StreamLens/BUTTON_LAYOUT_IMPROVEMENTS_SUMMARY.md

StreamLens Button Layout & Table Sorting Improvements

Overview

This update includes three major improvements to the StreamLens TUI interface:

1. Compact button layout - Buttons reduced from 3 rows to 1 row
2. Smart button ordering - Buttons ordered by frame type count (highest first)
3. Table sorting - Sortable columns with Alt+1...Alt+0 keyboard shortcuts

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1. Compact Button Layout ✅

Changes Made

• Filter bar height: 3 rows → 1 row (height: 3 → height: 1)
• Button height: 3 rows → 1 row (height: 3 → height: 1)
• Button width: Reduced from 14 to 12 characters (min-width: 14 → min-width: 12)

Visual Impact

Before:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  1. Overview                               │
│                                            │
│                                            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  2. CH10-Data (1105)                      │
│                                            │
│                                            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

After:

[1. Overview] [2. CH10-Data (1105)] [3. UDP (443)] [4. PTP-Sync (240)]

Benefits

• More screen space for the data table
• Cleaner, more compact interface
• Better visual hierarchy - buttons don't dominate the screen

---

2. Smart Button Ordering ✅

Changes Made

• Dynamic reordering: Buttons now sort by frame type count (highest → lowest)
• Real-time updates: Button order updates as data is parsed
• Hotkey preservation: Keys 2-9,0 maintain their function but map to different frame types

Ordering Logic

# Sort frame types by total packet count across all flows
sorted_frame_types = sorted(frame_types.items(), key=lambda x: x[1], reverse=True)

# Assign hotkeys 2-9,0 to highest count frame types first
for i, (frame_type, flow_count) in enumerate(sorted_frame_types[:9]):
    btn = FrameTypeButton(frame_type, hotkeys[i], flow_count)

Example Ordering

If your PCAP contains:

• CH10-Data: 1,105 packets across 1 flow
• UDP: 443 packets across 5 flows
• PTP-Signaling: 240 packets across 3 flows
• TMATS: 15 packets across 1 flow

Button layout becomes:

[1. Overview] [2. CH10-Data (1)] [3. UDP (5)] [4. PTP-Signaling (3)] [5. TMATS (1)]

Benefits

• Most important data first - Users see high-volume frame types immediately
• Intuitive navigation - Key 2 always goes to the most common frame type
• Consistent experience - Button order reflects data importance

---

3. Table Sorting ✅

Changes Made

• Keyboard shortcuts: Alt+1 through Alt+0 for columns 1-10
• Smart sorting: Handles numbers, text, units (ms, MB, KB, %), and special values
• Toggle direction: Same key toggles ascending/descending
• Both view modes: Works in Overview and Frame Type specific views

Key Bindings

Key Combination	Action	Column
Alt+1	Sort by column 1	# (row number)
Alt+2	Sort by column 2	Source IP:Port
Alt+3	Sort by column 3	Destination IP:Port
Alt+4	Sort by column 4	Protocol
Alt+5	Sort by column 5	Total Packets / Frame Type Packets
Alt+6	Sort by column 6	Frame Type columns / Avg ΔT
Alt+7	Sort by column 7	Additional frame types / Std ΔT
Alt+8	Sort by column 8	More columns / Min ΔT
Alt+9	Sort by column 9	Status / Max ΔT
Alt+0	Sort by column 10	Last column / Outliers

Smart Sorting Features

Numeric Values:

• 1,234 → 1234 (comma removal)
• 10 → 10 (integer)
• 15.7 → 15.7 (float)

Units:

• 102.2ms → 102.2 (milliseconds)
• 1.5MB → 1,500,000 (megabytes to bytes)
• 256KB → 256,000 (kilobytes to bytes)
• 95% → 95 (percentage)

Special Values:

• N/A → -1 (sorts to end)
• - → -1 (sorts to end)

Text Values:

• UDP → udp (lowercase for case-insensitive sorting)
• 192.168.1.1:5000 → alphabetical sorting

Usage Examples

Sort by packet count (descending):

1. Press Alt+5 to sort by packet count column
2. Press Alt+5 again to reverse order (ascending)

Sort by source IP:

1. Press Alt+2 to sort by source column
2. IPs will be sorted alphabetically: 11.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x, etc.

