This page documents Property Hints, which are xml tags accepted under Hints for a Property element in Server-Manager configuration XMLs.

NoDefault

Skip setting run-time defaults during initialization.

Any property with a domain that is dynamic i.e. depends on run-time values such as data information or the information-only properties, often resets the property value during initialization of the newly created proxy (vtkSMParaViewPipelineController::PostInitializeProxy()). This, however, may be undesirable and one may want the property to simply use the XML default. In that case, use this property hint as follows.

<IntVectorProperty ...>
  ...
  <Hints>
    <NoDefault />
  </Hints>
</IntVectorProperty>

ComponentLabels

Show vector component labels for double vector properties.

A multi-component double vector property may represent several different types of coordinates. It may be useful to provide labels for each component's input to designate which type of vector is being represented.

<DoubleVectorProperty ...>
  ...
  <Hints>
    <ShowComponentLabels>
      <ComponentLabel component="0" label="X:"/>
      ...
    </ShowComponentLabels>
  </Hints>
</DoubleVectorProperty>

PlaceholderText

Put a PlaceHolder text in the Text entry widget.

For StringVectorProperty elements, one can suggest a place-holder text to use in the UI using the <PlaceholderText/> tag.

<StringVectorProperty...>
  ...
  <Hints>
    <PlaceholderText>Enter label</PlaceholderText>
  </Hints>
</StringVectorProperty>

PropertyLink

Link properties to existing proxies at initialization time.

PropertyLink hints is typically used to link a non-UI property to a property on some other proxy known to exist when this proxy is created. Consider this, we have a (settings, RenderViewSettings) proxy that created when a new session is initialized in vtkSMParaViewPipelineController::InitializeSession(). Now, when a new (views, RenderView) proxy is created, we'd like a few properties from the RenderView proxy to be linked to session wide instance of RenderViewSettings proxy. That way, when the properties on RenderViewSettings proxy are changed, those on all the RenderView proxy instances also change. We use <PropertyLink/> hint for such a case. For example, consider the following:

<IntVectorProperty command="SetUseOffscreenRenderingForScreenshots"
                    name="UseOffscreenRenderingForScreenshots"
                    number_of_elements="1"
                    default_values="0"
                    panel_visibility="never">
  <Hints>
    <PropertyLink group="settings"
                  proxy="RenderViewSettings"
                  property="UseOffscreenRenderingForScreenshots"/>
  </Hints>
</IntVectorProperty>

Here, we want the UseOffscreenRenderingForScreenshots property linked with the corresponding property on the RenderViewSettings proxy. When this tag is encountered by vtkSMParaViewPipelineController::PostInitializeProxy(), it will try to locate an existing proxy of registered as (settings, RenderViewSettings). vtkSMParaViewPipelineController::InitializeSession() ensures that all proxies encountered in settings group are created and registered using the same group. Thus, when the vtkSMParaViewPipelineController::PostInitializeProxy() looks for (settings, RenderViewSettings) proxy, it will find one and then be able to setup a property link to ensure that the property on the RenderView proxy is kept in sync with the property on the RenderViewSettings proxy.

The optional attribute unlink_if_modified can be set to 1 if the link should be broken if the user explicitly modifies the property. This is useful when linking color-related properties with the active color palette, for example:

<DoubleVectorProperty command="SetBackground"
                      default_values="0.329 0.349 0.427"
                      name="Background"
                      panel_widget="color_selector_with_palette"
                      number_of_elements="3">
  <Hints>
    <PropertyLink group="settings" proxy="ColorPalette" property="BackgroundColor" unlink_if_modified="1" />
  </Hints>
</DoubleVectorProperty>

SelectionInput

Mark a input as a one that accepts a vtkSelection.

Sometimes an input to an algorithm is a vtkSelection, not any other dataset. In ParaView, vtkSelection inputs are treated specially to allow the user to copy active selection from the application. Also, it keeps the application from prompting the user to pick the second input when the filter is created. To indicate to the UI that this input is a selection input, use the <SelectionInput/> hint.

<InputProperty ...>
  ...
  <Hints>
    <SelectionInput />
  </Hints>
</InputProperty>

WidgetHeight

Specify height in rows for tabular/tree widgets.

Certain widgets that show a tablular widget of rows and columns i.e. any property widget that uses a pqTreeWidget including the ones for ArrayListDomain, ArraySelectionDomain, EnumerationDomain, CompositeTreeDomain, respect this hint to setup the default size for the tabular/tree widget.

<IntVectorProperty command="..." name="...">
  <CompositeTreeDomain mode="all" name="tree">
    <RequiredProperties>
      <Property function="Input" name="Input" />
    </RequiredProperties>
  </CompositeTreeDomain>
  <Hints>

    <WidgetHeight number_of_rows="20" />
  </Hints>
</IntVectorProperty>

Expansion

Expands all expandable items to the given depth in a tree widget.

Certain widgets that show a tree widget -ie. any property widget that uses a pqTreeWidget including the ones for ArrayListDomain, ArraySelectionDomain, EnumerationDomain, CompositeTreeDomain- respect this hint to setup the default expansion depth for the tree widget.

