# Viz Table Module MVP Planning

## 🎯 **Core Vision**

Build a hybrid Rust-HTML visualization system that transforms our existing rich display foundation into interactive, lazy-loaded table interfaces for massive datasets.

**Key Insight**: We already have beautiful Unicode table formatting in Rust - now we extend this to rich HTML with lazy loading and browser interactivity.

## 📋 **MVP Scope (Phase 1)**

### **Foundation Components**

#### 1. **Enhanced HTML Generation** 
- **Current State**: `<pre>` wrapped Unicode text via `_repr_html_()`
- **Target**: Semantic HTML tables with proper styling
- **Implementation**: Extend existing `groggy::display::format_table()` with HTML output mode
- **Features**:
  - Semantic `<table>`, `<thead>`, `<tbody>`, `<tr>`, `<td>` structure
  - CSS classes for styling and theming
  - Responsive design for different screen sizes
  - Data type annotations in cell attributes

#### 2. **Lazy Loading Infrastructure**
- **Purpose**: Handle tables with millions of rows without loading everything
- **Core Concept**: Virtual scrolling - only render visible rows
- **Implementation**: 
  - Rust-based virtual window management
  - On-demand row fetching with configurable buffer sizes
  - Efficient memory management for large datasets
  - Smart preloading based on scroll direction/velocity

#### 3. **WebSocket Bridge** 
- **Purpose**: Real-time data updates without page refresh
- **Implementation**: Embedded WebSocket server in Rust
- **Features**:
  - Bidirectional communication between Rust backend and browser
  - Event-driven data synchronization
  - Live updates when underlying graph/table data changes
  - Efficient delta updates (only send changed cells)

#### 4. **Browser Integration**
- **Python API**: Simple `table.interactive()` launches browser interface
- **Technology Stack**:
  - **Backend**: Rust WebSocket server with HTML generation
  - **Frontend**: Modern web (React/vanilla JS with WebAssembly bridge)
  - **Communication**: WebSocket for real-time, HTTP for initial load
- **Browser Support**: Modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge)

## 🏗️ **Technical Architecture**

### **Data Flow Pipeline**
```
Python API → Rust Core → HTML Generation → WebSocket → Browser Interface
     ↓            ↓             ↓              ↓             ↓
   Simple    Performance   Rich Markup   Real-time    Interactive
Interface    Engine       Generation    Updates        Experience
```

### **Component Breakdown**

#### **Rust Core Extensions**
```rust
// Extend existing display system
pub enum OutputFormat {
    Unicode,           // Current beautiful text tables
    Html,              // Rich HTML tables  
    Json,              // Data for JS consumption
}

pub struct InteractiveTableServer {
    websocket_server: WebSocketServer,
    html_generator: HtmlTableGenerator,
    virtual_scroller: VirtualScrollManager,
    data_source: Arc<dyn TableDataSource>,
}

// Virtual scrolling for massive datasets
pub struct VirtualScrollManager {
    window_size: usize,           // Visible rows
    buffer_size: usize,           // Preloaded rows
    current_offset: usize,        // Current scroll position
    data_cache: LRUCache<usize, TableRow>,
}
```

#### **HTML Generation System**
```rust
// Enhanced HTML table generation
pub struct HtmlTableGenerator {
    theme: TableTheme,
    css_framework: CssFramework,
    accessibility: AccessibilityOptions,
}

pub struct TableTheme {
    colors: ColorPalette,
    fonts: Typography,
    spacing: SpacingRules,
    responsive_breakpoints: Vec<ScreenSize>,
}
```

#### **Browser Interface**
```javascript
// Frontend table component
class InteractiveTable {
    constructor(websocketUrl, initialData) {
        this.ws = new WebSocket(websocketUrl);
        this.virtualScroller = new VirtualScroller();
        this.dataCache = new Map();
    }
    
    // Handle scroll events with lazy loading
    onScroll(event) {
        const visibleRange = this.calculateVisibleRange(event.scrollTop);
        this.requestDataRange(visibleRange);
    }
    
    // Receive real-time updates
    onWebSocketMessage(data) {
        this.updateCells(data.changedCells);
        this.virtualScroller.refresh();
    }
}
```

### **Python API Design**
```python
# Simple, elegant interface building on our existing display system
nodes_table = graph.nodes.table()

# Current rich display (already working)
print(nodes_table)                    # Beautiful Unicode tables
nodes_table._repr_html_()             # HTML for Jupyter

# NEW: Interactive browser interface
interactive = nodes_table.interactive()           # Launch browser with default settings
interactive = nodes_table.interactive(
    theme="dark",
    port=8080,
    lazy_load_threshold=10000,
    auto_refresh=True
)

# Configuration options
config = InteractiveConfig(
    max_rows_in_memory=50000,
    scroll_buffer_size=100,
    websocket_timeout=30,
    css_theme="publication"
)
nodes_table.interactive(config=config)
```

## 🚀 **Implementation Roadmap**

### **Week 1-2: HTML Foundation**
- **Extend Rust display system** with HTML output format
- **Create CSS framework** for beautiful, responsive table styling  
- **Implement semantic HTML generation** with proper accessibility
- **Add theming system** (dark/light/publication themes)

