iPoster: Interactive Poster

The following guide shows how to create and deploy a public iPoster application using the Heroku platform. The web application for the poster is implemented using Flask, Dash, and Plotly.

This is this repo's example iPoster. The poster layout is formatted to meet WorkForce Development requirements, and can be exported as a PDF from your web browser.

Step 1. Fork this Github Repo:

Fork this repo into your Github account using the fork button at the top of the page. After that, clone your forked repo using the following command on your terminal.

git clone [forked-repo-url]
cd [forked-repo]

Step 2. Create a virtualenv with required dependencies:

This process assumes you have Python3 and Pip installed. Run the following Bash script found in the repo to install the needed python packages.

source setup_env.sh

# ON WINDOWS
source setup_env_windows.sh

To load the virtualenv, run the following command.

source iposter-env/bin/activate

# ON WINDOwS
source iposter-env/Scripts/activate

Step 3. Implement your poster using the available tools:

The poster code can be found in app.py. There, you will find a function called create_poster which defines the current template used in this guide.

The following gives details on how to create a new poster, make sections, and add figures. The workflow was simplified to be define the poster in a linear way to prevent overly complex nested layouts which is standard in Dash.

Step 3.a. Create a new iPoster instance:

iPoster and colors is already imported in app.py. Set all required fields including poster title, authors in desired order, and logo.

The logo of your home institution should be set to an image saved under assets/, and for the time being, is best presented for logos with a 1:1 height to width ratios.

# Create an iPoster
my_poster = iPoster(title="Research poster title; state the main topic of your� study", # Title of your poster
                    authors_dict={"Inter Name" : "University Name", # Authors in {student, mentors, PI} order
                                  "Researcher Name" : "University Name",
                                  "Mentor (Primary Investigator) Name" : "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory"},
                    logo = "hood.png", # Home institution logo
                    banner_color=colors.DOE_GREEN, # Color of banner header; colors has preset colors
                    text_color=colors.WHITE)

Step 3.b. Add a new Section:

When iPoster is instantiated, a new poster column is also created. We can add sections to the column using the .add_section method. Sections will fill the column in a fluid fashion unless an explicit height parameter is provided. height can be set in inches.

my_poster.add_section(title="Abstract", # Section Title
                      text="The first cell of your Research Poster must include your research abstract in its entirety. \
                      The abstract should fully summarize the contents of your Research Paper in one paragraph. For \
                      detailed instructions about how to write the abstract, read Chapter 14 of Scientific Writing\
                      and Communication.", # Text body of the section
                      color=colors.HOOD_BLUE, # Section header color
                      height="5in") # Static height is applicable; Use this for bottom sections to fill in empty space.

Step 3.c. Section with Image:

You can add a static image to a section by filling out the img parameter in add_section. img must be set to a dictionary with the following 4 keys: "filename", "height", "width", "caption".

Place your image files under assets/ in the project directory. This will make those images visible to the Dash application. After that, filename can be set to the name of the image file. caption should be set to give your image a figure caption.

The code manages figure numbering so you don't need to worry about that.

my_poster.add_section(title="Images",
                      text="Save your image in the assets directory and set img to the filename.",
                      img={"filename":"test.png", "height":"6in", "width":"8in", "caption":"Text for figure caption."})

Step 3.d. Section with Interactive Plot:

Dash integrates cleanly with plots created in Plotly. You can use this to create interesting interactive plots. You can add a plotly graph by setting the plot argument in add_section to a dictionary with the following 2 keys: "fig" and "caption".

fig will be set to your plot, and caption to its corresponding figure caption.

from plotly.express import bar
import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame([[i,i] for i in range(100)], columns=["x","y"])
my_plot = bar(df, "x", "y")
my_poster.add_section(title="Plots",
                      text="You can add interactive plots through plotly.",
                      plot={"fig": my_plot, "caption":"interactive plot figure caption"})

Step 3.e. Section with Custom Dash Layouts:

If you find the current options limiting your creativity, you can pass in your own Dash layout through the children parameter in .add_section. This appends your layout to the rest of the elements you've decided to include.

Step 3.f. Add a new Column:

Once you've add all the sections to the initial column, move on to the next column by calling next_column. There's no limit on the number of columns, but columns will fit relative to the space on the poster.

my_poster.next_column()

Step 3.g. Return the compiled iPoster:

At the end of the create_poster function, return the compiled version of the poster. Calling .compile will return the final poster's Dash layout.

return my_poster.compile()

Step 4. Run your iPoster locally:

To make sure that your poster looks like you want it before deploying it using Heroku, run the poster application locally. First change the RUN_LOCAL flag in the app.py file to True.

# file: app.py

#*** Run Local Flag ***
RUN_LOCAL=True

After this, run the dash application. Copy and paste the URL listed on the terminal output.

$ python3 app.py

# ON WINDOWS
$ python app.py

Step 4. Deploy your iPoster on Heroku:

Step 4.a. Create a free Heroku account:

Account Signup

Step 4.b. Create a new app:

After you log in to your Heroku app, click Create a New App. Your application name will be the url domain.

Step 4.c. Update the poster QRCode with the new app name:

Change the POSTERURL in generate_qrcode.sh to your application name from the previous step.

POSTERURL=iposter-template

# Create QRCode
python iposter/qrcode.py $POSTERURL

After you change it, run the bash script.

source generate_qrcode.sh

Step 4.d. Change RUN_LOCAL to False:

If RUN_LOCAL in app.py is still set to True, change it to False before moving on to the next steps. You will get an error when deploying otherwise.

Step 4.e. Export virtaulenv:

If you installed any other python packages for your poster, run the following command to update your requirements file. This assumes your virtaulenv is activated.

pip freeze > requirements.txt

Step 4.f. Push all your changes to Github:

Push all your changes to Github using the following commands.

git add *
git commit -m "Latest"
git push

Step 4.g. Deploy your iPoster app:

After your changes have been pushed, go back to Heroku and select the Deploy tab and link your Github account under Connect to Github. Once you've linked your account, you can search for your repo under the same section.

Select your repo, scroll down, and run a manual deployment of the application by clicking on Deploy Branch. This may take a few minutes. Once it's done, Heroku will give you a link to view your app.