GSoC 2024 - Final Report | Improve user experience in Jupyter Notebooks - GRASS GIS

[29riyasaxena]

Final Report

Title: Improve GRASS user experience in Jupyter Notebook
Organization: GRASS GIS - OSGeo
Wiki Page: GRASS GSoC 2024 Improve user experience in Jupyter Notebooks

1. Abstract

This project introduces three significant enhancements to the InteractiveMap: a Query Button for querying specific points, a View/Update Computational Region Button for directly viewing and updating the computational region, and a Draw Geometries Button for creating and adding simple geometries as GRASS native vector maps. Additionally, the project introduces the BaseSeriesMap to reduce redundancy between SeriesMap and TimeSeriesMap, and adds parallelization to both SeriesMap and TimeSeriesMap for improved performance.

2. The state of integration BEFORE the start of GSoC

Previously, it was not possible to query vector/raster data, draw geometries, or view the computational region in InteractiveMap. While updating the region was possible, it required running additional commands. Additionally, improving the rendering speed of images in SeriesMap and TimeSeriesMap was not feasible.

3. The state of integration AFTER GSoC

3.1 Features in grass.InteractiveMap()

The grass.jupyter.interactivemap.py module includes three key features: the Query button (), the View/Update Computational Region button (), and the Draw Geometries button (🖉).

3.1.1 Querying Raster/Vector Information at a Specific Point ()

1. Activate the Query Tool: Click the info button () to enable the query mode.
2. Select a Point on the Map: Click on the map to retrieve raster/vector information for that specific point.
3. Deactivate the Tool: Toggle the button off when you’re done.

3.1.2 Drawing and Saving Geometries as GRASS Native Vector Maps (🖉)

1. Activate the Drawing Tool: Click the Pencil button (🖉) to start drawing on the map.
2. Draw Your Geometry: You can draw a polyline, polygon, or circle marker directly on the map.
3. Name the Vector Map: Enter the name for the new vector map in the New vector map name text box.
4. Save the Geometry: Click the Save button to add the geometry to the map.
5. Finalize and Close: The geometry is now added as a new layer on the map, and the drawing interface will automatically close.

3.1.3 Viewing and Updating the Computational Region ()

1. Activate the Computational Region Tool: Click the View/Update Computational Region button ().
2. Visualize the Current Region: The current computational region is displayed as a rectangle on the map.
3. Adjust the Region: Move the rectangle to a new location or resize it by dragging its vertices.
4. Update the Region: Click Update Region to apply your changes to the computational region.
5. Deactivate the Tool: Toggle the button off when you’re done.

3.2 Removal of redundancy in the TimeSeriesMap and SeriesMap

A new class, BaseSeriesMap, has been added to serve as a parent class to both TimeSeriesMap and SeriesMap. This enhancement reduces redundancy and streamlines the codebase.

3.3 Parallelization in SeriesMap and TimeSeriesMap

Benchmark for TimeSeriesMap and SeriesMap: The following tables present the performance results obtained using 1-12 cores, as tested on the examples in temporal.ipynb and jupyter_tutorial.ipynb. Below is an example of how to reproduce this benchmark:

cores_range = range(1, 13)
benchmark_results = {}
for cores in cores_range:
    gs.run_command("g.gisenv", set=f"NPROCS={cores}")
    start_time = time.time()
    series = gj.SeriesMap(height=500)
    series.add_rasters(["elevation", "elevation_shade", "slope"])
    series.add_vectors(["streams", "streets", "viewpoints"])
    series.d_vect(map="streets")
    series.d_barscale()
    series.show()  # Create Slider
    end_time = time.time()
    elapsed_time = end_time - start_time
    benchmark_results[cores] = elapsed_time
    print(f"Cores: {cores}, Time: {elapsed_time:.2f} seconds")

Performance Results - TimeSeriesMap

Cores	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Time (sec)	53.42	26.24	18.99	18.50	15.08	14.04	17.68	15.75	16.00	14.12	14.22	14.76

Performance Results - SeriesMap

Cores	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Time (sec)	4.88	2.47	1.58	1.67	1.74	1.73	1.68	1.64	1.65	1.64	1.62	1.61

4. Conclusion

This project has successfully improved the user experience of GRASS GIS in Jupyter Notebook. Significant enhancements have been made to the InteractiveMap, SeriesMap, and TimeSeriesMap. The new features, such as the Query Button, View/Update Computational Region Button, and Draw Geometries Button, have streamlined data querying, visualization, and editing processes. Introducing the BaseSeriesMap has reduced redundancy, and parallelization has substantially improved performance. Benchmark results show notable speed improvements, making GRASS GIS more efficient and user-friendly. These advancements contribute to a more seamless and productive experience for users.

I appreciate the support and opportunity to contribute to GRASS GIS this summer. Thanks to my mentors and the GRASS Development Team for their guidance. Anna Petrasova’s contributions were pivotal to the project’s success, and I’m grateful for her support. Looking forward to contributing more.

5. Future Work

• Improve the distance used in Query Button functionality.
• Use GeomanDrawControl in the Draw Button functionality.
• Enhanced connectivity with Pandas will enable users to display data with a single command.
• Large, high-resolution image display will be enabled by implementing tiling techniques, reducing memory consumption and enabling smooth rendering of large images.
• Implementing a graphical user interface (GUI) for tool presentation within Jupyter Notebooks would simplify usability and enhance user experience, facilitating smoother workflows within the platform.

6. Links

6.1 Pull requests related to grass.jupyter:

Title	Pull Request	Status
Create BaseSeriesMap to remove redundancies in SeriesMap and TimeSeriesMap	#3468	Merged
Add Query Button to InteractiveMap	#3793	Merged
Allow Users to view/update computational region	#3838	Merged
Allow users to draw simple geometries and save it as vector	#4003	Merged
Add Parallelization to TimeSeriesMap and SeriesMap	#4097	Merged
Use InteractiveMap with custom projections	#4204	Open
Add documentation of InteractiveMap Features and Parallelization in jupyter_tutorial.ipynb	#4164	Merged
Modify Descriptions	#4159	Merged

6.2 Some additional links:

Title	Link
OSGeo Wiki Page	Improve User Experience in Jupyter Notebooks
Github Fork	GitHub Fork
Example	jupyter_tutorial

7. Images

Draw and Query	Original Computational Region	Modified Computational Region

Draw Button Controls	Benchmark on SeriesMap	Benchmark on TimeSeriesMap

8.Media

8.1 GIFs

Working of Update region button	Working of the Draw Button	Working of the Query Button
https://grasswiki.osgeo.org/w/images/Grass_update_region_gif.gif?20240815162735(image larger than 4 MB)	https://grasswiki.osgeo.org/w/images/Grass_gif_draw.gif?20240819055817(image larger than 4 MB)	https://grasswiki.osgeo.org/w/images/Grass_gif_query.gif?20240819055516(image larger than 4 MB)