[kepler-dev] Adding actors to the workflow programmatically

[Christopher Brooks]

Hi R.P,
Sorry for the delay, I'm just going through old email.

ptolemy/kernel/CompositeEntity.java contains connect() methods that
can be used to connect ports.

For a simple example of a model defined in Java, see

http://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/ptolemyII/ptIIlatest/ptII/ptolemy/domains/sdf/demo/Butterfly/Butterfly.java

The kernel chapter of Volume 2 of the Ptolemy II design doc discusses
how to connect actors
http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2007/EECS-2007-8.pdf

Using change requests is somewhat better than calling connect()

The bottom of ptII/ptolemy/moml/demo/modulation.xml defines a relation
and then calls link:

    <relation name="r3" class="ptolemy.actor.TypedIORelation">
    </relation>
...
    <link port="mult.output" relation="r3"/>
...
    <link port="display.input" relation="r3"/>

You could do something similar in a ChangeRequest.

_Christopher

--------

    Thanks for the help guys, think I get the gist of it now.
    
    One further question relating to this - in a similar way, what is the  
    functionality that actually connects two actors together? Does this  
    work through the LinkModel class, I'm guessing it's a similar  
    situation to dropping the actor into a model in that a change request  
    is used?
    
    Thanks again,
    
    Russell
    
    
    Quoting Christopher Brooks <cxh at eecs.berkeley.edu>:
    
    > Hi R.P.,
    >
    > If you have a model, then you can instantiate the actor into
    > the model with the constructor for the actor that takes a container.
    > However, you need to handle actor name duplication issues yourself.
    >
    > The biggest problem is that undo/redo will not work, since undo/redo
    > uses ChangeRequests.
    >
    > This also gets into configurations, effigies and tableaux.  See
    > the following classes ptolemy.actor.gui: Configuration, Effigy,
    > Tableau.
    >
    > Ptolemy models can be described in MoML, Java and Tcl.  For examples
    > of models in Java, see the .java classes in ptolemy/domains/*/demo/*,
    > for example
    > sdf/demo/Butterfly/Butterfly.java
    > or
    > ct/demo/Helicopter/Helicopter.java
    >
    > _Christopher
    >
    > Edward writes:
    > --------
    >
    >
    >     When you drag an actor in, the outline of what happens is:
    >
    >       actor = the selected actor in the library;
    >       String xml = actor.exportMoML();
    >       model = the composite actor being edited.
    >       MoMLChangeRequest request = new MoMLChangeRequest(..., xml, ...);
    >       model.requestChange(request);
    >
    >     I.e., a MoML description of the actor to drop in is obtained,
    >     and a change request is used to insert that MoML into the model.
    >
    >     Edward
    >
    >
    >     At 04:05 AM 1/10/2008, R.P.Mciver at cs.cardiff.ac.uk wrote:
    >     >Hi,
    >     >
    >     >I've been playing about with trying to add Actors to a workflow in a
    >     >manner different to dragging them from the tree of those available,
    >     >however I've not been having much luck!
    >     >
    >     >I was wondering if anyone could tell me what code is actually execut
   ed
    >     >when the user drags an entity from the tree onto the workflow? And i
   s
    >     >there a simple "addEntity" command that could be used to add an acto
   r
    >     >to an existing workflow?
    >     >
    >     >Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!
    >     >
    >     >Russell
    >     >
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