There should be a transformer that 'tints' certain features based on a condition in a selectable colour. Say, I want to highlight all features where A=1 in red. Upon running the workspace, all connections through which the highlighted features pass, then should get coloured in red. This way I could easily visually track the flow of certain features through my workspace.
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+6Hi @ekkischeffler!
I'm pleased to let you know the ability to style connection lines is available in the FME 2020.0 beta out now (please also see https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/18777/change-link-colour.html). Using this functionality, if you would like to style the connection line showing features flowing through a certain output port, you can highlight matching downstream connections, upstream connections, or both. We would love if you could give this a try, and let us know what you think (also feel free to tell your FME friends)!
Best,
Annabelle
+5- Contributor
Thanks @annabelleatsafe, that's a great new feature and I can see how it will help making complicated workspaces easier to read.
My idea was actually a bit different - maybe the next level up from this new feature. I was hoping to have the connections styled based on a condition that might change when running the workspace.
So, starting from what we now have in 2020 beta, would it be possible to make the style based on an attribute value? We could then, for instance, use an AttributeValueMapper to set a color based on a particular attribute value. This way, when the workspace runs, the colors of the connections could change based on the features that run through them. We could then see immediately where particular features went, without even using inspectors!
It probably needs some more thought around the details...
+6Hi @ekkischeffler!
First of all, thank you so much for providing your feedback on this feature—It is a huge help towards better understanding how we can make the authoring experience easier and more intuitive.
This is a really interesting suggested addition to the connection styling—I'll bring this to the product group here for further discussion! I could see this being a very power means of visually differentiating/tracking your data flowing the workspace.
Thanks again for providing your feedback!
Best,
+28- Contributor
Hi @annabelleatsafe,
I second this interpretation. I often have scenarios where I'm troubleshooting bad results. I might have a specific feature that is missing a value, or has the wrong value. If none of the features interact with each other I can simply put a tester at the beginning of the workspace to test for that feature (usually by a unique ID) and see how it processes through the workspace, since it is the only feature. When features interact with one another (featureMerger, spatialRelator etc) it's no longer possible to track the flow of a specific feature (or features with a specific attribute value in the general case).
+6Hi @jdh!
Thank you also for taking the time to provide this feedback and for sharing your pain points with us—We truly appreciate it! We definitely need some time to think on it, but it sounds like there is a path forward here to consider in terms of leveraging this styling capability for more powerful debugging/tracing purposes. Thank you again for sharing this feedback with us!
Best,
Annabelle
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