Port ⚓

Port is a highly opinionated GUI wrapper for processing tasks. Not even close to R's shiny or Python's streamlit. Mostly used in StatSim Apps.

Port is based on the idea of declarative interface design and reactivity. Instead of writing a "glue" front-end code, you can declare inputs/outputs of a model in a JSON schema and Port will do the rest. Port creates a Vue app based on the provided schema, parses files, loads needed libraries, orchestrates communication between code and GUI and uses Web Workers to run everything smoothly. It's not a swiss-army knife, not a framework. Port solves one specific task - wrapping algorithms in a simple web interface.

How it works

             Schema   Model   Render*
    DEV ->    json    js/py     js
               .        .        .
             __Y________Y________Y___
            |                        |
            |      new Port (...)    |
            |________________________|
               .               .
             __Y__       ______Y_____
            |     |     |            | <~ tf.js
  USER  <-> | GUI | <-> |    Model   | <~ pyodide
            |_____|     |____________| <~ wasm
              Vue³        WebWorker*

* - optional

    |x]
   /|
  /_|___
  \    /
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Port takes a schema object that contains five main blocks:

• model - describes a model/script (its location, is it a function or class, should it be called automatically on every GUI change)
• render - visualization part (optional)
• design - overall appearance (optional)
• inputs - list of inputs and their descriptions
• outputs - list of outputs and their descriptions (optional)

Config/schema object

• model - Contains main parameters of the model/script
  • url (string) - URL of a JS/Python file to load, or:
  • code (function) - It's possible to pass functions directly to Port instead of using an URL
  • name (string) - Name of the callable object. Default value is taken from url or code
  • autorun (boolean, default - false) - Defines if the script should be evaluated on each input change event
  • type (string, default - function) - What kind of script is loaded. Influences how the code is initializated. Possible values:
    • function
    • class
    • async-function
    • async-init
    • py
    • tf
  • method (string) - If type is class, method defines the name of the class method to call during evaluation
  • container (string) - How input values are passed to the function/method:
    • object (default) - Pass inputs wrapped in an object, i.e. {'x': 1, 'y': 2}
    • args - Pass inputs as separate arguments
  • worker (boolean) - If true, Port initializes a Web Worker to run the script
• render - Custom rendering script. Instead of relying on Port for output visualization, you can provide a custom script that visualizes the results. That can be useful if you rely on custom libs for plotting.
• design - Design parameters
  • layout - Layout for the model/input/output blocks. If it's empty and the Port container is not, Port uses inner HTML as a template. If the container is empty too, it uses the default blocks template.
  • framework - Design framework to use. If a JavaScript object with the same name is present in a global context, Port loads it too (using Vue's use method).
• inputs - Inputs definition
• outputs - Outputs definition