How should impossible analyses be presented?

[ebugden]

Right now, the tool only shows analyses that can be performed with data from currently open traces. Consequences:

• Users must know exactly what data is required for the analysis they want to perform.
• Users could assume a missing analysis is not implemented.

It seems valuable to be able to search through all implemented analyses

Reasons an analysis is not possible:

Analysis missing required data

Ex. Missing event type, Missing userspace trace

• Only show analysis in list if explicitly searched for?
  • Users could assume the analysis is not implemented
  • Caters to experts (beginners may not know what to search)
  • More typing/navigation work?
• Show in analysis list, but faded?
  • Would there be too many irrelevant list items? Is there a way to guess which analyses could be relevant even if currently data is missing? Ex. Show only CPU relevant analyses if there's a kernel trace, don't show GPU analyses.
• Present full analysis catalogue somewhere else?

Also useful:

• Say what data is missing for the analysis to be performed?

Analysis not implemented by server

• Analysis shouldn't appear in list?

[ebugden]

Proposal:

• Show all views compatible with the trace type in the "Available views" list
• If events required for the analysis are not enabled, grey out the analysis list item and let the user know which events are missing for the analysis
  • This requires that the events enabled in the trace can be known ex. in the trace metadata

[ebugden]

Would it be relevant to also have a way to see additional views that are not compatible with the trace type? This would allow users to see what information they could access if they added another trace data source. For example, because the available analyses list only shows the analyses that are compatible with the trace type, analyses for GPU traces would only appear when you loaded a GPU trace. Right now there is no way to discover the GPU analyses through the tool unless you already knew they were available.