Roadmap

Goals

This page is a place to organize and prioritize development activities into a roadmap based on input of Slicer community and the needs of funded projects (NA-MIC, NAC, NCIGT, SlicerRT, etc...)

The list of issues targeted for each release are reported on mantis: http://na-mic.org/Mantis/roadmap_page.php

The topics listed below includes Slicer application and dependent ToolKit. For the specific strategy and feature lists covering modules and extensions, visit their respective roadmaps and other documentation.

Priorities

As of February, 2013

• ITKv4 integration
• Ability to install python package using pip
• Improve extension catalog frontend
• Faster Slicer start time
• Support of python command line module
• Walk-thru documentation that clearly shows new developers step-by-step instructions to create and publish extensions.

Deprecation / API Changes roadmap

List of deprecated methods / classes: http://slicer.org/doc/html/deprecated.html

Mantis tag Deprecation: http://www.na-mic.org/Bug/search.php?project_id=3&sticky_issues=on&sortby=last_updated&dir=DESC&hide_status_id=80&tag_string=Deprecation

Pending

This section list the change that should be announced/discussed on the list before been integrated into Slicer trunk.

• CMake - Minimum required CMake version will be 2.8.11 for all platforms.

Planned

• Library - ITKv3 support will be removed from build system.

• MRML - Default value for HideFromEditors will be change to False. See #2906.
• Wigdets - Method currentNodeId will be removed. See 22059.
• Rename / Move - vtkSlicerTransformLogic will be renamed into vtkSlicerTransformModuleLogic and moved into Modules/Loadable/Transform/Logic - Consider updating the CMakeLists.txt and code of your modules. See instruction here. Associated issue #2926

• Remove vtkMRMLScene::Edited method and associated SceneEditedEvent. See #3472 and 3472-remove-vtkMRMLScene-edited
  • Impact: Update EMSegment tcl files
• Consolidate qSlicerAppMainWindow. See finetjul/Slicer@consolidate-qslicerappmainwindow-trunk
  • Extension/module depending on main window action name will have to be updated.

Trunk

• CMake - Rename file SlicerMacroBuildQtModule.cmake into SlicerMacroBuildLoadableModule.cmake. See issue #3332
• Add Slicer_ADDITIONAL_REQUIRED_QT_MODULES to add QT modules. See finetjul/Slicer@slicer-required-qt-modules-trunk Fixed in r22756, r22757 and r22758
• Clean logic header includes. See finetjul/Slicer@vtkmrmlabstractlogic-clean-includes-trunk. See r22759 and r22761
  • Impact: You may have to explicitly (1) forward declare classes or (2) include headers in your extension cpp files.
  • Anticipated issues: #3493, #3494 Fixed in r22693 and r22712.
• Rename qSlicer.*IO classes into qSlicer.*Reader. See rename-io-class-to-reader. See http://slicer-devel.65872.n3.nabble.com/Feedback-Rename-of-qSlicerXXXIO-class-into-qSlicerXXXReader-class-tt4030298.html. Fixed in r22762. See http://slicer-devel.65872.n3.nabble.com/Extension-If-including-qSlicerXXXIO-class-consider-renaming-to-qSlicerXXXReader-class-was-Feedback-R-tt4030440.html
  • Impact: Rename class in DataStore module. Fixed in Slicer/Slicer-DataStore@70aaedaa8

4.3.0

• const std::vector<vtkMRMLDisplayNode*>& vtkMRMLDisplayableNode::GetDisplayNodes(); - Obsolete utility function that provides an unsafe API. Please use GetNumberOfDisplayNodes() and GetNthDisplayNode() instead
• CMake - Macro slicerMacroBuildQtModule will be renamed into slicerMacroBuildLoadableModule. See #2648
• CMake - Macro slicerMacroBuildScriptedModule should be used to build Scripted modules. See here for an example.
• Library - ITKv3 support is deprecated / not maintained.
• Scripted module should be built using SlicerMacroBuildScriptedModule instead of ctkMacroCompilePythonScript. See here.
• Generic tests associated with Loadable and Scripted module should be built specifying the WITH_GENERIC_TESTS option. See r21768.
• Test driver associated with loadable module should be configured using SlicerMacroConfigureModuleCxxTestDriver. See r21769.
• CMake - Minimum required CMake version will be 2.8.9 for Windows/Linux, CMake 2.8.11 for MacOSX - See r21682
• Library - ITKv4 will be enabled by default - See r21688
• Library - Qt 4.8.4 will be the recommended/required version
• Core - Removed unused class Base/Logic/vtkSlicerROILogic - See r21744
• Move Editor icons from "Base/Logic" into "EditorLib/Resources/Icons". See r21765
• CMake - Macro slicer_parse_arguments has been removed. Consider using cmake_parse_arguments instead. See CMakeParseArguments - See r21774
• Slicer default Python version is 2.7.3 - See r21863, r21867, r21869, r21879, r21891
• Python function PyRun_OpenFile/CloseFile have been removed. See r21960
• The qMRMLNodeComboBox property currentNodeId was renamed currentNodeID. See 22052. The function setCurrentNode(const QString &) and currentNodeId() should be removed. See also r22072.
• When using Visual Studio 8, installation of Service Pack 1 is now enforced by the build system. See r22096, r22098
• if(NOT Slicer_SOURCE_DIR) not required any more in extension CMakeLists.txt. See r22063
• project() statment now allowed in extension CMakeLists.txt. See r22038, r22115
• vtkMRMLDisplayableNode::GetNthDisplayNodeByClass() has been removed
• vtkMRMLSelectionNode::AddNewAnnotationIDToList() has been renamed into vtkMRMLSelectionNode::AddNewPlaceNodeClassNameToList()
• vtkMRMLSelectionNode::SetReferenceActiveAnnotationID() has been renamed into vtkMRMLSelectionNode::SetReferenceActivePlaceNodeClassName

SlicerExecutionModel

• CMake - CMake 2.8.4 will be required. Macro Pre283CMakeParseArguments.cmake will be removed. See ce620580
• CMake - Macro slicerMacroBuildCLI will be removed. Use SEMMacroBuildCLI instead.
• CMake - Parameter CLI_SHARED_LIBRARY_WRAPPER_CXX of macro SEMMacroBuildCLI is removed. Use CLI_LIBRARY_WRAPPER_CXX instead.

4.2.0

SlicerExecutionModel

• CMake - Macro slicerMacroBuildCLI marked as deprecated. See r21634 and r17781.
• CMake - Parameter CLI_SHARED_LIBRARY_WRAPPER_CXX of macro slicerMacroBuildCLI / SEMMacroBuildCLI is deprecated. Use CLI_LIBRARY_WRAPPER_CXX instead.