Applications Kay Kasemir ORNL/SNS Using Information and pictures from Matthias Clausen, Jan Hatje, and Helge Rickens (DESY) October 2007

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 2 Purpose  Overcome limitations of current control system GUI tools.  Inconsistent Look and Feel  Menus, configuration panels, online help  Data exchange = copy/paste of PV name  Using different mouse/keyboard gestures  Mostly X11/Motif  Dwindling support  Limited to EPICS  Many sites now need multi-protocol support

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 3 Control System Studio  Based on Eclipse  Modern GUI framework: Window behavior, menus, preference pages, online help, …  Portable Java code (Win32, Linux, Mac OS)  Plugin mechanisms  Deployment options  Control System Studio adds…  Data types for Front-End Computer (FEC), Process Variable (PV), Live and archived data samples  APIs for accessing control system  Guidelines for integration into menu, online help, preferences, …  See Software Technology talk: Jan Hatje (DESY), "Control System Studio"

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 4 Simple 'Probe' Example  Same Basic function  Enter PV name, see values.  CSS Version  Portable, uses native GTK/OS-X/MS Windows widgets  Localized  Window resizes  Drop-down list of recently entered PV names

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 5 CSS/Eclipse Preferences  CSS apps use the Eclipse preference system  No environment variables, nor special setup files for each application  GUI  Pre-installed defaults, various levels  Not just for apps!  Also for libs like EPICS Channel Access support

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 6 CSS/Eclipse Online Help  Eclipse offers online help system  CSS apps encouraged to contribute under one of the CSS categories

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 7 CSS/Eclipse Version Info  Previous apps: Inconsistent version info.  In Eclipse, everything packaged as "plugin" with version info.  Common GUI for viewing installed versions.

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 8 EPICS 'PV Tree'  CSS Application plugin for Eclipse that displays EPICS record data flow  Inputs of 'calc' record etc.  Descending recursively

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 9 CSS Contributions to Eclipse Context Menus  Open context menu on PV, FEC, …, and get list of other CSS apps that handle PVs, FECs, …  Example: Open Probe on a channel name in the PV Tree.  Implementation: Eclipse "Object Contributions"  No compilation, no configuration when adding new application  Can filter on number of selected PVs etc.

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 10 DESY Namespace Browser, Alarm Tree  CSS Application plugins for Eclipse that browse DESY LDAP server

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 11 DESY Message Log Viewer

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 12 DESY Alarm System, Namespaces,…  DESY Alarm System development would fill another talk.  Different sites may have very different namespace environments, and thus need to implement different tools.  Remember TCL/TK?  Based on CSS, these are automatically integrated with other tools  Same look & feel, preferences, online help  TCL/TK script could start StripTool, but: Try to teach StripTool about your script!

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 13 Data Browser

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 14 Data Browser Features  Combined "StripTool" and "Archive Viewer"  Eclipse Extension points for data sources  Live: EPICS  Archived: Channel Archiver, DESY AAPI, Archive Record  Data merged from multiple sources for same PV  Usability  Drop data onto…  Plot: new axis.  Axis: add PV to that axis  Change axis assignments, colors, ranges with fewer clicks than in existing EPICS StripTool or Archive Viewer

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 15 CSS Samples  Markers indicate source  Live Sample?  Channel Archiver?  Archive Record?  Samples have 'quality'  Original sample  Interpolated Sample  Ideally, data server automatically switches from interpolated to original when zoomed in "far enough"

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 16 Multiple Data Browser Instances

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 17 Synoptic Display  EDM/MEDM-type display tool for multiple protocols  In early stages of usability, promising ideas  Everything is dynamic  "Text Update" widget = Label with dynamic text

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 18 Synoptic Display Example

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 19 Integration & Deployment Options  Sites can package and deploy CSS components (and other Eclipse plugins) to suit their needs  Provide either …  empty CSS core, then download the desired application plugins  or prepackage desired components for your site as one application.

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 20 CSS Startup Choices  Startup with login/password for your XMPP server .. or workspace selector .. or other site-specific authentication

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 21 Customizable Welcome Screen  Different sites can customize depending on local needs.

O AK R IDGE N ATIONAL L ABORATORY U. S. D EPARTMENT OF E NERGY 22 Conclusion  Eclipse offers a modern, portable application framework  CSS adds control-system specific APIs and guidelines  There are already several useful general-purpose CSS applications  You can add site-specific CSS applications  All can be packaged as needed, everything is integrated; common look, behavior, data exchange, …