Bulk editor tab

As discussed above, in the Event frame structure tab section, PI EFGen gives you the ability to configure your event frame structure. Selecting on a branch in the event frame hierarchy displays tabs of configuration options.

Users editing a large number of event frame configuration options may find editing individual options through PI Event Frames Manager to be too time consuming, so a bulk editor function has been added to version 4.1 of PI EFGen. See Bulk Editor in the left pane of PI Event Frames Manager.

Select on Bulk Editor to display available options for managing the configuration of your Event Frame Structure:

• Bulk Editor

  Select Bulk Editor to display your event frame hierarchy in an Excel spreadsheet. PI EFGen configuration is displayed in rows, and presented in corresponding columns are the settings available via the Event Frame Structure tab. Editing the spreadsheet provides you with the full range of Excel editing functions, most notably the ability to edit multiple configurations simultaneously. When you close Excel, the changes you make to the exported file are read back into your event frame hierarchy, replacing the previous configuration details with your edits. If you are satisfied with the changes, the Save Settings button will make the changes permanent. See Edit with Bulk Editor.

  Note: Simply closing MS-Excel does not overwrite your existing configuration file, so should you encounter difficulties following a bulk edit you can return to your previous configuration settings by closing PI Event Frames Manager without saving. Your bulk edits will not be saved until you save the modified interface configuration.

Since the server on which the configuration editor is installed often does not have MS-Excel installed, two buttons are included in Bulk Editor to address that situation:

• Export CSV

  Select Export CSV to export your event frame hierarchy as a CSV file for editing with MS-Excel on another device.

• Import CSV

  Select Import CSV to import your event frame hierarchy from a CSV file edited with MS-Excel on another device.

Users may wish to export or import copies of PI EFGen's event frame structure. The following two buttons allow you to export and import the structure in the same XML format that the interface normally uses:

• Export XML

  Select Export XML to export a saved XML event frame configuration file.

• Import XML

  Select Import XML to import an XML event frame configuration file.

  Note: The bottom four buttons use the standard Windows Save file and Open file dialogs.