VisualCommander Glossary

Definition of Terms:

Border: A solid color drawn around a display.
Command: A single input to a Session.
Data Center: Data Centers host Sessions. Each Data Center runs as a daemon process on the hosted computer. Each instance of VisualCommander insures that there is a Data Center with the name Local running on the same computer.
Data Source: A type of external system that provides data to a VisualCommander system, and may also be able to receive and handle commands from VisualCommander.
Data Source Plugin: A type of plugin to a VisualCommander system that allows VisualCommander to connect to a Data Source to get data and send commands.
Data Hierarchy: Tree structured organization of all available inputs and outputs. Shown in the Data window.
Data Tree: See Data Hierarchy
Data Processor: An instance of a Processor Plugin added to an Interface which generates one or more Data Points in the Data Hierarchy. A Data Processor can also have Data Points as inputs, possibly using their data as the basis for the generated outputs.
Display: An instance of a Display Plugin that has been added to a Page and provides visualization for data. Multiple Displays can be created from a single type of Display Plugin.
Display Plugin: Plugin for visually representing data and receiving command data from users. Examples of display plugins include the Plot 2D and Model Viewer plugins.
DSim: The object-oriented simulation framework bundled with VisualCommander. Simulation components are loaded from libraries and are fully re-usable. Simulations are described in setup files (also known as DSS files as they use the .dss extension.) VisualCommander provides a built-in Data Source to run and command DSim simulations.
Interface: A document containing a customized user interface for viewing data and sending commands. Interfaces include Windows, Pages and Data Consumers.
Inspector: A utility panel, associated with an Interface, that shows all of the elements of the Interface and provides a way to edit their properties. The Inspector also allows for the management of Sessions used by the Interface. Detailed documentation is available for the Inspector.
Padding: The space between a Display's content and its border.
Page: A layer within a window, analogous to a canvas upon which Data Displays "draw" their visual representations. Each Window in an interface will have one or more Pages. Only a single Page of a Window is visible at any time.
Plugin: An add-on piece of software which can be developed by third parties to add new functionality to VisualCommander without modifying the original software. There are four types of plugins that VisualCommander supports: Data Sources, Data Source Configurators, Displays and Processors.
Point: A single output from a Session. A Point has associated metadata, such as the number of rows and columns and the type of the data. It also has a set of all of the historical values that have been assigned to that point at various times by the Session.
Processor Plugin: A Plugin for generating new Data Points in the Data Hierarchy, often by processing data from existing Data Points. Processor plugins run inside a VisualCommander client and their outputs are limited to that client.
Session: A running Data Source plugin. Sessions run within a Data Center, and are somewhat similar to a computer daemon process (i.e., a faceless background process). Each session has a unique name, provides Data Points and Commands, and can be in various states that the user is able to control using a Session Manager. A Session's hierarchy of data points and commands will appear in the overall Data Hierarchy contained within a top-level Volume of the same name as the Session.
Session Manager: VisualCommander uses Session Managers to provide the means to create, control, observe, and control sessions. When attached to an interface, these items maintain a recipe for a Session, so they can create the necessary Session on demand as required. Session Managers provide a visible interface for a Session in the Inspection Panel's Session View.
Volume: Part of the hierarchy of metadata that describes the data available from a session. A Volume does not have data in and of itself, but it can contain Points and Commands. A Volume can also contain other Volumes; there are no limits on the depth of such nested hierarchies.
Window: An onscreen window, the highest level component in an Interface, containing one or more layers referred to as Pages. A single interface may contain more than one window.