Tour of the Interface

The Application Header

images/header_ui.png

AstronomicAL uses two fixed rows of application controls.

The top header contains:

  • the active dataset, dataset dimensions and Add data control;

  • the mapping-status control for the active dataset;

  • the runtime health indicator and Details view;

  • Add panel for opening the panel catalogue.

The second toolbar contains record navigation, exact record-ID search, the current record position, dataset or selection navigation scope, selection membership controls and the Layouts menu.

The overflow menu also provides first/last-record navigation, selection clearing and a shortcut to Record Browser.

The Workspace

The centre of the application is a responsive grid of panel instances. Panels can be opened, resized, moved and closed independently.

Opening the same registered plugin panel again creates a separate workspace instance with its own instance ID and, where supported, its own persisted state.

The Panel Catalogue

Pressing Add panel opens a temporary Add Panel menu inside the workspace. It lists panel registrations currently provided by enabled plugins.

The catalogue itself is a platform panel and is not included when the workspace is saved.

Focus and Selection

The focused record is the single row currently being inspected. The active selection is a separate set of record IDs that can be used as a navigation scope or shared between linked panels.

Caution

Changing focus does not replace the active selection set. Creating a new selection can move focus to its first row when the previous focus is not already part of that selection.

Jobs and Runtime Status

The header runtime indicator distinguishes normal background work from UI lag, slow synchronous event callbacks and recent failures.

Press Details to inspect active jobs and event publishes, recent jobs, callback errors, runtime messages, event performance and recorded interface lag. This view is diagnostic and does not cancel or modify jobs.

Layouts

The Layouts menu contains quick workspace templates together with commands to quick-save, save as and load workspace files.

A saved workspace contains plugin and dataset snapshots, focus and selection state, persistent panel instances and their JSON-safe state, and responsive grid geometry. Temporary panels such as Add Panel, running jobs and live service objects are not stored as panel state.