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Visual DCT’s Latest Hits

Visual DCT’s Latest Hits. Jaka Bobnar (j aka.bobnar@cosylab.com ) , Matej Sekoranja, Igor Verstovsek. Cosylab, Ljubljana, Slovenia Work in part funded by: Diamond (DLS). EPICS. Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System requires specific configuration files:

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Visual DCT’s Latest Hits

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  1. Visual DCT’s Latest Hits Jaka Bobnar (jaka.bobnar@cosylab.com), Matej Sekoranja, Igor Verstovsek Cosylab, Ljubljana, Slovenia Work in part funded by: Diamond (DLS) ICALEPCS (Geneva, Switzerland, October, 2005)

  2. 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)

  3. 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)

  4. Why using VisualDCT • Talks 100% EPICS • no additional files • preserves order, comments • Hierarchical support • Standard IDE features • clipboard, undo • object inspector, visual linking • Plug-ins • freely extensible • Easy and fun to use ICALEPCS (Geneva, Switzerland, October, 2005)

  5. 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)

  6. 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)

  7. 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)

  8. 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)

  9. 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)

  10. 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)

  11. 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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