For demonstration purposes, this example Dashboard links a
Text Box Input and
Text Box Output, and binds a Virtual Tag to the value of an
LED Output. Follow the relevant sections below to implement this functionality.
Creating a Freeform Dashboard
1. Navigate to your SystemLink Server URL in a browser.
2. From the menu, select
Custom Applications >> Dashboards.
Image of the SystemLink menu.3. Click the drop-down arrow next to
NEW TILE DASHBOARD and select
New freeform dashboard.
Image of the NEW TILE DASHBOARD button.4. Give the Dashboard a name and description, and select the Workspace to save it to. Click
OK to save your changes.
- Workspaces are used to control which systems and data different types of users can interact with. Refer to Creating a Workspace for more help.
Image of the Dashboard creation settings.
Using Event Scripts to Link Widgets
1. Open the Dashboard in edit mode if this isn't already the case.
- Click the ellipsis in the top-right corner and select Edit.
Image of the Dashboard Edit menu.2. From the palette, drag and drop a
Text Box Input on the Dashboard.
Image of the Text Box Input in the palette.3. Click the
Text Box Input to define a
Name in the
Property Editor. The image below shows that the
Text Box Input is called
Textbox1.
Image of the Properties Editor window for the Text Box Input.4. From the palette, drag and drop a
Text Box Output on the Dashboard.
Image of the Text Box Output in the palette.5. In the
Properties Editor window, specify:
- A Name. The example shows a Text Box Output called Textbox2.
- A Value.
- Click the small checkbox to the right of the Value property.
- Select the tag icon and change it to Widget.
- Enter the name of the Text Box Input's value property inside the field. For a Text Box Input called Textbox1, the field should state Textbox1:value.
Image of the Properties Editor window for the Text Box Output.6. Create an Event Script for the
Text Box Input.
- Select the Text Box Input.
- From the Properties Editor window, click the plus icon underneath the Event Scripts box.
- In the Script window, select User input as the Event.
- Define a function name in the Main Function input. The example below defines a function called main.
- Enter the code below to obtain the value property of the Textbox1 Widget and assign this as the Textbox2 value.
- Note: ensure that Textbox1 and Textbox2 match the names of the Text Box Widgets on your dashboard.
- Click OK to save your changes. The Properties Editor should now populate with an Event Script.
def main(Textbox1):
value = get_widget_prop("Textbox1", "Value")
set_widget_prop("Textbox2", "Value", value)
Image of the User Input Event Script.
Image of the Properties Editor after creating a User Input Event Script.7.Save the Dashboard by clicking on the save icon in the top toolbar.
8. Click the play icon to test the functionality.
- You should observe that entering some text in the Text Box Input and pressing Enter automatically populates the Text Box Output.
Image of the top toolbar when editing a Dashboard.
Image of the Dashboard running after configuring Event Scripts for the Text Boxes.
Binding Virtual Tags to Widgets
1. From the palette, drag and drop a
Number Output on the Dashboard.
2. Set the
Number Output Name to
numOutput1.
3. Set the
Number Output Value to a tag that you wish to monitor.
- This example links the localhost.Health.CPU.0.UsePercentage tag to the Number Output. This tag shows the usage of CPU 0 as a percentage.
- Note: to understand how SystemLink tags work, refer to Monitoring Data with Tags.
Image of the Properties Editor for the Number Output.4. From the palette, drag and drop an
LED on the Dashboard.
Image of the LED Output in the palette.5. Create a Virtual Tag to evaluate whether a tag exceeds a specific value.
- Click on some blank space in the Dashboard to de-select any Widgets.
- In the Properties Editor window, click the plus icon underneath Virtual Tags.
- In the Script window, specify a Name for the function. This example defines a function called checkCPU.
- Click the plus icon underneath the Input Tags list. Enter the tag path linked to the Number Output. For this example, the Input Tag is localhost.Health.CPU.0.UsePercentage.
- Click OK to save the Input Tag.
- Click the plus icon underneath the Output Tags list to create a new Virtual Tag. This example names the Output Tag CPUexceed.value.
- Click OK to save the Output Tag.
- In the main Script window, enter the Python code below to set the Output Tag to true only if the Input Tag exceeds a value of 4.
- Click OK to save the script.
def checkCPU(inputTag0):
outputTag0 = (inputTag0 > 4)
return [outputTag0]
Image displaying the script for the Virtual Tags.
Image displaying the Properties Editor after creating the Virtual Tag script.6. Now that a virtual tag exists, it can be mapped to the LED:
- Select the LED widget.
- In the Properties window, set the Value type to tag.
- Select the CPUexceed.value tag.
7. Press the play icon in the top toolbar to run the Dashboard.
- The LED will light up when the CPU usage exceeds 4%.
Image of the Virtual Tags running in a Dashboard.