Wormhole Connections

Goals

• Provide the ability to establish 'Named Input Port' that can established at any point on the dataflow graph and then referenced from anywhere else on the graph.
• Reduce the visual complexity that can at times occur given our very explicit connection model between components and through hierarchy of groups.

Background and strategic fit

Process Groups are a powerful feature allowing for multiple levels of abstraction and organization of a dataflow.  Each Process Group has zero or more input ports which enables them to receive data from higher level groups and each process group has zero or more output ports enabling them to readily transfer their output for higher level groups to consume.  The model of moving up and down the hierarchy and across process groups is useful and explicit.  However, it can at times be too rigid and require more connections to be established than are truly necessary.  Wormholes would provide a way for a dataflow operator to set a 'named input port' at some specific point anywhere on the graph and then for virtual connections to be established to that port from anywhere on the graph.

Assumptions

• Users will still be able to follow explicitly how data flows.

Requirements

User interaction and design

Questions

Below is a list of questions to be addressed as a result of this requirements document:

Not Doing