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Interactive Explorer: Show facet hierarchy in tree, with first two levels unfolded / revealed #281
Description
Currently the Interactive Explorer does not use vocabulary concept hierarchies to organize facet counts and values. We should use these concept hierarchies to make navigation and display of facets easier to understand. We should display the two levels of the concept hierarchies, and then let users click to open more deeply nested and specific facet values and counts within those hierarchies.
Activity
rdhyee commentedon Jun 13, 2026
Agreed — and @akthom filed the complementary #282 (nested + alphabetical, across all three vocabularies) the same afternoon, so we'll treat them as one design.
The deep detail that makes this feasible: each sample's record in the published data carries its full vocabulary ancestry (the whole path from root to specific concept — that's actually how the root-"Material" leak in #265 happened). So the hierarchy is in data we already ship; what's missing is (a) one new derived facet file that preserves the tree instead of flattening to a single value per sample, and (b) the tree UI with your "first two levels unfolded" behavior. It also interacts with #276: in a tree, membership counting (a sample counts under every level of its path) becomes the natural semantics — parent counts = sum of children plus direct hits.
Honest sequencing: this is the biggest UI change since the explorer launched, so we're putting the safety net in first (#249: automated browser tests in CI), then this rides on top. It's the headline feature of that next phase.
— 🤖 rbotyee; RY reviewed
isamplesorg#281/isamplesorg#282 Half(a): close Codex r2 residuals (cl…
isamplesorg#281/isamplesorg#282 Half(a): facet hierarchy data pipelin…
rdhyee commentedon Jun 17, 2026
Quick update on the facet hierarchy, @ekansa — plus a plain-English summary of how we're planning the interface, so you can steer before we build it.
The groundwork is done. The published data now carries the full concept tree (parent → child) and counts how many samples fall under each node — including everything nested beneath it. Validated end-to-end on the 202608 data.
For the interface, three choices — leaning toward "easy for you to react to, and easy to reverse":
1. Which filter, and when. We turn Material into an expandable tree first, and leave Sampled Feature and Specimen Type as they are for now. The samples table and search underneath don't change. (One filter at a time = one thing to undo.)
2. How checking a box behaves. Check a broad category (e.g. "Earth material") and you automatically get everything under it (rock, mineral, sediment…). Or open it up and check just the specific ones. The one thing we don't support: checking a parent and then un-checking a single child to mean "everything except that" — instead, just check the specifics you want. Your selection lives in the URL, so any view is shareable.
3. How much at once. Material first → your feedback → then the same treatment for the other two.
To make feedback painless: we'll put the Material tree behind a preview switch (a special URL). The live site keeps today's flat list — nothing changes for real users — but you get a clickable link to try the tree and tell us what works. Turning it on for everyone (or off) is a single setting, not a rebuild.
Anything you'd change before we build it? Especially: does "check a broad category → includes everything under it" match how you'd want to explore, and is two-levels-open-by-default the right starting depth?
— 🤖 rbotyee; RY reviewed
isamplesorg#281/isamplesorg#282 Half(b): compact the Material tree ro…
isamplesorg#281/isamplesorg#282 Half(b) increment 2: Material tree se…
isamplesorg#281/isamplesorg#282 Half(b) increment 1: Material facet t…
isamplesorg#281/isamplesorg#282: ship the Material facet tree — defau…
Ship Material facet hierarchy tree to isamples.org (#281/#282) + PR4b +
rdhyee commentedon Jun 18, 2026
Shipped 🌳 — the Material facet is now a hierarchy tree, live on isamples.org.
Instead of one flat list, Material is an expandable tree:
Try it 👉 https://isamples.org/explorer.html (Material panel, right side).
?facets=flatfalls back to the old flat list if needed.Honest status — two caveats, both being addressed next in quick succession (tracked):
@ekansa — does the grouping + "two levels open by default" match how you'd want to explore? Feedback very welcome before we extend it to the other two facets.
— 🤖 rbotyee; RY reviewed
rdhyee commentedon Jun 19, 2026
Closing as resolved. The facet hierarchy now renders as a tree with first levels revealed: shipped for Material in #289, extended to all three facets in #294, with live viewport/cross-filtered counts via #292. Merged and live.