Allow user to configure which columns are displayed

[dylanmcreynolds]

Feedback from @ambarb about the display of runs in Xi-Cam/bluesky-browser. Different users will want to see different columns in the run selection in order to help them identify which run to look at. The desired list of columns will change from user to user.

One idea that sounds worth pursing is to create a UI that allows the user to select from a list of columns (similar to Windows Explorer.)

Coming up with that list of columns needs to be thought out. Is it a configuration file? Is it based on fields that are available in the start documents of the runs being displayed?

[dylanmcreynolds]

@ambarb Thinking about how to generate the list of available columns for this enhancement. Different experiments might have very different lists of fields. I can imagine a sophisticated column-selection-engine that detects fields as runs come in, or are being currently displayed in the list of runs. But for right now, I think I'd like to improve on the list that is currently hard-coded, adding fields that you'd like to see.

Right now we have:

• UID
• Transient Scan ID
• Plan Name
• Start Time
• Duration
• Exit Status

But what else would you like to see (which can be selected or de-selected by the user)?

[danielballan]

• Number of Events (a good proxy for which scan is the "long" one for situations where Duration isn't so helpful)
• Axes

Another detail to keep in mind: the configuration system in bluesky-browser allowed arbitrary user-specified Python code to transform the raw information in the documents into something more human-friendly and useful, such as showing "3 minutes ago" for the start time. It would be nice to reintroduce some means to doing that. It could be as simple as an input text area instructing the user to write a function that takes in an Entry and returns a string.

[dylanmcreynolds]

We have implemented this in this PR Xi-CAM/Xi-cam.gui#38.

The current implementation partly addresses the comments about fields. Right now, the list is hard-coded to only a few. If it were opened up to more, we'd have a nice solution for showing/hiding them.

[dylanmcreynolds]

I had marked this done, but un-did it since there are notes about handling more flexible lists of columns here.

[ambarb]

sorry for the late comment. Not for XPCS, necessarily, but motors would be good (motors in the scan)

for the transient ID, does it display the entire string or just the first 6?