Metainformation
Meta information is available for input and output variables, in the form of both short descriptions contained in information tooltips in the UI, and also in the form of extended markdown files.
The short descriptions in information tooltips (or “Info Tooltips”) are used to provide quick explanations on an Input or Graph Element. These short descriptions are defined inside the inputs.csv file. When the user hovers his mouse over the “i” icon, a tooltip appears, as seen in the Figure below.
The more extended descriptions contained in markdown files are used to enhance credibility and transparency by incorporating information on data sources, limitations, uncertainties, and underlying assumptions.
Before the introduction of Markdown (.md) files, all meta-information for inputs was stored entirely within the inputs.csv file. However, embedding lengthy descriptions directly into the file would make it cluttered and hard to maintain, and a CSV format cannot accommodate rich content such as images, tables, and links.
To address this, the process was restructured to allow modelers to reference external Markdown (.md) files. Now, instead of writing full descriptions in inputs.csv, they simply specify the title of a corresponding Markdown file in the “extensive description” column. The application searches for these files in the “src/markdowns” directory. During development, the files can be stored locally, and when the app is built, they are automatically converted into static assets via the Vite build process.
An important thing to note is that both the Markdown files and any images they reference, stored in “markdowns/diagrams”, are loaded only when requested by the user. As a result, the application’s loading performance remains unaffected regardless of the number or size of these files.
When a user clicks on the book icon next to an input for which they want more information, a popup modal opens displaying the contents of the associated Markdown file, as illustrated in the Figure below.
