Most examples apps broken

[janosh]

Total example apps:

ls crystal_toolkit/apps/examples/*.py | wc -l
>>> 23  # -2 for utils and __init__

Found 6 broken out of 8 tested

1. ✅ apps/examples/pourbaix.py
2. ✅ apps/examples/structure.py
3. 💀 apps/examples/phase_diagram.py
4. 💀 apps/examples/relaxation_trajectory.py
5. 💀 apps/examples/structure_magnetic.py
6. 💀 apps/examples/transformations_minimal.py
7. 💀 apps/examples/transformations.py
8. 💀 apps/examples/write_structure_screenshot_to_file.py

Below are app screenshots.

✅ apps/examples/pourbaix.py

✅ apps/examples/structure.py

💀 apps/examples/phase_diagram.py

💀 apps/examples/relaxation_trajectory.py

💀 apps/examples/structure_magnetic.py

💀 apps/examples/transformations_minimal.py

💀 apps/examples/transformations.py

💀 apps/examples/write_structure_screenshot_to_file.py

[mkhorton]

Thanks for this summary. I think next step here is to make sure these are working, and add to automated testing (e.g., making sure they run without console errors).

Quick impressions:

• apps/examples/phase_diagram.py probably affected by #264, because a lot of PD improvements were implemented initially in web and have not been upstreamed. It could benefit a lot from the kind of work that was done for the Pourbaix app, which is a lot cleaner comparatively speaking (which is why I expect the Pourbaix demo still works too)
• apps/examples/structure_magnetic.py looks like a trivial MPRester / document model change
• apps/examples/write_structure_screenshot_to_file.py this isn't really a real "app" but is a workaround for not being able to generate crystal images via script, since the rendering is done in-browser and requires a WebGL context, nevertheless not sure what the error is here -- the MP team will eventually have to tackle this issue to generate images as new materials are added to the MP website

[tsmathis]

Re: the screenshot generation script: There previously was an imageRequest property within the CrystalToolkitScene component in mp-react-components. At some point in the last two years that property and the associated hooks were removed from mp-react-components, I haven't found the exact commit this occurred at yet so I'm not sure what the reason was for removing it.

I had to re-introduce the imageRequest prop for a recent ad hoc image generation script for new structures. So it could be worth a deeper look.

[mkhorton]

Sorry @tsmathis, sounds frustrating!

I can offer some background on those props for context. Basically, there are two ways of handling a screenshot or 3D model export. Both of these ways can, in principle, be used together:

1. Trigger the download completely client-side
   • Pros: fast
   • Cons: server cannot retrieve downloaded data
2. Encode the image/file as a prop, b64-encoded
   • Pros: server can then modify this image (for example, we might want to add a legend, or generate screenshots automatically and upload these to a database)
   • Cons: I felt uneasy about putting a relatively "large" string into a prop

I don't remember exactly, but I think potentially 1. was removed in favor of 2.? I think the capability was always there somehow, it was just a question of whether it was done client-side or server-side.

Regardless of outcome, the ultimate aim was to add both some legend tiles + a credit string to the image via Pillow, as a polite nudge to people to remember to credit the source of the image when it's re-used. This was on the backlog.