Reproducible plot editing¶

Available in the 4.0 release, under inklet.experimental. This guide covers the offline linked-plot inspector.

The offline inspector edits named plot styles: colour, marker radius and line width where supported. Apply a change, undo or redo it, and save a small overrides.json file. Python can reconstruct the same visual decisions without rewriting the source recipe. Selection, filtering and page zoom remain in the separate view.json file; save both files to reproduce an edited view.

Try the regional report¶

python examples/v4/regional_report.py --renderer compiled --editor --render --output out/editor

Open out/editor/index.html, expand Plot appearance, and choose comparison. Change the colour and marker radius, then Apply style. All three category panels update together. Select Hungary or filter a group; those operations retain the authored style. Undo and Redo affect appearance only. Reset plot style removes that target's overrides and is undoable.

Download Save overrides and Save view. Reconstruct the original revision:

python examples/v4/regional_report.py --renderer compiled --editor \
  --overrides /path/to/overrides.json --state /path/to/view.json \
  --render --output out/reopened

Add --revised when the view was saved against the revised source. As in the regional guide, a source replacement uses --rebase-state and an explicit missing-ID policy. The recipe writes the overrides, revision report, exact-viewport SVG and 210/160 mm SVG/PDF/PNG exports.

Python authoring and export¶

from inklet.experimental.browser import BrowserFigure, ScatterView
from inklet.selection import KeyedTable

table = KeyedTable('measurements', {'id': ['a', 'b'], 'x': [1, 2], 'y': [2, 3]})
figure = BrowserFigure(table, [ScatterView('observations', 'x', 'y', (0, 3), (0, 4))])
overrides = figure.overrides({'observations': {'color': '#a03050', 'radius_mm': 1.2}})
page = figure.to_html(renderer='compiled', backend='auto', editor=True, overrides=overrides)
svg = figure.to_svg(overrides=overrides)

Supplying overrides enables the inspector. editor=True alone starts with no edits. Both the classic and compiled renderers support the inspector. Passing the browser's saved JSON to figure.to_svg(state, overrides=overrides) reproduces its authored marks. The original figure and input dictionaries remain unchanged.

Colours must be six-digit hex strings; radii and widths must be finite, positive millimetre values no greater than 10. The inspector advertises only properties supported by that plot definition. It excludes maps, calibrated fields, images and drawings so a style edit cannot silently replace a scientific colour key. Fixed ECDF reference curves retain their paint and statistical population.

Identity, source revisions and failure¶

Override targets are the recipe's named plot definitions, with a recorded view kind. A facet target applies to all its categories, so reordering categories does not retarget the edit to a different group. The file identifies the source table by name, but deliberately permits new table contents and page widths. Authors must keep names attached to the same conceptual plots across revisions.

Removing a target, changing its view kind, or removing an edited capability creates an orphaned override. Browser revision switching rejects by default. The explicit Drop removed IDs and overrides policy reports discarded target names alongside the row-state report. Switching back does not resurrect them. Malformed files, invalid property values and different table names always fail.

In Python, reconcile before exporting revised source:

from inklet.experimental.browser.overrides import rebase_overrides

retained, report = rebase_overrides(overrides, revised_figure, missing='drop')
svg = revised_figure.to_svg(overrides=retained)

Omit missing='drop' to reject orphans. Successful revisions start a new undo history; ordinary style commands retain up to 100 history entries. Opening a valid overrides file is one undoable command. A failed render or file load leaves the visible document and history unchanged. File reads, commands and source revisions exclude one another while preparation is in progress.

Current limits and checks¶

This offline inspector changes supported plot appearances. For named label text, panel dimensions, layout locks and native camera controls, use the Python-backed composition editor. Its layout overrides are a separate format; they are not interchangeable with plot-style overrides. Figure projects provide verified asset bundles through the experimental API. Undo history is local to the open page and is not serialized. Style commands prepare a complete replacement renderer and rebuild picking geometry; they do not promise incremental layout or low-latency dense editing.

Checks cover invalid schemas and values, compatible and orphaned targets, facet reordering, physical resizing, failed and overlapping commands, undo/redo, initial restoration and browser/Python export geometry. Full regional screenshots compare edited SVG, Canvas and WebGL2 output at display ratios 1 and 2. The installed-wheel smoke check exercises both saved overrides and bundled editor assets with core dependencies only.