debug JSON not updating in PerspectiveWidget (and other discrepencies in perspective widget)

[jgunstone]

Bug Report

Steps to Reproduce:

from datetime import date, datetime
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import perspective
from perspective import PerspectiveWidget, Aggregate, Sort, Plugin
import ipywidgets as w

data = pd.DataFrame({
    "int": np.arange(100),
    "float": [i * 1.5 for i in range(100)],
    "bool": [True for i in range(100)],
    "date": [date.today() for i in range(100)],
    "datetime": [datetime.now() for i in range(100)],
    "string": [str(i) for i in range(100)]
})

dg = perspective.PerspectiveWidget(
    data,
    plugin=Plugin.XBAR,
    aggregates={"datetime": Aggregate.ANY},
    sort=[["date", Sort.DESC]]
)
dg

1. drag bool into "Group By" field
2. no change in the debug JSON

Expected Result:

when you make changes to the UI config settings they are updated in the debug JSON

Actual Result:

Environment:

fresh install -

environment.yml

name: perspective-test
channels:
  - defaults
  - conda-forge
dependencies:
  - python
  - jupyterlab
  - perspective

(base) jovyan@PORT4028:~/meetings-and-notes/20240925-PerspectiveGridTests$ mamba env create -f environment.yml
(base) jovyan@PORT4028:~/meetings-and-notes/20240925-PerspectiveGridTests$ mamba activate perspective-test
(perspective-test) jovyan@PORT4028:~/meetings-and-notes/20240925-PerspectiveGridTests$ mamba list perspective
# packages in environment at /home/jovyan/miniforge3/envs/perspective-test:
#
# Name                    Version                   Build  Channel
perspective               2.10.1          py311hcf300bf_2    conda-forge

Additional Context:

some other issues I've encountered with the jupyter perspective widget vs the online examples (e.g. https://perspective.finos.org/block/?example=editable). True in both jupyter notebooks and the PerspectiveCSV viewer.

• datagrid operation descriptions not shown

• reset button doing not doing anything

[dhirschfeld]

Does the sort actually work for you? It didn't do anything for me when I tested with the PerspectiveWidget

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
from datetime import date, datetime
today = date.today().toordinal()
data = pd.DataFrame({
    "int": np.arange(100),
    "float": [i * 1.5 for i in range(100)],
    "bool": [True for i in range(100)],
    "date": [date.fromordinal(today + i) for i in range(100)],
    "datetime": [datetime.now() for i in range(100)],
    "string": [str(i) for i in range(100)]
})
PerspectiveWidget(data, sort=[["date", Sort.DESC]])

[dhirschfeld]

If PerspectiveWidget is being given an overhaul it might make sense to leverage the anywidget framework.

• https://anywidget.dev/en/getting-started/#what-is-anywidget
• https://blog.jupyter.org/anywidget-jupyter-widgets-made-easy-164eb2eae102

[texodus]

Your installation looks broken (at least - the theme CSS + web component + python library are from conflicting versions). I see (at least) two issues:

1. Conda is not a currently supported platform. The builds deployed there may work or not - I have not verified them. We are looking into adding support for this in the future but we won't be backdating support to old Perspective versions, speaking of which ..
2. Perspective 2.10.1 does not support JupyterLab 4. Perspective 3.1.0 is the latest version and does not behave as described.

(Converting this issue to a discussion)

[dhirschfeld]

As a data point, I just upgraded to 3.1 and sorting, reset and the debug panel seem to work as expected.

The correct syntax is now:

PerspectiveWidget(data, sort=[["date", "desc"]])

[jgunstone]

hi - sorry - should've checked I was on the most recent version...
though I would have expected this from a fresh install from:

environment.yml

name: perspective-test
channels:
  - defaults
  - conda-forge
dependencies:
  - python
  - jupyterlab
  - perspective

struggled to install v3.1.0

also looks like only 3.0.1 available on conda
https://prefix.dev/channels/conda-forge/packages/perspective

just deleted the env and tried again with:
environment.yml

name: perspective-test
channels:
  - defaults
  - conda-forge
dependencies:
  - python
  - jupyterlab>4
  - perspective>3

and get the following error saying I required pyarrow.
mamba install pyarrow

and then it seems to be working correctly :)

from datetime import date, datetime
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import perspective
from perspective import PerspectiveWidget
import ipywidgets as w

data = pd.DataFrame({
    "int": np.arange(100),
    "float": [i * 1.5 for i in range(100)],
    "bool": [True for i in range(100)],
    "date": [date.today() for i in range(100)],
    "datetime": [datetime.now() for i in range(100)],
    "string": [str(i) for i in range(100)]
})
data.to_csv("data.csv")
dg = perspective.PerspectiveWidget(
    data,
)
dg

if I now try and open data.csv in the filebrowser it doesn't work:

(maybe this is fixed in the most recent version?)

pyarrow error:

[texodus]

struggled to install v3.1.0

The name of the PYPI package is perspective-python, not perspective.

also looks like only 3.0.1 available on conda

Again, Perspective does not support Conda yet. This includes mamba.