[ImageJ-devel] @parameter choice update in component callback

Fri Aug 21 23:10:06 CDT 2015

Hi Adrian,

> Doesn't that allow doing what Felix would like to do, by populating
> the combobox through such an initialiser ?

I think what Felix wants is to set a parameter's "choices" attribute --
i.e., the values that will appear in the input harvester UI's dropdown list
box.

It can be done with a DynamicCommand, but right now it only works from an
initializer, not from a callback. So if you want to populate the choice
once from, say, the active Dataset, it works. But if you want to update the
choices e.g. every time the user moves a numerical slider, it will not work
because the UI will not update.

See also:
* https://github.com/scijava/scijava-common/issues/180
* https://github.com/scijava/scijava-common/issues/181

> Are the parameters populated/initialised in the order they appear? In
> particular, is the initialisation done serially or can there be
> parallel execution of initialisers ?

Initialization is currently implemented serially [1].

> I have parameters a, b, c whose initialisation depend on a common
> calculation (depending on the image gotten through a previous
> @Parameter ImagePlus imp): can I do this calculation in the
> initialiser for the first parameter a, and then in the initialisers of
> b and c rely on the fact that the calculation was already done ?

Perhaps simplest at the moment would be to give your command a global
initializer -- i.e., set the initializer method in the @Plugin annotation
itself, rather than on specific parameters. The ImagePlus will be populated
by a preprocessor _before_ the initialize method is called, so when your
global initializer gets called you will already have access to the
ImagePlus.

But again, scijava/scijava-common#181 is very relevant here.

Regards,
Curtis

[1]
https://github.com/scijava/scijava-common/blob/scijava-common-2.42.2/src/main/java/org/scijava/module/AbstractModule.java#L75-L88

On Fri, Aug 21, 2015 at 6:18 AM, Adrian Daerr <
adrian.daerr at univ-paris-diderot.fr> wrote:

> Hi Curtis, Felix, Jan, and others,
>
> In the CommandWithPreview tutorial example[*] that Curtis sent to
> the list a few weeks back, there is a @Parameter which is
> initialised to a value depending on the initialisation of another
> parameter:
>
> @Parameter private ImagePlus imp;
>
> @Parameter(persist = false, initializer = "initTitle") private String
> title;
>
> /** Initializes the {@link #title} parameter. */
> protected void initTitle() {
>         title = initialTitle = imp.getTitle();
> }
>
> [*]
>
> https://github.com/imagej/imagej-tutorials/blob/master/commands-with-preview/src/main/java/CommandWithPreview.java
>
> Doesn't that allow doing what Felix would like to do, by
> populating the combobox through such an initialiser ?
>
> Are the parameters populated/initialised in the order they
> appear? In particular, is the initialisation done serially or can
> there be parallel execution of initialisers ? I ask because I
> have parameters a, b, c whose initialisation depend on a common
> calculation (depending on the image gotten through a previous
> @Parameter ImagePlus imp): can I do this calculation in the
> initialiser for the first parameter a, and then in the
> initialisers of b and c rely on the fact that the calculation was
> already done ?
>
> cheers,
> Adrian
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, 20 Aug 2015 17:13:11 -0500
>  Curtis Rueden <ctrueden at wisc.edu> wrote:
>
>> Hi Felix, Jan and everyone,
>>
>> I couldn’t find any hint that it is possible to update the choices of
>>> a parameter (declared with the annotator) in a callback that for
>>> another parameter.
>>>
>>
>> It is possible to dynamically adjust parameters from Java code [1]. You
>> can
>> also dynamically add and remove parameters. Such commands extend the
>> DynamicCommand class.
>>
>> There are many examples currently in the imagej-plugins-commands project;
>> e.g.:
>>
>> https://github.com/imagej/imagej-plugins-commands/blob/imagej-plugins-commands-0.5.1/src/main/java/net/imagej/plugins/commands/restructure/AddAxis.java
>>
>> However, a couple of notes:
>>
>> - This pattern makes the command less reusable from other contexts,
>> because
>> some contexts require a priori knowledge about the number and types of
>> input and output parameters.
>>
>> - The user interface currently does not properly refresh the input
>> harvester dialog if changes are made to parameters from a callback. So
>> while you can technically do things like change the choices array of a
>> multiple-choice input, the user will not actually see it.
>>
>> - What does work currently is to determine the multiple-choice values at
>> initialization time, based on the values of parameters which have already
>> been populated earlier, such as an active dataset. This is what many of
>> the
>> DynamicCommand implementations in imagej-plugins-commands do.
>>
>> Really, there are _five_ different classes of commands here:
>>
>> 1) Totally fixed, with inputs and outputs known in advance.
>> 2) Updates parameter attributes (such as choices—but not # or type of
>> inputs/outputs) once during initialization.
>> 3) Updates parameter number and type (i.e., adding/removing
>> inputs/outputs)
>> once during initialization.
>> 4) Updates parameter attributes repeatedly e.g. during callbacks.
>> 5) Updates parameter number and type repeatedly e.g. during callbacks.
>>
>> Of these, type #1 is most desirable for a variety of reasons. Failing
>> that,
>> types #2 and #3 can be done right now using DynamicCommand and it works
>> properly from the ImageJ UI—but not from other contexts like CellProfiler,
>> KNIME, etc. Types #4 and #5 can also be coded but will not work properly
>> from the UI in ImageJ because the input harvester is not rebuilt on
>> callbacks.
>>
>> See also:
>> * https://github.com/scijava/scijava-common/issues/42
>> * https://github.com/scijava/scijava-common/issues/43
>> * https://github.com/CellProfiler/CellProfiler/issues/647
>>
>> Regards,
>> Curtis
>>
>> [1] Dynamically updating parameters from scripts would be a different
>> story. No plans to do that any time soon...
>>
>> On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 6:50 AM, Jan Eglinger <jan.eglinger at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Felix and all,
>>>
>>> On 20.08.2015 10:06, MEYENHOFER Felix wrote:
>>>
>>> I couldn’t find any hint that it is possible to update the choices of a
>>>> parameter (declared with the annotator) in a callback that for another
>>>> parameter. For example; I have a file chooser and once a file hase been
>>>> chosen, I want to read some file metadata and then update the choices of
>>>> the combobox that allows to select the images series.
>>>> Since I could not figure a way to do it, I wanted to ask here if it is
>>>> possible at all?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I think dynamic adjustment of parameters isn't possible currently, but I
>>> agree that it would be a great thing to have.
>>>
>>> I know quite some use cases where either a DialogListener or a series of
>>> subsequent dialogs are used in ImageJ 1.x plugins to adjust parameter
>>> choice to previously harvested input.
>>>
>>> Furthermore, is it possible to get a directory chooser instead of a file
>>>
>>>> chooser in the configuration dialog of a command using the @Parameter
>>>> annotation?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Yes, by using the
>>>     style = "directory"
>>> attribute. See *Templates > Python > Process Folder* in the script
>>> editor,
>>> and this related discussion:
>>>   https://github.com/imagej/imagej-legacy/pull/114
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Jan
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> ImageJ-devel mailing list
>>> ImageJ-devel at imagej.net
>>> http://imagej.net/mailman/listinfo/imagej-devel
>>>
>>>
> --
> http://www.msc.univ-paris-diderot.fr/~daerr/
>
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