Create a GUI to create/maintain Plus configuration files

[Sunderlandkyl]

Prevent user errors by creating a configuration file generator from a database of known devices/phantoms/segmentation configs/etc...

Always allow the user to add his own custom elements (new phantom, new params, etc..)

Migrated from https://app.assembla.com/spaces/plus/tickets/607/details

[Sunderlandkyl]

2012-10-01 13:24
Andras Lasso
Developing a convenient config file generator requires significant effort, but it's much more, continuous work to maintain it. It would mean that after any configuration related change the generator shall be also updated (and of course the example config files still have to be maintained the same way).

Instead of developing a generator wizard I would rather invest time in creating better documentation for the configuration file structure, potentially (partially) automatically generated.

2012-10-02 12:12
Adam Rankin
I agree that it would require a non-trivial amount of effort.

I would argue though, that it would save all of us time (more than the time spent developing it) because we would see a reduced amount of complaints/tickets/emails regarding incorrect configuration files.

Essentially, it would create a more robust product. If we design it correctly, we could push an update to the template XML file, and a new configuration file can be generated. This would trivialize updates to the software for our end users.

2012-10-02 12:30
Andras Lasso
I agree that such a tool would have some value to some people. Anyway, the cost/benefit ratio is quite high and we have much more pressing needs, so we have time to further discuss this and decide when to implement this.

2012-10-02 14:03
Csaba Pinter
It's not a priority now, but I think it would reduce user support needs.

It wouldn't be a big effort to implement, as we only have to expose the XSL template on a GUI. As long as we maintain the XSL, this tool would be up-to-date, so maintenance wouldn't be too burdensome either.

I think this tool will be worth to develop when we don't have very urgent tasks.

2012-10-04 10:17
Andras Lasso
We can implement such tool sometime, but I think it's low priority (compared to other things that we have to do) because of the followings:

High cost:
A few years ago no free tool existed that allowed creating/editing an XML file based on XSL. Do you know any that is available now?
Everything can be solved with a custom editor app, but the development would take several weeks and the continuous maintenance would take even more of our time.

Small benefit:
The XSL and editor can only prevent syntax errors. There are many constraints, logic, constraints, which cannot be encoded in XSL. So, we cannot prevent generation of invalid or dysfunctional config files.
The users would need working examples and documentation of the configuration anyway. But if these existed then there would be little need for an editor.
In the config files now it's easy to add comments, extra blocks that are used by a custom application only, etc. Probably this wouldn't be compatible with the editor, so we could end up being able to use the editor only for some toy examples and not for real work.