Scope

This document is a user's manual for Alarm Handler Visual DCT Plugin. It contains instructions how to use the plugin.

Audience

The audience of this document are the users of VisualDCT who wish to use Alarm Handler plugin.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Installing Alarm Handler Plugin

3. Using Alarm Handler Plugin

3.1. Basic principles of Alarm Handler Plugin

3.2. Using Alarm Handler Plugin

3.2.1. Adding and moving channels

3.2.2. Adding/removing groups and other elements

3.2.3. Editing tree items

3.2.4. Include files

3.2.5. File menu

References

Document History

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1. Introduction

Alarm Handler Visual DCT Plugin is an application plugin which enables creating and modifying EPICS Alarm Handler configuration files. Plugin allows user to organize configuration files, while displaying the whole hierarchical structure of the file that is currently being edited.

2. Installing Alarm Handler Plugin

Alarm Handler Visual DCT Plugin is a standard Visual DCT plugin, which can be installed like any other plugin. Refer to VisualDCT Plugins on how to install a Visual DCT plugin.

The alarmhandler jar must be added to the classpath before it can be installed within the VisualDCT. java -cp VisualDCT.jar;alarmhandler.jar com.cosylab.vdct.VisualDCT

3. Using Alarm Handler Plugin

3.1. Basic principles of Alarm Handler Plugin

Alarm Handler Plugin enables user to create and modify EPICS Alarm Handler configuration files. The plugin present a configuration file in a hierarchical view; this allows building a configuration file visually. Groups, channels and properties can be added to the tree structure according to the specifications of EPICS Alarm Handler (see EPICS Alarm Handler). The structure represented by the tree can be saved into Alarm handler configuration file or Alarm handler include file. The output data has a standard form specified by EPICS Alarm Handler.

The Alarm Handler Plugin can be started by selecting the AlarmHandler start from the Plugins menu of the VisualDCT. When the plugin is started it should look similar to the figure 1.

Figure 1: New configuration file. Alarm Handler Plugin window at startup.

There are 5 different types of items in the tree: channel, group, include, property and text. Each one of these items is represented by a different icon:

• group
• channel
• include
• property
• text

3.2. Using Alarm Handler Plugin

3.2.1. Adding and moving channels

In the figure 2 we see an instance of the Alarm Handler Plugin window.

Figure 2: An instance of Alarm Handler configuration file

3.2.2. Adding/removing groups and other elements

Any element, specified in the EPICS Alarm Handler can be added to the hierarchical structure. To do this, select the element which will be the parent of the new element and press the right mouse button - a popup will appear (see figure 3). By choosing Add item a drop down menu is shown which lists all items that can be added to the selected parent. (e.g. to add a new group, select GROUP). After selection was made, the popup menu dissappears and the new element is added to tree. If the added element is GROUP or INCLUDE it appears as the last node of its parent, while other elements are added as the last property of the parent.

Certain items like SEVRCOMMAND, STATCOMMAND etc. require additional values/commands. After the parent node (e.g. SEVRCOMMAND) was added, these commands should be added as well. Select the parent node in the tree and add those commands like it is described above.

To remove an item from the tree, select Remove from the popup menu. This will remove the item from the tree. (CAUTION! Removal of an item cannot be reversed. Once an item was removed, the action cannot be undone.)

Figure 3: Adding elements to the tree

GUIDANCE is another special element. Guidance can hold any text specified by the user. Each Guidance item in the tree presents a Guidance-End block in the configuration file. To insert the text in to the block, simply add TEXT items to the guidance node and type the text as a value of the text node. Each node will be represented by a single line in the configuration file.

3.2.3. Editing tree items

Certain items can present a specific value. These values can be edited directly in the tree. Double-click the item, which value you want to change. A text editor will appear on that place and a new value can be written there. IMPORTANT! After a new value was typed in the editor you have to confirm it by pressing the enter key on your keyboard. This will store the value. If you click outside of the editor, the new value is not stored, but the old one is recalled.

There are also specific items which require names. (e.g. each group or channel should have a specific name representing that item). If the item is group or channel the name is displayed as the string that represents the node in the tree. Similar to this the names of other properties are displayed together with the id of that property (see figure 4).

Figure 4: Editing tree elements can be done by a double-click

Another type of items are those, which have a priori defined values. These are SEVRCOMMAND, STATCOMMAND and BEEPSEVERITY. When editing values of these properties, a combo box with all possible values is displayed (see figure 5). To change the value, select it from the box and confirm it by pressing the enter key.

Figure 5: Editing elements with a priori defined values

Certain commands like COMMAND, ALIAS, BEEPSEVERITY etc. have to store only one value. This value can be defined on the node that represent that command. The string that is displayed in the tree is the command_id:value.

3.2.4. Include files

The Alarm Handler Plugin can be used for editing .alhConfig as well as .alhInclude files. Include files can be edited the same way as config files only when saving data to a file, a different file extension should be choosen. How to include a file with the help of the popup menu refer to Adding/removing groups and other elements.

When editing a configuration file each group can be exported to a selfstanding include file. Select the group that you want to export and select Export from the popup menu. A file chooser will appear on the screen; type in the name of the file and press Save button. When a group is exported it is replaced with INCLUDE item in the tree.

Similar to exporting the included file can also be imported. To import an included file select the INCLUDE item in the tree and select Import from the popup menu (see figure 6). The existing INCLUDE item is replaced with the data from the included file. Beside the import option one can also choose Open from the popup menu as well. This will open another Alarm Handler Plugin window and the included file will be opened in that window.

Figure 6: Importing included files

3.2.5. File menu

The file menu provides five different commands:

• New - creates a new empty configuration file; there is only the root group in the new configuration file
• Open - shows a file chooser; a file can be selected from any location; after the Open button is pressed that file is opened by the Alarm Handler Plugin
• Save - saves the data that is displayed in the tree to the currently opened file; if the data is saved for the first time, Save as is called
• Save as - saves the data to the file specified in the file chooser
• Exit - closes the Alarm Handler Plugin Window

Document History

References