The pvlist.xml file

The complete list of EPICS Process Variables to be monitored is declared in the pvlist.xml file.

Preamble

The pvlist.xml must be “well-formed XML”. (Google for this term to become informed what this means.)

The first lines of the file are always:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="pvlist.xsl" ?>

The first line declares this to be a file that should be well-formed XML according to the version 1.0 standard. The second line provides a convenience definition for visualizing the pvlist.xml file in a browser that uses the pvlist.xsl file to format the XML content into something that humans can more easily read. To do this, the pvlist.xsl file must be in the same directory as the pvlist.xml file.

Root tag

All well-formed XML files have a single element at the outermost (root) level of the file. In the pvlist.xml file, the root element is pvwatch. Note the closing </pvwatch> tag at the end of the file.

A version attribute describes this file adheres to the version="1.0" definition of pvlist.xml files. That definition is described in the XML Schema file pvlist.xsd provided in the source code package.

This XML Schema definition is used to validate the pvlist.xml when it is read. If there are problems, the first problem discovered will be reported.

Inside the root tag, EPICS_PV elements describe the PVs to be monitored. Additionally, definition tags are provided to describe the terms used.

Describe a PV to Monitor

Each PV to be monitored is declared in the XML file using a line such as this example:

<EPICS_PV
  PV="ioc:xps:c0:m1.RBV"
  mne="mr"
  description="motor MR, degrees"
  />

This says to monitor the EPICS process variable named ioc:xps:c0:m1.RBV and to associate that value with the mnemonic named mr. The description text motor MR, degrees can be used in displays for this value. The tag EPICS_PV describes this as a PV declaration. It must appear in uppercase letters. A complete list of terms is described in the section below: ref:pvlist.terms`.

At minimum, it is required to provide the PV, mne, and description attributes.

The order of the attributes is not important, they can be given in any order. Also, the spacing between attributes is not important. The entire EPICS_PV element can be specified on one line or broken across several lines.

Keep the description text short. Longer descriptions, including those with line breaks, are less useful in creating display screens.

Note: The mnemonic name mne must adhere to the rules for XML NCName (non-colonized name). The practical restrictions of NCName are that it cannot contain several symbol characters like :, @, $, %, &, /, +, ,, ;, whitespace characters or different parentheses. Furthermore an NCName cannot begin with a number, dot or minus character although they can appear later in an NCName. The regular expression is: [\i-[:]][\c-[:]]*

The closing tag

Note that /> is used to close the EPICS_PV element. It is equivalent to use:

<EPICS_PV
  PV="ioc:xps:c0:m1.RBV"
  mne="mr"
  description="motor MR, degrees"
  ></EPICS_PV>

but this is not advised since no content is allowed for EPICS_PV elements, only attributes.

Terms

attribute	definition
mne	one-word mnemonic reference used in python and xslt code (mne should be unique for each EPICS_PV)
PV	EPICS process variable name (must be used in only one EPICS_PV)
description	useful text informative to others
display_format	(optional, default=”%s”) PVs will be formatted for display with this string
_ignore_	(optional, default=”false”) this PV is ignored if value is not “false”
as_string	(optional, default=”false”) whether to return the string representation of the value

These two declarations are equivalent:

<EPICS_PV PV="ioc:xps:c0:m1.RBV" description="motor MR, degrees" display_format="%.6f" mne="mr"/>

<EPICS_PV
  PV="ioc:xps:c0:m1.RBV"
  description="motor MR, degrees"
  display_format="%.6f"
  mne="mr"
  />

EPICS R3 strings using the waveform record (as_string)

In EPICS R3 IOCs, it is common to provide support for long strings (40 or more characters) using a waveform [1] record with character data type. For example, the EPICS AreaDetector [2] has such a PV to store the full path (length up to 256) to an attributes file. Here’s an example using the PV with an instance of the ADSimDetector [3]:

$ caget 13SIM1:cam1:NDAttributesFile.{RTYP,FTVL,VAL}
13SIM1:cam1:NDAttributesFile.RTYP waveform
13SIM1:cam1:NDAttributesFile.FTVL CHAR
13SIM1:cam1:NDAttributesFile.VAL 256 47 116 109 112 47 ...

pvWebMonitor uses the as_string support from PyEpics [4] to report both the character list values and the text string values of the string waveform. Here is the configuration in pvlist.xml to watch that PV:

<EPICS_PV
    PV="13SIM1:cam1:NDAttributesFile"
    description="NDAttributesFile array"
    mne="NDAttributesFile_array"/>

and here is typical content in the rawdata.xml file:

