ServerManager XML Hints

NOTE: This is under development and may not cover all available hints

Proxy Hints

These are hints added to proxies.

Mark proxy as a reader

• Used to mark a proxy under the "sources" group as a reader.
• extensions attribute is used to list the supported extensions e.g. "foo foo.bar" for files named as somename.foo or somename.foo.bar.
• filename_patterns attribute is used to list the filename patterns to match. The format is similar to what one would use for "ls" using wildcards e.g. spcth* to match spcta, spctb etc.

<source lang="xml">

<Hints>
  <ReaderFactory extensions="[space separated extensions w/o leading '.']"
                 filename_patterns="[space separated filename patters (using wildcards)]"
                 file_description="[user-friendly description]" />
</Hints>

</source>

Hide a property

• Used to hide a property from the auto-generated Properties panel.

<source lang="xml">

 <Hints>
   <Property name="[property name]" show="0" />
 </Hints>

</source>

Default View

• Used to pick a default view type.
• Does not support picking a view type for multiple output-ports just yet.

<source lang="xml">

<Hints>
  <View type="XYChartView" />
</Hints>

</source>

Mark Data Plotable

• ParaView charts can support plotting any type of data, however since plotting is client-side, we don't want the user to accidentally try to plot really large datasets.
• So we mark certain filters/sources are plot-able.
• A source/filter producing vtkTable is always plot-able by default.

<source lang="xml">

 <Hints>
   <Plotable />
 </Hints>

</source>

Don't hide input dataset

• When a filter is applied, ParaView hides the input dataset(s) by default in the active view.
• In some cases, this is not the expected behavior e.g. Slice filter. In that case, use this hint.
• Accepted values:

 0 ==> don't replace the input at all
 1 ==> replace the input (default behavior)
 2 ==> replace the input only if it is "Surface" or "Surface With Edges" and is totally opaque.

<source lang="xml">

 <Hints>
   <Visibility replace_input="0" />
 </Hints>

</source>

Property Hints

These are hints added to Properties.

Selection Input

• If a filter needs to use the "active selection", one can use this hint.
• Only used by auto-generated Properties panel.
• Specified on a Input property that can take in a vtkSelection.

<source lang="xml">

 <InputProperty name="Selection"
      command="SetSelectionConnection">
      <DataTypeDomain name="input_type">
        <DataType value="vtkSelection"/>
      </DataTypeDomain>
      <Documentation>
        The input that provides the selection object.
      </Documentation>
      <Hints>
        <SelectionInput />
      </Hints>
 </InputProperty>

</source>