Make TaggerTracker and/or central tracks optional

[simonge]

This should restore the ability to write out tracks from the central detector while using an xml configuration which doesn't contain the far-backward detectors (and vise versa)

[github-actions[bot]]

Capybara summary for PR 1503

• rec_dis_10x100_minQ2=0_craterlake
• rec_dis_10x100_minQ2=1000_craterlake_tracking_only
• rec_dis_18x275_minQ2=0_craterlake
• rec_dis_18x275_minQ2=1000_craterlake
• rec_dis_5x41_minQ2=0_craterlake
• rec_e_1GeV_20GeV_craterlake
• rec_pi_1GeV_20GeV_craterlake ^{_{Last updated 2024-06-24T10:59-04:00 a2521a9df7fcf851417a3fca0405db8588d5a341}}

[simonge]

Where do we stand with having optional collections, at least for the very simplest scenario where all input collections are optional?

[veprbl]

Where do we stand with having optional collections, at least for the very simplest scenario where all input collections are optional?

All input collections are currently "optional", in that the factories just disable themselves and don't produce any output.

[nathanwbrei]

@simonge It's present in the upstreamed version of OmniFactory that lives under JANA/Omni/JOmniFactory. Both PodioInputs and VariationalPodioInputs accept an is_optional flag. If you set this flag to true, the collection pointers will be allowed to be null, so you have to check for that. I haven't updated EICrecon to use the upstreamed version of OmniFactory anywhere yet, but you could experiment with it if you like, and report back any problems you find.

Note that if you use the upstreamed JOmniFactory, you'll probably have to use the upstreamed JOmniFactoryGenerator that goes with it. Both of these live in the jana::omni namespace, so they hopefully shouldn't conflict with the EICrecon version.