Organize models in a TaurusGrid

TaurusGrid displays a collection of Taurus models in a two-dimensional layout. Rows and columns are defined using matching rules, and each model is placed in the first row and column whose rule matches it.

This is useful when several devices expose similar attributes and you want to present them in a compact matrix instead of a form.

Create a grid

The following example displays four attributes of sys/tg_test/1:

from taurus.external.qt import Qt
from taurus.qt.qtgui.application import TaurusApplication
from taurus.qt.qtgui.table import TaurusGrid

app = TaurusApplication(cmd_line_parser=None)
grid = TaurusGrid()

grid.setRowLabels("TangoTest:sys/tg_test/1")

grid.setColumnLabels(
    "Double:double_scalar,"
    "Long:long_scalar,"
    "String:string_scalar,"
    "Boolean:boolean_scalar"
)

grid.setModel([
    "sys/tg_test/1/double_scalar",
    "sys/tg_test/1/long_scalar",
    "sys/tg_test/1/string_scalar",
    "sys/tg_test/1/boolean_scalar",
])

grid.resize(900, 250)
grid.show()

app.exec()

The resulting layout is conceptually equivalent to:

             Double          Long          String          Boolean
TangoTest    double_scalar   long_scalar   string_scalar   boolean_scalar

Define rows and columns

TaurusGrid.setRowLabels() and TaurusGrid.setColumnLabels() accept comma-separated rules using the form:

LABEL:REGEXP

LABEL is the text shown in the row or column header. REGEXP is matched against each complete model name to decide where that model belongs.

For example:

grid.setRowLabels(
    "Test 1:sys/tg_test/1,"
    "Test 2:sys/tg_test/2"
)

creates two rows. A model containing sys/tg_test/1 is assigned to the Test 1 row, while a model containing sys/tg_test/2 is assigned to Test 2.

Column rules work in exactly the same way:

grid.setColumnLabels(
    "Scalars:.*_scalar,"
    "Spectra:.*_spectrum"
)

Here, the visible column names are Scalars and Spectra and the second part of each rule is the regular expression used for classification.

Set the models

TaurusGrid.setModel() provides the actual Taurus models that the grid will display:

grid.setModel([
    "sys/tg_test/1/double_scalar",
    "sys/tg_test/1/string_scalar",
])

Each model is matched independently against the row rules and the column rules. The corresponding cell contains a TaurusValue connected to that model.

Matching rules

Keep the following details in mind when defining row and column rules:

Matching is case-insensitive.
TaurusGrid searches the complete model name, so a rule does not need to match from the beginning of the string.
* is accepted as a convenience wildcard and is converted to .* when needed.
The first matching rule wins, so put more specific rules before more general ones when they overlap.
Models that do not match any row or column rule are assigned to an Others row or column.

For example, prefer:

grid.setColumnLabels(
    "Double:double_scalar,"
    "All scalars:scalar"
)

over the reverse order if double_scalar should appear specifically in the Double column.

Show or hide attribute labels

Each model is represented by a TaurusValue, so attribute labels and units can be shown or hidden independently:

grid.showAttributeLabels(False)
grid.showAttributeUnits(False)

The row and column headers remain available to describe the organization of the grid.