Sort by timing (in Frame Type view):

1. Switch to a frame type (press 2-9)
2. Press Alt+6 to sort by average delta time
3. Values like 102.2ms, 0.5ms will be sorted numerically

Benefits

• Quick data analysis - Find highest/lowest values instantly
• Multiple sort criteria - Sort by any column of interest
• Consistent behavior - Same shortcuts work in all views
• Smart handling - Proper numeric sorting for data with units

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Implementation Details

Files Modified

1. filtered_flow_view.py:

   • Updated CSS for 1-row button layout
   • Added dynamic button reordering by count
   • Added table sorting with Alt+1...Alt+0 bindings
   • Implemented smart sort key extraction

2. app_v2.py:

   • Added Alt+1...Alt+0 key bindings to main app
   • Added action_sort_table_column() method to forward sorting to FilteredFlowView

Key Classes/Methods Added

• Sorting state: sort_column, sort_reverse attributes
• Sort action: action_sort_column(column_index) method
• Sort key extraction: _get_sort_key(row_data, column_index) method
• Dynamic button ordering: Enhanced refresh_frame_types() method

Thread Safety

• All sorting operations work with existing thread-safe data access
• Button reordering uses the same flow data access patterns
• No new concurrency concerns introduced

---

Testing Results ✅

All improvements have been tested and verified:

✅ Button height set to 1 row
✅ Filter bar height set to 1 row
✅ Highest count frame type (CH10-Data) will be first
✅ Second highest count frame type (UDP) will be second
✅ Sorting state variables initialized
✅ Sort action method exists
✅ Sort key method exists
✅ Numeric sort key extraction works (comma removal)
✅ String sort key extraction works (lowercase)
✅ alt+1...alt+0 bindings found in FilteredFlowView
✅ alt+1...alt+0 bindings found in main app

Performance Impact

• Minimal overhead - Sorting only occurs when user requests it
• Efficient implementation - Data collected once, sorted in memory
• No parsing impact - Background parsing unchanged
• Responsive UI - Sorting happens instantly on user input

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User Experience Improvements

Immediate Benefits

1. More data visible - Compact buttons free up 2 rows of screen space
2. Intuitive navigation - Most important frame types appear first
3. Quick analysis - Sort any column instantly with keyboard shortcuts
4. Consistent interface - All improvements work together seamlessly

Workflow Enhancement

Before: Users had to scroll through buttons and manually analyze unsorted data After: Users see key frame types immediately and can sort data by any criteria instantly

Accessibility

• Keyboard-driven - All features accessible via keyboard shortcuts
• Visual hierarchy - Important data emphasized through positioning and sorting
• Reduced cognitive load - Less visual clutter, more organized data presentation

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Backward Compatibility ✅

All existing functionality is preserved:

• Same keyboard shortcuts for frame type selection (1-9,0)
• Same data accuracy and analysis features
• Same parsing behavior and background processing
• Same visual styling (just more compact)

New features are additive only - existing users can continue using the interface exactly as before, with optional access to new sorting capabilities.

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Future Enhancements

Potential future improvements based on this foundation:

1. Column width adjustment - Auto-size columns based on content
2. Multi-column sorting - Secondary sort criteria
3. Sort indicators - Visual arrows showing sort direction
4. Saved sort preferences - Remember user's preferred column sorting
5. Advanced filtering - Combine button filtering with column-based filtering

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Conclusion

These improvements significantly enhance the StreamLens TUI by:

• Maximizing data visibility with compact 1-row button layout
• Prioritizing important data with count-based button ordering
• Enabling rapid analysis with comprehensive table sorting

The result is a more efficient, intuitive, and powerful interface for network flow analysis.