Chapter 1
Introduction

RexHMI covers all tools and libraries necessary for creating human-machine interfaces (visualizations) for the REX control system. There are three different types of visualization the WebWatch, the WebBuDi and the one created by RexHMI Designer.

All the tools result to the HTML5 web page served from the internal REX web server. The HMI can be accessed using desktop, tablets and also mobile devices. Recommended web browsers are Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.


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Figure 1.1: The example of WebWatch visualization

Usually the HMI is downloaded to the target device using HMI block in the exec.mdl file. In the project directory create exec.mdl file (or use predefined templates from the Start-up wizard). Add the HMI block to the executive, set the IncludeHMI parameter and then enable WebWatch visualization (GenerateWebWatch parameter) or create your custom one. Once configured the visualization is downloaded using Compile and Download function in the RexDraw design tool to the target device. The HMI is accessible from the internal server of the target device for example at http://127.0.0.1:8008/hmi.

The HMI uses HTML, CSS3, JavaScript and WebSockets.


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Figure 1.2: Configuration of the HMI block in RexDraw

For the special cases user can create its own HMI based on the JavaScript and custom HTML or SVG components. For that purpose the REX.HMI function library is available. Chapter 5 describes all functions with parameters.