Page History

...

Prints version info
-h(elp)

Prints this info

Basics

• Main Components
  ArchiveViewer consists of 4 major components.
  • The control panel contains the ArchiveViewer entries (AVEs) configurator (on the left) and the axes configurator (on the right)
  • The tabbed pane at the bottom shows loaded plot plugins
  • Between control panel and plot plugins panel is a (narrow) status panel. The status panel shows important static as well as dynamic information. There is also a progress bar (on the right). Tip: Always take a look at the status panel, when you are not sure if a task is running.
• Main steps
  If you use command line options, you might not need to perform some of these steps. If you don't, but possess a configuration file, you can load it now (see Menubar). The default procedure though is the following:
  • go to FILE menu and select NEW CONNECTION (FILE => NEW CONNECTION)
  • select (or enter) the URL of the desired archive data server and press OK
  • after the server information was retrieved, you can select a desired archive directory in the main panel
  • Enter a search string into the main text field; press SEARCH or hit ENTER. A window pops up that allows you to configure your search. Its right half is empty at first, but will soon be filled with meta data of matching PVs (if it doesn't happen soon, please take a look at the progress in the status panel => perhaps you simply asked for too many PVs)
  • Select your desired PVs and add them to the main panel by pressing ADD (or you can just double click on a particular PV)
  • Close or move away the search window
  • If desired, enter time ranges for the MAIN TIME AXIS (we facilitate this by providing the TIME SELECTORs that appear when you press one of the "..."- buttons next to time entry fields)
  • Press PLOT and wait
  • After data is retrieved, you can access tooltips that contain further information about AVEses by holding the mouse for about 2 seconds over corresponding AVE table cells.

...

You can configure time and range axes on the right side of the control panel

1. Time Axis
   Enter either absolute or relative time strings (see Entering Times) into the fields under the time axes box. Alternatively, you can use time selectors that appear when you press the "..." button next to the proper text field. Tip: There are syntax tooltips available if you hold the mouse over a text field for about 2 seconds. Under the time fields, a box lets you select a location for your time axis.
2. Range axis
   Enter numeric values into the min/max text fields under the range axes box. Java understands a huge variety of number formats (e.g. 1e-1 is allowed), so just try some out, and please do tell us if you think some currently unsupported formats should be added. Note: If you enter nothing, the value is considered to be "whatever it actually is". You can specify the scale type and the location of the range axis by selecting the values in corresponding combo boxes. Currently supported range axes types are NORMAL and LOG(arithmic).
3. Advanced settings
   You can access advanced axes features by clicking the "..." to the right of the axis name. The options here are:
   • "add new axis" pops up a dialog and asks you to enter a unique label of the new axis.
   • "remove selected axis" (note: you can not remove the last axis)
   • "rename selected axis"
   • "update selected axis from active chart" updates the range of the corresponding axis to what is shown by the currently active chart
   • "update all axes from active chart" updates all ranges of the axes to what is shown by the currently active chart
   • "reset selected axis" resets the corresponding axis range
   • "reset all axes" resets all axes ranges

Entering Times

Times can be entered either manually or through time selectors, which appear when you press one of the "..."- buttons to the right of the proper textfield in the time axes panel. Even if you decide to never enter times manually, you should read this reference.

• Absolute Times
  You can enter absolute times for start and end times of a query. Many of absolute time string components are optional. The format for absolute time strings is shown as a tool tip on a time text field. The minimal, mandatory, absolute time string must follow the pattern 'MM/dd' (MM is the month, dd- the day of month) The application will automatically enter these values for missing time components:
  • year: current system year
  • hours: 00
  • minutes: 00
  • seconds: 00
  • msecs: 000
• Keyword "now"
  The application accepts the keyword "now". Milliseconds before the server request is actually sent, "now" is replaced by the current system time. Please note: If you press PLOT without checking "Keep Plot Ranges", despite caching new data request will be generated because "now" is resolved to a later value.
• Relative Times
  One of ArchiveViewer's most innovative features is its ability to parse relative time strings. Unfortunately, as with all innovations, the correct usage requires some learning time.

