Event Template Editor - Elements Tab

Most likely the majority of your time will be spent in the Elements tab. Unfortunately the Elements tab is also where the majority of the complexity is focused. This is where you define all the components of your event and establish the relationships between them.

The Elements tab consists of multiple component wrappers on the left with a Property Pane on the right.

Overview of the Element Tab

The general workflow is to click the Create button above any component which will create a new instance of that component. It will be automatically selected and it's properties will load into the Property Pane for you to edit.

Component Wrappers

In an Event template there are four major elemental components: Meta-items, Outputs, Manual Triggers and Actions. There are a few others which will be explained later but these are the four you will be primarily dealing with. Each element component has a similar look and feel consisting of a toolbar and a list of instances below it.

Meta Item Component Wrapper Example

For example here is the Meta Items component wrapper with 3 Meta Item components under it.

Clicking on a component instance in the list loads it for editing. Any properties associated with the selected component will show up in the Selected Component Properties pane for you to change as you see fit.

The top toolbar can be clicked to expand or collapse the component.

The toolbar has some very straightforward options, some of which may be disabled until a certain state is achieved (e.g. you cannot Copy a component until you have selected the component you wish to copy). Hovering over an enabled button will provide a tooltip explaining it's purpose.

: Copy the selected component
: Create a new instance of the component and add to the bottom of the list
: Remove / Delete the selected component
: Move the selected component UP in the list (may effect display order if Auto Layout is selected)
: Move the selected component DOWN in the list (may effect display order if Auto Layout is selected)

You can also move components up and down their respective list using drag & drop.

On the top left you'll notice a small vertical toolbar. This lets you expand/contract all the element component wrappers at once. It also lets you search all the components for keywords.

Property Pane

The Property Pane is a window which appears on the right of the wrappers and is your main source of interaction with any given component. This is where you set all the details for the selected component and define how it interacts with other components in your template. Each component type may have different properties for you to edit but many of them have a standard set of features as shown below.

When you select a component the property pane will load with all properties relevant to that components type.

The first line displays the type of component you have selected. In this example - Date Time Meta Item

The Label input allows you to name this component.

The Label Position input allows you to define where the name will be displayed (if at all) on the GUI when this event is run.

A set of UI Attributes is also present for Event components which will be on the display when the event is run. For instance a Meta Item or Label would be displayed, an Output would not.

The main focus here is setting color schemes and changing the font size of the component when running.

A set of predefined color combinations are provided to you to choose from. Click on the Reset button to revert back to no scheme being applied.

Should you choose to modify colors it is HIGHLY recommended that you use one of the Predefined Combos rather than explicitly setting a color. However, if there is a particular color that you feel very strongly about you can always use the color picker or the the palette to set it.

The Predefined Combo's adjust with the selected master theme of the UI. They will change to match everything else when you change it. However, if you explicitly set a color it will lock to that and ignore any master theme changes. This may result in a UI that is hard to read and no longer 508 compliant.

Major Elemental Components - Brief Overview

The following sections give introductory component descriptions and provide explanations of terminology crucial to your understanding. Full details about components and their interactions are provided later in this guide. The different components are closely interdependent, so understanding one component requires the understanding of the others. Therefore, it is suggested that you read through the component types once for an overview, and a second time to fill in details. The following figure illustrates the text.

Diagram of linkages between main Event component types

Meta Items

Meta items are atomic pieces of data. The heart of each meta-item is its value, which is written to data files or monitored by the Logger during an event.

There are multiple types of meta-items:

A Date Time Meta Item represents a Date and Time. When updated it gets it's value from the SCS Server's local system clock. As with timestamps throughout SCS it's value is in UTC.
A Sensor Meta Item gets it's value from a sensor being acquired by the SCS Acquisition Service. When updated it will get the latest value and store/display it.
A Manual Meta Item must be entered by you from the keyboard during or before an Event. The template editor allows you to define different data types (numbers and strings), place limits on the range of values, or define a drop-down list of values from which the user must choose during run-time.
A Global Meta Item get's it's value from a set of meta data provided to ALL events at any given moment. While these can be included in any event they can only be changed by users with appropriate rights as they will then impact all events referencing them.
A Summary Meta Item is computed automatically by the Event Logger Service at the end of an event. Using the Builder, you define the type of value to be calculated (average, minimum, time duration, etc.), and which Meta Items or sensor data form the basis of that calculation.

Outputs

The function of an Output is to log data (Meta Items or sensor values). You can set up multiple Outputs, writing different sets of data to different files during an Event. Individual Meta Items / sensor values are known as the elements of the Output. During an event the Logger logs its elements as a set of time stamped values.

Outputs may be individually started, stopped and restarted during an event. Once started, logging may be continuous (elements are written periodically) or a snapshot (only one set of elements is written, then the Output is stopped).

Manual Triggers

Manual Triggers appear as buttons on the Logger’s GUI. Typically you will click on a button in response to external events that you have predefined, such as "Net in water."

When you define a Manual Trigger in the editor you must assign at least one Action sequence to it. Then, when you click on it during a run of an Event the Logger kicks off each Action sequence you have linked to it.

You may also arrange for a Manual Trigger to be automatically clicked for you by an Action which in turn can be kicked off by any Manual Trigger or an Auto Trigger.

Actions

Action sequences are a powerful new feature of Events. Essentially it's a predefined list of "things to do" such as update a Meta Item, start an Output or fire off an Alarm. Action sequences are started via a trigger, either manually via a button (Manual Trigger) or automatically when a condition is met (Auto Trigger).

SCS Events