Table editor

Definitions of the system modules are created and edited in the table editor.

Definitions of the system modules are edited in the table editor, e.g. variables, recipes or alarms. You can specify the parameters for a definition selected in the table editor directly in the table editor or on the properties pages.

An introduction to working with the table editor, e.g. how to create a communication channel and edit variable definitions, can be found in the quick start.

To open the table editor for a system module, you have the following options:

Double-click on the node of a system module (e.g. variables) or on one of its sub-nodes.
Right-click on the node of a system module or on one of its sub-nodes and select "Show editor" from the context menu.
Select the desired system module or one of its sub-nodes and press Enter.

A separate table editor is displayed for each system module as a tab in the centre of the program window of the development environment.

For example, you can drag a single tab out of the development environment to display it in a separate window or organise tabs into groups. For more information, see Tabs.

The project name and the name of the system module appear on the tab, e.g. "[MyProject] Language switching". The navigation path to the selected definition is displayed next to the search field.

Tables for definitions and groups

The table editor contains two tables. The upper table shows the definitions contained in the selected node and their parameters, while the lower table shows the groups contained in the node.

Lines

One row is displayed in the table for each definition.

Columns

A column in the table represents a parameter.

Filters the contents of the table according to the character string entered. If you enter the character string and confirm with Enter, only those definitions are displayed that contain this character string in a cell. Only the columns that are displayed in the table editor are taken into account. The cell in which the character string was found is marked with a green tick.

A search dialogue is also available for the search.

You can customise the display in the table editor as well as some functionalities. Open the Options dialogue, expand the Development environment node and select the Editors entry. Options for customising the table editor are available on the right-hand side of the dialogue.

The following actions are available for the tables:

Expand and collapse tables

You can collapse the table using the button at the top right of the respective table and expand a collapsed table again using the button.

Move limit

To create more space in the first or second table, you can also move the boundary between the upper and lower table:

Place the mouse at the top edge of the lower table. The cursor switches ().
Press and hold the left mouse button. The boundary is represented by a thick, dotted line.
Hold down the left mouse button and drag the boundary up or down.
Release the mouse button at the desired position.

A row in the table represents a definition of the system module. The table editor allows the following actions for a row:

Create definition

You have the following options for creating a definition:

Right-click within the table editor and select New from the context menu.
Press F8.
Double-click within the table editor.

Edit definition

To edit a parameter of a definition, click once on the desired cell. The content can be edited directly in the table editor. You can also edit the parameter on the properties pages.

An undo function is not available when editing definitions.

Select definition(s)

To copy, paste or delete a definition, you must first select this definition.

To select a definition, click on the first cell of the row (selection cell).
To select several definitions, click on the selection cells of the desired definition while holding down the Ctrl key.
To select a block of definitions (i.e. several neighbouring rows), click on the selection cell of the first desired definition, press and hold the Shift key and click on the selection cell of the last desired definition.
To select all definitions in the table, right-click and select Select all from the context menu or press Ctrl+A.

Copy, paste and delete definition

The "Copy"(Ctrl+C) and "Paste"(Ctrl+V) editing functions are available in the context menu of the table editor. This copies the selected definitions to the clipboard or pastes them from the clipboard. You can delete the selected definition with "Delete"(Del).

The deletion of definitions cannot be undone. The definitions are therefore only deleted when you confirm the question "Do you want to delete the selected definitions?" with Yes. However, you can also deactivate the mandatory confirmation.

Duplicate definition

In »EASY UI Designer«, names must be unique. Use the "Duplicate" function from the context menu(Ctrl+F8) to create an almost identical copy of the selected definition, which differs from the original only by an automatic index in the name. You can edit the name later if required.

The function is only applied to one definition, namely the one that contains the triangle symbol in the selection cell.

The table editor allows the following actions for a column:

Show or hide columns

Some definitions have more parameters than the number of columns that can be displayed in the table editor. You can specify which parameters the table editor should display in the Table editor options dialogue.

"Frozen" columns with a beige background by default (e.g. "Alias" or "Name") cannot be hidden or moved.

Change the order of the columns

To move a column further to the right or left, you have the following options:

Press the left mouse button down on the column header and drag the column in the desired direction.
You can also change the order of the displayed parameters via the Options dialogue in the table editor.

Make columns narrower or wider

To make a column narrower or wider, you can move the boundary between two columns:

Place the mouse on the left or right edge of the column header of a column. The cursor switches ().
Press and hold the left mouse button. The boundary is represented by a thick, dotted line.
Hold down the left mouse button and drag the boundary to the left or right.
Release the mouse button at the desired position.

Automatically fill cells in a column

If you have created many new definitions, you can save yourself typing by using the following functions to fill cells automatically. You must first use the mouse to select several cells in a column that you want to fill. The cell whose content is to be copied to the other cells must be included in the selection. The following functions are then available in the context menu of the table editor:

Fill in(Ctrl+U)

Copies the content of the first selected cell to the other cells in the selection.
Increment 1 (Ctrl+1)

For numerical entries, the number is incremented by 1. For textual entries, an index incremented by 1 is appended to the string.
Increment 2(Ctrl+2)

For numerical entries, the number is incremented by 2. For textual entries, an index incremented by 2 is appended to the string.

To use an increment of 3, 4, ... 9, press Ctrl+3, Ctrl+4... Ctrl+9.

Sort rows

You can sort the rows according to the content of the cells in a column. If you click once on a column header, the cells in the column (and therefore the rows) are sorted in ascending order (A-Z, 0-9). If you click on the column header a second time, the cells in the column are sorted in descending order (Z-A, 9-0). A small triangle pointing upwards or downwards in the column header indicates the corresponding sorting. If you click on the column header a third time, the rows will be displayed in the order in which they appear in the database. In this case, no triangle symbol appears in the column header.

In the language switching system module, the table header of the text column for the developer language is displayed in bold.

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