09 Preferences
impulse’s preferences are stored within the eclipse preference store. If you open the preferences dialogue, you can manage all the relevant settings. There are preferences pages for views, serializers, ports, templates, .... Settings can be easily imported or exported using the Wallet Editor.
Where to find preferences and how to manage them
You can find the preference editor if you click on the button window in the menu in the upper left-hand corner. If you click Preferences, a window will open. On the left-hand side, you can find the different aspects that you can manage.
If you click on impulse, you can choose between different pages (see below).
Most pages have a Restore Defaults button. If you select this button, all user settings will be discarded.
Charts
Charts are highly configurable. The basis for each chart is a so called chart provider. impulse
contains providers for Birt charts, Nebula charts and script charts. Users may extend
impulse with additional chart providers.
To add a new chart, click the Add
button and select the chart provider. A dialogue will open to configure the
new chart instance. To use and show the newly created chart, you need to select it in the
plot dialogue.
This preference page contains a list of all configured charts. On the right
side of the page you find buttons to add new charts, clone existing ones or configure the selected
chart. The initial preference set contains a list off default charts. You'll find
more about charts in the chapter "13 Working with charts"
Formats
This page let's you enter custom decimal formats as well as preferred domain units. You can
define up to eight different decimal formats. To define a custom decimal format, type in the name
of the format into the left field, and the format definition (https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/DecimalFormat.html)
into the second field. To use a given custom format, open the plot dialog and select the format in
the diagram style field.
The field preferred domain units let's you enter
domain units like ms or us. impulse will use these domain units in the value table, the inspection
view and other UI components. You may enter multiple domain units separated by comma. Impulse will
select the best fit.
Licence
The license preference page allows you to manage your license keys.
If
you've received a license key, you can enter this key in the field user key. After you
entered the key, it will be shown in the list below.
The list in the middle of the
page shows all available keys, sorted by priority. This list contains the user key, but also system
and integrator keys. If you select a key, its contents are shown in the fields below. The key with
highest priority is the active key. The active key is the key that controls all impulse features.
The properties field contains all enabled features, the usage field informs you if about
possible usage restrictions. Below you find the licensee information. The field valid until
contains the information until when the selected license is valid.
Ports
Ports are means to read signal data from external devices and interfaces. Similar to charts, you
can configure multiple ports of a given set of providers (e.g. add two tcp ports, one for port
4000, the other for port 4101).
This preference page contains a list of all configured
ports. On the right side you find buttons to add new ports, clone existing ones or configure the
selected ports. The initial preference set does not contain any ports.
Find more about ports in chapter 06 Ports.
Searching
If you press Ctrl-F in the impulse viewer, the Find dialogue opens (like in
any other text editor). With this dialogue you can search for signal patterns.
This
preference page allows you to manage search expressions. All configured search expressions are
shown in the list on the left side. On the right side you find buttons to add, clone and configure
those expressions.
Find more in chapter 12 Searching.
Serializer
A serializer is a software extension to read or write signal data from or into a file.
Users can extend impulse with additional serializers (e.g to read a custom
format). Many serializer allow the definition of serializer configurations. Such a
configuration describes how a serializer shall process the input/output of a given file (e.g.
sets the no. of columns in CSV format).
The serializer preference page contains a
list of all registered serializer. If you press View/Edit (or double click on
a serializer), the configuration dialogue opens and lets you extend and define configurations.
Find more in chapter 02 Signals.
Templates
Templates simplify the re-use of configuration elements. A template may contain simple defaults,
such that all float signals shall be painted red, but they can also contain a rich set of elements
containing multiple scripts and folders.
This page shows all configured templates. Use the
buttons on the right side to add, clone or configure your templates. The checkbox on the left side
enables or disables the template.
Find more in chapter 14 Templates.
Theme
This page shows all available themes. To select a theme, click the button to the right of each image. If you want to change individual colors, use the Appearance page (General->Appearance).
Views
Manages all the view configurations. You can see all available views on the left side of this preferences editor. Furthermore, you can delete, copy, edit, change their place within the list to find them more easily and you can enable and disable views. If you disable a view, it will not be used any longer but will still be available in the system.
Find more in chapter 03 Views and Plots and Plots.
Parts (Complementary Views)
In addition to the Viewer, impulse also uses other parts to display signal-related information, such as the Sample Table or the Sample Inspector. Most of these parts can be configured and have the possibility to choose between different configurations. All these configurations can be managed on this settings page.
