All side bars display in the side bar pane and have some common features, such as the side bar title bar. The following sections describe characteristics of each type of side bar:
All side bars have a title bar across the top as shown in Figure 27. You can click and drag on the title bar to vertically resize the side bar or you can click on a minimized side bar to restore it to the previous size.
In addition, all side bars have the following controls:
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Close menu
Drop down control used to close the side bar pane.
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Pane title
Icon and text that identifies the side bar.
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Maximize button
When more than one side bar is open, this button appears on the right side of any non-maximized side bar. Clicking on the maximize button will expand the side bar to fill the side bar pane and the restore button will change to the maximize button.
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Restore button
If the side bar pane is at maximum size, the restore button appears on the top right corner of the title bar. Clicking on this button will restore the side bar pane to its previous size and the maximize button will change to the restore button.
To find out more about specific side bar panes and their controls see Types of side bars.
The workbench interface may be customized by adding unique side bars that are designed to fit particular applications. The following side bars may be displayed in the side bar pane by default:
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Bookmarks side bar
Displays a list of bookmarks. For details, see About the bookmark side bar.
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Help side bar
Provides a tree view of available help documentation. For details, see About the help side bar.
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Jobs side bar
Provides a tree view of available help documentation. For details, see About Jobs side bar.
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Navigator side bar
Provides a tree view of the system. For details, see About the nav side bar. For more information about the nav side bar, see Types of nodes in the nav side bar tree, and About the nav side bar toolbar.
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Palette side bar
Provides a tree view of components that are available in specific palettes. For details, see About the palette side bar and About the palette side bar toolbar.
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Todo side bar
Provides a customizable list of tasks or notes. For details, see About the Todo list sidebar.
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Bound ords side bar
Provides a listing of all bound ords used in a Px file. For details, see About the bound ords side bar.
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Widget tree side bar
Provides a tree view of all widgets used in a Px file. For details, see About the widget tree side bar.
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Px Properties side bar
Provides a listing of all Px Properties that are defined for the viewed Px page. For details, see About the Px properties side bar.
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Properties side bar
Provides a listing of all properties for a component that is selected in the Px Editor. For details, see About the properties side bar.
When you open the bookmark side bar, it appears in the side bar pane, as shown in Figure 28.
From the bookmark side bar, you can double click on bookmark nodes or use popup menus to perform all operations that are available from the side bar (for example, go directly to a bookmarked location, manage bookmarks, edit bookmarks, and more). The quick access provided here is very helpful for changing screens without having to go through multiple selections using other menus or submenus.
For more details about the bookmark side bar, refer to the following:
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To find out how to add or remove bookmarks in the bookmark side bar, see To add a bookmark.
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For details about managing bookmarks, see To manage bookmarks
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For details about editing bookmarks, see To edit a bookmark
When you open the help side bar, it appears in the side bar pane, as shown in Figure 29.
The help side bar has three tabs that you may select by clicking on the tab. The three help tabs are listed and briefly described, as follows:
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Table of Contents
Contains a tree view of help topics, listed in alphabetical order by topic.
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API
Contains a tree view of help topics, listed in alphabetical order by module.
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Search
Contains a Find: text entry field and button. For details on using the Search, see Using the help side bar.
When you open the Jobs side bar, it appears in the side bar pane as shown in Figure 30. The Jobs side bar contains a list of jobs that have been performed or that are currently being performed.
The following icons on the Jobs side bar indicate job status:
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Running
Indicates that the job is currently running.
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Success
Indicates that the job has completed without error.
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Failed
Indicates that the job did not complete.
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Unknown
Indicates that the job status is not available.
From the Jobs side bar, you can click on the arrow icon >> to open the Job Log dialog box. The Job Log dialog box displays a listing of the actions performed as part of the job. Each entry in this log contains a detailed description that you can view by double-clicking on the entry to open the Log Details dialog box, as shown in Figure 31.
When you open the nav side bar, it appears in the side bar pane, as shown in Figure 32. The nav side bar contains the tree view that provides a hierarchical view of the whole system. From the nav side bar, you can double click on nodes in the nav tree or use popup menus to perform all operations that are available from the nav side bar (for example, connect or disconnect to a station, refresh a tree node, and more). The expandable tree provided here is very useful for performing actions on nodes and for navigating through various screens and views in the Workbench. Items are displayed in the tree with an icon that represents the associated function or file type.
Items are displayed in the tree with a symbol based on type. If the item is a file, it will be based on file type. Refer to Types of nodes in the nav side bar tree for more details about file types. Refer to About the nav side bar popup menu items for more details about the nav side bar popup menu.
At the highest level, the nav side bar tree may include the following (when working from a localhost):
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My Host (local system)
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My Modules
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Platform
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Stations (connected or disconnected)
The nav side bar tree may include the following types of nodes and their child nodes:
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Host node
Represents a physical computer (hardware) that the rest of the nodes (subnodes) reside on. For more details about how the host fits into the Niagara architecture, see About Niagara software architecture.
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Module node
When expanded, displays a tree view of available modules, listed in alphabetical order by module. For more details on modules, see About modules.
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File system node
Represents the top level of a tree view of the host file system. File system subnodes represent drives and locations on the host system. It is important to understand that the file system provides access to files that are outside of the station database.
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Station node
Represents a station (connected or disconnected). When expanded, the station node displays the station contents in a hierarchical tree. For more details on stations, see About stations.
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Platform
When expanded, displays a hierarchical view of the Niagara host platform. You can double-click on the platform node and sub-nodes, or use a right-click shortcut menu to perform all operations that are available on or under this node (connecting, disconnecting, refreshing, and more). For details on the platform node and its subnodes, refer to “About a platform connection” in the Platform Guide for more details.
