[protege-discussion] Bug in Instance Browser in Protege 3.4

[Jonathan Carter]

Hi

I'd like to report what I think is a bug in the Instance Browser that  
was introduced between RC1 and RC2 and is still there in the full  
release of Protege 3.4.

When I create the first instance of a class in the Instance all seems  
well, (see [Screenshot 1]). However, when I create a second instance,  
both of the instances in the Instance Browser are automatically  
selected (see [Screenshot 2]). Now I am not sure which one of these is  
actually selected.
For most cases this actually seems to have little effect - more of a  
glitch, but I now suspect that the "more than 1 instance selected" bug  
reflects a bigger underlying problem with the recent changes made to  
the Instance Browser.

In particular, I have a custom slot widget that I have written that is  
now behaving very erratically since the change to the Instance Browser  
was made. This slot widget is a key part of The Essential Project  
toolset and provides automatic naming of instances (or any string  
slot) based on a pattern of the browser text values of other slots on  
the same form - configurable from the Form widget controls. Perhaps it  
would help if I explained a bit more about how this Slot Widget works.

The widget is designed to work as a user data-entry labour-saving  
device and so operates in the client (using listeners on other slot  
widgets) rather than driving the auto-text from the underlying  
knowledge base. This makes it easy to run on stand-alone and client- 
server mode and means that the additional overhead of it calculating  
the automatic text is removed from the underlying knowledge base. All  
it's activity is scoped to the parent FormWidget of the slot widget in  
question but since RC2, this widget (which has been working fine since  
Protege 3.1) is gathering text from slots on other instances of the  
same class - and I believe that this is where the "more than 1  
instance selected" is more serious than it at first appears. It seems  
that my widget is now reading slot values for one instance from  
another instance of the same class. This shouldn't be possible and is  
worrying.

Interestingly, if I create new instances via an Instance Slot Widget  
(rather than in the Instance Browser), things behave normally and as  
expected with my auto text widget.

I noticed that there have been some changes introduced into  
DirectInstancesList.java in the time frame between RC1 and RC2.

Just to be clear, Protege 3.4 RC1 is fine, RC2 and full release have  
this "bug".

I'd be more than happy to work together on resolving this (whether  
it's my widget or whatever) offline to get to the bottom of this as  
quickly as possible.

Thanks very much

Regards

Jonathan

[Screenshot 1]
___________________

[Screenshot 2]

____________________
Jonathan Carter - Head of Technical Architecture
Enterprise Architecture Solutions Ltd
_______________________________________


Proud sponsors of The Essential Project.
The free open-source Enterprise Architecture Management Platform
www.enterprise-architecture.org
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