0 is the minimal expansion, -1 is expand all.

<IntVectorProperty command="..." name="...">
  <CompositeTreeDomain mode="all" name="tree">
    <RequiredProperties>
      <Property function="Input" name="Input" />
    </RequiredProperties>
  </CompositeTreeDomain>
  <Hints>

    <Expansion depth="3" />
  </Hints>
</IntVectorProperty>

FileChooser

Specify supported extensions to list for pqFileChooserWidget dialog.

For properties using FileListDomain to show a file chooser widget on the Properties panel, sometimes we want to provide a list of extensions expected. In that case, one can use this hint. Note, this is not intended for specifying extensions that a reader supports. For that one uses the <ReaderFactory> hint described in ProxyHints. Multiple FileChooser hints may be specified to show multiple extensions with different description texts.

By default, the file chooser widget will accept only existing files. It is possible to add <UseDirectoryName/> in the <Hints> section to accept only directories, <AcceptAnyFile/> to accept any filename to export data, or <BrowseLocalFileSystem/> to browse local file-system irrespective of the connection type.

<StringVectorProperty animateable="0"
                      command="SetQFileName"
                      name="QFileName"
                      number_of_elements="1"
                      panel_visibility="default">
  <FileListDomain name="files" />
  <Documentation>This property specifies the .q (solution) file name for
    the PLOT3D reader.</Documentation>
  <Hints>
    <FileChooser extensions="q" file_description="Solution files" />
  </Hints>
</StringVectorProperty>

OmitFromLoadAllVariables

Specify that a dataset property be excluded when "Load All Variables" toggle is selected.

ParaView has a global toggle named "Load All Variables" that automatically selects all variables in a dataset when loading a file. This hint allows certain values to be omitted from that list (e.g. sidesets, edgesets) so they will not be included by default. The user can still manually select these values to be loaded.

<StringVectorProperty command="SetSideSetArrayStatus"
                        element_types="2 0"
                        information_property="SideSetInfo"
                        name="SideSetArrayStatus"
                        number_of_elements_per_command="2"
                        repeat_command="1">
    <ArraySelectionDomain name="array_list">
      <RequiredProperties>
        <Property function="ArrayList"
                  name="SideSetInfo" />
      </RequiredProperties>
    </ArraySelectionDomain>
    <Documentation>An Exodus II file may define subsets of all the
    <i>boundaries</i>of all the elements in a file as sets in their own
    right. This property specifies which of those sets should be loaded.
    Variables, such as boundary conditions, may then be defined over these
    sets by specifying a single number per side. For example, a hexahedron
    has 18 sides: 6 faces and 12 edges. Any of these sides may be
    individually called out in a set and assigned a result value. The
    accompanying SideSetResultArrayStatus property specifies which
    variables defined over those sets should be loaded.</Documentation>
    <Hints>
      <OmitFromLoadAllVariables />
    </Hints>
</StringVectorProperty>

ProxySelectionWidget

Specify options to configure pqProxySelectionWidget, typically used for proxy-properties with a proxy-list domain.

To hide the combo-box widget, add visibility="0" attribute. To disable the combo-box widget, so that the user cannot change the selection, add enabled="0" attribute.

<ProxyProperty name="Format">
     <ProxyListDomain name="proxy_list">
       <Group name="screenshot_writers" />
     </ProxyListDomain>
     <Hints>
       <ProxySelectionWidget enabled="0" />
     </Hints>
</ProxyProperty>

ArraySelectionWidget

For a property that uses pqArraySelectionWidget, one can specify the icon to use for the arrays listed using this hint. See pqArraySelectionWidget::setIconType for supported icon types.

<StringVectorProperty
      name="RowDataArrays"
      command="GetRowDataArraySelection"
      number_of_elements_per_command="1"
      repeat_command="1"
      si_class="vtkSIDataArraySelectionProperty">
      <ArrayListDomain name="array_list" input_domain_name="row_arrays">
        <RequiredProperties>
          <Property name="Input" function="Input" />
        </RequiredProperties>
      </ArrayListDomain>
      <Documentation>
        Select the row data arrays to pass through
      </Documentation>
      <Hints>
        <ArraySelectionWidget icon_type="row"/>
      </Hints>
  </StringVectorProperty>
</SourceProxy>

DoubleRangeSliderPropertyWidget

Customize the pqDoubleRangeSliderPropertyWidget with these hints:

HideResetButton - when an XML element with this name is present, the reset range button will not be shown
MinimumLabel - the text attribute in this element will be used for the minimum slider widget label
MaximumLabel - the text attribute in this element will be used for the maximum slider widget label

The snippet below shows these hints in use.

<DoubleVectorProperty command="SetClippingLimits"
    default_values="0.8 1.2"
    name="ClippingLimits"
    panel_visibility="advanced"
    number_of_elements="2"
    panel_widget="double_range">
    <DoubleRangeDomain
        max="2.0"
        min="0.65"
        name="range" />
    <Hints>
      <MinimumLabel text="Near Clipping Limit"/>
      <MaximumLabel text="Far Clipping Limit" />
      <HideResetButton/>
    </Hints>
</DoubleVectorProperty>