Skip to content

String substitutions using {fmt}

Spiros Tsalikis requested to merge spiros.tsalikis/paraview:string-substitutions into master

The goal of MR is the standardization of string substitutions as described by @utkarsh.ayachit in #20547 (closed).

To implement the described functionality, the {fmt} library has been utilized. {fmt} had to be modified (see https://github.com/fmtlib/fmt/pull/2432) to support the desired functionality.

As described in #20547 (closed), a stack-based approach of argument-scopes has been implemented. vtkPVStringFormatter is responsible for pushing and popping argument scopes, and formatting strings formattable strings.

  • vtkInitializerHelper is responsible for pushing and popping the initial argument scope of the scope stack. This scope includes the following arguments which do NOT change during the execution of ParaView:
    • {ENV_username} == {username}: e.g. firstname.lastname (extracted from vtksys::SystemInformation)
    • {ENV_hostname} == {hostname}: e.g. kwintern-1 (extracted from vtksys::SystemInformation)
    • {ENV_os} == {os}: e.g. LINUX (extracted from vtksys::SystemInformation)
    • {GLOBAL_date} == {date}: e.g. 2021-08-02 11:55:57 (extracted from std::chrono::system_clock::now())
      • For further formatting options see fmt/chrono.h, e.g. {GLOBAL_date:%a %m %b %Y %I:%M:%S %p %Z} becomes Mon 08 Aug 2021 11:55:57 AM EDT
    • {GLOBAL_appname} == {appname}: e.g. ParaView (extracted from vtkInitializationHelper::ApplicationName)
    • {GLOBAL_appversion} == {appversion}: e.g. 5.9.1-1459-g3abc5dec (extracted from PARAVIEW_VERSION_FULL)
  • You can push a new scope of arguments to the scope stack as follows PushScope(fmt:arg("time", time), fmt:arg("timestep", timestep)).
    • When a new scope is pushed, it will have as a baseline the top scope of the stack.
    • The argument names that an argument scope has must be unique.
  • You can push a new named scope of arguments to the scope stack as follows PushScope("EXTRACT", fmt:arg("time", time), fmt:arg("timestep", timestep))
    • This scope push will create the following arguments {EXTRACT_time}, {time}, {EXTRACT_timestep}, {timestep}.
  • A scope of arguments can be popped from the scope stack as follows PopScope()
  • A string can be formatted using Format(const char* formattableString),
    • The top scope of the scope stack will always be used for formatting.
    • If the format fails the then the names of the argument scope are printed with the output error messages of ParaView.
  • You can also automate the push/pop of scopes using the macros PV_STRING_FORMATTER_SCOPE and PV_STRING_FORMATTER_NAMED_SCOPE which are used in the same way as PushScope, and the PopScope is called when the statement gets out of the code scope.

Currently, the following four modules utilize vtkPVStringFormatter:

  • Extract_writers
  • Views
  • Annotate Time (vtkTextToTimeFilter)
  • EnvironmentAnnotation (vtkEnvironmentAnnotationFilter)

Extract_writers include the newly added extract_generators that are listed in the Extractors drop-down menu of ParaView (e.g. CSV, PNG, JPG, VTP). All the extractors used to have the following arguments %ts (int), %t (double) and (optionally if the extractor is an image) %cm (string). It should be noted that {fmt} does not support specified precision for integers, so {timestep:.6d} does not work, but {timestep:06d} does work.

  • vtkSMExtractsController is responsible for inserting the scope of the following arguments {time} == {EXTRACT_time} and {timestep} = {EXTRACT_timestep}.
  • If an image is extracted, then inside the vtkSMImageExtractWriterProxy before calling vtkSMExtractWriterProxy::GenerateImageExtractsFileName a new scope is added that includes the {EXTRACT_camera} == {camera} argument.
    • It should be noted that the GenerateFilename functions of vtkSMExtractWriterProxy (GenerateDataExtractsFileName, GenerateImageExtractsFileName, GenerateExtractsFileName) have been merge into the function GenerateExtractsFileName.
  • vtkSMExtractWriterProxy::GenerateExtractsFileName is responsible for formatting the string.
  • If the old format is used, it is replaced with the new one and prints a warning.

Views include all the classes that utilize the GetFormattedTitle() function of vtkPVContextView. vtkPVContextView used to use ${TIME} and vtkPVBagPlotMatrixView used to use additionally ${VARIANCE}.

  • vtkPVPlotMatrixView and vtkPVXYChartView that use the GetFormattedTitle() push a scope with {time} == {VIEW_time}.
  • vtkPVBagPlotMatrixView is overriding the Render function to push a scope that includes {VIEW_variance} == {variance} on top of the scope of that it inherits from vtkPVPlotMatrixView.
  • If the old format is used, it is replaced with the new one and prints a warning.

Annotate Time used to use %f to substitute time, but now is using a scope that includes {time} == {TEXT_time}. If the old format is used, it is replaced with the new one and prints a warning.

EnvironmentAnnotation used to call hard-coded pieces of code to get GLOBAL and ENV arguments. Now it's using the vtkPVStringFormatter since these values have already been calculated.

  • It should be noted that the date that is printed from EnvironmentAnnotation is {GLOBAL_date} therefore it does not change at every call of the filter.

This MR also required the following MR to be complete:

Edited by Spiros Tsalikis

Merge request reports