Add possibility to hide dimensions

[dabo505]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Sometimes dimensions should not be shown in visualize e.g. because the publisher doesn't want the user to filter on them or because they have just one single value (e.g. currency is always Swiss Francs)

Describe the solution you'd like
Add a class to the dimension that expresses whether the dimension should be shown in visualize.
e.g. <> a cube:HiddenDimension

To be discussed
How does this class interact with other classes such as KeyDimensions or MeasureDimensions, e.g. can they be hidden.

[ptbrowne]

For now we have MeasureDimension, GeoDimension, TemporalDimension, OrdinalDimension : each type describes the data contained in the dimension. It seems like "hidden" should be a term attached to the dimension. And it seems like it should be scoped to a particular application (visualize.filterable = false) false.\

@dabo505 Can you provide in your issue a link to a particular dataset with the name/id of the dimensions that should not be filterable, so that we have a real life example ?

[dabo505]

• cube "Brotgetreide Detailhandelspreise Erhebung" from BLW
  • The dimension Datenquelle should be shown but not be filterable (BLW doesn't want the user to filter on that)
• cube "Milch Produzenten gesamt CH" from BLW
  • the dimensions Verkaufsregion and Produktherkunft both have the single value "Schweiz". It would be good to exclude them from filters. Still I would like to keep it to have the possibility to compare and merge the cube with others. One could also consider to show dimensions with only one value differently by default. (e.g. as a label)

[ptbrowne]

The BLW site where filtering will happen will be custom, we do not have to find right now a generic (= inside visualize.admin) way to handle the not filterable dimension case since we can hardcode inside the BLW site that the Datenquelle dimension should not be shown. I am not sure this is clear for BLW that there will be a custom filter interface for BLW, and also the generic interface for visualize.admin, this is something we are currently clarifying in a document for them.

Since "hidden" here means "not filterable", I think we should not use the "hidden" terminology here as it could mean that we do not show the dimension in tables etc... Here, since the use case could be different across applications, I think having the name of the term/attribute "namespaced" to the application could be good "visualize.filterable" = false.

[dabo505]

Yes, but BLW is also interested in showing their data on visualize and clearly stated that they want to invest in it.
Apart from that @l00mi mentioned another project where this would be needed. (Please add it as an additional example)
I'm not sure about the visualize.filterable as it would be good to have that kind of information also in LINDAS, so that people working with the dataset know about this. So to me it's an attribute of the cube and its dimensions not of the visualizations platform. @l00mi what are your thoughts on this?

[ptbrowne]

I'm not sure about the visualize.filterable as it would be good to have that kind of information also in LINDAS, so that people working with the dataset know about this. So to me it's an attribute of the cube and its dimensions not of the visualizations platform

I was not meaning that the attribute be decorrelated from the cube/dimensions, I was hinting that the RDF term attached to the dimension could be namespaced with "visualize" in case other applications than visualize wants to filter on the dimension.

[dabo505]

Ok, but then we would need two ways of showing that (one for the cube and one visualize specific). Because in this case it doesn't matter where the data is shown, when filtering upon one dimension the data doesn't make sense any more, right?

[l00mi]

@ptbrowne what I think is better to discuss in person is the interaction with the other Classes. So what is allowed to be hidden in regards of visualize:

• Can a key dimension be hidden, can the graphics be build if a key can not be selected?
• Can a measurement dimension be hidden? Can a measurement dimension be hidden if there are multiple, all until there is at least one?
• What happens with dimensions which have nor a Measurement, Key or Hidden Dimension? Do we also want a flag to define a FilterableDimension? If so can a FilterableDimension also be hidden? etc ...

[l00mi]

Current

• MeasureDimension -> Valeur (can have more, but minimum 1) -> hidden as long there is at least 1
• KeyDimension -> Encoding (Year, Category) -> not possible to hide
• (SharedDimension) -> versioning yes/no

New

• FilterDimension -> In visualize show all dimensions if not at least one is a FilterDimension, if at least one is a FilterDimension.. ignore non typed dimensions.
• HiddenDimension -> "meta:hideInApplication" -> "https://ld.admin.ch/application/visualize" should be able to specify application (visualize)
• __Singleton/Dummy/OneValue__Dimension -> if there is always the same value -> for the use case of unions

[ptbrowne]

I put the upstream issue label until this is implemented on your side @l00mi

[l00mi]

For now we want to solve the problems in the BLW use case in two ways:

• We will introduce the "HiddenDimension" annotation with the constraint of an application. (For the usecase of things like "stichtag" vs "year". Where we want both, but basically hide "Stichtag" from visualize.
• In case there is only one value for all observations, we like to ask you to use the simpleheuristic to check "sh:in", if there is only one value, it can be hidden to the user as there is no choice. (For the case of BLW cubes with repeating Switzerland.)

Does this solve the problems?

[l00mi]

Further we are thinking about a solution for "SingleValue" Dimension: zazuko/cube-link#71 But this needs more time and is not expected to happen in the near future.

[dabo505]

Thank you, that's all fine with me.