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Remembering form settings between invocations (and sessions)

Ivars

 Hi,

I'm trying to create a popup form that will allow a user to specify a file name and directory in which to save a plot (amoung other things).

The difficulty I'm having is having the form remember the directory and file name between invocations of the form. In the skeleton code below, I've used a pair of global varibles to maintain a history of the previous directory path and file name. This seems like a rather crude approach. The string field structure has a "lastValue" property but I don't know how to make use of it.

My questions are:

1) How to elegantly have the last directory path and file name filled in on the form every time it is invoked.

2) How to maintain the history of these settings between Cadence session. Should I write the variables to a file each time the form completed and then read in the file when initially creating the form in a new session? What is the cleanest approach?

3) I've set the defValue for both fields, but only the plotDirField gets set to the default value when the "Default" button is pushed. The plotNameField retains its previous value. Why?

Thanks for any help.

I'm using IC6.1.5.500.17 if it matters.

Ivars

Code Skeleton:


procedure( igfPlotNameCB( theForm )
      igfPlotNameFieldLastValue = theForm->igfPlotNameField->value
      );procedure

procedure( igfPlotDirCB( theForm )
      igfPlotDirLastValue = theForm->igfPlotDir->value
      )


procedure( igfSavePlotFormCB( theForm )
      hiSetCallbackStatus( theForm t)
      )

igfPlotDirLastValue = "~/"
igfPlotNameFieldLastValue = ""

procedure( igfCreateSavePlotPopUp()
      let( (plotDirField plotNameField)
          plotDirField =  hiCreateFileSelectorField(
                           ?name 'plotDir
                           ?mode 'directory
                           ?prompt "Plot Directory:"
                           ?value igfPlotDirLastValue
                           ?defValue "~/"
                           ?callback "igfPlotDirCB( hiGetCurrentForm() )"
                           ?enabled t
                           )
          plotNameField = hiCreateStringField(
                       ?name 'plotName
                       ?prompt "Plot Name"
                       ?value igfPlotNameLastValue
                       ?defValue " "
                       ?callback "igfPlotNameCB( hiGetCurrentForm() )"
                       ?editable t
                       )
          igfSavePlotForm = hiCreateAppForm(
                        ?name 'igfSavePlotPopUpMenu
                        ?formTitle "Save Plot"
                        ?callback 'igfSavePlotFormCB
                        ?fields list( plotDir plotNameField )
                        ?unmapAfterCB t
                  )
)


procedure( igfSavePlotPopUp()
      when(igfSavePlotForm == 'unbound
           igfCreateSavePlotPopup()
           ); when
      hiDisplayForm( igfSavePlotForm )
      ); procedure igfSavePlotPopUp()

hiSetBindKey( "vivaGraph" "<Key>F6" "igfSavePlotPopUp()" )

  • Li Ting

    Hi Ivars:
     
    Here are the answers for your questions. The work to support cross session is a bit involved but that is how it should be done.
     
    1. For the case of current session,  you don't need to do anything. The form fields will retain their last set value. As for the lastValue attribute you mentioned, it simply contain the value from the last successful 'apply' or 'ok' action. This attribute usually is used if your field callack function detected an error and need to restore the previous valid field value.
    2. For the case of cross session, you will need define a Cadence Environment Variable partition for your tool.
      1. Needs to have CDS_LOAD_ENV shell environment variable set to "CSF"
      2. Create a file following the Cadence Environment Variable format and place it in the home directory (of any directory in the CSF path). You can look up this definition from cdnshelp and search for "Cadence Setup Search File: setup.loc".
      3. The name of this file needs to be in the format of "your_tool".cdsenv, e.g. customer.cdsenv
    3. After you have done this, you should be able to use envGetVal() function to retrieve the variable values from your code.
    4. During runtime, you can use envSetVal() function to update the variable value so future calls to envGetVal() will get the current value.
    5. To save the current values to the .cdsenv file so the next session can pick up the values, either you ask the user to use the CIW - Options - Save Defaults command and select your tool name and perform the save operation; or program this into your code with the envStoreEnv() function.
    6. I don't have issue with restoring the default value after clicking the Defaults button. But I do have some issue with the code you posted. There were some mistakes in them.  The version I have edited is  shown below
    ============================= 
    procedure( igfPlotNameCB( theForm )
          igfPlotNameFieldLastValue = theForm->igfPlotNameField->value
          );procedure

