Auto-refresh graph

[dirk-thomas]

From @danielsnider on December 11, 2016 18:24

I think rqt_graph would be even better if it had the option to automatically refresh the graph view, showing changes as they happen. I want to be able to monitor rqt_graph to see what is running at any given time without continually clicking refresh.

• Do you like the auto-refresh idea?
• Do you think auto-refresh should be the default behaviour?
• Do you think auto-refresh should result in the refresh button being removed?
• Do you think auto-refresh should be triggered by nodes state changes or a refresh rate in hz?

I might create a pull request if there are no major concerns.

Thanks!

Copied from original issue: ros-visualization/rqt_common_plugins#411

[dirk-thomas]

Having the option to automatically refresh sounds good.

Since there are still use cases where that is not desired the manual mode should still be possible. I am not sure which default mode makes more sense but if that setting is restored on next startup it becomes a one time change for the user if he prefers the opposite.

Since there is no notification mechanism in ROS i think you will need to poll the information in regular intervals.

[EliteMasterEric]

Information would have to be pulled at regular intervals, the list of nodes and edges checked against the current list, and refreshed if changed.

The option might need to be disabled by default unless there are performance improvements; when I run rqt_graph, it soft-locks the program for several seconds before it finishes processing and displays the new graph.

[Combinacijus]

+1 auto refresh would be nice