Feat: Session saving and loading with mappersession

[bboettcher3]

• Adds a requirements.txt to install mappersession (which installs libmapper) and netifaces
• Uses the new mappersession python module to save, load and stage session files
  • Stages the current session by default
• User can click "Unload" to clear the current session
  • Opening a new session will automatically clear as well
  • Handles enabling/disabling of Unload button depending on if file is loaded
• Shows currently loaded session name:

[DocSunset]

So I have a few thoughts.

I think it's important that we keep the old file format load functionality accessible in some fashion, since otherwise it will be impossible to load old files with the new webmapper. I think eventually we could get rid of that functionality (mark it deprecated, move it to legacy, etc. etc.), but until mappersession is for sure stable, and until anyone with old mappings has had lots of time to adopt it, there should be a way to keep using those old mappings. This would also make it easier for naive users to transition to the new system without having to run two versions of webmapper (one to load the old format and one to save the new one). I guess the easiest thing would be for the load button to detect if the file being loaded is in the old format and default to using the old load method.

Otherwise this all seems very reasonable.

One feature I would request on top of this feature pull request might be for a saved map to be automatically moved into the staged slot without having to be loaded manually.

[malloch]

@DocSunset I agree! We have been including file format version numbers in mapping files for this exact reason – webmapper should be able to read legacy versions.

[malloch]

@bboettcher3 I have some questions about the "clearing" you mention in the description above. When unloading or loading a new session are all the current maps removed? How do we handle multiple concurrent sessions on the network?

[bboettcher3]

@DocSunset legacy loading with the fileversion tag is in the pipeline, i'll add this soon. Same for adding new maps to the staging list. (marking PR as draft until ready) @malloch I suppose this can be fixed by asking the user if they want to clear each time they load a new session, I'll add that to my TODO list too

[malloch]

@bboettcher3 we should also consider a scenario where a single user is juggling multiple concurrent/overlapping sessions, so that sessions/scenes are not mutually exclusive. Your load/unload model works well here, but we might need a list of active sessions with unload buttons, or a menu for load and a separate menu for unload...

[edumeneses]

Nice discussion/comments.

I suggest we fix the legacy loading in this PR and merge it as soon as possible.

Then we open a new PR/branch for the concurrent mapping session options. My suggestions for that one:

• open session button (add a session to the list of available sessions)
• close session button (remove a session from the list of available sessions)
• save session button
• load session button (manually load selected session: apply/create all saved mappings)
  • Suggestion: Clear checkmark (clear all maps before loading the session)
  • Suggestion: replace checkmark (replace all maps for the devices saved on the map, i.e., clean only the devices mentioned in the session file)
• stage switch (on/off)

[bboettcher3]

Update to the appearance of the panel:

And a prompt for clearing also added when loading:

Just need to add legacy file loading and it should be set (if we agree with Edu's proposal above)

[malloch]

For consistency we should use the term "maps" not "connections". Also, what do you think of changing the prompt to "clear active sessions" instead of "clear all connections before loading"? Existing maps that are also included in the session to be loaded should be modified rather than cleared and reloaded though...

[bboettcher3]

what do you think of changing the prompt to "clear active sessions" instead of "clear all connections before loading"?

Sounds good to me! Just pushed that fix.

[bboettcher3]

Do either @malloch or @DocSunset have any sessions saved with fileversion 2.2 or older that I can test with?

[malloch]

pyo_ring_mod.zip ufmg2011.soprano_v2.2.json.zip

[edumeneses]

For consistency we should use the term "maps" not "connections". Also, what do you think of changing the prompt to "clear active sessions" instead of "clear all connections before loading"? Existing maps that are also included in the session to be loaded should be modified rather than cleared and reloaded though...

If we think about it, even the term "session" is misleading. The session, in this case, is a collection of mappings that do not necessarily represent the entire state of the network mappings: some devices may not be part of the saved mappings but are available in the network (same session?)

This is not an issue, but more food for thought.

[malloch]

I agree that the terminology is confusing – what should we call a collection of maps (and possibly other state) that a user wishes to store/load together? Terms like session and scene imply that they include the entire network state (as pointed out by @edumeneses) and thus don't make sense for concurrent states. Some other possibilities: collection, mapping ...

[DocSunset]

subnet state, sub-session, subgraph..?

There are some save mappings from an older webmapper in the online appendix from my MA thesis: http://traviswest.ca/making_mappings/

On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 6:27 PM Joseph Malloch @.***> wrote:

I agree that the terminology is confusing – what should we call a collection of maps (and possibly other state) that a user wishes to store/load together? Terms like session and scene imply that they include the entire network state (as pointed out by @edumeneses https://github.com/edumeneses) and thus don't make sense for concurrent states. Some other possibilities: collection, mapping ...

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/libmapper/webmapper/pull/33#issuecomment-1324363154, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AEGCF3FB4C5OEZ44QLRPAXDWJVJFFANCNFSM6AAAAAAR6EYWWI . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>

[bboettcher3]

I like sub-session :). Also @malloch and @DocSunset , I'm finishing up the legacy file loading using the files you supplied as references (along with webmapper's existing parsing) and see that:

• version 2.0 expressions use the format d[0]=s[0]
• version 2.1 uses dest[0]=src[0]
• version 2.2 uses d[0]=s[0]

Just confirming that this switch and switch back isn't an error in the files you shared? Seemed odd enough to ask haha

[malloch]

I think v2.2 should use the format dst[0]=src[0]

[bboettcher3]

ufmg2011.soprano_v2.2.json.zip

^This file you sent uses the format "d[0]=abs(s[0])*0.05" and it's in 2.2

[malloch]

@bboettcher3 interesting... that may be a mistake then. The v2.2 parsing code in webmapper is clearly expecting src and dst.

[bboettcher3]

Yep, i noticed that too. Do you have any more 2.2 files so that we can figure out if its a mistake on webmapper's side or that file?

[bboettcher3]

@malloch @DocSunset Tested with loading 2.0-2.3 (and the current version 2.4), all should be good now :)

[malloch]

Here is my proposal:

• a mapping file should contain one or more "groups" of maps and static signal values.
• loading the file in webmapper (or a similar UI) creates mini UIs for each group with buttons for load, unload, and solo, and text stating the number of maps contained in the group. This enables to load map groups in parallel. Unloading a map group doesn't close the file, and doesn't destroy maps that are also members of another active group.
• users can also drag selected maps onto existing groups or create a new one. I'm not sure yet how to easily remove maps from a group, since groups could contain 'offline' maps that are not normally displayable in the main views.
• multiple files can be open at the same time as well, so groups belonging to a file should be ganged together visually