About Touchscreen Profiles

For many touchscreen applications, especially those that use small touchscreen devices, the standard NiagaraAX widget controls and indicators are too small for easy use with a finger (instead of a mouse pointer or a stylus).

Starting in NiagaraAX-3.4, and available in NiagaraAX-3.5, the following features provide for a touchscreen-friendly interface using profile-sensitive components. New Profile-Sensitive widgets include:

Large check-boxes

Typical check-boxes and radio buttons are replaced with larger option select boxes.

Figure 2. Large touch boxes replace standard-size radio buttons and check-boxes
Popup option-lists

These option-lists replace the smaller drop-down lists, including the View Selector (shown below).

Figure 3. Selection options are presented in popup option-lists
Larger Action Controls

A popup Actions dialog box replaces the typical right-click or popup menu for setting actions on graphic components. The selection buttons in the dialog box may initiate the action directly or open a secondary dialog box for choosing options or entering values.

Figure 4. Popup option boxes display action options
Touchscreen Keyboard

This Virtual Keyboard displays whenever an editable text field is selected at the touchscreen display. A text box in the top left corner of the keyboard displays values entered by touching the keyboard.

Figure 5. The virtual keyboard displays for character entry fields
Enhanced Alarm Console interface

The touchscreen-enhanced Alarm Console interface displays several touchscreen interface features, including:
- Pagination Controls
  
  Left and right arrow buttons let you scroll back and forward, respectively, through pages of alarms. A Page Size field allows you to specify how many alarms appear on one page of data.
- Filter Controls
  
  These controls allow you to filter alarms based on times, Source Status, and other parameters.
- Multi-record selection button
  
  Selecting this button allows you to select multiple records at once (similar to holding down a keyboard Shift key).
  
  Figure 6. Enhanced alarm console interface for the touchscreen
Flash-based charting

Touchscreen charting includes live charting using Flash technology. These Flash-based charts display the larger touchscreen controls and are limited to line charts with a single data series per chart. You may place more than one chart widget on a single Px page.
Only numeric values may be charted. String, boolean, and enum values do not work.

Figure 7. Flash chart displays in touchscreen profile view