<pv id="NDAttributesFile_array" name="13SIM1:cam1:NDAttributesFile">
   <name>13SIM1:cam1:NDAttributesFile</name>
   <id>NDAttributesFile_array</id>
   <description>NDAttributesFile array</description>
   <timestamp>2017-12-11 11:09:43.157445</timestamp>
   <record_type>waveform</record_type>
   <counter>2</counter>
   <units></units>
   <value>[ 47 116 109 112  47  97 116 116 114 105  98 117 116 101 115  46 120 109 108   0]</value>
   <char_value>/tmp/attributes.xml</char_value>
   <raw_value>[ 47 116 109 112  47  97 116 116 114 105  98 117 116 101 115  46 120 109 108   0]</raw_value>
   <format>%s</format>
</pv>

You’ll need to access the text as a string using char_value rather than just value. If you want the value to be the text string, add the as_string="true" attribute in the entry in the pvlist.xml file, such as:

<EPICS_PV
    PV="13SIM1:cam1:NDAttributesFile"
    description="NDAttributesFile array"
    mne="NDAttributesFile_array"
    as_string="true"/>

Then, the char_value and the value both have the string as a result:

<pv id="NDAttributesFile_string" name="13SIM1:cam1:NDAttributesFile">
   <name>13SIM1:cam1:NDAttributesFile</name>
   <id>NDAttributesFile_string</id>
   <description>NDAttributesFile string</description>
   <timestamp>2017-12-11 11:09:43.185298</timestamp>
   <record_type>waveform</record_type>
   <counter>2</counter>
   <units></units>
   <value>/tmp/attributes.xml</value>
   <char_value>/tmp/attributes.xml</char_value>
   <raw_value>[ 47 116 109 112  47  97 116 116 114 105  98 117 116 101 115  46 120 109 108   0]</raw_value>
   <format>%s</format>
</pv>

In both cases, whether or not as_string is used, the character list representation is available in the raw_value and the text string representation is available in the char_value.

[1]

EPICS R3 waveform record: https://wiki-ext.aps.anl.gov/epics/index.php/RRM_3-14_Waveform

[2]

EPICS AreaDetector: http://cars9.uchicago.edu/software/epics/areaDetector.html

[3]

ADSimDetector: http://cars.uchicago.edu/software/epics/simDetectorDoc.html

[4]

PyEpics: http://cars9.uchicago.edu/software/python/pyepics3/pv.html?highlight=as_string#pv.get

Removing declarations

Sometimes, it is necessary to stop watching a certain PV. There are three ways to do this. It can be commented out using XML comments, it can be marked to _ignore_ it, or the declaration could be deleted. We’ll describe the first two cases.

Comment out in XML

To comment out using an XML comment (<!-- -->), take this code:

<EPICS_PV PV="ioc:m1" mne="m1" description="motor 1" />

and surround it with XML comment tags, such as:

<!--
<EPICS_PV PV="ioc:m1" mne="m1" description="motor 1" />
-->

XML comment tags can be used to block out many EPICS_PV declarations at once.

Marking with _ignore_ attribute

To mark a single EPICS_PV declaration to be ignored, take this code:

<EPICS_PV PV="ioc:m1" mne="m1" description="motor 1" />

and add the _ignore_="true" attribute, such as:

<EPICS_PV _ignore_="true" PV="ioc:m1" mne="m1" description="motor 1" />

The _ignore_ attribute can be given in any order. The value true may be upper or lower case but must be enclosed by double quotes.

Each PV to be ignored using the _ignore_ attribute must have its own _ignore_ attribute. You cannot mark a whole block of EPICS_PV elements with a single _ignore_ attribute.

Example pvlist.xml file

An example of such a file is shown below.

Example pvlist.xml file. You can edit this file with a text editor.

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="pvlist.xsl" ?>

<!-- You can edit this file with a text editor -->

<pvwatch version="1.0">

  <EPICS_PV PV="ioc:alldone" 
      description="IOC motors moving" 
      mne="ioc_alldone"
      />

  <EPICS_PV PV="S-DCCT:CurrentM" 
      description="APS storage ring current, mA" 
      display_format="%.2f" 
      mne="SR_current"
      />

  <EPICS_PV PV="ID:Energy"    
      mne="Und_E" 
      description="ID E, keV"  
      display_format="%.4f"
      />
  <EPICS_PV PV="dcm:BraggEAO" 
      mne="DCM_E" 
      description="DCM E, keV" 
      display_format="%.4f"
      />

  <EPICS_PV PV="PSS:STA_A_FES_OPEN_PL.VAL" 
      description="white shutter opened" 
      mne="white_shtr_opened"
      />
  <EPICS_PV PV="PSS:STA_B_SBS_OPEN_PL.VAL" 
      description="mono shutter opened" 
      mne="mono_shtr_opened"
      />
  <EPICS_PV PV="PSS:D_BEAM_READY" 
      _ignore_="true"  
      description="PSS: D Beam Ready" 
      mne="D_beam_ready"
      />

</pvwatch>