[IPython-dev] ANN: Exhibitionist - integrating HTML/JS UIs into interactive python work

[Brian Granger]

Hi,

On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 2:36 PM, yoval p. <y-p at gmx.com> wrote:
> Here's hoping mailman picks this up into the correct thread...
>
> Hi Brian/Matthaias,
>
> Thanks for the heads up.
>
> I'm looking forward to superior functionality being available
> in IPython, though your roadmap is unclear on whether
> this will actually land late this year or in 2014.
>
> To reiterate, The only IPython functionality needed
> is the ability to load and view remote HTML pages, and that only
> as a substitute to using a separate browser window.
> Is that really something you're planning to disallow?
> If so, I strongly urge you not to throw away a feature that makes
> IPython-notebook as powerful as the web.
>
> Wouldn't an Opt-in mechanism be sufficient?
>
> As for strong assumptions, The only assumption I'm really making
> is that there's a network connection between the front-end and
> where the kernel is.

That is the critical assumption that we make absolutely no promise to
maintain.  Right now the notebook server happens to run on the same
host as the kernel, but that is not a requirement in any way.  You
should assume that the kernel could be running on a different host
that has absolutely no network connectivity to the outside world other
than the notebook server host.  The main IPython message architecture
is designed precisely to allow the kernel to run anywhere - that is
why we say these are the official way of talking to the kernel.

Cheers,

Brian

> Cross-origin issues are already addressed with
> built-in JSONP and CORS support.
> Could you elaborate on how this assumption might be violated in the future?
> Surely a user working on his laptop on a local file, with a local kernel
> should be able to access local urls. I'm less interested in other
> use-cases, and frankly don't have the resources to pursue them.
>
> I'm trying to keep things generic, so hopefully views will be
> easily portable to the new architecture when it arrives.
>
> I've started work on a crossfilter (http://square.github.com/crossfilter/)
> based
> "lasso" UI, that allows you to graphically filter a python dataset by
> selecting
> points across different dimensions, and pick up the filtered dataset back in
> python.
> Unless I hit a wall, there should be a demo up in a couple of weeks.
>
> stay tuned,
> Yoval
>
>
>
> Matthaias Bussonnier Wrote:
>> Do you rely on display_javascript for the initial loading of javascript ?
>> or inject <script> tag in a display HTML
>
>> If you do , this can be problematic in the future.
>
> Brian Granger Wrote:
>
>> This is really cool to see work like this happening.  Very nice!
>>
>> I wanted to update you on the development situation with IPython that
>> may affect your code:
>
> This is really cool to see work like this happening.  Very nice!
>
> I wanted to update you on the development situation with IPython that
> may affect your code:
>
> * We plan on starting to work on creating a nice architecture for
> interactive JavaScript widgets, in late summer.
> * This architecture will enable all of this to be done without any
> additional server logic.
> * Using additional server logic as you have done is not officially
> supported.  What I mean by this is that the notebook architecture may
> change in a way that makes it impossible to do this type of thing.
> The problem is that you have made some strong assumptions about where
> the notebook server, kernel and your server are running.  The
> preferred way of getting data back and forth between python and the
> browser is to use our message channels.  Currently these channels are
> not sufficient for what you want to do, but after are work later this
> year, they will be.
> * Because of security issues are are moving away from the notebook
> being able to execute dynamically generated javascript code.  We will
> replace this with a javascript plugin system that is more secure.  You
> will have to rewrite things when this happens.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Brian
>
>
>
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-- 
Brian E. Granger
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
bgranger at calpoly.edu and ellisonbg at gmail.com