Object Configuration
Introduction
Every Object can be configured in the App Builder. There are different types of properties available depending on the type of objects. These will be explained below.
Make sure click the blue “Save Properties“ button whenever you make changes to your objects or ports. Object and Port Configurations are not saved automatically. If you accidentally click away or forget to click the save button your changes will be lost.
Object Properties
Hardware
Hardware Objects have 3 properties. Object Name, Mapping Description and Multi-Mapping.
The “Object Name” simply gives your object a name on the canvas. The “Mapping Description” is being used to supply some additional instructions for when a user or you are finish the application mapping. “Multi-Mapping” is a hardware specific feature that lets you map multiple pieces of hardware to the same virtual object.
Learn more about Multi-Mapping.
Interface
Most Interface Objects have 3 properties, but the Icon Button has 4 properties. Object Name, Dashboard Label, Dashboard Group and in case of the Icon Button another property called Icon.
The “Object Name” simply gives your object a name on the canvas. The “Dashboard Label” is used to describe the specific interface object on the dashboard. For example if you have a button that controls a light you could have it’s dashboard label say on and off, but the object for button on the canvas could be named differently. The property is the “Dashboard Group” which essentially determines the tab and group in which you interface object is located.
Learn more about the Dashboard Builder.
Lastly the special case property for the Icon Button called “Icon”. This is a setting that lets you select a specific design for your Icon Button.
Code
All Code Objects have two properties. Object Name and a switch to Show Code View. Additionally there is a copy function in all standard and beta code objects to copy their contents and port configuration into a custom snippet for further customization from advanced users. Custom Snippets also have access to more properties like the amount of in and out ports their name and also message type.
The “Object Name“ simply gives your object a name on the canvas. The Show Code View switch opens the code view of the code object so you can better understand what is happening in the background.
Service
Service Objects just have the “Object Name” property.
Misc
Misc Objects just have the “Object Name“ property.
Port Properties
Port Properties of an object can be access by clicking on the port label on the object.
In Ports
In Ports usually have two properties called “Default Value” and “Trigger”. Some other ports have min and max properties for specific scaling tasks.
The “Default Value“ can be used to define a value of the port for when the app is started. This comes in handy for specific code objects or interface objects.
The “Trigger“ property is used to determine if an object should execute when it receives a message on the specific port.
Out Ports
Out Ports currently don’t have any properties that you can change.