About developing for portability

Develop Px Views that you can easily use in multiple scenarios by specifying relative ORDs in bindings and hyperlinks.

Bound label using absolute ORD

For purposes of this discussion, the term portability means reusability. In other words, being able to use the same Px View in different stations without having to edit the ORD properties for bindings and hyperlinks. Another example of portability, is being able to use the same Px view in a controller station and a Supervisor station without having to edit ORD properties. You can develop portable Px views by avoiding the use of absolute ORDs in bindings and hyperlinks. The reason to avoid using absolute ORD properties in Px views is that they are not portable between stations.

The floor plan graphic shown below has a bound label configured with a hyperlink to a detailed graphic for a specific device. You can see that both the ord binding and hyperlink properties use an absolute ord, meaning the value specifies the entire station slot path.

Figure 1. Floor plan graphic using components configured with absolute ORDs
If you wanted to use the same floor plan graphic in the Supervisor station it you would have to create NiagaraNetwork proxy points and assign the same Px view (or you could use Px view export tags). In either case, the absolute slot path used in the Supervisor must be different than that used in the JACE.

  • Supervisor absolute ORD

    station:|slot:/Drivers/NiagaraNetwork/VA/Richmond/myController/points/FirstFloor/AHU1

  • JACE absolute ORD

    station:|slot:/Drivers/LonNetwork/FirstFloor/points/FirstFloor/SpaceTemp

Bound label using relative ORD

Here, you have the same scenario but in this case using relative ORDs instead of absolute ORDs.
Figure 2. Floor plan graphic using components configured with relative ORDs

The same relative ORDs can be used in both the JACE and the Supervisor station since it is being applied against different base ORDs

Hyperlink using absolute ORD

The following example, the user has hyperlinked from the floor plan graphic to a more detailed graphic of the air handling unit (AHU). This detailed AHU graphic includes a button that is a hyperlink back to the floor plan graphic (FirstFloor). The button hyperlink is configured with an absolute ORD.
Figure 3. Graphic that includes a button with a hyperlink configured with an absolute ORD

In order to use the above graphic in the Supervisor station, you must use NiagaraNetwork proxy points and assign a Px view or by using a Px view export tag.

The absolute ORD to the First Floor graphic in the JACE is different from that in the Supervisor.

  • Absolute ORD in JACE

    station:|slot:/Drivers/LonNetwork/FirstFloor

  • Absolute ORD in Supervisor

    station:|slot:/Drivers/NiagaraNetwork/VA/Richmond/myController/points/FirstFloor

Hyperlink using relative ORD

Using relative ORD properties, it is possible to navigate back up the tree by entering two periods in the path, similar to how directories can be navigated in a DOS command window.
Note: You can back up multiple levels using this syntax: “..”.
Figure 4. Graphic includes a button with a hyperlink configured with a relative ORD

  • Relative ORD in Px page

    slot:..

  • Base ORD in JACE

    station:|slot:/Drivers/LonNetwork/FirstFloor/AHU1

  • Base ORD in Supervisor

    station:|slot:/Drivers/NiagaraNetwork/VA/Richmond/myController/points/FirstFloor/AHU1