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Station
When connected and expanded, displays a hierarchical view of the Niagara station. You can double-click on the station node and sub-nodes, or use a right-click shortcut menu to perform all operations that are available on or under this node (connecting, disconnecting, selecting views, and more). For details on the station node, refer to About stations.
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Config node
When expanded, displays a tree view of the station contents or “configuration”.
The config node usually contains one or more of the following types of nodes:
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Component
When expanded, components (as containers) display a tree view of the sub-components that they contain. Various component types may be displayed either in containers or at the root of the component node. For more details on components, see About components.
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Control
Control points may be displayed directly in the root of the Config node. For more information about Control points, see About point components and Data and Control Model.
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Drivers
Provides a place to store driver modules (such as the Niagara Network, BACnet drivers, Modbus, and more). When expanded, displays a tree view of loaded driver modules. For more details, refer to the “About Network architecture” section in the Drivers Guide.
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Services
Component for storing services, such as alarm service, history service, program service, and more.
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In addition to the standard side bar title bar (see About the side bar title bar for more details) the nav side bar has a toolbar, located just below the title bar as shown in Figure 33.
The nav side bar toolbar includes the following:
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button
When clicked, creates a new tree in the nav side bar. When you have more than one tree node, you can select one to activate from the Drop-down tree selector.
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button
When clicked, closes the currently displayed side bar.
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Drop-down tree selector
When more than one nav side bar is open, this selector allows you to choose which one to display
When you open the palette side bar, it appears on the left side of the Workbench in the side bar pane, as shown in Figure 34. The palette side bar provides a place to open and view sets of modules or custom palettes that you build for yourself. From the palette side bar, you can open multiple palettes (displaying them one at a time), close palettes and view modules within palettes. You may also double-click or use popup menus to perform all operations that are available from the palette side bar (for example, copy modules, select a module view, refresh the tree node, and more). The expandable tree provided in the palette allows you to perform actions on nodes within the palette and to navigate through the palette sub-directories. Items are displayed in the tree with an icon that represents an associated function or file type.
The palette side bar also has a component preview pane that displays an image (when available) of the selected component (shown below).
Palette previews display in the palette when components have images configured either as the default image property or as the image assigned to the comPreviewWidget property. If no preview is associated with a component, in AX-3.5 and later, you can add a compPreviewWidget property to a widget in order to display an image in the preview pane of the palette side bar. See To add a side bar preview using the compPreviewWidget property.
For more details about the palette side bar, refer to the following:
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To find out how to use the palette side bar, see Using the palette side bar.
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For details about adding palettes to the palette side bar, see To open a palette
In addition to the standard side bar title bar (see About the side bar title bar for more details) the palette side bar has a toolbar, located just below the title bar as shown in Figure 35.
The palette toolbar includes the following:
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button
When clicked, opens the Open Palette dialog box. Refer to To open a palette for information about opening palettes.
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button
When clicked, closes the currently displayed palette.
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Drop-down palette selector
When palettes are open in the palette side bar, this selector allows you to choose which palette to display.
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Open preview pane button (AX-3.5 and later)
This control button toggles the preview pane on and off. Previews are available on some components.
The Open Palette dialog box displays a tabular list of available palettes. If there are palettes located in locations other than the My Modules directory, you can use the browse button to find them.
The Open Palette dialog box is shown above and has the following features:
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Filter field
This is a text field that allows you to type the beginning letters of the desired palette name to filter out palettes from the view. For example, typing in the letters “mo” removes palettes that do not begin with the letters “mo”. You may use the * (asterisk) character as a “wild card” entry in this field. All palettes are listed in the table if no text is entered in this field.
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button
This button opens the File Chooser dialog box to allow you to select palettes that are located in alternate locations.
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Table of palettes
The table of palettes has the following columns
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Module
This is the name of the palette’s parent module
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Description
This is a short title or name of the palette’s parent module
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The Todo list sidebar is a convenient way to create and access Todo List items from a palette. Click the button on the toolbar to open the Add dialog box. The Add dialog box provides a text field for adding and categorizing Todo list items. For more details about the Todo List see Todo List.
The Jobs side bar shows all the current jobs in all the stations with which you have a connection. The current status of each job is shown as: running, canceling, canceled, success, or failed. If the job is running then a progress bar displays estimated progress. You may cancel a running job by pressing the button. Normally, once a job has completed you are notified via the async notification feature. You may then dismiss the job by pressing the button. The details of the job may be accessed using the “>>” button to display the Job Log dialog box. For details about using the job side bar, refer to Using the jobs side bar.
The bound ords side bar, in Figure 39, is available when the Px editor view is active. It displays a listing of all the bound ords in the current Px view. Double click on any ORD in the list to display the ORD in the ORD editor dialog box.
The widget tree, in Figure 40, displays a tree hierarchy of the widgets (panes, labels, graphic elements, and so on) that are in the current Px view.
It is often easier to use the Widget Tree to select objects when you have a lot of objects on a view–especially when there
are several layers of objects. When you select an object in the tree view it is selected in the Px view as well and displays
the selection borders and handles.
Starting in NiagaraAX-3.3, the Px properties side bar, shown in Figure 41, is available when the Px editor view is active. It displays a listing of all the Px properties that are defined in the currently active Px file. Use the menu bar icons to add, define, assign, and delete Px properties. For more information about px Properties, see the NiagaraAX Graphics Guide section “About Px Properties”.
The properties side bar, shown in Figure 42, is available when the Px editor view is active. It displays a listing of all the properties that are in the currently selected object in the Px view. Double click on any object in the widget tree or in the in the Px viewer to display the properties dialog box (same information as the properties side bar).
