Displays
(Desktop and Web)


Introduction to the Displays Module

The Displays Module allows you to create User Interfaces.

Some of the Module Display features:

  • Allows the creation of .NET WPF and HTML5 applications from a unified drawing tool.
  • The same configuration can execute in both WPF and web clients.
  • Create responsive dashboards as well as HMI process screens.
  • Allows user-defined layouts, creating displays composed of multiple frames.
  • A large set of smart symbols, high-performance graphical symbols, and extensible components are included.
  • Support for theme skins, language localization, and units metric system conversion.
  • Automatically connects data templates with symbols.
  • Displays are dynamically created from the asset model for self-aware SCADA applications.

This documentation section explains the tools available on the Display Module. The drawing of displays is on the next documentation section: Drawing the User Interface.

On this page:

Key Concepts and Terms

Display / Screen

A display is a window or frame of your application’s user interface. A display can contain multiple graphical elements. The elements of a display can be static, meaning they always appear the same, such as a title or an image, or dynamic, such as a gauge or a color status indicator.

In the context of this documentation, the terms display and screen can be used interchangeably when referring to a user interface window. When referring to the configuration objects or the module, the term "Display" is used.

Layout

Layouts allow the organization of the user interface into frames or panels, acting as containers for your Displays. For instance, a typical layout includes a top display that remains constant with navigation buttons, and an area below where different displays can be shown.

Client

A client is a software component that interacts with a server or services, including types such as .NET Clients, HTML5 Clients, and Remote Clients. 

Rendering Engine

A rendering engine generates visual output from an application's display drawing. In our context, the Engine can be WPF, HTML5, or Portable meaning that the same displays can be rendered to WPF or HTML5 clients.

PanelType

A Panel is containers for organizing the displays graphical elements.  The PanelType defines how those elements will be organized.

Our Platform support Canvas and Dashboard as PanelTypes.

Canvas (or Process Screens): The elements are in a drawing surface, where each element has its specific location and size.

Grid (or Dashboard Screens): The elements are placed in Grid, which size, columns are rows are responsive, which the graphical elements adjusting accordingly.

Understanding the Displays Module

The Displays Module implements the user interface for the execution of your solution. The drawing of a display itself is covered in the next chapter, "Drawing User Interfaces." First, it is necessary to understand the various concepts and features related to creating and using the User Interface Displays.

Desktop and Web sharing the same configuration

The Displays Module allows the creation of screens to run on Windows desktops using WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) technology or in web browsers using HTML5 and WebAssembly technologies.

Although you can create displays that are intended to open in only one environment, our platform supports the Portable option, where the exact same configuration can be used by both Windows/WPF clients and Web/HTML5 clients.

Users don't need to create two different types of screens for Windows and web clients. Using the Portable option for the rendering engine creates displays that will automatically function in both desktop and web environments. This feature enables our users from previous releases to use the screens they created over the years on Windows desktops and open them directly in web browsers with no rework or modifications.

For Windows WPF, you can access the displays using the Rich Client (installed on the client computer) or a Smart Client (ClickOnce, no installation required) loading from supported browsers.

For Web HTML5, no installation is required; you can use it on desktop or mobile devices with any browser compatible with HTML5/WebAssembly (which most browsers currently are).

Process Screens and Dashboards

Process screens and dashboards are specific layouts within displays that organize graphical elements for different data visualization purposes. They contribute to the overall structure and design, enhancing the user experience.

A Process Screen represents a process diagram. When resize the elements keep their relative position.

A Dashboard Screen is for data presentation where the UI components are placed on a grid, according to the size of the Container window. 

When using process screens, there are various ways to specify the responsiveness for resizing, such as stretching proportionally or other options. That behavior is defined in the drawing tool or the Display Settings.

When using Dashboards, you are automatically creating responsive UI interface.

→ See more on Creating Dashboards.

Windows Specific Features

Although the platform tries to keep the Windows/WPF and Web/HTML5 experiences of the displays as similar as possible, that are features available only when running WPF displays in Windows, due intrinsic limitations of the web browser. 

Those features include;

  • Easily setup for Multi-Monitor applications.

  • Process Control execution mode disables the Windows Task Switch.

Those requirements are useful for enterprise Network Operations Centers and Operations Control Rooms. To activate this feature, navigate to Displays Client Settings

Designer and Runtime Themes

An extensive set of light and dark themes, including high-contrast options, provides better comfort and visibility when creating the solution, as well as for operators.

The built-in tools enable the easy creation of solutions that will be delivered with theme support, requiring no extra effort.

Localization and Internationalization

The platforms allows easy creation of solutions that, no modifications, can run in various settings for language and internationalization. 

It is possible to two Operators accessing the same server, to use their own and distinct choices of UI language and Engineering Units, changing its settings for his local User Interface.


Smart Symbols

Smart Symbols

The Drawing tool includes a library of around 2,000 Smart Symbols, graphical elements typically used in industrial applications. Many of these symbols are more than just vector images; they also have dynamic behavior that allows direct mapping to your tags and assets. It includes also a set of Industrial Icons, specially designed for the typical visuals on process displays.

High Performance HMI

The well-known book High Performance HMI proposed a set of standards for HMI design. Our platform fully enables the creation of solutions that support those standards, including High-Performance Graphical (HPG) palettes in its themes and hundreds of ready-to-use symbols created following those specifications.

Advanced Components and Controls

For advanced graphical interfaces, such Gantt and TrendChart, DataGrids, PdfViewer and other, a set of Graphical Components, for both WPF and Web is included. Additionally third-party controls can easily be used in the solution.

Self-aware Applications and Dynamic Displays

Previous generations of SCADA and HMI typically had the drawing and mapping of their data fixed to the tags and process variables. At most, they allowed the same drawing to point to different assets, as long as the assets were similar. Our platform, being a new generation, also allows the dynamic creation of complete graphic displays according to the data being connected.

These data-centric applications can have their user interface created automatically based on the assets found in the data model. Typically, these applications are organized around a unified namespace, an MQTT broker, or OPC UA servers.

Using the TagProvider feature, our platform can establish a dynamic connection with those systems, selecting the best UI elements according the data found on the connected servers.

Learn more about data-driver user interface on the Tutorial MQTT and Dynamic Displays

Display Module Configuration

The Objects and Tools to create and manage Displays are organize in the following sections:

Displays List

The Displays List page shows the current set of Displays of the solution. More information in Displays List.

Displays Draw

Built-in graphical editor for Displays. Go to Displays Draw for an overview, and go to Drawing the User Interface for information on all the drawing tools

Layouts

Organize Displays into frames. More information on Displays Layouts.

Client Settings

Setup startup and execution settings, when using the displays. More information on Displays Client Settings.

Images

Table will all Image Files imported to the Solution File.  More information on Displays Images.

Symbols

Table will all Symbols imported to the Solution File, or created within.  More information on Displays Symbols.

Themes

Show the available Themes and allows customizations. More information on Displays Themes.

Localization 

Define Translation Dictionaries, allowing different operator to run their displays in different languages. More information on Displays Localization.

Units Conversion

Define Dictionaries for Metric System conversion, allowing different operator so see Values in different metric system. More information on Displays Units Conversion.

In this section:


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