How can I collapse similar tasks [when using Task.map()] into a single node on the DAG in Prefect UI

[AmagicalFishy]

I'm loving Prefect so far, but I've got a question:

I've got a flow that has a couple of tasks spun up w/ map, and create many instances of these tasks. When viewing the DAG on the UI, I'd like for these tasks to all be collapsed into a single node.

As it is now, it's a little unruly and difficult to read. I don't need to see every individual call.

Is there a way of achieving this?

[zzstoatzz]

hi @AmagicalFishy - while there is not existing UI functionality to group mapped tasks under a node (without a wrapping task/flow), there is one common way to get that outcome which is to wrap your mapped tasks in a task or flow

so say you have this now

@task
def foo(x): ...

@flow
def parent():
 results = foo.map(range(10)).result()
  
  print("doing other python stuff")

you could instead do this

@task
def foo(x): ...

@flow # this could also be a task if you want
def going_to_map(xs):
  return foo.map(xs)

@flow
def parent():
  results = going_to_map(range(10))
  print("doing other python stuff")

and in the resulting flow run, the mapped foo tasks would be collapsed under the going_to_map flow. Now, it could still be valuable to add some UI functionality to allow collapsing mapped tasks in the future, since it's not ideal to have to change how you structure your code just because of the aesthetics of the resulting flow run graph, but it does achieve the outcome.

[AmagicalFishy]

Ah! Thanks for the response. I'll use that for now (ideally I'd like to be able to click into the task and have the group expand; maybe I'll work on that functionality!)