom configuration provided by another Kepler user.

1.     Start the module manager and navigate to the “Active Modules” tab.

2.     Push the “Load Configuration” button, and navigate to the custom configuration file shared with you by another user on the local file system.

3.    Despite the specific patch level specified by the configuration file, the latest patch level will be used.

4.     Any modules needed by the custom configuration will be downloaded, and Kepler will restart with the custom configuration.

A New Patch is Published.

1.     Start up Kepler.

2.     For all downloaded modules where a new patch is available, a dialog will inquire whether the user wants to download the latest patch.

3.     The latest patch that has been downloaded will be used by the Module Manager whenever possible.

Save a workflow as a kar file. After creating a workflow, a scientist might desire to save it as a KAR file to enable them to share with other users.

1.    Using the Kepler file menu, save your workflow.

2.    A KAR file will be created and in that KAR file, a module configuration file with a copy of the current configuration will be saved. This will enable anyone using the workflow to recreate the configuration in which it was made. All version information information shall include the patch level.

Load a new workflow that references a module configuration.

1.    When you load a new workflow from a KAR file, it will check your current configuration, not including patch level, to determine whether it is compatible with the configuration specified by the workflow.

2.    If your current configuration is not compatible, the system will ask you whether you want to download and change to a compatible configuration. If you say yes, a compatible configuration will be downloaded and used if possible. However, if you do not have access to the internet and compatible modules have not already been downloaded, you will be able to proceed, but will be warned that unsual behavior may result. If you say no (perhaps because you know you do not have all the necessary modules and do not have access to the internet), the workflow will load, but you will warned and unpredictable behavior may result.

Restrictions

1.     The Module Manager cannot interact with modules that are not published.

2.     If module X.Y is selected, then module X.Y.Z will be retrieved, where Z is the highest patch available.

3.     Modules, including patches, cannot be downloaded without a connection to the Internet.