OtfPlayerEditor
Contents
Overview
OTX projects can be executed in different ways. The easiest and most comfortable way is the Open Test Player. With the Player Editor, the author can create a simple tester interface with various controls in just a few minutes. OTX procedures can be started and their parameters can be bound to controls using drag & drop. The result can be exported to a PPX file, which can be executed inside the stand-alone available Open Test Player.
The structure and features of the Player Editor are described in the following sections.
Structure
In the Player Editor the graphical user interface for a stand alone executable tester can be designed, see the image below. Each Player Editor consists of one Monitor. A Monitor represents a register tab inside the Open Test Player. A Monitor has a table layout consisting of a number of rows and columns. A monitor contains one or more panels which are arranged inside the table layout rows and columns.
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Easy way to create stand alone executable tester applications |
There are three kind of panels:
- Command Panel
- Control Panel
- HMI Panel
The command panel contains the executable commands. A command is represented by a button which can call an OTX procedure. The parameters of such procedure can be set via the controls inside the control panel. There are different controls for different graphical representation of a parameter, context or state variable which are described below. The HMI panel contains an OTX screen which behavior is managed inside the OTX runtime environment.
Monitor
One player editor in the OTF associates with a Monitor which is a registered tab to play in the Open Test Player. Through the monitor tabs the data of the test sequences can be displayed in the customized graphic interfaces according to the users' design, especially according to a company's CI.
A player project in the OTF may contain many Monitors, each Monitor can be opened in a player editor for designing. When the player project is exported as a PPX file and loaded in the Open Test Player, all the Monitors in the PPX file shall be displayed as registered tabs to play.
Table Layout
Each Monitor has a table layout (saved in the *.playLay file) which contains the layout of rows/columns/panels and the controls in the panels.
There must be at least one row and one column. To manage the row and column, you can edit the rows and columns directly in the player editor or indirectly through the row/column collection editor.
Editing rows/columns directly in the player editor
In the player editor, you can adjust the height/width of the row/column by dragging the border between the 2 rows (or 2 columns). You can also use the context menu with a row/column by right-clicking on the header of the row/column (the dark gray strife at the leftmost/topmost of a row/column).
Belows are the entries of the context menu (according to their positions from top to bottom):
Context menu entry | Description |
AutoSize | Sets the height/width of the current row/column to auto-size. |
Percent | Sets the height/width of the current row/column to a certain percent. |
Absolute | Sets the height/width of the current row/column to an absolute pixel. |
Add Row/Column | Appends a new row/column after the last row/column. |
Insert Row/Column | Adds a new row/column before the current row/column. |
Delete Row/Column | Deletes the current row/column. |
Editing rows/columns through the collection editor
To open the rows/columns editor of a Monitor, you can double click on the Rows/Columns node of the corresponding Monitor node in the Solution Explorer. The row/column collection editor contains 2 parts, the left part displays the list of the existing rows/columns of the Monitor, the right part displays the details of the selected rows/columns in the left part. In the left part, you can add a new row/column using 'Add' button, delete the selected rows/columns using 'Remove' button or move a selected row/column using Up or Down arrow in the middle of the 2 parts. In the right part, you can change the width style of the row/column and the absolute value to use with the width style. Please note that the absolute value is only applied for the width styles: 'Absolute' and 'Percent'.
Panels
Each panel has a certain location (the number of the row and the column) which it stays on. A panel can be spanned across many rows and columns. Please note that a panel can not overlap another panel.
You can edit the the settings (properties) of a panel by opening the Properties Window and selecting the panel in the player editor or in the Solution Explorer.
As introduced above, there are 3 kinds of panel: Command panel, Control panel and HMI panel. All the 3 panels have the same settings as follows:
General Setting | Description |
General | - |
General.Name | Unique name of the panel |
General.Title | - |
General.Title.TI | Text identifiers for multi-languages |
General.Title.Value | Title of the panel which is displayed at the top-left of the panel |
Layout | - |
Layout.Column | The number of the main column where the panel stays on |
Layout.ColumnSpan | The number of columns the panel shall span across |
Layout.Row | The number of the main row where the panel stays on |
Layout.RowSpan | The number of columns the panel shall span down |
Layout.GrowStyle | 'Horizontal' style means that the commands/controls are added horizontally into the panel. 'Vertical' style means they are added vertically into the panel. |
Layout.AutoScroll | If the AutoScroll is true, the panel enables the user to scroll to any commands/controls placed outside of its visible boundaries. Otherwise, some commands/controls may be hidden. |
Besides using the Properties Window to edit a panel, you can use the context menu by right-clicking on the corresponding panel in the current player editor. The context menu allows you to change the 'GrowStyle' property of the panel or to delete the panel (the same as using DEL key). You can also move a panel into the empty space in the Table Layout with dragging and dropping, or you can make a panel to span across the rows/columns or not by clicking on the anchor icon at the (left/right/top/bottom) border of the panel.
Command Panel
The Command Panel contains the command buttons of procedures or playlists. You can add command buttons by dragging and dropping a procedure node or a playlist node from the Solution Explorer into the panel.
Control Panel
The Command Panel contains the controls which can be bound with the procedure parameters, context variables and state variables to display their data. You can add controls by dragging and dropping a control from the Toolbox or a procedure parameter (or a context variable or a state variable) from the Solution Explorer into the panel to create a control. You can also drag and drop these elements above over an existing control to overwrite the existing one, or to map to a channel of the control.
HMI Panel
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Controls
Controls are ...
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Overview about all OTP controls |
All controls have the following general settings:
General Setting | Description |
Name | Unique name of the control |
Title | Title of the control which will displayed at the top of the control |
Title.TI | |
Title.Value | |
Channels | |
Channels.DisplayName | |
Channels.DisplayName.TI | |
Channels.DisplayName.Value | |
Channels.Element | |
Channels.Element.Datatype | |
Channels.Element.ElementType | |
Channels.Element.Index | |
Channels.Element.Name | |
Channels.Element.Namespace | |
Channels.SnapInterval | |
Highlight | |
Layout | |
Layout.Anchor | |
Layout.Anchor.Bottom | |
Layout.Anchor.Left | |
Layout.Anchor.Right | |
Layout.Anchor.Top | |
MinSize | |
MinSize.Height | |
MinSize.Width | |
Style | |
Style.Type | |
Style.Value | |
Visible |
TextBoxControl
The text box control can be used to input and output character strings. The values of the bound parameters or variables are converted and displayed as a string.
Special Setting | Description |
TextAlign | Horizontal text alignment Auto [Default], Left, Center, Right. Auto means that the text is right aligned if the channel has a unit and left aligned if not. |
FontSize | Size of the text box font. The font itself can be changed inside the theme. |
Multiline | TRUE if the text needs more than one line and FALSE if only a single line is needed. |
SwitchButtonControl
The switch fits well to set Boolean values.
ComboBoxControl
The ComboBox control is best suited for entering the value of the Enumeration data type. From a fixed list of values exactly one value can be selected.
GaugeControl
Several numerical values (Integer or Float) can be displayed as a pointer within the gauge. The first pointer (channel) becomes large, all others are displayed as small.
KnobControl
The dial can be used to set exactly one numerical value (integer or float).
ChartControl
Multiple numeric values (Integer or Float) can be recorded as data series within the diagram. Each data series gets its own color.
StateIconControl
A The symbol is bound to a Boolean parameter and represents a state.
TableControl
The table control is best suited for displaying values inside of a list or map.