An ORD is comprised of one or more queries where each query has a scheme that identifies how to parse and resolve to an object. ORDs may be displayed visually, as with the Open Ord locator or they may be entered in a text field, as shown in the Open ORD window.

Figure 14.   Open ORD and graphic locator system

ORDs can be relative or absolute. A relative ORD takes the format of slot:…, such as slot:AHU1/Points/SpaceTemp. The ORD is relative to the base ORD that contains slot:AHU1. An absolute ORD usually takes the general format of host|session|space, as illustrated below.

Figure 15.   Absolute ORD typical structure

• host — identifies a machine usually by an IP address such as ip:hostname. For example fox: indicates a fox session to the host.
• session — identifies a protocol being used to communicate with the host.
• space — identifies a particular type of object. Common spaces are module:, file:, station:, view:, spy, and history:

The local VM is a special case identified by local:, which always resolves to BLocalHost.INSTANCE. The local host is both a host and a session (since no communication protocols are required for access).

Both a slot path and a handle scheme can name components within a ComponentSpace. So the ORD for a component usually involves both a space query and a path/handle.

ORD examples

In the framework, you may view the complete list of installed ORD schemes at spy:/sysManagers/registryManager/ordSchemes(local:|fox:|spy:/sysManagers/registryManager/ordSchemes).