A.10 Activation Window

Activation Window

The Activation Window lets you configure what happens when a row is activated. You can display it using the Activation Window () button when the chosen table is selected in the Control Window's Table List.

A list of suggested Activation Actions is displayed in the top left panel, and if you select one of these its details, including configuration and invocation options and the results of invoking these actions to date, will be shown in the rest of the window. Those actions in the list which are enabled (not greyed-out) and have their checkbox checked will be invoked every time a table row is activated. Unchecked ones can be invoked manually. More description of each of the panels is given below.

The Actions list lists a number of activation actions that may be appropriate for the table this window applies to. Others, including duplicates of ones already listed, can be added from the Add Action () button or menu item. The only reason the full list is not visible by default is to avoid too much clutter in the window. Each action has a checkbox; if checked, an attempt will be made to invoke that action whenever a row is activated (e.g. clicked on). If the checkbox is not checked, the action can still be invoked manually for the current row using the Invoke Selected Action on Current Row () or Invoke Selected Action on All Rows () buttons. If the action name is greyed out, it means that it can't currently be invoked for some reason, perhaps because it needs more configuration first. To find out the reason, look in the Status panel, which should have a helpful message indicating why it's disabled. The grab handles () can be used to re-order items in the list, though this order doesn't have much effect except visually. Actions can be removed from the list by selecting them and using the Remove Current Action () button.

The Description panel gives a short description of the behaviour of the currently selected action.

The Configuration panel displays a user interface to configure the details of what the selected action will do. The format depends on the action; see Appendix A.10.1 for details.

The Status panel contains a button (identical to that in the toolbar) that will invoke the currently selected action on the most recently activated row (or the first row, if no row has been activated so far in this table). It may be in one of two states. If the action is sufficiently configured to be used immediately, the button will be enabled, and clicking on it will cause the action to happen immediately, with the result being displayed in the Results panel below. However, if the action cannot be performed for some reason, the button will be greyed out, and some text will explain why it's disabled. Sometimes that means that the configuration in the panel above needs to be adjusted (e.g. some values filled in).

The Results panel contains a line added every time the currently selected action is invoked, either by the Invoke buttons (, , , ) or because a row has been activated elsewhere in the application. Each line contains four entries:

• Seq: A count that starts at 1 and increments for each invocation
• Row: The index of the row on which the action has been invoked
• Status: one of:
  • OK: action success
  • FAIL: action failure
  • CANCELLED: if the action was interrupted because the next invocation started before it had finished
  • (blank): if the result is not yet available
• Message: Some indication of what happened (OK) or what went wrong (FAIL) when the action was performed

A Security panel may occasionally also be visible. If you see this, consult Appendix A.10.3 for an explanation.

The following items are available in the toolbar or menus:

Add Action

Add a new action to the Actions List from the full menu of available actions, as enumerated in Appendix A.10.1. This can be used to add an action that's not visible by default, because TOPCAT didn't think you would want to use it for this table, or to add a duplicate of an existing visible action, for instance to send a similar SAMP message to two different external tools.

Remove Selected Action

Removes the currently selected action from the Actions list.

Remove Inactive Actions

Removes all the actions from the Actions list, except the currently active ones (ones with their checkbox checked). This can be useful to clear out the list and remove clutter. Any actions you want to restore can be added back later using the Add Action button.

Approve All Actions

Removes security blockers from all actions that currently have them. This has security implications, and should only be used if you are confident that the activation actions and corresponding data have not been configured maliciously. See Appendix A.10.3 for explanation.

Invoke Selected Action on Current Row

This causes the currently selected action to be activated on the most recently activated row (or the first row if none have been activated yet). You can use it to invoke the action without having to actually click on a row in the view window or a plot. It will invoke the action (if it can) whether or not it is currently active, i.e. even when its checkbox is not checked.

Activate Current Row

Activates all the currently enabled actions on the most recently activated row (or the first row if none have been activated yet). This does the same as clicking on a row in the Data Window or a plot.

Invoke Selected Action on All Rows

This invokes the currently selected action to be activated for each row in turn in the apparent table (i.e. each row in the current row subset). As each row is activated, the result will be displayed in the Results panel, and a progress bar will indicate how far through the table it's got.

Activate All Rows

Activates all the currently enabled actions for each row in turn in the apparent table (i.e. each row in the current row subset). As each row is activated, the result will be displayed in the Results panel of each active action, and a progress bar will indicate how far through the table it's got. The effect is the same as clicking on every row of the table displayed in the Data Window one at a time. If this is being used to generate a "slideshow", the Delay action may be useful.

Pause Sequence

Pauses/restarts a sequence of activations that was started by either of the ... All Rows actions above. Once paused, the sequence can be restarted from the same position by hitting this button again.

Cancel Sequence

Cancels a sequence of activations that was started by either of the ... All Rows actions above. This may be done either while the sequence is running, or while it is paused. Once cancelled, re-running it will start again from the beginning.

Available Functions

Displays a window containing all the functions which can be used for writing algebraic expressions (see Section 7).

All the state of this window is saved and restored if you save its corresponding table using the Save Session option.

• A.10.1 Activation Actions
• A.10.1.1 Use Sky Coordinates in TOPCAT
• A.10.1.2 Send Sky Coordinates
• A.10.1.3 Display HiPS Cutout
• A.10.1.4 Send HiPS Cutout
• A.10.1.5 Display Image
• A.10.1.6 Display Image Region
• A.10.1.7 Send FITS Image
• A.10.1.8 Send Spectrum
• A.10.1.9 Send VOTable
• A.10.1.10 Send Row Index
• A.10.1.11 Load Table
• A.10.1.12 Plot Table
• A.10.1.13 View in Web Browser
• A.10.1.14 Download URL
• A.10.1.15 Delay
• A.10.1.16 Execute Code
• A.10.1.17 Run System Command
• A.10.1.18 SAMP Message
• A.10.1.19 Display Cutout Image
• A.10.1.20 Invoke Service
• A.10.1.21 Invoke Datalink Row
• A.10.1.22 View Datalink Table
• A.10.2 Viewer Windows
• A.10.2.1 Image Viewer Applications
• A.10.2.2 Spectrum Viewers
• A.10.2.3 Web Browsers
• A.10.3 Activation Security