[Feature request] Make workflow run form more similar to editor

[simonbray]

One of my colleagues suggested the workflow run form should be the same as the editor, just read-only, with options to select datasets and parameters for the workflow inputs, and with a 'run' button.

The current linear list of inputs / steps in the run form is not necessarily very intuitive and doesn't make it easy to understand what the workflow actually does.

I guess this would be a massive amount of work, just putting it here in case it catches someone's imagination :)

[mvdbeek]

A well formed workflow does not list the steps by default (this is the old view), if that is the case for you I think you want to run through the workflow best practice panel and connect required disconnected input datasets.

As an advanced view this does make sense, but in most cases users shouldn't need to know about the details of a workflow, only the inputs and parameters should matter.

[simonbray]

A well formed workflow does not list the steps by default (this is the old view)

I'm aware that steps are now only shown if the user clicks Expand to full workflow form, but there could be a better way to present both inputs and steps than a simple list.

in most cases users shouldn't need to know about the details of a workflow, only the inputs and parameters should matter.

This seems debatable, at least the second part, I might not care about details but I'd still like to have a rough idea what the workflow is doing internally rather than viewing it as a black box and an editor-like interface would be helpful for that.

[mvdbeek]

I'm not saying this isn't useful, it's just not something we should bombard users with on the run form by default.

what the workflow is doing internally

we've discussed this many times and issues exist for showing the invocation progress using a graph representation of the workflow

[simonbray]

@bgruening encouraged me to make a mockup (absolutely not my speciality) so here is my best attempt 😬

The idea would be the user could click on the various inputs and select values / datasets. The right panel in the screenshot above might be a bit crowded with both the selected input and history, so perhaps the input selection could appear as a popup?

It might be nice to colour steps; non-input steps could be greyed out (but still editable if the user chooses), inputs could be different colours depending whether the user has already made a selection or still needs to do so (e.g. green and red). Maybe a third colour for optional inputs as well.

[mvdbeek]

select values / datasets.

only for workflow inputs, right ? we've been pretty clear that we don't want that for runtime inputs.

as for the mockup, is there any point in showing the history ? Why not navigate to outputs through their steps or designated workflow outputs ?

[simonbray]

select values / datasets.

only for workflow inputs, right ? we've been pretty clear that we don't want that for runtime inputs.

Yes 👍

as for the mockup, is there any point in showing the history ? Why not navigate to outputs through their steps or designated workflow outputs ?

My idea was to show the history so the user can pick input datasets from it, the same as the current run form.

[mvdbeek]

I guess ideally they'd select a history in the dataset selector (and start with the current history), that's one concept less to know then if you only want to run a workflow.