Visualization

The visualization widget contract in lightfall.visualization.base_visualization. Visualizations are widgets that read from a Tiled BlueskyRun entry; the Visualization panel scores the available widget classes against an incoming run and instantiates the best match.

from lightfall.visualization.base_visualization import BaseVisualization

BaseVisualization

BaseVisualization extends QWidget and defines a seven-method abstract contract. The controller (VisualizationPanel) orchestrates the selection flow in this order:

  1. can_handle(run) — score every candidate class

  2. set_run(run) — bind the winning instance to the run

  3. get_streams() — populate the stream combo

  4. set_stream(name) — display (auto-picks the best field)

  5. get_fields() — populate the field combo

  6. set_field(name) — user override of the field

  7. refresh() — polled on a timer for live runs

Subclasses must also define class-level metadata:

Attribute

Description

viz_name

Unique identifier (e.g. "image_stack").

viz_display_name

UI label (e.g. "Image Stack").

viz_icon

Icon name (default "chart-line").

The contract

Method

Contract

can_handle(run) -> int

Static method. Score 0–100 for how well this visualization handles the given run. The panel picks the highest scorer.

set_run(run)

Bind the Tiled BlueskyRun entry: cache the reference and read start metadata.

get_streams() -> list[str]

Stream names, sorted by this visualization’s preference.

set_stream(stream_name)

Select a stream: read its metadata, auto-pick the best field, render.

get_fields() -> list[str]

Field names for the current stream, sorted by preference.

set_field(field_name)

Switch to a different field within the current stream.

refresh()

Poll for new data during a live run. Must be a no-op for completed runs.

__init__ stores self._run, self._stream_name, and self._field_name (empty until set); call super().__init__(parent) from subclasses.

🖼️ Image placeholder — Screenshot: the Visualization panel during a live scan, with the stream and field combo boxes and an active plot widget.

Built-in visualizations

The Visualization panel currently selects from a fixed set of built-in widget classes (lightfall.visualization.widgets): image stack, 1-D plot, heatmap, scatter, table, and the adaptive-experiment heatmap and plot.

Plugin visualizations: current status

Infrastructure for plugin-provided visualizations exists but is not yet wired end to end on this branch:

  • VisualizationRegistry (lightfall.visualization.registry.VisualizationRegistry) is a thread-safe singleton with register_visualization(), get_visualization(), get_all_visualizations(), and introspection.

  • PluginLoader contains a registration branch for a "visualization" plugin type that registers instances with this registry.

However, there is no VisualizationPlugin base class, the "visualization" type is not registered during application startup (so manifest entries of that type are skipped), and VisualizationPanel selects only from the built-in widget list — it does not consult VisualizationRegistry. Custom visualizations therefore cannot yet be added by a plugin; subclassing BaseVisualization is the contract that panel wiring will build on.

Class reference