Introduction

Welcome to the IRMIS Desktop; an overall application from which many smaller interacting IRMIS applications may be run. All of these application names begin with "idt", which stands for Irmis DeskTop.
The available application are:

  1. idt::pv - EPICS process variable viewer
  2. idt::ioc - IOC and IOC attribute viewer/editor
  3. idt::component - view/edit system hardware and configuration
  4. idt::component-type - view/edit hardware types
  5. idt::cable - view/edit cables that connect components
  6. idt::admin - administer irmis users and their permissions, plus more...

The individual applications may be chosen from the File->New Document menu. Also, certain actions within one application will automatically bring up another. In general, any blue text (link) can be selected and will enact some action.
Some application features are not available until you log in using the Login menu. See the Features section below for a brief explanation of the individual applications, and the individual links to the left for detailed tutorials on each application (coming soon). 

Applications

idt::pv - PV Viewer

Idt::pv supports finding a specific set of EPICS process variables, or just browsing all known PVs by various categories. The PVs are organized by "system", IOC, db file, and record type. Additionally, you may search using a wildcard pattern for the PV name, and even specify a particular PV field name and value that must be present.
The result of a search is a list of process variables. Select one, and a variety of details about that PV will be shown. The set of all fields and their values from the db file definition are shown. All links (within and across ioc's) that refer to the selected PV are shown. Lastly, any known references to that PV by external applications is shown.

A simple "history mode" is provided, whereby you specify a PV search by wildcard pattern, and a list of IOC reboots related to that PV is displayed. This shows all known IOC boots where this PV was present in a db file.

idt::ioc - IOC Viewer/Editor

Idt::ioc shows the list of known IOC's. A pink entry means that ioc is flagged as "inactive" in the database. Selecting an ioc will show all known attributes for that ioc. If you log in and have been granted sufficient permissions, you may add new ioc's and edit the various descriptive attributes.

idt::component - Component Viewer/Editor

Idt::component shows the site hardware organized by three hierarchies. The most obvious is the housing hierarchy, which shows the physical location of a component relative to others. The control hierarchy shows what controls a given component, and what the given component controls (if applicable). The power hierarchy shows the flow of AC power from the switch gear to the given component.

Selecting a component in one hierarchy will show the same component in the other hierarchies (if applicable). Each hierarchy has a set of buttons and text boxes above it to assist in locating a component in the overall facility.

This application also allows you to create, edit, and delete components if you have sufficient permissions. Most of these functions begin by selecting a component and using the right-mouse-click menu to pick what you want to do. Many of the edit and delete functions first require that you first "send component to configure". This explicitly places the component you are interested in working with into an edit mode.

idt::component-type - Component Type Viewer/Editor

Idt::component-type can be used to view details of a particular component type. For example: show everything we know about the MVME 167 CPU board used in our control system. This includes a variety of descriptive attributes such as the responsible engineer, reference documentation, manufacturer, as well as details such as the physical ports and pins.
The editing functions are typically only used by IRMIS administrators when new types of hardware are introduced into the facility.

idt::cable - Cable Viewer/Editor

Idt::cable is used to display and edit the physical cabling between ports of components. You search for components the same was as with idt::component, except this application also shows the ports for each component. If you click on a port, the attached cable or cables are shown in a table.

You can edit existing cables, or add new cables. To add a new cable, you select the port for one end using the "Component A" section, and then select the port for the other end using the "Component B" section. Then right-click the "Component B" port and select "Add Cable" from the pop-up menu. You may then edit the properties of the cable and then click the "Save" button.

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