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Narrative Method & App Specifications

This is a KBase repository for Narrative method and app specifications. These specifications are used to dynamically populate the set of narrative methods and apps that are available, in terms of both method & app functionality/behavior and display.

Updates to this repository can be automatically detected by the Narrative Method Store, a service which provides access to parsed versions of these specifications. See https://github.com/kbase/narrative_method_store

Generally, the production Narrative Method Store (https://kbase.us/services/narrative_method_store/rpc) will fetch from the master branch of this repository, while development deployments will fetch from the dev branch of this repository.

Basic Repository Organization

Method specifications are organized into folders in the methods directory. Each folder is named by the unique method ID containing files named 'spec.json' and 'display.yaml' (see details below). Screenshots can be included in an optional img directory in each method folder.

Apps specifications are similarly organized into folders in the apps directory.

Categories define groups of related Methods & Apps, and also have a specification defined in folders in the categories directory. Methods & Apps can be in zero or more categories as defined in the Method/App specifications. Categories are used to organize Methods & Apps in both the Narrative interface and documentation pages.

How to Add/Update Specifications

To update or edit the specifications for methods/apps that you have written, you need to fork this repository, make changes in your local repository, and make a pull request. See https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests

We prefer that pull requests are made to the dev branch, and that you test and confirm that the changes are correct on the dev deployment of the Narrative and functional site. We will then merge the changes into master as soon as you have confirmed with us that the changes look good. Only in rare circumstances will we accept changes directly into the live master branch.

Changes pushed to the master branch will be reflected in the Narrative Method Store generally within a couple minutes, depending on the configuration settings of the Narrative Method Store. Keep in mind that you may need to clear your browser cache to see the changes reflected on the live site.

Specification Details

Method Specifications

Narrative methods are the discrete operations that can be performed in the Narrative interface. The method specifications defines:

• The input parameters and output variables of the method
• The input/output visualization widgets (which are deployed with the Narrative)
• The behavior of the widget
• The display properties of the method (method name, parameter names, etc)
• Documentation on the method, including screenshots

The technical specifications of the parameters, output, and method behavior are defined in a JSON file named spec.json in each method folder, and should be edited by developers who are adding the method.

The display properties of the method (e.g. the nice name, the subtitle, description, parameter names, parameter descriptions) are defined in a YAML file named display.yaml in each method folder. The display properties should be initially populated by the original developer as best as possible, but will likely by edited by the KBase documentation teams.

Additional technical details regarding the specific fields in spec.json and display.yaml and how they map to Narrative behavior will be added here soon, but the best way to learn is simply to take a look at a few examples.

App Specifications

Apps define an ordered set of Narrative Methods in which the output of one method can be linked to the input of one or more following methods. Apps will also allow users to execute all the steps together with one click.

The App specification is still in flux, and will be described in more detail soon.

Category Specifications

Categories define groupings of Methods & Apps used for method and app discovery and organization. Categories, like methods and apps, are defined in folders named with the category ID. Categories currently are simple objects with a name and brief description. Methods & Apps define the categories they should be associated with. Methods & Apps can be associated with zero, one, or more categories. Categories can be nested.

Help

Contact: Michael Sneddon (mwsneddon@lbl.gov)