VDCT Status Page

This page is intended to inform the EPICS community of the development status of VDCT. It is meant to complement the information on the Cosylab page, not duplicate it.

What is VDCT?

VDCT is the Visual Database Configuration Tool. We hope that it will become the standard database configuration tool. It began as a project funded by the Swiss Light Source developed by Cosylab. Recent development has been funded by the APS, Diamond and the SNS. The code development is being done by Cosylab.

Cosylab and the SLS have kindly made VDCT available under an open source license. Source code and binaries are available from the Cosylab web site.

I (Nick Rees, of Diamond Light Source) try to act as the interface person between the EPICS community and Cosylab.

Where to find it

The main place for things VDCT is the Cosylab VDCT page. Go to this page and click on the link under Builds. Here you will find links to the latest binaries, documentation, release notes and other useful information.

Installation Tips

You don't need to build VDCT to install it. You can just get hold of the binary files and run it. You will need V1.4 or greater of the Java Runtime Environment to run it. These notes refer to build 1257. Check that there are not later builds available before you download.

1. Go here at the CosyLab site and click on the latest build number (at the time of writing this is"2.4.1257") under the "Distribution" heading.
2. On this page again click on the build number under the Distribution heading This should begin the download of the distribution zip file.
3. Save the zip file somewhere convenient.
4. Unzip the zip file, to somewhere convenient. On Windows systems a "vdct" directory in the "Program Files" directory seems a good place.
5. You should then see a "2.4.1257" directory. In that you'll see a file named "runScript".
6. Execute the file named "runScript" and VDCT should start. On windows systems you will have to rename "runScript" to "runSript.bat" first.

Current Status

As of 31 May 2005.

The current build is 1257. This is the package D2 release. The known bugs are listed on the Cosylab web site. See the Change Log on the Cosylab Page.

If you find any bugs not mentioned, please report them here.

Wish list - Possible long term requirements

These are things that people have come up with as "wouldn't it be nice if" (WIBNIf) ideas. They may or may not get implemented. In true EPICS tradition, if you really want something the best way to get it is to fund the development or contribute effort.

If you want a feature not mentioned, send a request here.

Title	Description
Multiple files	Have the ability of having multiple db files open at one time.
GDCT to VDCT conversion tool.	Done. See GDCT 1.3.
CAPFAST to VDCT conversion tool.	Available in build 1249.
Interact with high level tools.	Interactions with other high level tools, e.g. Oracle, should be defined. Could be done with plugins?
Tutorial.	Have a tutorial/quick start guide available on line. Could be produced by someone in the community.
Expand manual.	The manual is good, but brief. It could use some expansion. Could be produced by someone in the community.
Auto placement.	Provide an "auto-placement" function, that when reading in non VDCT databases tries to place all records to 1) eliminate the overlap of records and 2) to minimize the crossing of links (auto-routing).
Simulation.	Visualization of the process chain (an EPICS database simulator)
Group links.	Show links between groups (display a group as a "meta-record") display external links also in the "group" displays.
Remote mode	Available as of build 1248

VDCT mailing list

If you are interested in the development of VDCT you can subscribe to the VDCT mailing list.

Useful Tools

Following the standard laid down in the Application Developers Guide, VDCT requires record names to be enclosed in double quotes. This can cause a problem if you try to read a database that's been created on a text editor.

If you attempt to read a database in to VDCT that has macro substitution fields in the record name but does not have double quotes around the record names you will see an error. e.g. a database file with record names like this:

record(sub,$(dev):StandardizeSUB) {
.
.
}
record(ai,$(dev):CurrentAI) {
.
.
}

Will produce this error on the VDCT console:

Warning: Record with name '$' already exists, skiping...

The following perl script processes database files, adding quotes to record names when required.

• [http:/epics/extensions/vdct/addQuotes.pl addQuotes.pl] (7 Aug 2002)