guide: Params, Plots and Metrics

[iesahin]

The current documentation includes information on plots and metrics in the command reference for dvc plots and dvc metrics. We need a ~~self-contained~~ UG page for all features regarding the plots and metrics.

• [ ] Extract details from https://dvc.org/doc/user-guide/project-structure/pipelines-files#parameter-dependencies (see https://github.com/iterative/dvc.org/pull/3431#pullrequestreview-958378192)
• [ ] Extract some details from params, metrics and plots ref. indices.
• [ ] Should include ~~https://github.com/iterative/dvc.org/issues/2216~~ the concept of params as well, probably.
• ~~Keep in mind conceptual and terminology decisions in https://github.com/iterative/dvc.org/issues/2956~~

Related

• #2472 contains a page that describes offline usage of Vega libraries
• #2402 is the issue around offline usage
• #2216 contains some information about using plots/metrics without pipelines
• #1442 is terminology issue around plots and metrics
• #1755 asks for clarification where to use DVC or Git to track the plots and metrics
• #1909 is about the capability of metrics and plots to work with any parsable file
• #1175 is also a terminology issue
• #3818

[daavoo]

Related?: https://github.com/iterative/dvc.org/issues/2644

[jorgeorpinel]

From https://github.com/iterative/dvc.org/issues/2815

We briefly cover those 3 types of files in the Project Structure -> Pipeline Files -> Stages section. However, it feels like the current info in each command reference could be moved to the user guide, potentially extending it.

[jorgeorpinel]

Explain params metafiles metrics and plots metafiles

Should these be tasks in https://github.com/iterative/dvc.org/issues/2911 since params, metrics and plots are mainly experiment tracking mechanisms? (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

[iesahin]

Conceptually these are rather closer to experiment management. However, I think metrics that's relevant to dvc exp commands are covered (implicitly) in dvc exp show. dvc metrics command is related to pipelines in its current usage.

I think having a separate metrics/plots guide that describes these in pipelines and experiments context may be a better approach.

[jorgeorpinel]

OK so there's 2 part to this:

1. Explain params, metrics, and plots in the context of Data Pipelines -- part of/ related to #2883
2. Review their explanations in the context of Experiments -- should be in #2911

So I still think we could dissolve this issue into tasks in those epics.

[jorgeorpinel]

• [ ] Extract details from https://dvc.org/doc/user-guide/project-structure/dvcyaml-files#stages ...

Maybe we need more pages under https://dvc.org/doc/user-guide/project-structure for the params, metrics, and even plots file formats?

U: Maybe even an entire new file format reference section