Topic on Extension talk:Flex Diagrams

At present, displayed diagrams are rendered in a one-size-fits-all way. This The ability to tailor the displayed diagram is an essential capability to provide for many practical applications. Thank you!

Do you mean for #display_diagram?

Yes

I can understand wanting to set the height and width (you can already do that with a wrapper div around the #display_diagram call), but when would it make sense to do a zoom in and not show the entire thing when the diagram is first displayed? MediaWiki doesn't provide an easy way to, for example, zoom in by default on one part when displaying an image.

It would make sense in a page that is dedicated to discussing just a specific section of a large diagram, like a help page. Without this feature, editors are forced to take screnshots of the zoomed in sections and upload them as stand-alone image files and repeat that process when changes are made to to the main diagram. But if the goal is to have a diagraming system that functions entirely "in wiki" and does not require editors to have to download/capture specific content and then re-upload it back to the wiki ever time something changes, then I think this would be a key part of that goal. Is that the goal? to have a diagramming system that functions entirely within the wiki? If not, then I could see not wanting to add the capability.

Maybe something like the width, max-width and height options that DrawioEditor uses? Maybe in addition with a float option so you can right-align it.

Also thanks for the div tip! I hadn't thought of that but it works perfectly for my use case.

@Revansx - that's a great question, I'll have to think about that. :) I can see some benefits of zooming. On the other hand, it feels strange - I haven't seen a default zoom on anything other than a map. Plus, any time the diagram gets edited, the zoom settings may have to change. Of course, that's easier to do than uploading a new screenshot. On the other hand, a screenshot may require less frequent changes.

@Lonaowna - given the "div" option, are any of these parameters still useful?

The "div" option seems to enable all of my layout wishes. However, it does not really work well with VisualEditor (the div and the contents are not visible at all). The bare #display_diagram is visible, so that's better (although I haven't found a way to insert a #display_diagram in VisualEditor yet).

Yaron, thanks for agreeing to think about it.

Regarding the need to update zoom and position data when the full diagram is edited..

yes.. but that would be a simple "in-wiki" edit, which I'm assuming is much preferable to an "out of wiki" activity requiring page editors to go and take new screenshots and re-uploading them over the old ones, etc...

Again, I am basing this on the assumption that fully "in-wiki" solutions are preferable to "out-of-wiki" solutions.

..And your "maps" example is spot-on. We need default zoom and position capabilities for the exact same reason that map users do. totally!

As for not seeing any precedents other than maps.. it is because people are using visio and screenshots and Word and there is no real wide-spread use of BPMN and GANTT diagrams that are fully integrated into a single "CMS" . You have the opportunity to set the bar here if you have the vision and the will. :-)

Well, maps are different because the world map represents a pre-defined data set, as opposed to a diagram where everything is real data.

Well, if you’re looking for a distinction to build a case around, I’m sure we can each find as many we wish. At the end of the day, the question is whether or not the zoom and position features are valuable to users and that’s just a good’ol case of actually having real-world experience in trying to use these things (processes) in real-world applications. I would be very interested to know to what extent you are using these tools on the business side of your own world. That really does have an effect on your point of view.

In the meantime, i accept that you’re not supportive of this capability and I will continue to be grateful for what you have provided. As always, thank you for letting me make the request and the time you have spent considering it.

I haven't used Flex Diagrams at all yet (other than testing), though I hope to make real use of it at some point. Thanks for your feedback.

wrapping #display_diagram within a div that has its height set to 1000px doesn't appear to make the diagram adjust its zoom level accordingly

For some reason there's a #canvas div drapping #display_diagram with a fixed height of 40em? I had to set it to 100% to allow the wrapper div's fixed height to take effect.