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Hierarchical track selector

In v2.6.3 several options were added for configuring the hierarchical track selector.

By default, the order of the tracks in the track selector tries to follow the order of the tracks in the config.json.

  • hierarchical.sort.trackNames - boolean - sort the track names alphabetically. default: false

  • hierarchical.sort.categories - boolean - sort the categories alphabetically. this is separate from the track names sorting since conceptually you can sort the categories and track names separately. default: false

  • hierarchical.defaultCollapsed.categoryNames - string array - array of category names to collapse at startup (comma-joined list of subcategory names if subcategories are used)

  • hierarchical.defaultCollapsed.topLevelCategories - boolean - all the "top level categories" can be collapsed by default if true. default: false

  • hierarchical.defaultCollapsed.subCategories - boolean - collapse all sub-categories by default. default: false

Example showing all the top-level categories collapsed
Example showing all the top-level categories collapsed
Example showing all the sub-categories collapsed. This can be useful to show all the sub-categories that are available without hiding them
Example showing all the sub-categories collapsed. This can be useful to show all the sub-categories that are available without hiding them
Screenshot showing that the end-user can toggle these options as well
Screenshot showing that the end-user can toggle these options as well

Example config.json with examples of these hierarchical settings:

{
  "configuration": {
    "hierarchical": {
      "sort": {
        "trackNames": true,
        "categories": true
      },
      "defaultCollapsed": {
        "categoryNames": ["VCF"], // only collapse some categories on initial startup
        "topLevelCategories": true, // collapse all top level categories on initial startup
        "subCategories": true // collapse all subcategories on initial startup
      }
    }
  }
}

Note: The defaultCollapsed options only apply to the "initial startup", afterwards, the "users preference" (their settings in their session) apply

Folder categories (supertracks)​

Categories can be displayed in "folder mode", which collapses the entire category into a compact folder row. Clicking a folder opens a faceted track selector scoped to just the tracks in that category.

  • hierarchical.defaultFolderCategories - string array - categories to display as folders by default. Use the category name for top-level categories, or a comma-joined path for nested categories (e.g. "Wiggle,Wiggle Rendering Styles"). default: []

Users can also toggle any category between folder and normal mode at runtime via the category's context menu ("Collapse into folder" / "Expand to category").

Example config.json:

{
  "configuration": {
    "hierarchical": {
      "defaultFolderCategories": ["Wiggle", "SNP/Coverage,Coverage"]
    }
  }
}

The category ID used internally is Tracks-{categoryPath}, where categoryPath is the full comma-joined path of category names. This is the value you match against in the TrackSelector-folderDialog extension point (see developer docs).

Note: Like defaultCollapsed, defaultFolderCategories only applies on initial startup — afterwards the user's preference is preserved in their session.

See https://jbrowse.org/jb2/docs/config/hierarchicalconfigschema/ for more auto-generated config schema docs