Introduction to visual design support

1

Drag a FlexPendant button from the Toolbox to the Designer.

2

Double-click the button in the Designer, this opens the code editor.

3

As you see an event handler for the click event has been created. Add the code to launch the Hello World message in it:

               private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
myLabel1.Text = " Hello World! ";
}
catch(System.Exception ex)
{
// Catch is mandatory here!!
// If there is no catch to take care of an error caused by your application,
// not only your application, but the entire FlexPendant, will crash, as all FP applications share the same GUI-thread.
// It is up to you how to handle the error. Normally, you may want to display an error message, something like this:
GTPUMessageBox.Show(this.Parent
, null
, "An unexpected error occurred \nError Message: " +ex.Message
, "Application Error"
, System.Windows.Forms.MessageBoxIcon.Question
, System.Windows.Forms.MessageBoxButtons.OK);
}
finally
{
// cleanup code goes here (if needed)
// "finally" is used to guarantee that cleaning up resources, releasing mastersip etc is not skipped due to the exception.
// (In this case, the finally clause is not necessary, as there is nothing to clean up.)
}

An alternative way of adding an event handler is shown in the next step.

Note

A FlexPendant application to be used in industry must have exception handling in all event handlers, as shown in the preceding code sample. The FlexPendant has only ONE GUI thread, which all applications running on the FlexPendant share. If your application breaks the only GUI thread, all of the applications will die and the FlexPendant must be restarted manually. For more information, see Exception handling.

4

Bring up the Properties window for the button by right clicking it in the Designer and selecting Properties. Click the events button (yellow flashing lightening) to see the events available for the ABB button. As shown by the figure, you have already connected an event handler to the click event.

Note
It is the default event of the control that you get when you double-click it in the Designer. To add an event handler for another button event, bring up the Properties window and double-click the event you want to generate a handler for, for example a FontChanged event handler. You will enter the code editor, the cursor inside the generated event handler.

5

On the Build menu, click Build Solution and check that you did not get any compilation errors.

6

To test the application you need to deploy it to a robot system. If there is no robot system available, you must create a robot system by using the System Builder of RobotStudio.

7

Copy the assembly (*.dll) and the proxy assembly (*.gtpu.dll) from the bin\Debug (or bin\Release) directory of your Visual Studio project to the HOME directory created by RobotStudio when your robot system was created.

Example showing default paths for copy/paste:! If you have already started the virtual FlexPendant you need to close it before pasting the dlls.

C:\Data\Visual Studio 2005\Projects\TpsViewMyApp\TpsViewMyApp\bin\Debug\

C:\Systems\sys1_508\HOME

Note
If you have already started the virtual FlexPendant you need to close it before pasting the dlls.

8

Start the virtual FlexPendant.

9

On the ABB menu, find your application and open it.

10

Click the button. The Hello World message will be displayed.

Note
For more information on how to implement the additional features: application title, button background image, command bar with a menu item and an event handler to launch a standard view, see Introduction to visual design support.

1

If you selected Empty for your project you can change it to Form by exchanging TpsControl with TpsForm directly in the source code, like this:

public class TpsViewIRC5App14 : TpsForm, ITpsViewSetup, ITpsViewActivation

Public Class TpsViewIRC5App14 Inherits TpsForm '(was TpsControl before) Implements ITpsViewSetup, ITpsViewActivation

Note
The Designer now shows the title bar on top of the container control.

2

Right-click somewhere in the middle of the container control and select Properties .

3

Enter “This is my Hello World application” at the Text property. See the tip of ProjectEmptyEmpty or Form? if the Text property is not available.

4

Still using the TpsForm Properties window, expand the MainMenu property node.

5

Click the MenuItems property and the browse button which appears once the property is selected.

6

In the MenuItem Collection Editor, which is now launched, click the Add button. Then enter “Launch View” at the Text property. Click OK.

Note
The added menuItem has its own MenuItems property. You use it if the “Launch View” command is to present a menu instead of working as a button on the command bar. How this can be done is further detailed in Command bar.

7

Add an event handler with code that will launch the standard Jogging view when the Launch View button is pressed.

Adding event handlers is done differently in Visual Studio depending on which programming language you are using.

For C#

In the constructor, after the call to InitializeComponent, add a subscription to the click event of the “Launch View” command. Write:

menuItem1.Click +=

then TAB twice. As you will notice, Visual Studio intellisense auto generates an event handler, and you only need to write the code for launching the Jogging view:

this._launchService.LaunchView(FpStandardView.Jogging,null,false,out this._cookieJog)

Add an event handler using the preceding drop down boxes the Visual Studio Code Viewer. Find and select MenuItem1 in the left drop down box and the Click event in the right drop down box. The event handler is now auto generated for you, and the only thing you need to do is to write the code for launching the Jogging view (see VB code in Launching standard views).

Note
There is no possibility to attach an event handler in the properties window, like you do for a Button for example.

8

Declare the _launchService and the _cookieJog objects:

private ABB.Robotics.Tps.Taf.ITpsViewLaunchServices _launchService;private object

9

Retrieve the _launchService object in the Install method of your class:

For VB code example, see Installing ITpsViewSetup.

10

In the designer, open the Properties window of the button.

11

Enter “Press Me” at the Text property.

12

Select the BackgroundImage property and browse to the Resources folder of the FlexPendant SDK installation and import “IRB140.gif”.

Note
The default path is <FlexPendant SDK> path.

13

Build, deploy and start the application, that is repeat step five to eight in Hands on - Hello World .

14

Click the Launch View command.

The Jogging view should open up and get focus.