From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Marty Kraimer <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2018 8:38 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: EPICS 7: Equivalent to Channel Access Filters

Hi,

Will there be an equivalent to Channel Access filters in EPICS 7?

https://epics.anl.gov/base/R3-15/5-docs/filters.html

I had added filter plugin support to the pvCopy facility that comes with pvData.
This was implemented in both pvDataCPP and pvDataJava as part of the pvCopy facility.
That means that any channel provider that uses pvCopy would automatically have filter plugin support.

But it was decided that this should not be part of epics7 so I backed out the support.
Here is a condensed description of the support

Field Plugin Filters

pvCopy, which was described above, implements plugin filters that can optionally be attached to fields accessed via pvCopy. Thus, if a channel provider uses pvCopy, it automatically has plugin filter support.

pvCopy itself provides the following plugins: array, deadband, timestamp, and ignore. Other plugins can also be implemented and registered.

The following interfaces are used for implementing plugin filters: PVPlugin, PVFilter, and PVPluginRegistry.

PVPlugin

Method create is called when an instance of pvCopy is created by a channel provider.

interface PVPlugin {
    PVFilter create(String requestValue,PVCopy pvCopy,PVField master);
}

where

requestValue

The value part of a name=value request option.

pvCopy

The PVCopy to which the PVFilter will be attached.

master

The field in the master PVStructure to which the PVFilter will be attached.

Returns the PVFilter. A null is returned if master or requestValue is not appropriate for the plugin.

PVFilter

The method filter is called whenever pvCopy is used to access a field of the client PVStructure.

interface PVFilter {
    boolean filter(PVField copy,BitSet bitSet,boolean toCopy);
    String getName();
}

where

copy

The data for copy.

bitSet

The BitSet for copy.

toCopy

(true,false) means copy (from master to copy,from copy to master)

Returns (true,false) if filter modified destination.

PVPluginRegistry

class PVPluginRegistry {
    static void registerPlugin(String name,PVPlugin pvPlugin);
    static PVPlugin find(String name);
}

The arguments are:

name

The name part of a name=value request option.

pvPlugin

The plugin implementation.

The return value for find is the plugin implementation or null if no plugin with that name has been registered.

Array Plugin

This filter is used to retrieve parts of an array (subarrays and strided subarrays). It is modeled after the array Filter that is provided with epics base starting with the 3.15 releases.

This filter works for both get and put. It works for any scalarArray field. It has not been tested for structureArray or unionArray fields.

The syntax is one of the following:

[array=start]
[array=start:end]
[array=start:increment:end]

start and end both specify an index. increment must be a positive integer.

start and end can be a positive or negative integer. If negative it is relative to the end of the array with -1 meaning the last element.

Suppose that the master array is:

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

Then the get request

[array=0:4]

gets

1,2,3,4,5

The request:

[array=-3:-1]

gets

8,9,10

The request:

[array=2:5]

gets

3,4,5,6

The request:

[array=0:2:-1]

gets

0,2,4,6,8,10

Deadband Plugin

This filter is used to limit the changes to a numeric scalar field that are reported to a client. It is modeled after the deadband Filter that is provided with epics base starting with the 3.15 releases.

This filter only works for numeric scalar fields and only for toCopy.

The syntax is one of the following:

[deadband=abs:value]
[deadband=rel:value]

where

abs

The value must change by at least this amount since the last value the client received.

rel

The percentage amount the value must change since the last value the client received.

TimeStamp Plugin

This filter is used for accessing a timeStamp field. It is modeled after the timeStamp Filter that is provided with epics base starting with the 3.15 releases.

This filter only works for a timeStamp field.

The syntax is one of the following:

[timestamp=current]
[timestamp=copy]

where

current

Only works for toCopy=true. Instead of taking the timestamp from master the timeStamp for the client is set to the current time.

copy

Only works for toCopy=false. The timestamp in master is set equal to the timeStamp from the client.

Ignore Plugin

This is not an actual plugin but is handled by pvCopy itself. It is used to suppress sending data to a client unless other fields have changed.

The syntax is:

[ignore=true]

One of the examples shown at the beginning of this section shows how it can be used.

Marty

Channel Filters - epics.anl.gov epics.anl.gov Channel Filters. Channel Filters can be applied to Channel Access channels by a client, using a JSON Field Modifier to select the filter and any parameters.

Cheers,

Ernest