[4pt] Staging settings with a commit token

[vimpostor]

Right now the multiplexed settings only have a single storage of all the active settings. As detailed in https://github.com/fair-acc/graph-prototype/pull/99#pullrequestreview-1647113518, a new "staging" API could allow staging settings with a commit token (e.g. a std::string) such that they are first stored in a background "staging" collection, instead of in the active settings collection.

Then later on, the staged settings can be transported to the actually active collection of the ctx_settings via multiple ways:

• It could be activated explicitly through the settings API by passing the unique commit token
• Implicit activation via a tag_t on one of the streaming ports
• Implicit activation via a pmt_t message on one of the message ports

Some things to consider:

• Before staging the settings, they should be validated, i.e. check if the keys actually map to existing struct member fields in the node and check for correct types and potential Range constraints (e.g. a field might want to only accept positive integers)
• Instead of using just a simple string as a commit token, we potentially might want to generate a unique hash - in a git-like fashion

[dantti]

Hi @drslebedev , Ralph on https://github.com/fair-acc/opendigitizer/issues/212 mentioned that I should coordinated with you about that task, is it something I should wait for you to finish? Or is there something I could start working on? I guess the gui part could be started

[drslebedev]

Hi @dantti , most of the issues are already implemented and merged. The only missing part is adding stored settings via Message port. But you can start working on UI.

[dantti]

UI wise it's mostly done https://github.com/fair-acc/opendigitizer/tree/dantti/blocks_context it seems we need BlockControlsPanelContext changed to have a map<string, DigitizerUi::Block*> ?

[drslebedev]

Thank you very much for your commit! Is there anything else you need from our side to complete the issue and submit a PR?

[drslebedev]

We propose extending the Message API to support updated CtxSettings with the following functionalities:

• Get settings for a specific context
• Set settings for a specific context
• Activate a context (introduce a new Block::property)
• Get a list of available contexts (introduce a new Block::property)

Our goal is to minimize the API surface. For example, if the UI needs to retrieve all stored settings for each context, it can do so by first getting the list of available contexts and then fetching the settings for each context individually.