Visualization Element ‘Text Editor’

Symbol:

Tag: Special controls

This element shows the contents of text files that are saved on the PLC. The files can be encoded in ASCII or Unicode formats.

A visualization user can also edit the text.

Element Properties

Element name	Example: GenElemInst_1
Type of element	textual editor

Element property ‘Position’

The position defines the location and size of the element in the visualization window. These are based on the Cartesian coordinate system. The origin is located at the upper left corner of the window. The positive horizontal x-axis runs to the right. The positive vertical y-axis runs downwards.

X	X coordinate of the upper left corner of the element Specified in pixels. Example: 10.
Y	Y coordinate of the upper left corner of the element Specified in pixels. Example: 10.
Width	Specified in pixels. Example: 150
Height	Specified in pixels. Example: 30

Note

You can also change the values by dragging the box symbols ( ) to other positions in the editor.

See also

• Positioning Elements, Adapting Size and Layer

Element property ‘Font’

Name	Unproportional font for displaying the file contents in the visualization. Example: Courier New
Size	Font size Example: 12

Element property ‘Control variables’

Element property Control variables ‣ File

Variable	Variable (STRING). Contains the file name and (optional) storage location of the file in the file system of the PLC. Example: strFile: STRING := '/Documentation/Info.txt';
Open	Variable (BOOL). Controls the opening of the file that is defined in the Variable property. Example: bOpen: BOOL; TRUE: The file is opened.
Close	Variable (BOOL). Controls the closing of the file that is defined in the Variable property. Example: bClose: BOOL; TRUE: The file is closed.
Save	Variable (BOOL). Controls the saving of the file that is defined in the Variable property. Example: bStore: BOOL; TRUE: The file is saved.
New	Variable (BOOL). Controls the creation of a new file. The name is defined in the Variable property. Example: bCreate: BOOL; TRUE: Creates and opens a file.

Element property Control variables ‣ Edit

Variable	Variable (STRING). Contains the string to search for in the file. Example: strFine: STRING := 'abc';
Find	Variable (BOOL). Controls executing the search for the string in the Variable property. Example: bFind: BOOL; TRUE: The search is performed.
Find next	Variable (BOOL). Controls the location to begin the search in the file. Example: bFindNext: BOOL; TRUE: The search begins at the last search result location. FALSE: The search starts at the beginning of the file.

Element property Control variables ‣ Caret position

Line	Variable (integer data type). Contains the line of the cursor. Example: iRowCursor: INT;
Column	Variable (integer data type). Contains the column of the cursor. Example: iColumnCursor: INT;
Position	Output variable (integer data type). Returns the absolute cursor position in the text. Example: iPosCursor: INT;
Set cursor	Variable (BOOL). Controls the setting of the cursor at a specific location. Example: iSetCursor: INT; TRUE: The cursor is moved. The new position is defined in the Line and Column properties. FALSE: The Line, Column, and Position properties contain the current values. Please note: This variable is used as the control variable for an input event triggered by a visualization user.

Element property Control variables ‣ Selection

Start position	Output variable (integer data type). Shows the absolute position for starting the text selection. Example: iPosSelection: INT;
End position	Output variable (integer data type). Shows the absolute position for ending the text selection. Example: iPosEndSelection: INT;
Start line number	Output variable (integer data type). Shows the line where the text selection begins. Example: iRowSelection: INT;
Start column index	Output variable (integer data type). Shows the column where the text selection begins. Example: iColumnSelection: INT;
End line number	Output variable (integer data type). Shows the line where the text selection ends. Example: iRowEndSelection: INT;
End column index	Output variable (integer data type). Shows the column where the text selection ends. Example: iColumnEndSelection: INT;
Line to select	Variable (integer data type). Contains the line number that is selected. Please note: The selection is controlled by the variables in the Trigger select property.
Set select	Variable (BOOL). Controls the selection of a line. Example: bSetSelection: BOOL; TRUE: The line from the Line to select property is selected and highlighted in the text editor. if the line is not in the current text segment of the text editor, then the text segment is moved to this line. Please note: This variable is used as the control variable for an input event triggered by a visualization user. The control variable is not reset automatically. You are responsible for this happening in the visualization.

Element property Control variables ‣ Error handling

Variable for error code

Variable (integer data type). Contains the error code when an error occurs. Example: iError: INT; The error codes are declared in GVL_ErrorCodes in the VisuElemTextEditor library. For displaying the English error text, the VisuFctTextEditorGetErrorText() function of the library must be called.

Variable for content changed	Variable (BOOL). Shows whether the contents have changed. Example: bIsContentEdited: BOOL; TRUE: The contents of the text editor have changed.
Variable for access mode	Variable (BOOL). Controls the access privileges to the file. Example: bIsReadOnly: BOOL; TRUE: A visualization user has read-only permissions. In runtime mode, the file contents are highlighted in gray in the text editor. FALSE: A visualization user has read-write permissions. Please note: The variable overwrites the setting in the Editor mode property.

Maximum line length	Maximum number of characters per line
Editor mode	Read only: A visualization user has read-only permissions to the file. In runtime mode, the file contents are highlighted in gray in the text editor. Read/write: A visualization user has read-write permissions.

Element property ‘New files’

Encoding	Character encoding of the new file: ASCII Unicode (Little endian) Unicode (Big endian)
New line character sequence	End of line character of the new file: CR/LF: Normal for Windows systems LF: Normal for UNIX systems Please note: When a visualization user opens an existing file, the end-of-line character of the file is detected and used automatically.