TCPmaker : Visual Tour    Understanding Reports  

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As you build up your project in TCPmaker's Visual Page Designer, and prepare to generate code, you will find it helpful to look at the various reports available in the Reports menu of the Visual Page Designer.
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All Reports are displayed in the "View Report" window.  This window has 

  1. a Print button, and
  2. a button that allows you to save the report to a text file. 

If you like, you can also type your own comments into the text in this window before saving or printing.

The text area of this window also supports copy / paste operations as well.

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The Item List is the simplest report.  It gives you a list of:

  1. all the variables,
  2. all the controls on the Master Page Template, and
  3. all the controls on each individual page of your layout.

This report helps you by telling you where everything is, and what the Id of everything is. If you cannot find a variable or control, or are confused as to whether a control is part of the Master Template, use the Item List report. 

 

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The Summary Info report is useful when you think you are nearly finished with your project, because this report tells you a summary of:

  1. all the different types of Variables that send data in either direction,
  2. all Variables (and "Communication Controls") that send data IN to the PC, and
  3. all Variables (and "Communication Controls") that send data OUT from the PC.

Each section of the Summary Info report lists the names of all Variables and Controls that fit the criteria of the section.  For example, one section in the example report below shows the number and names of all Input Integer Variables.

 

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The Full Report is organized just like the Item List report:

  1. all the Variables,
  2. all the Controls on the Master Page Template, and
  3. all the Controls on each individual page of your layout.

However, for each item (a Variable or Control), the Full Report also displays all the properties of that item.  For this reason, a printout of a Full Report can be several pages long.

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The Current Errors report shows error messages or warning messages if necessary.

An example of an Error condition is having two Variables that have the same name or Id.

An example of a Warning condition would be having a Variable that is not associated with any controls, so that you would have no way to display or change this variable from the PC browser screen.  (This is not flagged as an Error condition, because you may plan to access these variables only from a special PC program, as shown in example programs which we provide, and never from the PC browser.)

TCPmaker is carefully designed to make it very difficult for you to make errors, and TCPmaker will notify you immediately if an error occurs. Frankly, you should have very little use for the Current Errors report.

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The report named "Controls and the Variables They Use" is a summary list of all the associations between Controls and Variables.

Remember that you must associate a Variable with a Control, by selecting the Id of the variable from a drop down list on the Property page of the Control, to allow the Control to be able to display or change the value of that Variable.

This report lists each page of your layout (including the Master Template page), and for each Control on that page, it lists all the Variables that are associated with that Control.

The red arrow points to the part of this report that shows that, on the Index page of this layout, there is a Horizontal Gauge control whose name is "Hg2" and whose Id is "hg2".

This Horizontal Gauge "Hg2" has an associated Numeric Variable whose name is "Nv0" and whose Id is "n0".  This Numeric Variable is used to send data in both directions relative to the PC: both IN toward the PC, and OUT from the PC.

This Horizontal Gauge also has an associated String variable whose name is "Sv0" and whose Id is "s0".  String variables do not send data directly, they only format the data held by other variables (most likely "Nv0" in this case), so there is no IN or OUT direction indicated for "Sv0". 

Use the "Controls and the Variables They Use" report to make sure that very control that can be associated with Variable is in fact being used to change or display a variable.  You can see from the sample report below that this particular layout is not quite finished: some pushbutton controls like "Pb2" do not not have an associated Variable yet. 

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The report named "Variables and the Controls That Use Them" is another summary list of all the associations between Controls and Variables. It contains the same information as the report we just looked at, but it is organized by Variables.

Unlike the report we just looked at on the previous page, this report lists all the Variables used in the layout.  Under each Variable, this report lists all the Controls that use it.

The red arrow points to the same information about the association between Numeric Variable "Nv0" and the Horizontal Gauge "Hg2" that we talked about on the previous page.  This information is just organized a bit differently.

Use the "Variables and the Controls That Use Them" report to make sure that every one of the Variables that you have created is associated with at least one Control, to make sure that your layout can change or at least display every one of your variables.

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The XML Output report shows exactly what will be placed in a file called "run.xml" that will be created as part of the content that your device will serve up to the PC browser, when you point your browser at the device's address.

The XML information shown in this report specifies, in a very compact way, exactly how to display the layout you have designed in the Visual Page Designer. You may recognize attributes on each line of XML that correspond to the names and values of properties you have set for your particular Controls and Variables.

 

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In summary, TCPmaker Visual Page Designer's reports are provided to help you get useful information about your TCPmaker layout, and to keep track of the Variables and Controls you have created:

  • Use the Item List report to get a quick summary of what Variables and Controls you have created, and on which page of your layout a particular Control can be found.  It can help you avoid confusion concerning whether a particular Control is only found on a particular page of your layout, as opposed to being part of the Master Template (and therefore being displayed on multiple pages).
  • Use the Full Report to see, and print or save, a complete record of all the properties of all the Variables and Controls you have created for your layout.
  • Use either the "Controls and the Variables They Use" report or the "Variables and the Controls That Use Them" report to get an idea if your layout is finished yet: for example, is every Variable associated with at least one Control?
  • Use the Summary Info report to get an idea of how many Input and how many Output data items you have defined, to help remind you if you have defined all the data items that you originally intended.
  • Use the Current Errors report to get more information about an error condition, or to look for warning messages.

 




Text Author: Dr. Bob Miller   Copyright Notice and Author Information