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 1271. Check that there are not later builds available before you download.
- Go here at the CosyLab site and click on the "Builds" link and then on the latest build number (at the time of writing this is "2.5.1271") under the "Distribution" heading.
- On this page again click on the build number under the Distribution heading This should begin the download of the distribution zip file.
- Save the zip file somewhere convenient.
- Unzip the zip file, to somewhere convenient. On Windows systems a "vdct" directory in the "Program Files" directory seems a good place.
- You should then see a "2.5.1271" directory. In that you'll see a file named "runScript".
- 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 20 Dec 2005.
The current build is 1271. This is the package F release, please see the Release Notes on the Cosylab Page for a full list of the bug fixes and new features.
The next major development phase is currently being planned. This might include:
- Enhancements to the debug plugin
- Integration with Eclipse, possibly using the Graphical Editing Framework (GEF)
- A spreadsheet mode of editing
- Relational database integration
If you find any bugs not mentioned, please report them here.
Wish list - Possible long term requirements
A list of these is kept on the VDCT Bugs and Features Page. This contains a list of known bugs, plus a list of 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, email me, or edit the page directly if you have a wiki username.
A list of recently implemented features is shown below:
| 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. |
| 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)
