Eclipse Form

One problem the Input Data Spreadsheet has is the different types of data it needs from the user. The spreadsheet is good at capturing data for individual experiment (Individual Data), i.e., the data you fill into the cell, but extremely bad at capturing data common to all experiment (Common Data).

At present, we use "Parameters" as a workaround. The use of "Parameters" is a workaround because its original intention was to hold secondary information (such as kernel size for smoothing etc) that are not normally modified by user but required by the programs. In fact, it is a requirement that Parameters must have default value. However, Common Data might be a piece of data where it is not possible to specify a default value, e.g., output directory for "Time Series Analysis" of CambaFX. At present, there is no way of alertiing the users that they need to specify a value for the common data. This makes this workaround a bad solution because it hides error away from users.

The ideal situation is to have two sections to the interface, one for capturing individual data (the spreadsheet) and another to capture the common data. I have some worries that putting both sets of information on the same page is going to be presenting too much request to the user at one go. I am in favour of creatiing two tabs to handle this.

So, where does Eclipse Form comes in you might ask? Well, the Common Data is very well suited for a form-based interface. May be the parameters can be made into a form as well.

Moreover, it is our intention to offer ways of inspecting/validating the Individual Data (via operations on the spreadsheet) and Common Data. To list all of them on the display will take up space. Putting everything into a pull down list makes categorizing them difficult, and the list can be too long in some cases. Organizing them into collapsable sections may be a way out.