The application documentation needs an overhaul

Prerequisites

• Put an X between the brackets on this line if you have done all of the following:
  • Running the latest version of Constellation
  • Attached the Support Package via Help > Support Package
  • Checked the FAQs: https://github.com/constellation-app/constellation/wiki/FAQ
  • Checked that your issue isn’t already filed: https://github.com/constellation-app/constellation/issues
  • Checked that there is not already a module that provides the described functionality: https://github.com/constellation-app/constellation/wiki/Catalogue-of-Repositories

Description

The current state of Constellation’s documentation is rather poor. Some of the issues I’ve identified include:

• documentation of the graph itself is somewhat outdated and fails to include some of the more recent functionality additions.
• schemas are completely undocumented.
• the plugin framework is completely undocumented.
• several import/export tools are completely undocumented (google earth, shapefile, image, etc).
• several arrangements are completely undocumented (hierarchy, proximity, spectral, etc), and some of those that are documented are done so in an extremely poor manner (bubble tree).
• several tools are completely undocumented (document clustering, hierarchical clustering, complete with schema, external scripting api, composite nodes, etc).
• several views are completely undocumented (histogram, schema view, scripting view, etc).
• the attribute editor documentation is lacking any real information, and there still exists a help page on the now non-existent attribute value editor (under graph > editing > edit attributes).
• named selections documentation is in the wrong category (in graph, should be in views).
• there is no consistent style or formatting across documents (header styles differ, font sizes differ, many images are poorly aligned, poorly sized, or stretched out, etc).
• Add missing help pages
• Help topics for data access view categories ** Help topics for data access view categories were requested. These would only need to be very brief. ** Consider using tool tips here

Suggested the Analytic view help could appear similar to the DAV or Schema View

• Could include pre-requisite information of how the graph should be structured before running some analytics
• The help documentation could include example graph diagrams to help explain how they work
• Some of the help documentation is still too technical

I believe this poor presentation will create a bad first impression for anyone learning to use the application and should be completely overhauled.

Expected behaviour: Documentation is as complete as possible and make it as easy as possible for new users to use Constellation.

Actual behaviour: Documentation is out of date and incomplete.

Reproduces how often: 100%

Additional Information

Help pages to review/update: Overview

• Introduction to Constellation
• About the 3D Visual Window

Tools

• Betweenness Centrality
• Closeness Centrality
• Degree Centrality
• Eigenvector Centrality
• HITS Centrality
• Katz Centrality
• Pagerank Centrality
• Chinese Whispers
• K-Truss
• Compare Graph
• Eccentricity
• Local Clustering Coefficient
• Ratio of Reciprocity
• Merge Nodes
• Shortest Paths
• Cosine Similarity
• Jaccard Index

Preferences

• Application
• Display
• Proxies

Graph

• Graph Model
• Attributes
• Types
• The Constellation File Format
• A Constellation File Reader
• A Constellation File Writer
• Mouse Actions: Add Mode
• Mouse Actions: Selection Mode
• Cut, Copy, Paste
• Add/Selection Modes
• Auto Backup Feature
• Nebula
• New Graph
• Open Graph
• Open Recent Graph
• Save Graph
• Decorators
• Icons
• Label Fonts
• Perspective Bookmarks
• Hop Out Full
• Hop Out Half
• Hop Out One
• Induced Subgraph
• Select Backbone
• Select Blazes
• Select One Neighbour
• Select Singleton

Arrangements

• Grid
• Grid (General)
• Hierarchical
• Tree
• Circle
• Scatter 3D
• Sphere
• Layer by Time
• Clusters on Hilbert Curve
• Flatten Z Field
• Expand Graph
• Contract Graph

Import/Export

• Import from Delimited File

Jupyter

• About Jupyter Notebook Server
• About Constellation REST Server

Views

• Adamic-Adar Index
• Average Degree
• Betweenness Centrality
• Closeness Centrality
• Common Neighbours
• Component Count
• Connectivity Degree
• Cosine Similarity
• Degree Centrality
• Dice Similarity
• Eccentricity
• Effective Resistance
• Eigenvector Centrality
• Global Clustering Coefficient
• Graph Density
• Graph Distance
• HITS Centrality
• Jaccard Index
• Katz Centrality
• Levenshtein Distance
• Local Clustering Coefficient
• Multiplexity
• Pagerank Centrality
• Preferential Attachment
• Ratio of Reciprocity
• Resource Allocation Index
• Weight
• Analytic View
• Connects the Network Nest?
• Has Closest Relationship?
• Most Central?
• Most Communicants?
• Most Easily Reached?
• Most Influential
• Most Likely Correlated?
• Attributes Editor
• Conversation View
• Merge Nodes
• Merge Transactions
• Remove Nodes
• Remove Unused Attributes
• Split Nodes Based on Identifier
• Data Access View
• Data Access View: Options
• Extract Types from Text
• Extract Words from Text
• Global Parameters
• Select All
• Select Top N
• Find
• Histogram
• Layers View
• Day / Night Layer
• Heatmap Layers
• Paths Layers
• Thiessen Polygon Layer
• Map View
• Info Overlay
• Overview Overlay
• Tools Overlay
• Named Selections
• Plugin Reporter
• Quality Control View
• Scatter Plot
• Scripting View
• Table View
• Table View (Experimental)
• Timeline

Help Pages to add

• Hierarchical Clustering
• Info Map Clustering
• Graph Preferences
• Developer Preferences
• Select All (Selection)
• Deselect All
• Deselect Nodes
• Deselect Transactions
• Invert Selection
• Deselect Blazes
• Select Dimmed
• Select Undimmed
• Select Loops
• Select Sources
• Select Sinks
• Select One Hop Induced Subgraph
• Directed Shortest Paths
• Complete with Schema
• Composite Selected Nodes
• Composite Correlated Nodes
• Destroy All Composites
• Export to Shapefile
• Export to image
• Export to JSON
• Export to GeoJson
• Export to GeoPackage
• Export to KML
• Horizontal Line Arrangement
• Vertical Line Arrangement
• Proximity Arrangement
• Arrange by Node Arrangement
• Bubble Tree 3D Arrangement
• Proximity 3D Arrangement
• Spectral 3D Arrangement
• HDE 3D Arrangement
• Uncollide Arrangement
• Pin/Unpin Nodes
• Import from JDBC
• Test Parameters (Data Access View)
• Point Marker Error Region (Experimental) Layer (Map View)
• Notes View
• Schema View
• Visual Schema
• Analytic Schema

Other

• The Plugin framework

[antares1470]

I’ve updated ticket to more easily track the progress of help page updates. I’ve haven’t done an extensive look at what features are missing help pages (have currently only listed ones I recall) so that part of the list will likely be updated in the future with ones I’ve missed

[antares1470]

Core Data Access Plugins and views accessible via the Views menu (+ Notes and Layers Views) have now been updated