Scope

This document is a user's manual for Archiver 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 Archiver plugin.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Installing Archiver Plugin

3. Using Archiver Plugin

3.1. Basic principles of Archiver Plugin

3.2. Using Archiver Plugin

3.2.1. Adding and moving channels

3.2.2. Adding/removing groups and properties

3.2.3. Editing tree items

3.2.4. File menu

3.2.4.1. Opening XML files

References

Document History

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1. Introduction

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

2. Installing Archiver Plugin

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

3. Using Archiver Plugin

3.1. Basic principles of Archiver Plugin

Archiver Plugin enables user to create and modify EPICS Channel Archiver configuration XML 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 Channel Archiver (see EPICS Channel Archiver). The structure represented by the tree can be saved into an Archiver config file. The output data has a standard XML form specified by the EPICS Channel Archiver.

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

Figure 1: New config file. Archiver Plugin window at startup.

There are 4 different types of items in the tree: channel, group, property and root. Each one of these items is represented by a different icon:

• group
• channel
• property
• root

3.2. Using Archiver Plugin

3.2.1. Adding and moving channels

In the figure 2 we see an instance of the Archiver Plugin.

Figure 2: An instance of Archiver config file

3.2.2. Adding/removing groups and properties

Any element, specified in the EPICS Channel Archiver 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). If you want to add a group select Add group. A new group will be added as a last child of the root element. By choosing Add property a drop down menu is shown which lists all properties that can be added to the selected parent. After selection was made, the popup menu dissappears and the new property is added to tree.

Figure 3: Adding elements to the tree

3.2.3. Editing tree items

Items that are displayed in the tree can hold a specific value. Groups and Channels should all have names while properties should hold values as specified in the EPICS Channel Archiver. All these values can be edited directly in the tree. By double-clicking an item in the tree, a text editor will appear on that place and a new value can be written there (see figure 4). 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.

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

3.2.4. File menu

The file menu provides five different commands:

• New - creates a new empty config file; there is only the root in the new config 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 Archiver 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 Archiver Plugin Window

3.2.4.1. Opening XML files

The Archiver Plugin xml parser uses Document Type Definitions. The dtd file is engineconfig.dtd. This means that when you try to open the archiver config file the parser looks for dtd file in the same directory that the xml file is stored. If the file does not exist, parsing is aborted.

Document History

References