489740 - Graph server URLs should be human-readable

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Webtools Graveyard :: Graph Server, defect, P3)

Description

[Jesse Ruderman]

Graph server URLs should be short enough to paste into IRC, and humans should be able to understand what each link is without clicking it.  For example, if I've asked to see all the lines for Vista Ts on mozilla-central, the URL should be something like one of the following:

http://graphs.mozilla.org/#mozilla-central/Ts/Vista
http://graphs.mozilla.org/#show=mozilla-central+Ts+Vista
http://graphs.mozilla.org/#branch=mozilla-central&test=Ts&platform=Vista

For bonus points, make the URLs human-editable too, so people who prefer typing to clicking will be happy.

Comment 1

[Chris AtLee [:catlee]]

I have something like this as a patch on bug 487116

Comment 2

[Chris AtLee [:catlee]]

Attachment: Implement human-readable urls

This patch adds support for urls like
graphs.html#Firefox/WINNT 5.1/Ts

However, immediately after loading, the URL is replaced with the JSON-formatted url.

Comment 3

[Jesse Ruderman]

It would be better if the graph server would also *create* these URLs in response to my form choices, and leave them in the URL bar.

Comment 4

[Chris AtLee [:catlee]]

Agreed!

How would it look if you only selected a subset of machines?  Or mixed results from different branches?

Comment 5

[Jesse Ruderman]

Comparing Ts between trunk and branch on a single platform, you can use commas to separate the duplicated information:

graphs.html#Firefox,Firefox3.1/Vista/Ts

Comparing all platforms, maybe "All" in the platform slot:

graphs.html#Firefox/All/Ts

For any common, conceptually simple comparison, I'd like the URL to reflect the simplicity :)

Comment 6

[Chris AtLee [:catlee]]

Another option would be to have graph server maintain it's own database of minimized-urls.

E.g.

graphs.m.o/links/1ef8

could redirect to

graphs.m.o/graph.html#tests=[{...}]

Comment 7

[Johnathan Nightingale [:johnath]]

(In reply to comment #6)
> Another option would be to have graph server maintain it's own database of
> minimized-urls.
> 
> E.g.
> 
> graphs.m.o/links/1ef8
> 
> could redirect to
> 
> graphs.m.o/graph.html#tests=[{...}]

I really like this idea, though it might be orthogonal to Jesse's request.  My chief complaint with the current set up is not the readability of the urls, but the unpleasantness of passing them around. URL autodetection in email and IRC clients is confused by the brackets (and sometimes the hash), they look sort of unwieldy, and they are not particularly human-readable.

Having tinyurl-style links would solve most of those problems, but certainly wouldn't make things more readable, so if both of these ideas have merit but need to be tracked in separate bugs, holler and I'll file.

Comment 10

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

No assignee, updating the status.

Comment 11

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

No assignee, updating the status.

Comment 12

[Robert Helmer [:rhelmer]]

The old graphserver has long been replaced by Perfherder.