Adamview Component Description - Advantech ADAMView Quick Start Manual

1.3 ADAMView Component Description

The intent of this section is to provide a general idea about what's been added to this new version of
ADAMView. ADAMView has been transformed from data acquisition and control application software to an
application builder for all kinds of automation. We have placed an emphasis on expandability, capac-
ity, and programmability. The architecture is modified to be more open, allowing access to all data
items in ADAMView. Also, hardware support has been greatly expanded. Hardware support now covers
virtually all Advantech ADAM hardware families, as well as a myriad of products from other vendors.
1.3.1 VBA Compatible Script Designer
ADAMView Script Designer is a VBA-compatible basic script engine. Script Designer not only features a
robust Visual Basic programming engine, but also includes many tasks and real time data access
functions. Through this script engine, users can call DDE, OLE Automation and ODBC (SQL) func-
tions to integrate with other applications.
VBA Compatible Script Editing
The script designer is basically a text editor with some convenient features for editing script code.
The script source will be compiled into p-code after editing so it won't need to be compiled again at
runtime. The syntax of the BasicScript is compatible with Microsoft VBA (Visual Basic for Application
in Excel, Word, Access, etc.) and Microsoft Visual Basic. It is possible to take a Visual Basic source
code and compile and execute it under BasicScript without changing a word if only common functions
are used. The two development environments are very similar. In the source code design stage it
features cut, copy and paste functions.
Script Debug Functions
The ADAMView editing program can run strategies in a debug mode, in which you work through a
program line by line and review a scan task block by block. This major improvement allows users to
design and debug complicated strategies in the editor before using the runtime only program. The
runtime program now uses even less memory and offers improved performance.
Programming Tasks and Real-time I/O Directly
The Script Designer is used for editing the main script and scripts inside a task. The main script
controls the entire runtime, including starting a task and/or stopping a task. In addition to task man-
agement, ADAMView provides a variety of commands to process I/O data.
Main Script
The main script is used to control and manage tasks. The initialize statement initializes all the data
related to a task. The Start/Stop statement is used to start and run a task to completion. Single Scan
statement will do a one-time scan of the task specified.
Pre-task Script
The pre-task script is used to define task properties and initialize all data related to a task.
Post-task Script
The post-task script is used to clear-out task related data.
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