Download TU4A_3-5O - icalepcs 2005

Visual DCT’s Latest Hits
Jaka Bobnar ([email protected]),
Matej Sekoranja, Igor Verstovsek
Cosylab, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Work in part funded by: Diamond (DLS)
10.10.2005
ICALEPCS (Geneva, Switzerland, October, 2005)
EPICS
• Experimental Physics and Industrial
Control System
• requires specific configuration files:
– record instance database files
– additional EPICS extensions
configuration files
• configuration files are text-based
ICALEPCS (Geneva, Switzerland, October, 2005)
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What is Visual DCT?
• Visual Database
Configuration Tool
for EPICS
• Written in Java
– Platform
independent
– Webstart support
• Open-source
product
ICALEPCS (Geneva, Switzerland, October, 2005)
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Why using VisualDCT
•
Talks 100% EPICS
–
–
•
•
Hierarchical support
Standard IDE
features
–
–
•
clipboard, undo
object inspector, visual
linking
Plug-ins
–
•
no additional files
preserves order,
comments
freely extensible
Easy and fun to use
ICALEPCS (Geneva, Switzerland, October, 2005)
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Latest features
• Visual and functionality improvements:
–
–
–
–
–
zoom
printing
visual cues for different actions
improved building
bugfixes, etc.
• Plug-ins:
– See next slides
ICALEPCS (Geneva, Switzerland, October, 2005)
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Alarm Handler Configuration Plug-in (1)
• Alarm Handler displays EPICS alarm status
• Uses text based configurations files
– difficult to maintain if database is large
– hierarchical or flat
Solution: a generic tool, which generates
configurations files
ICALEPCS (Geneva, Switzerland, October, 2005)
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Alarm Handler Configuration Plug-in (2)
• Record names are
imported from
VisualDCT template
• Displays the file
structure as a tree
• Edit the tree to
change values of
properties
• Drag&Drop supported
• Automatic file
consistency checking
ICALEPCS (Geneva, Switzerland, October, 2005)
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Channel Archiver Configuration Plug-in
• Channel Archiver is an
archiving toolset for EPICS
• Requires xml configuration
file
• Hard to maintain if
database is large
• Includes all Alarm Handler
plug-in features
Future plans:
– include possibility to
use a substitutions file
ICALEPCS (Geneva, Switzerland, October, 2005)
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Spreadsheet View and Editor
• Graphical representation is
useless when database is
large
• A new view was proposed
– spreadsheet style
• Records presented in
an editable table
• Enables editing
multiple records
simultaneously
• Easy database error
tracking
ICALEPCS (Geneva, Switzerland, October, 2005)
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Substitutions File Editor
• EPICS database mechanism requires two
input file:
• .template
• .substitutions
• Substitutions files with many macros are
hard to maintain as a text file
• Plug-in will offer syntax checks of the
substitutions files
• Large amount of macros will be easier to
control
ICALEPCS (Geneva, Switzerland, October, 2005)
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Conclusions
• EPICS gained a powerful database
development tool
• Editing databases can be fun
• VisualDCT will be supported in the future
and will follow EPICS changes
– Work in progress with Nick Rees
• Check out: http://visualdct.cosylab.com
ICALEPCS (Geneva, Switzerland, October, 2005)
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