Spyder: Display HTML5 content in a plugin viewer

[bcolsen]

The plot viewer could contain a QWebView widget to show bokeh or other iterative visualizations, maybe even matplotlib's interactive webagg.

[ccordoba12]

Instead of redirecting things to the Plots plugin, I think we should create a new plugin called Viewer.

[CAM-Gerlach]

Presumably, would there be a way for Spyder to detect that interactive output needed to be redirected to the Viewer pane rather than the plots plugin or the Console?

[ccordoba12]

Objects that want to output html content let Jupyter frontends know about it so they can handle that content accordingly. So we need to capture that content and re-route it to the Viewer.

[bcolsen]

Would this require modification to qtconsole?

[ccordoba12]

Yes, we need to make it emit all html content it comes from the kernel through a QtSignal. Then we need to capture that content in Spyder and send it to Viewer.

The problem with Viewer is that it needs to contain the html/js/css that a regular Jupyter notebook has because most libraries expect that.

[goanpeca]

i suggest we do not add another panel called viewer. seems like too much on top of a plots one, we should have one or the other snd render all type of plots in there. To do this I suggest we use the panel library.

[ccordoba12]

i suggest we do not add another panel called viewer

It'd be not only for plots, but for any kind of web content. And for that we need a new pane.

[bcolsen]

i suggest we do not add another panel called viewer. seems like too much on top of a plots one, we should have one or the other snd render all type of plots in there.

I agree. The viewer panel would replace the current plot panel. The viewer pannel should be able to show interactive plots from matplotlib like the notebook has. I would like it to have a similar interface. With the previews on the side, but with the content in the main window interactive.

To do this I suggest we use the panel library.

I just briefly read up on panel and it looks great, but I don't see what the advantage pressing one solution over another. Would this save the effort of implementing the html/js/css of a Jupyter notebook?
An html viewer would support panel as well as any other technology used in the
notebook.

[goanpeca]

I think panel would allow to have a single interface for embedding stuff (be it bokeh or anything else)