Properties Editor

The Properties Editor is used to change the properties of different contexts. For example, settings for Iotellect Server itself and devices are edited in a Properties Editor.

Technically, the Properties Editor allows changing the values of one of more variables (properties) of a context. When the editor starts up for a given context, it loads the value of every variable for the context, and then allows the user to edit these values and writes them back to the context.

Every property (variable) is edited in a separate Data Table Editor component, because a property is actually a single Data Table.

The Properties Editor consists of a Toolbar and a Properties Pane.

	Save. Saves values of changed properties to the source context. Saved values are marked as unchanged.
	Import properties. Import values of properties from the file.
	Export properties. Export values of properties to the file.
	Toggle Read-only. Switches the editor between read-only and editable mode.
	Reload. Reloads values of all properties from the source context. Values that were recently changed in the editor are lost.

If Properties Editor is shown on a separate page, it has OK and Cancel buttons. The OK button saves the values of any properties which were modified, and closes the dialog. The Cancel button aborts the operation without saving.

Most elements of the Properties Editor, as well as the actual properties, often have tooltips. These appear when the mouse cursor hovers over the element for some time.

The context menu is shown when right-clicking one of the properties in the Properties Editor. It contains a list of Variable-Related Actions that "know" what to do with the selected variable. The number and types of available Variable-Related actions depend on the type of variable for which the context menu is shown.

The Properties Editor may work in two modes:

• Normal mode

• Read-only mode

Read-only mode doesn't allow properties to be edited or saved.

There are also two representation modes of Properties Editor:

• Simple Mode

• Expanded Mode

In Simple Mode, every Data Table Editor representing the value of a single property occupies a separate tab.

The property's name and detailed description are shown in a tooltip of its tab.

In Expanded Mode, properties are grouped according to their variable group. Properties of each group are shown in a separate tab. Group names are shown as tab headers.

If there are too many tabs in the editor and they don’t fit into its window, tabs bar ends up with a button that opens a popup menu with additional tabs. However, a much easier way to access additional tabs is using mouse wheel within the tabs pane to scroll through all tabs.

Properties of every group are represented as a table with a Property column, a Value column, and optional variable metadata. Depending on the metadata available for the displayed variables, the table may also show the following variable indicators:

• Synchronization Status — shows the current synchronization status of the setting.

• Value Quality — shows the quality state of the current value. Value quality is based on quality codes.

• Value Age — shows the age of the current value based on its timestamp.

A variable indicator is shown only when at least one displayed variable has a non-null value for the corresponding attribute. The Properties Editor constantly monitors variable status and value metadata and updates the indicators when they change.

The Property column contains property descriptions. Cell tooltips provide information about each property's name and its detailed description.

The Value column's contents changes according to the variable definition of the context being edited. If the Data Table representing the value of a property always has just a single field with a single record, the Data Table Editor is shown directly in the Value column. In other cases, the Value column contains a [...] button which opens a Data Table Editor on a separate page. A Data Table Editor that is embedded into the table is marked in red.

Hovering the mouse over the Synchronization Status icon pops up a tooltip with the status details. Hovering over Value Quality and Value Age icons pops up a tooltip with additional details.

In the Properties Editor, the value tooltip may also include additional Age and Quality lines when timestamp and quality metadata are available for the current value. The displayed text corresponds to the current Value Quality and Value Age state.

The following tables describe Value Quality и Value Age variable indicators used in the Properties Editor.

Value Quality takes the following values:

Icon	Value Quality State	Description
	Good	The current value is considered valid and reliable.
	Good [Local Override, Value Forced]	The current value is valid and reliable and has local override / value forced status.
	Uncertain	The current value is available, but its validity is questionable.
	Uncertain [Last Usable Value | [timeout]]	The current value is the last usable value provided by the source.
	Uncertain [Engineering Units Exceeded]	The current value exceeds the expected engineering-unit range.
	Uncertain [Value from Multiple Sources]	The current value is derived from multiple sources.
	Uncertain [Sensor not Accurate]	The current value is available, but the sensor is not accurate.
	Bad	The current value is not reliable.
	Bad [Configuration Error in Server]	The current value is not reliable because of a configuration error in the server.
	Bad [Not Connected]	The current value is not reliable because the source is not connected.
	Bad [Device Failure]	The current value is not reliable because the device has failed.
	Bad [Sensor Failure]	The current value is not reliable because of a sensor failure.
	Bad [Last Known Value Passed]	The current value is not reliable and the last known value has expired.
	Bad [Comm Failure]	The current value is not reliable because communication with the source has failed.
	Bad [Out of Service]	The current value is not reliable because the source is out of service.
	Value is pegged at High Limit	The current value is pegged at the high limit.
	Value is pegged at Lower Limit	The current value is pegged at the lower limit.
	Value is Constant	The current value is constant.

Value Age takes the following values:

Icon	Value Age State	Description
	Just Updated	The current value is less than 1 minute old.
	Recently Updated	The current value is less than 1 hour old.
	Moderate Age	The current value is less than 1 day old.
	Outdated	The current value is more than 1 day old.

Properties can be exported to and imported from external files. By default, property files have a .prs extension. Properties are imported by name: if the Properties Editor contains a property with the same name as one saved in the file, their values are merged by a Data Table Smart Copy operation.

Properties import procedure cannot just override values contained in the editor with ones read from a file because they may have different format. But in any case the best efforts are made to import as much data as possible.

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