Neuroglancer short links

[krokicki]

Clickup id: 86adpkkgt

Implements Neuroglancer short links a la the FlyEM Shortener.

There is also a version of this PR implemented by Claude (#278), for comparison purposes. I think I prefer this one because it has simpler code, more features, and I like the UI better. But it is not reactive and needs some work.

@JaneliaSciComp/fileglancer @stuarteberg @StephanPreibisch

[krokicki]

Current screenshots:

[neomorphic]

I have not looked too deeply at the code, but I think there are aspects of the UI/UX that l like from both. I like the "+ New Link" button in the Claude version and I like that it is not tucked away next to the search box. I like this version for the input form, since it is what I would expect from a link shortener. I also like that the link is clickable in this version. I am not sure why there is an outlined "URL" button in the modal, but that seems unnecessary / broken. I think the references to "Views" needs to be more consistent. It seems like the title of the second column of the views table should be changed to "Neuroglancer View".

[stuarteberg]

One note: When using our existing link shortener, I very very frequently make tweaks to my neuroglancer scene and then overwrite it. IIUC, both PRs have flaws:

• This one doesn't permit altering a link after it's been shortened.
• The Claude one allows "updates", but if I'm reading it correctly, it requires the user to choose whether they are creating a new link or updating an old one. (I haven't actually seen the "Actions" UI, so I'm not sure.) That sounds annoying.

In either case, it might be nice to alert the user when overwriting an existing link, and ask for confirmation. That's slightly more complicated, though.

[allison-truhlar]

I agree with Jody that the “+ New Link” button in the Claude implementation is easier to find. I couldn't find the Codex one at first. I also like calling the page “Neuroglancer Links” better than “Views”.

To Stuart's point above - in ngLinkQueries.tsx in the Claude implementation, the payload for the update mutation has the option to provide “state” but this hasn’t been implemented in the "edit" dialog. I do like the way the Codex UI allows you to toggle between pasting in a URL vs JSON state (via the outlined URL button). So I think that extending the Codex UI to the "edit" dialog and using the Claude update mutation would create the correct combination of being able to update the state in the link (also the short name, which is currently the only thing you can update for an NG link in the Claude version).

A few other small notes:

Codex

• Appears to have an extra/unneeded Alembic migration?
• In the Actions menu, I’m not sure the utility of being able to copy the key
• I think the API endpoint naming in the Claude implementation follows our current patterns better than the Codex names - specifically, Codex creates a separate endpoint for GET (api/neuroglancer/short-links) and POST (api/neuroglancer/shorten) operations
• For managing the Neuroglancer link server state in the UI, I would use a context provider to initialize the queries like Codex (Claude didn't do this, even though it's the pattern used in rest of the UI). Potentially this provider could be wrapped only around the Neuroglancer links page, not at the higher level in App.tsx that Codex chose. Currently, the Neuroglancer link information is only used on this one page and it's children. However, if there are plans to create or access Neuroglancer links from other parts of the UI, then the provider would need to stay in App.tsx like Codex chose.

Claude

• “View in Neuroglancer” in the Action menu didn’t work for me

[krokicki]

Thanks everyone! I think I rushed these out too quickly at the end of the year and both have major issues. I will concentrate on this PR as a starting point and get it fixed up.

[krokicki]

I think I've addressed all of the comments above, and made some other improvements besides:

• Added title/name that mimics how the FlyEM shortener works
• You can edit after creating
• You can delete
• Made naming consistent through-out the UI and backend

[krokicki]

@allison-truhlar Please review this commit in particular: allow search by URL in both Data Links and NG Links

I took out the special URL handling because it didn't seem necessary for Data Links and it was interfering with NG Links. But maybe I missed something..

[allison-truhlar]

@allison-truhlar Please review this commit in particular: allow search by URL in both Data Links and NG Links

I took out the special URL handling because it didn't seem necessary for Data Links and it was interfering with NG Links. But maybe I missed something..

@krokicki The purpose of that code was to allow users to paste in the proxied path URL and have the data link table filter to the correct row. However, in looking at the code again, I found a better way to do this that doesn't break the Neuroglancer link searching. Now in the globalFilterFn, in the existing special handling case for the "File Path" column of the data link table, I include the proxied path URL in the array of values to search. See this commit: 5ba5088

[krokicki]

@allison-truhlar Great idea on URL search. I just refactored it to keep TableCard generic. It now uses TanStack's column meta feature so that each column defines its own searchable values. This keeps domain-specific logic (like ProxiedPath) out of the shared component and makes it easy to extend for other tables.

One thing I noticed when testing this: the Data Links table doesn't respect the user's path display setting when showing paths. Is that possible to do?

[allison-truhlar]

The NGLinks dialog works for me - I can create links and edit them. I left some specific comments for minor fixes/clarifications. Also, I'm happy to help with any of the suggested changes you agree with - let me know.

[allison-truhlar]

@krokicki In my testing, it looks like the Data Links table is respecting the user's path preferences. I checked both the displayed path and the path that gets copied from the Action menu for all three path preferences, and both seemed to be correct for me. Here's where the displayed path gets set based on preference, and here's where the path for copying gets set based on preference.