**Deliverables**:
- `nodes_table._repr_html_()` generates proper HTML tables (not `<pre>`)
- CSS framework with multiple themes
- Responsive design working on mobile/desktop

### **Week 3-4: Lazy Loading Infrastructure**
- **Build virtual scrolling in Rust** for massive dataset handling
- **Implement efficient data caching** with LRU eviction
- **Create pagination API** for frontend data requests
- **Add smart preloading** based on scroll patterns

**Deliverables**:
- Handle 1M+ row tables with constant memory usage
- Sub-100ms response time for data window requests
- Efficient caching that scales with available memory

### **Week 5-6: Browser Integration**
- **Create embedded WebSocket server** in Rust
- **Build React/JS frontend** for rich table interactions
- **Implement WebAssembly bridge** for performance-critical operations
- **Add real-time update mechanism** for live data changes

**Deliverables**:
- Working browser interface launched from Python
- Real-time updates when underlying data changes
- Smooth scrolling through massive datasets

### **Week 7-8: Python API & Polish**
- **Design simple Python interface** (`table.interactive()`)
- **Add configuration options** for themes, performance, behavior
- **Comprehensive testing** with various dataset sizes
- **Performance optimization** and browser compatibility testing

**Deliverables**:
- One-line Python API for interactive tables
- Full test suite covering edge cases
- Cross-browser compatibility verified
- Performance benchmarks documented

## 📊 **Success Metrics**

### **Performance Targets**
- **Dataset Size**: Handle 1M+ rows smoothly
- **Memory Efficiency**: Linear scaling with visible data only
- **Response Time**: <100ms for data requests
- **Scroll Performance**: 60fps smooth scrolling
- **Startup Time**: <2 seconds to launch interactive interface

### **User Experience Goals**
- **API Simplicity**: One line of code to launch (`table.interactive()`)
- **Visual Quality**: Professional appearance matching modern data tools
- **Browser Support**: Works in all major modern browsers
- **Accessibility**: Screen reader compatible, keyboard navigation
- **Mobile Ready**: Responsive design works on tablets/phones

### **Technical Excellence**
- **Memory Safety**: Zero memory leaks in Rust components
- **Error Handling**: Graceful degradation when network/browser issues occur
- **Documentation**: Complete API docs and usage examples
- **Test Coverage**: >90% coverage for core functionality

## 🎨 **Visual Design Considerations**

### **Canvas-Based System (Future Phase)**
- **Pixel-perfect control** for complex visualizations
- **Custom rendering engine** for graph layouts, network diagrams
- **GPU acceleration** via WebGL for massive datasets
- **Integration point** for YN's "data consciousness" visualizations

### **Theme System**
- **Built-in themes**: Light, Dark, Publication, High-contrast
- **Customizable**: User-defined CSS themes
- **Responsive**: Adapts to different screen sizes and orientations
- **Accessible**: WCAG compliance for color contrast and navigation

## 🎪 **Future Vision Integration**

### **Preparing for YN's Impossible Ideas**
- **Extensible architecture** for adding new visualization modes
- **Plugin system** for custom cell renderers and interactions  
- **Event system** for time-travel, portal navigation, AI integration
- **Modular design** enabling easy addition of consciousness features

### **Evolution Path**
```
Phase 1: Interactive HTML Tables (MVP)
    ↓
Phase 2: Canvas-based custom visualizations
    ↓  
Phase 3: Time-travel and portal navigation
    ↓
Phase 4: AI-assisted data consciousness interfaces
```

## 🛠️ **Technical Dependencies**

### **Rust Crates**
- `tokio-tungstenite`: WebSocket server implementation
- `serde_json`: Data serialization for browser communication
- `askama`: HTML template engine for table generation
- `tower-http`: Static file serving for CSS/JS assets

### **Frontend Dependencies**
- **React**: Component-based UI framework
- **WebSocket API**: Native browser WebSocket support
- **CSS Grid/Flexbox**: Responsive layout system
- **Intersection Observer**: Efficient scroll detection

### **Build System**
- **Webpack/Vite**: Frontend asset bundling
- **wasm-pack**: WebAssembly compilation
- **cargo-make**: Unified build orchestration
- **Docker**: Consistent development environment

## 🎯 **MVP Definition of Done**

**Core Functionality**:
✅ `table.interactive()` launches browser interface  
✅ Virtual scrolling handles 1M+ rows smoothly  
✅ Real-time updates via WebSocket  
✅ Professional visual appearance  
✅ Cross-browser compatibility  

**Performance**:
✅ <100ms data request response time  
✅ <2s startup time  
✅ 60fps smooth scrolling  
✅ Linear memory scaling  

**Quality**:
✅ Comprehensive test coverage  
✅ Complete API documentation  
✅ Accessible design  
✅ Mobile responsive  

---

**🚀 Ready to transform static tables into living, interactive data experiences!**

*Building the foundation today for YN's impossible data consciousness interfaces tomorrow.*