Add Binder button to try the tutorials online

[basnijholt]

It's adding one simple file called environment.yml to the base folder:

name: holoviews

dependencies:
  - python=3.4
  - holoviews
  - numpy

You could then run the tutorials from Binder. I'll create a pull request if you like.

[jlstevens]

Cool! Definitely a worthwhile suggestion...

I have considered Binder for HoloViews before. The reason I hesitated to try it is that I don't know how much computing power Binder offers for free and I was wondering whether the performance would be good enough. I also don't want to abuse a free service too much! :-)

Anyway, I would be happy to add this if @philippjfr also agrees this is a good idea. We could always try it and if it works well link to it from the website. If nothing else, this would be really nice for the dynamic map tutorial...

[philippjfr]

Definitely sounds like a good idea. Submit a PR and we can try it out, if it works well we'll add a link to the readme and homepage.

[basnijholt]

See here: http://mybinder.org/repo/basnijholt/holoviews

Here is the link you can add:
in .rst

.. image:: http://mybinder.org/badge.svg :target: http://mybinder.org/repo/ioam/holoviews

in .md

[![Binder](http://mybinder.org/badge.svg)](http://mybinder.org/repo/ioam/holoviews)

[basnijholt]

See #568

At the moment the Binder env automatically opens in Python 2, you should switch to a Python 3 kernel.

I'll ask the Binder guys why this happens, seems like a bug.

[jbednar]

Or could you just specify python=2.7 in the environment, so that it would work? The tutorials should work with either one...

[jlstevens]

I just had a go running the notebooks in /doc/Tutorials using the link you supplied and it couldn't import holoviews (which makes sense due to its location). I don't know enough about binder but it would be nice if the package can be imported from anywhere so that the notebooks can also be located anywhere.

[philippjfr]

Presumably we need to add holoviews to the yaml so it'll get the latest release of holoviews.

[basnijholt]

I just had a go running the notebooks in /doc/Tutorials using the link you supplied and it couldn't import holoviews (which makes sense due to its location). I don't know enough about binder but it would be nice if the package can be imported from anywhere so that the notebooks can also be located anywhere.

That is because you didn't change to the Python 3 kernel.

Presumably we need to add holoviews to the yaml so it'll get the latest release of holoviews.

Same thing.

Changing it to Python 2.7 will probably solve this issue like @jbednar suggested.

[philippjfr]

I see, thanks. Would be great if you could update your PR then I'll merge it right away.

[basnijholt]

Done 👍

[philippjfr]

When I try http://mybinder.org/repo/basnijholt/holoviews now it still only works when switching to Python3. Is it cached or is binder just not behaving correctly?

[basnijholt]

It’s because I didn’t recompile the image at: 
http://mybinder.org/
Doing so now, should be finished in 5 min.

EDIT: just tested, it works fine :)

[philippjfr]

Thanks, works fine for me too. Will merge now.

[jlstevens]

I'm not sure why we didn't finish following up on this issue but it might be due to us being busy writing up our PhDs!

Anyway, I've added a mybinder badge in cfd63ed and I've checked it works ok. I've not noticed any problems with it - other than being a bit slow. Thanks @basnijholt for the PR and sorry for not adding the badge sooner!

With that, I'll close this issue.

[github-actions]

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