To the left of this page is the main control
panel. At the top of the panel is a menu bar which allows you to select
various options and shutdown the GUI. There are two programs involved in
controlling CODA, this GUI which talks to the human operators and a hidden
process rcServer which talks to the distributed CODA software.
The Close entry under the File menu
quits the GUI but leaves the server running.
The Exit entry under the File
menu quits the GUI and tells the server to shutdown as much of the
rest of CODA as possible.
Below the menu bar you will see two groups of
control buttons. The left group are used to alter the server
behavior. The right most group are used to control data taking.
Control Buttons
The group of buttons labeled Control Buttons
includes reset, cancel and disconnect.
-
Reset instructs rcServer to attempt to put all the
CODA processes back in the downloaded state independent of their
current state. Pressing this button causes the server to talk to
distributed programs! This button is used to recover from the unexpected
termination of one or more of the distributed processes during data taking.
-
Cancel instructs rcServer to stop waiting for the
current state transition to occur. This button only alters the internal
state of the server. This button is used to terminate a transition if a
distributed program misbehaves during a transition.
-
Disconnect causes the GUI to terminate it's connection
with the server. This can be used if the user wishes to connect to a different
server.
Upper status area
- "fixed" parameters.
Below the control buttons is an area displaying parameters
which do not change frequently such as the name of the Session the
name of the Database the currently selected Configuration and
so on.
Middle status area
- run specific parameters.
The central area of the control panel contains on
the left a plot of the event rate as a function of time. On the right side
is an area which displays the current run specific parameters, Run Number,
Maximum data set for this run, Maximum events this run, Start time, End
time and so on. Several of these parameters ar optionally editable
so that, for example, the run number can be set by the user.
use the UNEDIT_RUN_NUMBER environment variable to switch editing off (on
by default).
Lower status area
- dynamic parameters.
The lower part of the control panel displays dynamic
parameters such as Event Number, Event Rate and Data rate. The rates
are displayed in two forms, the instantaneous value and the value integrated
over a sampling interval. The sampling interval may be set by a slider
(see later). These parameters are read by the server from one of
the distributed components. The component to read the dynamic parameters
from may be selected from a pull down menu.
Server messages
Below the lower status area is a scrolling list of
messages from the server. These are useful in diagnosing problems during
state transitions. Note these are messages from the server not the
distributed programs.
What's the little padlock for?
Right at the bottom of the control part of the GUI
is a little open padlock icon. Clicking on the lock causes the padlock
to close. While the icon is closed it is impossible for another GUI to
take over control of the server. Clicking a closed lock opens it. By default
if no GUI is running the server is unlocked.
The configuration and
monitoring part of interface
How to hide/show
One of the options in the menus described above
is toggle width. Selecting this option causes to GUI to shrink/grow
hiding/showing the area where this text is being displayed.
The tab controls
Above this page you will see a row of buttons. These are analogous to index
tabs in a notebook and flip do different pages in the interface.
The main pages are:
-
Help
- This is the page you are looking at right now! It contains
an HTML help widget, you can load your own help files the default are these
pages. You can change the default by setting the RC_HELP_ROOT environment
variable to point to a HTML file.
-
Statistics -
This page shows foru graphs showing the event rate, data rate and data
words per event as a function of time. The fourth graph is inactive since
I can't think of anything else which needs to be plotted. Note: the
events per word is formed by dividing the data rate by the event rate and
may be incorrect when these parameters are varying rapidly, i.e. at run
start and end.
-
Options
- This page displays the various options which are availible
for the run control server. The top field allows the user to change the
data filename. The Next area displays one button for each component in
the DAQ system. If the button is yellow the component will be automatically
started. The defauld for this option is off and may be changed via the
AUTOBOOT environment variable. The next field specifies how frequently
the server polls for the dynamic variables (event number etc). The default
is every 2 seconds. The last entry specifies how frequently the server
checks the status of the components. A checkbox enables automatic run ending
if the state of a single component is incorrect.
-
dbedit
- If the RC_MODULES environment variable is set and the dbedit
program is run the dbedit main window will be reparented into this page.
This program is described in detail here.
-
cedit
- If the RC_MODULES environment variable is set and the cedit
program is run the cedit main window will be reparented into this page.
This program is described in detail here.
Environment variables.
-
LIMIT_BUTTONS -
Limit the number of transition control buttons displayed.
-
LIMIT_BUTTONS 2 - Limit
even more the number of transition control buttons displayed.
-
EXPID
- Default database to use.
-
SESSION
- Name of the default session.
-
DEFAULT_RUN
- Default RunType or configuration to use.
-
MSQL_TCP_HOST -
Host where MSQL database daemon is running.
-
AUTOBOOT
- Autoboot the coda components by default.
-
RC_HELP_ROOT
- Path to a file containing an alternative tree of web
pages instead of this one.