Why does the Function Module name of a Smartform change (sometimes)? - forms

Not really critical question, but i'm curious
I am working on a form and sometimes the generated function name is /1BCDWB/SF00000473, and sometimes /1BCDWB/SF00000472. This goes back and forth.
Does anyone know what's the idea behind this? Cuz i'm quite sure it's not a bug (or i might be wrong on that).

It is not a bug. You always have to use SSF_FUNCTION_MODULE_NAME to determine the actual function module name and call it dynamically using CALL FUNCTION l_function_module.

Smartform FMs are tracked by internal numbering and thats saved in the table STXFADMI. You would always notice the different number in Development System if you have deleted any existing Form. Similarly, you would also notice the different number in your Quality system based on the sequence the forms are imported in QAS and the forms as well (as test forms are not migrated to QAS.
Similar behavior is also true for Adobe Form generated FMs.

You need to understand that every smartform has a different interface and hence the automatically generated function module needs to have different import parameters.
Due to this reason the 'SSF*' FMs generate a FM specific for your smartform. The name of the 'generated' FM changes when you migrate from one system to another. And that's the reason why you should use a variable while calling the 'generated' fm and not hardcode it.
The same goes with Adobe form as someone has rightly said in this thread.

Related

Possibility of a multilanguage 'source' name with Twincat Eventlogger

Roald has written an excellent guide for the Twincat Eventlogger.
https://roald87.github.io/twincat/2020/11/03/twincat-eventlogger-plc-part.html
https://roald87.github.io/twincat/2021/01/20/twincat-eventlogger-hmi-part.html
For us this is exactly what we want, there is however 1 thing I haven't figured out. How to get the sourcename of the alarm in multiple languages in the HMI. params::sourceName gives the path in the software (example: MAIN.fbConveyor1.Cylinder1) This path can be customized when initializing the alarm (as Roald has shown). This doesn't work in my case, since I would like to define a generic alarm (example: "Cilinder not retracted within maximum time") that is instantiated multiple times.
I was thinking of using the source as a way to show the operator where the alarm occurs. We use this way (path) already for saving machine settings among other things. The machines we build are installed all over the world, so multilanguage is a must.
Beckhoff does support multilanguage alarm names (when defined), but the source is not defined, but dynamically generated.
Anyone have an idea how this problem can be solved?
If I understand your question correctly, then being able to parameterize the event text with information of the source of the problem should help you out.
If you define the event text as Cylinder {0} has not retracted in time. then you can add the arguments of that text during runtime.
IF bRaiseAlarm THEN
bRaiseAlarm := FALSE;
fbAlarm.ipArguments.Clear().AddString('Alice');
fbAlarm.Raise(0);
END_IF
However, since this also stated in the articles you mentioned, I am unsure if this would solve your problem.
'Alice' in this example, can be hard to localize. The following options come to my mind.
The string can be based on an ENUM. Enums can have textlist support, so if you add your translations there, that should allow multilingual output. However... this does require a lot of setup, placing translations inside your code, and making sure the PLC application is aware of the language that the parameter should use.
Use tags to mark the source device, as tags can be language invariant. It is not the most user-friendly method, but it could work for you. It would become something like: "Cylinder 'AA.1123' did not retract in time.". 'AA.1123' as a tag would have to be stored inside your PLC code as a string. You will have to trust that your operator can relate the tag back to the actual source.
Hopefully, this helped, or else please help me understand the problem better.

