Bliss GUI Framework Quick introduction : concepts

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Bliss GUI Framework Quick introduction
concepts practical examples

• Presented by Matias Guijarro
• BLISS group

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What is the Bliss GUI Framework ?
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• Project started in 2003

• Main goals

• to provide libraries and tools to develop
  Graphical User Interfaces on beamlines

• to emphasise on code reusability and GUI
  standardization

• to free GUI programming from data sources and
  controllers (spec, taco, tango, etc.)

• Written in Python, graphical toolkit Trolltech
  Qt

• Fundamental principles

• Model-View-Controller architecture

• Bricks instead of widgets as building blocks

• GUI Editor hides layout complexity for rapid GUI
  building

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What is the Bliss GUI Framework ?
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• Scope of the project

Application
Bliss Framework project
Bricks library
Abstraction layer
Control software (spec, taco, tango, etc.)
hardware
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Abstraction from Hardware and Control Software

• Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture

• view is separated from model

• this ensures GUI code does not get mixed with
  beamline control

Bliss Framework
abstraction layer
Beamline GUI application
GUI Bricks
hardware, spec, device servers

• The Hardware Repository abstraction layer

• part of the Bliss GUI Framework

• provides objects representing beamline control
  devices

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Hardware Repository

• The Hardware Repository holds the description of
  the devices, equipments and procedures of a
  beamline in a database

• The database is a set of XML files

• Each file represents at least one Hardware Object

• The Hardware Repository manages the pool of
  Hardware Objects

Hardware Repository module
XML
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Using bricks as building blocks

• A Framework GUI application is made of
  cemented bricks

• All bricks derive from the same base class
  BlissWidget

Bricks can communicate between them
Beamline GUI
Bricks have a behavior A brick holds a set of
properties for configuration
A brick has a graphical representation

• The Framework provide services for the bricks

• application
• properties persistance
• layout management
• run modes
• access to Hardware Repository

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Practical exercise 1 lets install the
Framework on a beamline
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• Packages are available in the Bliss Installer

• applications/control/Framework/BlissFramework
  Core the base components
• applications/control/Framework/Bricks bricks
  of the standard library each brick has its own
  package
• applications/control/Framework/Icons icons
  library

• control/HWR/HardwareRepositoryServer one
  Hardware Repository server is needed per beamline
• control/HWR/HardwareRepositoryClient
• control/HWR/Object Hardware Objects library,
  each Hardware Object has its own package

• Core

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Practical exercise 1 lets install the
Framework on a beamline
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• Configuring Hardware Repository server

• needs one parameter path to the xml files
• optional parameter name of the server (hwr
  by default)

• The Hardware Repository server should start with
  the main beamline control computer use the
  bliss_dserver script

• Once it is running, you can fill the Hardware
  Repository directory with xml files describing
  Hardware Objects

• the genSpecXML tool can generate automatically
  xml files for a Spec version

basil genSpecXML basil oh1 /local/HardwareRep
ository
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Practical exercise 2 lets create a new GUI
application
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• use the newGUI script

• it generates an empty GUI application file
• it creates a startup script

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Practical exercise 2 lets create a new GUI
application
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• Today there are more than 60 bricks

• approximatively 75 percent are for general use

• others are beamline-specific (MX, BM29, ID21,
  ID13, etc.)

• Building a GUI application using the standard
  bricks is easy

• 6 clicks example

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Practical exercise 2 lets create a new GUI
application
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• After setting properties, here is the result

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Practical exercise 3 lets write a (very)
simple brick
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• The brick will be able to display a motor
  position and status

• At the beginning, just code the appearance of
  the brick

from BlissFramework.BaseComponents import
BlissWidget from qt import class
ExampleBrick(BlissWidget) def __init__(self,
args) BlissWidget.__init__(self, args)
self.motor_frame QVGroupBox(Motor name
here, self) hbox QHBox(self.motor_frame)
QLabel(Motor position , hbox)
self.motor_pos QLabel(hbox)
QVBoxLayout(self) self.layout().addWidget(self
.motor_frame) self.setSizePolicy(QSizePolicy.M
inimumExpanding, QSizePolicy.Fixed)

• Then save the file with the same name as the
  brick class ExampleBrick.py in a Bricks
  directory

• You can already see the new brick in the GUI
  Editor by clicking on the Refresh button

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Practical exercise lets write a (very) simple
brick
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• add a mnemonic property to the brick

from BlissFramework.BaseComponents import
BlissWidget from qt import class
ExampleBrick(BlissWidget) def __init__(self,
args) BlissWidget.__init__(self, args)
self.addProperty(mnemonic, string)
self.motor_frame QVGroupBox(Motor name
here, self) hbox QHBox(self.motor_frame)
QLabel(Motor position , hbox)
self.motor_pos QLabel(hbox)
QVBoxLayout(self) self.layout().addWidget(self
.motor_frame) self.setSizePolicy(QSizePolicy.M
inimumExpanding, QSizePolicy.Fixed) def
propertyChanged(self, property, old_value,
new_value) if propertymnemonic
self.motor self.getHardwareObject(new_value)
if self.motor is not None
self.connect(self.motor, positionChanged,
self.motor_pos_changed)
self.connect(self.motor, stateChanged,
self.motor_state_changed)
self.motor_frame.setTitle("Motor name s"
self.motor.username)

• 2nd step is to add the brick properties

• when the property changes, get the Hardware
  Object (which should be a motor in this case)

• create connections between the Hardware Object
  and the brick

• In this example we just need a mnemonic
  property that will contain a reference to the
  Motor Hardware Object

• When the property changes, the brick is
  connected to the Motor Hardware Object

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Practical exercise lets write a (very) simple
brick
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• now we just need to write the two missing methods

• motor_pos_changed called when
  positionChanged signal is emitted by Motor
  Hardware Object

• motor_state_changed called when stateChanged
  signal is emitted by Motor Hardware Object

def motor_pos_changed(self, pos)
self.motor_pos.setText(str(pos)) def
motor_state_changed(self, state) bg_color
self.colorGroup().background() color
bg_color, bg_color, Qt.green, Qt.yellow,
Qt.yellow, Qt.red, bg_color
self.motor_pos.setPaletteBackgroundColor(colorsta
te)

• the final step is to test the brick into a GUI

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Results already obtained with the Framework

• at the beginning of the project, high demand for
  GUI on MX beamlines recently, Framework-based
  GUIs are being created for other beamlines

mxCuBE
ID13 / Microfocus
ID21

• Ways of improvement

• better Hardware Repository
• making interface to spec for small GUIs even
  simpler
• more possibilities for windows, layout, menu
  bars, etc.
• documentation

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Already existing documentation (dont laugh)

• Bliss Framework Startup Guide

http//www.esrf.fr/computing/bliss/guides/gui/fram
ework/FrameworkInstall.pdf

• Bricks documentation

http//blissdb/bricks

• this talk

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Thanks for your attention ? Any questions ?