GDA/NOL Java-based Interface Project

Abstract

G2 (Gensym?s flagship product) — a comprehensive, object-oriented environment for building and deploying mission-critical, intelligent applications that dramatically improve complex business operations.

Telewindows2 Toolkit (TW2, Client Interface Products) — .a product for building component-based G2 end-user interfaces. With TW2, developers work with a standards-compliant component architecture that integrates with third-party software to greatly extend the capabilities of G2-based applications. This product implements native user interfaces on Windows and Unix platforms. It supports both ActiveX and JavaBean components, as well as displays within Web browsers.

G2 Diagnostic Assistant (GDA, G2 layered product) — based on visual engineering desktop tools for creating diagnostic, alarm management, and advanced control applications that maintain the availability and performance of continuous and batch production processes.

Purpose of the Project

To create a set of java components (Component Set) that can be used to build TW2/Java based user interface for GDA product:

GDA configuration dialogs GFR alerts dialogs Miscellaneous dialogs Main menu commands GFR palettes Preferences dialogs Properties sheet for paths

Objectives

The Component Set is a part of the GDA and an extension of Telewindows2 component set. The Component Set being incorporated into the GDA client application, interacts, on one hand, with the GDA end-user and, on the other hand, with the G2 part of GDA. User-written GDA applications interact only with the G2-based API.

Customer Requirements

Software platform:

• G2 v.5.1 rev. 5 
• G2 JavaLink/Gateway v. 1.1 Rev. 0 
• Telewindows2 Toolkit v. 1.1 Rev. 0 
• JavaTM 2 SDK, Standard Edition, v 1.3 
• GDA v. 4.0 rev. 2 
• Telewindows v. 5.1 rev. 5

Hardware platform:

• Intel PCs/Windows NT 
• Sun/Solaris

UML Model .of the Set Of TW2/Java Components

Use-case diagram of the interaction of the user with the set of component

Solution

The following packages were created for the java classes implementing GDA user interface:

• com.gensym.gda — for the shell application;
• com.gensym.gda.commands — for menu commands;
• com.gensym.gda.controls — for custom controls;
• com.gensym.gda.dialogs — for the dialog manager and other common classes
• com.gensym.gda.dialogs.blocks — for dialogs
• com.gensym.gda.dialogs.preferences — for preferences dialogs
• com.gensym.gda.dialogs.other — for miscellaneous dialogs and properties sheets for paths
• com.gensym.gda.util — for GFR alerts

Total — 234 java classes — 12 properties files (multilingual resources)

• GDANOLDLG.KB — G2 knowledge base that contains:
• RPC declarations for remote procedures implemented in the set of components
• The instances of GDA blocks, charts, trend-charts and other items for testing Some additional buttons for testing.

style="float:left; margin-right:50px;">GDA-Java Main menu, Commands …

… Palettes implementation

GDA-Java dialogs, …

… alerts, …

.. and «Properties» sheet for paths implementation

Key Benefits

The product provides the following features to create the following benefits:

Benefit — Supporting Features

Ability to use GDA functionality in the Telewindows2 framework. — GDA-aware Java components

G2-Java communication overhead reduction — Client-side handling of some activities without communication with G2 (i. e. validation of the input field)

Native look and feel — JFC-based Java components

References

«… we are working towards releasing a beta of the „new“ GDA which will integrate GDA Classic (standard Telewindows), G2 Studio, and the GDA interface which you developed. This should all be built on top of G2 6.0 and be released as Beta with one of the G2 Studio betas. I’ve shown the new GDA interface around the company, and the success of the project has been noted by a number of the managers here. I’ve related how well the project was actually executed and recommended that similar projects in the future could well be done by you. …»

Brian Seaworth,
GDA/NOL Product Manager,
Gensym Corp.