Putting large amounts of data inside a self-contained Manipulate

Question

This is half tip, half question. If one tries to put a large amount of data inside the Initialization:>(code) part of a Manipulate, as one may be compelled to do in a Demonstration or where one wants to create a self-contained CDF document, I find that the Front End gets bogged down trying to format the input. One way around this that I've discovered is to embed the data inside a Raster. Thus:

embedded=Framed@Graphics[Raster[bigdata]] (*Framed is so you can see it*)

The visual output is meaningless. But ... you can then cut and paste the Framed object inside your initialization block and get the data out easily

Manipuate[f[data,n],{n,0,1},
Initialization:>(embedded=(*paste cut framed graphic here*);
data=embedded[[1,1,1]])
]

So far as I can tell, this works. But it depends on an abuse of Raster and Graphics. Does anyone have suggestions about alternative means of putting large amounts of data inside a Manipulate?

+1 Great question, had similar problems. Perhaps one can also use Compress. — Ajasja, Dec 06 '12 at 14:54
@Ajasja Which is not dissimilar, since Compress is effectively used by images. — Leonid Shifrin, Dec 06 '12 at 14:55
Would you mind supplying some bigdata to play around with? — Yves Klett, Dec 06 '12 at 14:56
Related: http://meta.mathematica.stackexchange.com/a/632/ and http://meta.mathematica.stackexchange.com/a/633/57 — Sjoerd C. de Vries, Dec 06 '12 at 14:59
Rojo showed me a trick using string=Interpretation["string", Evaluate@string] that I think would work here, possibly in unison with Compress if needed. I'd rather let him write about it however. — Mr.Wizard, Dec 06 '12 at 15:03
I think you can use a self contained SaveDefinition showed by Leonid here — xslittlegrass, Sep 26 '14 at 21:08

score 7 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:55

7

Since we were talking about EXIF information yesterday (any compression to be added on top):

data = Image[Circle[] // Graphics, 
  MetaInformation -> {"The Data" -> 
     ExampleData[{"Text", "OriginOfSpecies"}]}]
MetaInformation /. Options[data]

Mathematica graphics

Sorry for blowing up the thread, but this also works nicely, Matryoshka style: Mathematica graphics

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:55

Community

1

answered Dec 06 '12 at 15:07

Yves Klett

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Clever. Any known restrictions to EXIF data size? – Sjoerd C. de Vries Dec 06 '12 at 15:10
@SjoerdC.deVries good question... from the Mathematica point of view it is simply an option, so internally probably no explicit limit? – Yves Klett Dec 06 '12 at 15:12
@SjoerdC.deVries also this is MetaInformation and just derived from the EXIF thread. It might be interesting to check if Export and re-Import with EXIF data works. See also this one: What is the maximum size of JPEG metadata? – Yves Klett Dec 06 '12 at 15:23

Putting large amounts of data inside a self-contained Manipulate

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