Inferring a task

You may encounter a situation in which you have a reader for a corpus of annotated documents, but you don't know what annotation types are in them. You can explore the corpus from the command line using MATReport and create a task using the --create_task option, or you can load the documents into the MAT UI and infer a task from them. You can then augment this task with other labels as you load more documents; edit the task in various ways; and save it as XML for later installation with MATManagePluginDirs.

Be sure to read the limitations before you use this capability.

• Creating and using an inferred task
• Editing and saving the task
• Limitations
  

Creating and using an inferred task

At the bottom of the list to tasks in the "Open file..." dialog, you'll see an element named "(inferred)". If you select this element, you'll have the option of choosing between two languages ("Left to right" and "Right to left") and two workflows ("(annotate)", which will allow you to annotate, and "(read-only)", which is the usual read-only configuration:

Select the input and document type as usual. If you select "XML inline", note that you don't have to worry about unknown labels being discarded; since the task is being inferred from the document you select, all the labels will be known.

Press "Open" as usual. You may be warned that some labels are being moved aside to block conflicts with the administrative annotation names in MAT:

You'll next be presented with a simple task editor:

At this point, you may change the name of the task, choose to alphabetize the labels in the legend and popup or not, and change the content and the styling of the labels.

There are two types available: content and token. Only select "token" if you're sure that the corresponding annotations really are token annotations. Once you select "token", the styling for the label will be fixed. To change the styling for a content label, click on the label. You'll get a cascading popup which will allow you to select among a variety of foreground/background color combinations:

As the editor says, if you want to remove all styling from the label (so it won't show up in the legend or the annotation popup, or take up any room on the document's display), choose "None".

Once you press "Done", your document will appear, with the new task. The new task will have a single undoable workflow named "Hand annotation", which contains a single step named "annotate". If you chose "(annotation)" in the "Open file..." dialog, you'll be placed in this workflow.

You can interact with this document however you'd interact with other documents. If you've made your document annotatable, you can add, remove, modify and inspect annotations, view the annotations in the annotation table, or use any of the other capabilities available for annotation.

The next time you select "Open file...", your new task will appear as the default in the task list, and the task list will indicate which tasks are inferred (and, of course, you'll be able to infer a new task, or select any other installed task, as usual). If you load a document using an inferred task, and the document has more labels than the task currently knows about, the UI will add those labels to the task and present you, again, with a task editor.

Editing and saving the task

You have two opportunities to edit your task: by loading a new document which has more labels than the task currently knows about, and by pressing the "Edit task" button below the legend in any document which shows the task.

If you load a new document which has more labels than the task currently knows about, you'll get a new editor which allows you to change the type of the new labels:

Note that the name of the task can no longer be changed, nor can you change whether the task alphabetizes its labels. You can, however, change the label styling for any content annotation, whether or not it's just been added.

The legend for an inferred task has two buttons at the bottom, "Edit task" and "Save task":

The "Edit task" button will bring up the task editor again. In this editor, you'll be able to change the label styling of content labels. The "Save task" button will convert the task to XML so you can create a task directory, save the XML file in it, and install the task using MATManagePluginDirs for future reuse.

Limitations

Inference

The task inference relies heavily on the capabilities of the format reader. If the format reader can recognize attributes whose value is something other than a string (e.g., an annotation), the task will incorporate that information. However, it will not recognize annotation-valued attributes if the format reader doesn't do that.

Task

The inferred task is known only to the UI. The MAT server knows nothing about it, and it is not installed anywhere. If you reload the UI, you lose the task. In order to make it persistent, you must save the task, install it using MATManagePluginDirs, restart the MAT server, and reload the UI. If you continue to edit it after you save it, you must save it again to preserve your changes; if you save, install, and restart the MAT server without reloading the UI, you're still working with the inferred version of the task, and you'll lose any changes you make when you finally reload.

The inferred task has no automated processing associated with it. In order to associate automatic processing with it, you must save the task and edit the task XML.

You cannot create a workspace based on an inferred task (because workspaces can only be created on the command line, and the task must be installed).

You cannot use the inferred task for reconciliation or comparison. It wouldn't be hard to enable this capability, but there's no point, since there's no need for reconciliation or comparison unless you have multiple conflicting annotated files, which you're very unlikely to have for a task you don't know yet. To use reconciliation or comparison with your task, save and install it.

Editor

You cannot use the task editor to edit tasks other than inferred tasks.

The task editor is currently quite limited. You can use it to:

• change the name of the task, immediately after the task is created but before any document displays for that task have been created
  
• change whether the task alphabetizes its labels, immediately after the task is created but before any document displays for that task have been created
• designate labels as token or content labels, immediately after the label is detected but before any document displays showing that label have been created
• change, add, or remove background and foreground color styling for any content label, at any point

You cannot use it to:

• add labels without loading a document that contains that label
• add attributes to labels without loading a document that contains that label attribute
• remove labels or attributes
• change the attribute type of an attribute
• add a workflow, language or workspace, or edit the workflow or language that's created for the inferred task
  
• change any display properties of attributes beyond their foreground or background colors (e.g., whether an annotation editor is displayed immediately when a new annotation for that label is created, add a keyboard accelerator, etc.)
• designate attributes as choice attributes
• identify effective labels

In order to make any of these changes, you must save the task, edit the task XML, and install the task.