Classes and arrays

[Andreschrosa]

I'm implementing a modbus network scan for equipments, this network consists of several IPs, on each IP there are serveral modbus equipments connected. What I want to do is scan the IP adresses from modbus ID 1 to 255, using function 17 to find then, then display the equipment's model name and serial number on a tree list, grouped by their IP adress locations.

I'm stuck in the class definitions to group equipments together under their respective IP adresses. I'm creating a class for the equipements thenselves, and another for each group. I want each group to store an array of equipments that are found on that IP.

So my doubt is how to create such array of equipments? Also when I create the function add_equipment, is there any way to do it work short of creating a chained list? Is there a chained list structure already in DAQFactory?

class Equipment
   local model
   local manufacturer
   local serialnum
   local modbusadress

   function get_adress()
	  return modbusadress
   endfunction	  
endclass

class Group
   local name
   local equipment equiplist[]
   local nequips
   local ip

   function add_equip(Equipment equip)
	  nequips++
	  equiplist = 
endclass

[AzeoTech]

If you don't need the advanced features of channels (like persist), then you can just use variables. In general, you should think simple. I can tell that you are a programmer of other languages because of how you tried to declare an array. The thing is, in DAQFactory every variable is an array and there is no strong type casting other than string and number, and even that isn't that strong. If you only store a scalar value, its just an array of 1 element. There are also only two data types, string and number. To store references to an object, you use the number type. So, where you have

local equipment equiplist[]

you want just

local equiplist

you don't have to tell DAQFactory what type of object you are going to store in it nor that it will be an array. In fact, you can put different types of objects in the array. Also, again in your function declaration for add_equip, you don't need to tell daqfactory that you are going to pass an equipment class. You only need to tell if its a number or string.

Then to add to the array a new object, just do:

function add_equip(equip)
   equiplist.append(equip)
endfunction

[Andreschrosa]

Ok, that makes sense

Now I want to get the IP list from a multiline edit box, parse it by ";" do a scan by those IPs for modbus adresses.

How do I get how many itens are in the array ipparse after doing parse (I tried ipparse.size() and .length), so I can do a for to run it's lenght? Maybe there is something like file.length() for arrays...

global ipnet
global ip
private ipparse

ipparse = parse(ipnet, -1, ";")
for(k, k=0, k--)
k = ipparse.size()
ip = parse (ipparse, k, ",")
....

ipnet is a global variable set in the edit box

[AzeoTech]

The function you want is numrows(). There is also numcols() and numdepth() if you are doing 2 and 3 dimensional arrays. These are global functions, not member functions of a variable, so its:

numrows(ipparse)

[Andreschrosa]

Thanks, that's what I needed to know.

I have another question conserning classes: is it possible to declare classes in another sequence and have it behave like standart DAQFactory classes, with the auto complete option, like when you type the object name. it show up a dropdown list of it's class functions? How would I include a class from another sequence, is it done like including from a external dll?

I have those classes I'm designing to store the network data (and later save the structure on a file), please take a look if something is misplaced, specially the creator functions.

class group
   local string name
   local string equiplist
   local nequips
   local string ip

   function group (string newname, string newip)
	  name = newname	  
	  nequips = 0
	  ip = newip
   endfunction

   function add_equip(equip)
	  nequips++
	  equiplist = equiplist.append(equip)
   endequip

   function change_name(string newname)
	  name = newname
   endfunction	  

   function get_name()
	  return(name)
   endfunction

   function get_equiplist()
	  return(equiplist)
   endfunction

   function get_nequips()
	  return(nequips)
   endfunction

   function get_ip()
	  return(ip)
   endfunction
endclass

class equipment
   local string model
   local string manufacturer
   local serialnum
   local modbusaddress

   function equipment(string newmodel, string newmanufactuter, string newserialnum, string newmodbusadress)
	  model = newmodel
	  manufacturer = newmanufacturer
	  serialnum = newserialnum
	  modbusaddress = newmodbusaddress
   endfunction

   function get_model()
	  return (model)
   endfunction

   function get_manufacturer()
	  return(manufacturer)
   endfunction

   function get_serialnum()
	  return(serialnum)
   endfunction

   function get_modbusaddress()
	  return(modbusaddress)
   endfunction	 
endclass

[AzeoTech]

No, autocomplete doesn't work through classes. That is one of two reasons why we haven't published the feature. The other is that you can't debug member functions easily. We'll have this rectified by 6.0.

As for your code, it looks fine, except that its just:

equiplist.append(equip)

Append() is a function that adds the value and doesn't return anything. You don't want to assign the result (which is NULL) to anything.

[Andreschrosa]

thanks, I changed that and created a new class to store all the groups:

class project
   local string grouplist
   local groupn

   function project()
	  groupn = 0
   endfunction

   function add_group(group)
	  grouplist.append(group)
	  groupn++
   endfunction
endclass

Trying to test it, but getting a error on line 107:

 
99   global project = new (project)
100 global groupaux
101 global equipaux
102
103  for(private.i=1, i<2, i++)
104	 groupaux = new(group(i,i))
105	 for(private.j=10, j<13, j++)
106	 equipaux = new(equipment("equipment"+j,"IMS",j,j+i))
107	 groupaux.add_equip(equipaux)
108	 endfor
109	 project.add_group(groupaux)
110  endfor

[AzeoTech]

1) There is no constructor in DF classes. At least not the way you have it. So doing new(group(i,i)) doesn't work. You have to do new(group), then call an initialization member function. Same with new(equipment)

2) I don't think you need groupn. You can determine how many groups you have by doing numrows(grouplist).

3) Watch you indentation.