[ckan-dev] Data Viewer bugs/problems

Wed Apr 18 12:49:56 UTC 2012

On 17 April 2012 16:12, Mark Wainwright <mark.wainwright at okfn.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
[...]

> table view. I was using the famous Gold Prices:
> <http://thedatahub.org/dataset/gold-prices/resource/b9aae52b-b082-4159-b46f-7bb9c158d013>.
>
> The columns have column heads, and here the problems begin.
>
> (1) The column heads should not scroll away when the table data is
> scrolled - they should be fixed.

It's a known issue and one we have already experimented with solutions
for but haven't yet resolved:

<https://github.com/okfn/recline/issues/63>

As a general aside may be worth checking that issue list to avoid
dups. (Note that in dev terms stuff to do with underlying Recline go
to Recline issues on github: https://github.com/okfn/recline/issues,
integration issues and issues to do with wider data (pre)-viewer (e.g.
image previewing etc etc) go to http://trac.ckan.org/).

> Each column has a drop-down menu.
>
> (2) This drop-down falls to the right of the column, and is contained
> entirely within the widget, so for the right-hand column, the items on
> the menu are unreadable.

This is a known bug and one that was in fact fixed a few weeks ago in
Recline itself. Unfortunately it requires bootstrap v2.0.2 (left
aligned dropdowns are in BS v2.0.2). This is a ticketed item on trac
and will get done very soon.

<https://github.com/okfn/recline/issues/59>

> This could be at least partly fixed if the whole column head were the
> menu button, rather than the column head having a Google-ish gearwheel
> as the button. (Eliminating the gearwheel button would also make the

This won't help a lot.

> headings look less messy when they are quite long; see e.g.
> <http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7041/6874260788_720e90b277.jpg>.)

Agreed. Suggest filing and issue again Recline.

> One of the items on the menu is called 'Hide this column'. If you hide
> a column, a drop-down menu appears as a narrow leftmost column, giving
> you the option to show it again.
>
> (3) However, in this column, a dummy but confusing drop-down also
> appears in every row, with no entries or functionality.

These do do stuff in read-only mode. I agree with you this is
confusing. Might be better to have the field list editable elsewhere.

> On the menu appear these filtering-type options:
>
> * Term Facet
> * Date Histogram Facet

Strictly facets are *not* filtering options (though i know term facets
allow you do filtering). Instead think of Facets as either providing
summary info about the dataset (counts etc) or as a way to do group by
/ rollups.

I had extensive discussion with David Raznick about this earlier this
week and user story planning is going on in this pad:

<http://ckan.okfnpad.org/feature-2283-data-viewer-v3>

> * Text Filter
>
> (4) Term Facet does the same as Text Filter, except that you have to
> choose the value you want from a drop-down instead of typing it in a
> box, and only ten values are visible. If more than ten values exist,
> the remainder are unreachable.

See above. David and I agreed that basic auto-completion (which would
internally use a term facet) will go into Filters. Showing more items
is not hard to do but has not been implemented in UI and as "Facet"
stuff is in flux will likely be deferred for a bit.

> (5) The ten values chosen seem quite arbitrary. They may even be
> values that do not exist in your current view (because of other
> filters etc in force).

This is a known bug that will be rectified asap (query is not using
filtered in elasticsearch so faceting is not taking account of current
filters / query)

> (6) Having added a facet, there is no way to remove it. You can close
> the widget showing the facets, but that just means you can't see it -
> the effect on the columns is permanent until you facet by a different
> value or reload the entire page.

There is no impact on columns so I'm not clear what you mean. Faceting
does not apply a filter on change the set of data available.

> (7) Date Histogram Facet appears to do nothing at all.

Date Histogram is still under development (it probably should not have
slipped into the UI yet). In terms of functionality it does work in
terms of providing a summary of counts though you cannot use it to
filter (and may never be able to -- main purpose will be summary and
graphing of that data).

Rufus