Cookbook : Graphlines

A Graphline provides a flexible way to link inboxes and outboxes in any way you wish. Whereas a Pipeline constrains your components to be wired into ... a pipeline ... with Graphline you specify each link explicitly.

Suppose we want to build a simple slideshow application, where pygame Button components control a Chooser component that sends filenames for each slide to a pygame Image display component:

We could build this by writing a new component with a whole bunch of self.link() calls to link each outbox to the next inbox. But that is a lot of code to write and rather tedious! ... surely there must be an easier way?

... You need the graphline component! No need to write a whole new component, simply use a Graphline component like this:

from Kamaelia.Chassis.Graphline import Graphline

from Kamaelia.UI.Pygame.Button import Button
from Kamaelia.UI.Pygame.Image import Image
from Kamaelia.Util.Chooser import Chooser

files = [ "slide1.gif", "slide2.gif", .... "slide99.gif" ]

Graphline(
     CHOOSER  = Chooser(files),
     IMAGE    = Image(size=(800,600), position=(8,48)),
     NEXT     = Button(caption="Next",     msg="NEXT", position=(72,8)  ),
     PREVIOUS = Button(caption="Previous", msg="PREV" ,position=(8,8)   ),
     FIRST    = Button(caption="First",    msg="FIRST",position=(256,8) ),
     LAST     = Button(caption="Last",     msg="LAST" ,position=(320,8) ),

     linkages = {
        ("NEXT",     "outbox") : ("CHOOSER", "inbox"),
        ("PREVIOUS", "outbox") : ("CHOOSER", "inbox"),
        ("FIRST",    "outbox") : ("CHOOSER", "inbox"),
        ("LAST",     "outbox") : ("CHOOSER", "inbox"),

        ("CHOOSER",  "outbox") : ("IMAGE",   "inbox"),
     }
).run()

What you see here is slightly abridged for clarity. You can find the full version in Kamaelia/Examples/SimpleGraphicalApps/Slideshows

What did we just do? Simple:

1. Write each component as a named argument
   

        CHOOSER  = Chooser(files),
        IMAGE    = Image(size=(800,600), position=(8,48)),
        NEXT     = Button(caption="Next",     msg="NEXT", position=(72,8)  ),
        PREVIOUS = Button(caption="Previous", msg="PREV" ,position=(8,8)   ),
        FIRST    = Button(caption="First",    msg="FIRST",position=(256,8) ),
        LAST     = Button(caption="Last",     msg="LAST" ,position=(320,8) ),
   

   
   
2. ...then write the linkages you want as the 'linkages' argument in a dictionary:
   

        linkages = {
           ("NEXT",     "outbox") : ("CHOOSER", "inbox"),
           ("PREVIOUS", "outbox") : ("CHOOSER", "inbox"),
           ("FIRST",    "outbox") : ("CHOOSER", "inbox"),
           ("LAST",     "outbox") : ("CHOOSER", "inbox"),
   
           ("CHOOSER",  "outbox") : ("IMAGE",   "inbox"),
        }

For each linkage we want, we write a mapping in the dictionary from a (component, outbox) to a (component, inbox) We refer to the components by the names we just gave them, as strings. We reference the inboxes and outboxes by their names too.

So, for example:

("NEXT","outbox") : ("CHOOSER","inbox")

specifies that you want the "outbox" outbox of the "Next" Button to be linked to the "inbox" inbox of the Chooser.

Making links to the outside world

So the Graphline defined above wires up the Chooser, Image and 4 Button components inside itself - like Pipeline it is a kind of container:

If we look in more detail, the links made are actually like this:


Just like the Pipeline component, a Graphline has its own inboxes and outboxes. You can specify links to and from these by using the empty string to name the component.

For example, we might want to be able to send instructions to the Chooser from outside this graphline, in which case we would add this to the set of linkages:

        ("", "inbox") : ("NEXT", "inbox"),

By using a name for a component that we've not used (in this case simply the empty string suffices) we're telling Graphline to use its own inbox.

We could do the same for outboxes too if we want. For example, we could ask for the outbox of the Image component to be linked to the Graphline's outbox:

        ("IMAGE", "outbox") : ("",     "outbox"),

In fact, if you also refer to an inbox or outbox name for the Graphline that does not exist. Graphline will simply create it. This means you can use a Graphline as a container, giving it whatever inboxes and outboxes you need - not just the 'standard' ones that most components have.

Just like with Pipeline, Graphline is a fully fledged component itself, so you can put a Graphline inside a Pipeline, or a Pipeline inside a Graphline, or any other combination you care to choose. Again, it can be a good way of making your system more modular, by separating off a little group of components into a separate functional unit.