[Timelines] Allow Activity Mode dictionary to be imported

[charlesh88]

From Scott Miller, and supported by Robert Carvalho: Scott really needs to be able to import a list of Activities into the system. Each Activity has a name and duration, but not a start datetime. He'll then organize them in time within Timelines. Importing from Excel would be ideal, but CSV would be acceptable.

Checking now on expectations about what happens when importing an Activity with the same name, and if there's properties other than name and duration that need to be imported.

[charlesh88]

From Scott:

Would expect that if I import the Activity to the same folder or container that it would overwrite/update those activities with the new info. This would facilitate automatic updates to any timelines that use those Activities. Note that properties not defined in the import (like Start datetime) wouldn't be expected to be updated. If I import the Activity to a different location, then the same name would be fine. Expected properties would be Name, default duration, power (Watts), streaming data rate (kbps), and activity description.

[charlesh88]

@VWoeltjen Could you have a look and comment? I'm expecting the import and update an Activity of the same name to be a bit tougher for us to pull off.

[VWoeltjen]

Importing and updating by name might be a little tricky, but do-able.

It would be a little helpful for implementation if we could isolate this (e.g. not try to bake it into the timeline plugin.) What would you think of a top-level "Activity Dictionary" root-level node with an "Import from..." action associated with it?

[VWoeltjen]

Unstructured notes from meeting 8/28/2017

• Activity modes from a spreadsheet
  • Activity modes are similar to what we have already
  • Also have nominal durations
  • Also have fixed comms usage
• Want drag-drop from Activity Mode to Activity instance
  • ….with nominal duration
• Activity Dictionary
  • Create > Activity Dictionary, choose CSV file (or similar)
  • Drag from activity modes into timeline to create activity instances
• Duration changes need to wind up back in timelines
  • ...for some activities, need to specify durations
  • In some cases, don’t want the update
  • Having a report to tell us this is best
  • Most cases, do just want things to auto-update
  • Seeing before/after the change is useful
  • Timelines disallowing concurrency
• Immutable dictionaries
  • If you can have multiple dictionaries…
  • ….don’t need an update function!
  • Do need a way to clone/convert timelines to new dictionaries

[charlesh88]

Meeting notes from 8/28/17, following on @VWoeltjen above:

• Import Activity Modes (AM) from a spreadsheet. Results in an Activity Mode dictionary, manifesting in the tree.
  • AM is similar to current (resource used over time), but includes nominal duration. Some AM's might not have duration.
  • Scott is using a single level of hierarchical organization, with AM's grouped into concepts like "Lunar Descent", "Egress", etc. It would be nice if import supported this structure with folders.
• Drag Activity Mode onto a Timeline or Activity
  • AM is placed as an Activity, using the nominal duration defined in the AM. If duration not present, use some default so that the resulting Activity is visible.
  • User can manually alter start and duration of Activities. Visually indicate when an Activity is not set to its nominal duration.
  • User can drag from multiple dictionaries into a single Timeline or Activity.
• New button in a Timeline's Edit mode that organizes contained Timelines and Activities sequentially in time from top to bottom, based on duration. So first line starts at 0 datetime, next line begins at end of first line, and so on.
• Timelines can pointed at a single AM dictionary to apply an "update" functionality.
  • Need to detail how Activities will be linked to Activity Modes - name?
  • Start datetimes applied to Activities are retained.
  • Durations and resource utilization are updated.
  • Any properties that came from multiple dictionaries are overwritten by the new dictionary.
  • Visually indicate if an Activity in a Timeline doesn't have a corresponding entry in the last synced dictionary.
  • User will have to manually inspect Timelines to see if Activity alignment is in need of tweaking.
  • User can duplicate Timelines and point them at different dictionaries to visually A/B changes from one to the other.
• @costigan suggests we will also need a conflict checker based on flight rules that can be run against a given Timeline and generate a report of issues.

[charlesh88]

Reviewing 9/21/17 with @dtailor90 and @VWoeltjen:

• Move auto-sequential organization and dictionary update features into separate issues
• Dictionary update has nuances that need to be fleshed out

[larkin]

• Activity Modes is a new Root object.
  • Contains a set of activities which
  • have durations and resource costs.
  • are populated from a CSV file that is loaded on demand
  • can be drag and dropped into timelines to build procedures.
• Timelines need to be modified such that:
  • the Timeline is responsible for saying what activities start at which time.
  • timelines can override the duration of an activity