    procedure( igfPlotDirCB( theForm )
          igfPlotDirLastValue = theForm->igfPlotDir->value
          )


    procedure( igfSavePlotFormCB( theForm )
          hiSetCallbackStatus( theForm t)
          )

    igfPlotDirLastValue = "~/"
    igfPlotNameFieldLastValue = ""

    procedure( igfCreateSavePlotPopUp()
          let( (plotDirField plotNameField)
              plotDirField =  hiCreateFileSelectorField(
                               ?name 'plotDir
                               ?mode 'directory
                               ?prompt "Plot Directory:"
                               ?value igfPlotDirLastValue
                               ?defValue "~/"
                               ?callback "igfPlotDirCB( hiGetCurrentForm() )"
                               ?enabled t
                               )
              plotNameField = hiCreateStringField(
                           ?name 'plotName
                           ?prompt "Plot Name"
                           ?value igfPlotNameFieldLastValue
                           ?defValue " "
                           ?callback "igfPlotNameCB( hiGetCurrentForm() )"
                           ?editable t
                           )
              igfSavePlotForm = hiCreateAppForm(
                            ?name 'igfSavePlotPopUpMenu
                            ?formTitle "Save Plot"
                            ?callback 'igfSavePlotFormCB
                            ?fields list( plotDirField plotNameField )
                            ?unmapAfterCB t
                      )
    )
    )


    procedure( igfSavePlotPopUp()
          unless( boundp('igfSavePlotForm)
               igfCreateSavePlotPopUp()
               ); when
          hiDisplayForm( igfSavePlotForm )
          ); procedure igfSavePlotPopUp()
     
  • Ivars

    Li,

    Thanks so very much for your help. 

    The problems of remembering the variable value within a session and being able to set the default appear to have been related to using an out of date form. If I set igfSavePlotForm='unbound before recreating the form these aspects now work.

     I've been trying to implement the cross section aspect. Following the steps suggested in section 2, I created a file called igfTools.cdenv which contains the line:

     igfTools plotDir string "~/saveDirectory"

     When I try to read in this variable by executing  envGetVal("igfTools" "plotDir" 'string) in the CIW I get the following error messages: p, li { white-space: pre-wrap;

    *WARNING* Line ignored: (igfTools plotDir string "~/saveDirectory")

    *WARNING* invalid line of too few args ignored.

    *WARNING* envFaultInEnvVars: variables for tool igfTools not specified in ./igfTools.cdsenv

    *WARNING* envGetVal: could not find tool[.partition] 'igfTools'

     

    It finds the cdsenv file but can't read the contents. I tried copying a line from my .cdsenv file and it also generates the same error message.

     

    Not sure how to debug why the envGetVal command fails.

     

    Ivars

     

     

  • skillUser

    Hi Ivars,

    I think it is failing because the .cdsenv file entries should have 5 elements for the file that is found by the search mechanism (CSF, for example) - this is different to the ~/.cdsenv file (for example) used to specify user defaults. Try adding an extra argument to the end of each line (perhaps just a t or nil) and see if that helps.

    Best regards,

    Lawrence.

  • Ivars

    Lawerence,

     I changed the line in my igfTools.cdsenv to

    igfTools plotDir string "~/saveDirectory" t

     and the envGetVal() command now works. It seems that the igfTools.cdsenv file is being treated like a tool registration file  (pg. 113 for the March 2013 version of skuiref.pdf manual). I had before seen the comment in the manual about creating a tool specific registration file but I didn't know how to do so since I didn't have write permission to the "your_install_dir/tools/dfII/etc/tools/aTool" directory specified in the manual.

    Even though I don't fully understand why my igfTools.cdsenv s being treated as a registration file (perhaps because there isn't one otherwise), it works, so I'm happy.

    Thanks for your help. Much appreciated.

     Ivars

  • Li Ting

    Hi Ivars

    Obviously I have left out some important details. Yes, the igfTools.cdsenv is meant to be a registration file and its format is different than what you see in the .cdsenv file.

     There are 5 entries (columns) in the registration file.

    Partition name / variable name / variable type / default value / private or not (t/nil)

    The private flag affects will the variable be saved or not.

    The .cdsenv file used for customized user values only have the first 4 columns.

    Thanks Lawrence for fill in the gap.

    Cheers

    Li 

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