Configuring UCOS Scripting

UCOS scripting allows you to customize processes and visual effects beyond what logic can perform.

Scripting uses a programming language to initiate actions through script commands or operator actions at run-time. You can assign a script to any workstation or to multiple workstations, including UCOS data servers.

With scripts, you can read and write tag values, manipulate data, save and retrieve tag values, retrieve text from tags, and perform other tasks. Scripts allow you to perform tasks that logic cannot, such as launching third-party applications and manipulating text. You can also determine when and under what circumstances scripts run.

Scripts can be used in any number of ways:

• Launching applications, such as Excel, Word, or Access
• Placing data into a text file for import into another application which can then generate a formatted report based on that data
• Using calculations to animate or move screen objects in a precise way

Scripts can also be launched in several different ways, including opening or closing a screen, specific changes in data, a specified length of time, starting or closing the project, or a combination of these conditions.

Writing a script is similar to writing a program in BASIC, Pascal, C, or other high level languages.

A script can include the following elements:

• Statements that contain executable instructions composed of tags, constants, and/or operators
• Comments that are ignored by UCOS but which document the script
• Conditional blocks that determine whether or not a block of statements is executed
• Functions that return calculated values, including functions for performing math, time/date, string, and file operations.