WIR SCHAFFEN WISSEN HEUTE FR MORGEN Alessandro Facchetti

WIR SCHAFFEN WISSEN – HEUTE FÜR MORGEN Alessandro Facchetti : : Paul Scherrer Institut The archiver interfaces of GFA 17. 08. 2018

General overview • Still 3 different types of archiver UI in use • No unification took place so far • Future of the archiving UI is the SFEL-interface, by Simon Ebner and crew → What should be included to have an archiver with good usability? ? Page 2

1. The GFA-Archiver (https: //archif. psi. ch/archiver) • Maintained by Gaudenz Jud (until his retirement late 2020) • Works for all accelerators (SLS, HIPA, Proscan, but not SFEL…) • No new features, but still good usability • Search functions implemented in separate window, not slowing down workflow • 2 y-axes, configuration is easy, but needs reload • Forwarding of parameters over the url • Predefined windows available (page with bookmarked queries) Page 3

2. The Analyze-program • Maintained by Anton Mezger (and Hubert Lutz) • Works only for HIPA and Proscan • No search function for channels • Very quick output of results, good adjustment of axes (x and y) • Correlation functions • Crashes a bit often (according to Hubert, it’s showing its age) • good «working tool» , designed bottom-up Page 4

Comparison of the archivers GFA-Archiver Analyze SFEL-Archiver Web / Program Web (Archif. psi. ch) Program Web (Ui-data-api. psi. ch) Pro / Con + reliable, quick - Missing data prevents display + Quick output, good graph handling - Tends to crash sometimes Still maintained by whom? Until? Gaudenz Jud, ca. 2020 Anton and Hubert Lutz, ca. 2020 + Nice presentation, some good features - Usability Simon Ebner / Controls Data Export Yes, several (Matlab, Excel, Text etc. ) Yes (temp file) Yes (many options? ) Correlation plots (X/Y) ? Yes (but arkward) Data presentation Mostly good, even waveforms Good Change of Data display Yes, limited to 2 Y-axis, reload needed Excellent, individual y-axis Zoom, Y-axis awkward to change Forward query to others Yes (as web address) No Kind of (but gateway blocks) Search functions for channels Yes, separate window (doesn’t slow) No Yes, auto-complete (does slow!) Custom files / configuration Yes No (? ) Page 5

Improvement requests for new UI • No need to load all channels just to provide auto-fill function - Slows the startup time considerably - We mostly know what to look for anyway (copy-paste PVs, right click) - Better: search function only on request (like in the GFA-archiver) • Selection of multiple channels must be faster (box instead of line? ) • Scaling of axes needs improvement (dragging/mouse wheel like Analyze? ) • Assigning channels to different axes for grouping • A working way to send data requests as links • Navigate back and forth without reloading data • Maybe a «add to logbook» , no need to down-/upload to elog. • Integrate somehow a «predefined window» to have quick access to frequent queries • Provide continuous data even if value not changing (already WIP) Page 6

Future of the archiver ui • Gather feedback from groups (SFEL, HIPA) • Define improvement requests (better than just critique) • Discuss / define a priority list of features • Forward them to S. Ebner. Page 7