1. Following tokens are accepted for each of the relative time components (please, note that they indeed are case sensitive):
   • y - year
   • M - month
   • d - day
   • H - hours
   • m - minutes
   • s - seconds
2. For numeric values, only integers are allowed. For positive integers, you may also use the preceeding "+" sign, which would makes sense semantically
3. Finally, you can use absolute time entries at the end of each relative date string.
4. Here are some examples of relative time strings:
   • Legal
     "+1d", "6m", "-1M 6d", "-8H", "-2d 08:00" (note: no spaces are allowed between numbers and relative time tokens)
   • Illegal
     "-1D", "+2 y", "2.5H"
5. Semantics
   • The sole notion of "relative" time strings requires some kind of a base, and indeed there is something we call "base times", relatively to which "relative times" are resolved. In very most cases, base times can be determined intuitively. We call a relative time string "positive", if the result of parsing and calculating it (in seconds) is a positive number; and we call such string "negative", if the result is a negative number. Please, note that it makes no sense to use positive relative time strings for the start time of a query.
   • All in all, there are 6 cases to consider:
   1. Start time is absolute; end time is absolute Example: Start: 01/01/2003 8:00 End: 01/02/2003
   2. Start time is negative relative; end time is absolute => base time: end time Example: Start: -10d End: now Means: retrieve data from the last 10 days
   3. Start time is absolute; end time is positive relative => base time: start time Example: Start: 01/02/2004 10:00 End: +8H Means: retrieve data that was generated on January 2nd 2004 between 10am and 6pm
   4. Start time is negative relative; end time is positive relative => base time for start time: "now"; base time for end time: start time Example: Start: -7d 8:00 End: +8H Means: retrieve data from the current shift a week ago
   5. Start time is absolute; end time is negative relative => base time: "now" Example: Start: 06/01/2004 End: -5d Means: retrieve data from the 1st of June up to 5 days ago from now
   6. Start time is negative relative; end time is negative relative => base times: "now" for both time strings Example: Start: -10d End: -5d +8H Means: retrieve data from 10 days ago upto 5 days ago, plus 8 more hours of data
6. Conclusion
   Relative time strings is a fairly intuitive and very useful feature because they allow automated processing of many desirable configurations (just think how easily you can retrieve "yesterday's shift data" day after day).

...

1. #* Search Dialog
   Displays the search dialog
   • Full Screen
     Resizes the main window to occupy the entire screen
   • Show Console, Show Event Log, Show Memory Console
     Some of XAL widgets

1. 1. TOOLS menu

1. #* Assign Selected Archive
   Assigns the selected archive to selected graphs (useful for formulas, or if archive names changed etc.)
   • Clear Cache
     Clears all cached data

1. 1. WINDOW menu

1. #* Capture As PNG...
   Does the same as the PRINT SCREEN key, but is more specific

1. 1. HELP menu

1. #* Contents
   Opens this guide
   • Server Info
     Shows information that the current archive server might have on itself
   • About
     Some basic information on the application

     General Plot Plugin Features

     Note: some plot plugins may support only subsets of these features, others may have more functionality. Please, check proper user manuals.

1. 1. Plot legend
      Consists at least of colorful shapes. To configure the legend, please go to EDIT => Preferences...
   2. Zoom in
      You can zoom into the plot with your left mouse. There is a minimum dragging distance required to activate the zoom capability. This prevents accidental mouse "hang ups".
   3. Plot manipulation buttons
      From left to right:

1. #* goes back in time the time range(s) you currently see on screen
   • goes forth in time the time range(s) you currently see on screen
   • goes "up" the value range(s) you currently see on screen
   • goes "down" the value range(s) you currently see on screen
   • doubles the time range(s) you currently see on screen
   • doubles the value range(s) you currently see on screen
   • zooms out if you previously zoomed in (note: will be moved to the right mouse button - menu in nearest future)
   • displays a menu for advanced configuration:
     • uses anti-alias drawing method if checked
     • leaves ignored items if checked and no new data is retrieved

1. 1. Some typical "right mouse click" menu - features

1. #* Properties: some chart specific properties
   • Save as... : saves the plot as a PNG image
   • Print... : prints the plot
   • Ignore Item... : ignores the current plot item (may be inactive)

...