error when setting PostCodeGenCommand for a simulink model

I would like to add a post-build hook to my code generation process. However, when I try to associate a function with the simulink model's PostCodeGenCommand, I get the following error.
set_param(bdroot, 'PostCodeGenCommand', 'packNGo(buildInfo);')
A configuration set reference does not allow writing to parameters in the source configuration set
I don't really understand the error message, and it doesn't bring up any useful hits on my favourite search engine. Can anyone help me decipher it?
Unfortunately, I could not reproduce this problem on a simple simulink model, even if I included a reference model. (I thought that might be what the word "reference" was, um, referencing in the error message. And I've noticed previously that referenced models are handled differently to other models in the simulink code generator.)
I'm using R2015a, but have access to the newer versions if that would help.
Note that this question was originally posted on the Matlab forum, but didn't get any answers.
It turns out that the model was using a "configuration reference" rather than storing its configuration internally. The Model Explorer provides the following description
Configuration Reference
A model may reference a 'Configuration set' that is defined in the
source location rather than stored in the model....
This is useful for us because we use several models which all share the same configuration set. It's saved in a central place and all updates apply immediately to all models.
The side effect is that bdroot no longer has a PostCodeGenCommand associated with it. Instead, the command I was looking for was
configurationSettings.set_param('PostCodeGenCommand', 'packNGo(buildInfo);')
where configurationSettings is a variable in your workspace, and the variable's name should match the "Referenced configuration set name" in the Model Explorer.

Matlab function signature changes

Let us say that I have a Matlab function and I change its signature (i.e. add parameter). As Matlab does not 'compile' is there an easy way to determine which other functions do not use the right signature (i.e. submits the additional parameter). I do not want to determine this at runtime (i.e. get an error message) or have to do text searches. Hope this makes sense. Any feedback would be very much appreciated. Many thanks.
If I understand you correctly, you want to change a function's signature and find all functions/scripts/classes that call it in the "old" way, and change it to the "new" way.
You also indicated you don't want to do it at runtime, or do text searches, but there is no way to detect "incorrect" calls at "parse-time", so I'm afraid these demands leave no option at all to detect old function calls...
What I would do in that case is temporarily add a few lines to the new function:
function myFunc(param1, param2, newParam) % <-- the NEW signature
if nargin == 2
clc, error('old call detected.'); end
and then run the main script/function/whatever in which this function resides. You'll get one error for each time something calls the function incorrectly, along with the error stack in the Matlab command window.
It is then a matter of clicking on the link in the bottom of the error stack, correct the function call, and repeat from the top until no more errors occur.
Don't forget to remove these lines when you're done, or better, replace the word error with warning just to capture anything that was missed.
Better yet: if you're on linux, a text search would be a matter of
$ grep -l 'myFunc(.*,.*); *.m'
which will list all the files having the "incorrect" call. That's not too difficult I'd say...You can probably do a similar thing with the standard windows search, but I can't test that right now.
This is more or less what the dependency report was invented for. Using that tool, you can find what functions/scripts call your altered function. Then it is just a question of manually inspecting every occurrence.
However, I'd advise to make your changes to the function signature such that backwards compatibility is maintained. You can do so by specifying default values for new parameters and/or issuing a warning in those scenarios. That way, your code will run, and you will get run-time hints of deprecated code (which is more or less a necessary evil in interpreted/dynamic languages).
For many dynamic languages (and MATLAB specifically) it is generally impossible to fully inspect the code without the interpreter executing the code. Just imagine the following piece of code:
x = magic(10);
In general, you'd say that the magic function is called. However, magic could map to a totally different function. This could be done in ways that are invisible to a static analysis tool (such as the dependency report): e.g. eval('magic = 1:100;');.
The only way is to go through your whole code base, either inspecting every occurrence manually (which can be found easily with a text search) or by running a test that fully covers your code base.
edit:
There is however a way to access intermediate outputs of the MATLAB parser. This can be accessed using the undocumented and unsupported mtree function (which can be called like this: t = mtree(file, '-file'); for every file in your code base). Using the resulting structure you might be able to find calls with a certain amount of parameters.

