Feature Request: : Generate Summary Report

[2320sharon]

Body

Context
In today's meeting, we discussed the significant issue of transparency in coastseg operations. Users have faced challenges with understanding the process when shorelines are not extracted. In some locations the timeseries of shoreline intersections with the transects saved in the timeseries CSV files are empty. The consensus was that instead of adding a new feature to the core functionality, it would be more efficient to introduce a report that can guide the user post-session. This report should distill down the occurrences into an easily digestible format, focusing on the 'why' behind the failure of shoreline extraction or the absence of transects. The intention is to provide a simplified log-like file with an emphasis on clarity rather than technical depth.

Problem Statement
During our recent meeting, we identified a user experience challenge with coastseg. Users are currently unable to easily track certain events, such as failures in shoreline extraction or instances where shorelines do not intersect with a transect. This lack of feedback is exacerbated by the output CSV files containing many empty transects, which can be confusing and uninformative for users.

Proposed Feature
To address this issue, we propose the implementation of a plain text (.txt) report file that gets generated after a coastseg session. This report will summarize key events that occurred during the session, including explanations for failed shoreline extractions and notifications of empty transects that were omitted from the final CSV.

Desired Outcomes
The feature should:

• Provide clear feedback to the user on why certain shorelines could not be extracted.
• Notify the user about any transects that are missing in the final CSV file and the reasons why.

Impact on Current System

• coastsat package: We'll need to update the shoreline extraction functions to either print error messages or return them in a manner that can be logged in our summary report file. This may require careful consideration to avoid adding unnecessary complexity to the coastsat package.

Implementation Timeframe
I estimate that the development and thorough testing of this feature could take approximately 3-6 days.

Next Steps/Action Items

• Investigate the most efficient method to capture and return error messages from the shoreline extraction functions in coastsat.
• Design the format and contents of the summary report file.
• Implement the feature to generate the report file after each coastseg session.
• Test the feature to ensure accuracy and comprehensibility of the reports.

[2320sharon]

This issue has be resolved in coastseg 1.1.20 and coastsat_package>=0.1.37