Drupal - dynamic options for text_list field

I have a custom node type for which I want to have a field that uses a special combobox based on list_text. When one chooses the type list_text it is normally possible to enter a static list of selectable texts, however, I want this list to be dynamic, i.e. based on the results of a db_query. What is the best way to do this using Drupal 7?
A simple example for clarification: A node of this custom type X contains a field that points to another node, so whenever a node of type X is created I want a combobox that contains all other nodes.
(Best solution would be to only display the combobox during node creation, and no longer during edit. But I could also live with it if the combobox was shown during the edit as well.)
I have tried to customize options_select by defining my own data type and implementing hook_options_list accordingly. The combobox was displayed during creation with the correct values, however, I could not save it.. I have no idea what went wrong there, but on the first submit it would change to a different theme, and when I tried again I got an internal server error. Am I on the right track at all with defining a completely new data type for the field? there surely must be a simpler way?
You're right in that you don't need a new datatype. Here's a good tutorial on how to do this. It's not specifically for D7 but I didn't see much that wasn't still applicable. There may be a better way to do it in D7 specifically but I would love to know it too if so :)
The tutorial linked by allegroconmolto sent me on the right way. Thanks for that.
Here's the simpler way of doing it: tutorial
Basically, it is, as I assumed, a common problem and hence a simple solution for it was included in the webform module by now. It provides a hook_webform_select_options_info which can be used to register a callback method. The callback method is then called each time a corresponding option select of a webform is shown, so that you can easily fill it with the results of a dbquery or anything else. Works like a charm and takes next to no time to implement.

How to deal with changing feature and product names in source code?

What is a good strategy for dealing with changing product and feature names in source code. Here's the situation I find myself in over and over again (most of you can relate?)...
Product name starts off as "DaBomb"
Major features are "Exploder", "Lantern" and "Flag".
Time passes, and the Feature names are changed to "Boom", "Lighthouse" and "MarkMan"
Time passes, and the product name changes to "DaChronic"
...
...
Blah, blah, blah...over and over and over
And now we have a large code base with 50 different names sprinkled around the directory tree and source files, most of which are obsolete. Only the veterans remember what each name means, the full etimologic history, etc.
What is the solution to this mess?
Clarification: I don't mean the names that customers see, I mean the names of directories, source files, classes, variables, etc. that the developers see where the changing product and feature names get woven into.
Given your clarification that you "don't mean the names that customers see, [you] mean the names of directories, source files, classes, variables, etc. that the developers see", yeah, this can be an annoying problem.
The way teams I've been on have coped with best when we've had a policy of always using only one name for each thing in the code base. If the name changes later on we either stay with the old name in the code, or we migrate all instances of the old name to the new name. The important thing is to never start using the new name in the code unless all instance of the old name have been migrated. That way you only ever have to keep 2 names for something in your head: the "old name", used in the code, and the name everyone else uses.
We've also often chosen a very generic/descriptive name for things when starting out if we know the "brand name" is likely to change.
I consider renaming to better naming conventions just another form of refactoring. Create a branch, perform the renames, run unit/integration tests, commit, merge, repeat. It's all about process control to keep consistency in the project.
The solution to the mess is to not create it in the first place. Once a code path is named, there's rarely a good reason to change it and never a good reason to use a new name alongside the old one. When "Exploder" becomes "Boom", you have two choices: Either keep using Exploder exclusively, and never mention Boom anywhere, or change all instances of Exploder to Boom and then continue on using Boom exclusively and never mention Exploder again.
If you're using both Exploder and Boom in the same code base, you're doing it wrong.
Also, I know you clarified that you're not talking about the user-visible names, but, if you start out working with your own internal names which are relevant to what the code does and completely independent of what marketing wants to call the product/feature, then this is much less likely to become an issue. If you're already referring to Exploder internally as TNT, then what difference does it make if Exploder gets changed to Boom?
How do you deal with Localization? Same thing; same method.
We use an internal and and external name. It could be as simple as a static variable definition like
public static final String EXPLODER = "Boom";
And in code you'll always use the reference to EXPLODER. Same for path names and the like - hard coding those paths at different places is a no-go anyway. If some guys starts digging through internal stuff (like JS sources or ini files or whatever), who cares if they discover Exploder?
Just use internal names, and ignore changes to marketing/official names: https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/a/208578/55472.