SharedUI

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SharedUI is a graphical user interface designed help engineers monitor and record data during the module assembly process. The final product of the GUI is a number of XML files formatted for the HGCAL DB loader. It can automatically store recorded data in the central DB, as well as retrive data for parts.

Please contact Danyi Zhang at [email protected] if you have any questions or run into any bugs.

Prerequisites

This GUI requires Python 3.7 or later. It's been tested thoroughly with Python 3.9 and more briefly with 3.7; versions 3.6 and earlier will not work properly.

Additionally, the GUI has been deveoped on a Mac machine, and may run into issues on other operating systems. (Update: The GUI appears to work fine on Windows and will likely work fine on Linux, but has not been extensively tested yet.)

To install the GUI, simply download and clone the git repository:

git clone https://github.com/IncandelaLab/SharedUI.git

Next, install the required python packages with:

python -m pip install numpy PyQt5 jinja2 pytest pexpect

An installation script install_dependencies.sh may be required in the future for installing software required for DB communication, but it is currently WIP and should not be used. For now, please pip install all necessary packages if there's an error from importing packages.

IMPORTANT: Before uploading, please make sure to run the command below in the terminal at least one time and follow the prompts to establish a connection with lxplus and dbloader-hgcal hosts:

scp -o [email protected] /directory_to_the_xml_file/xxx.xml username@dbloader-hgcal:/home/dbspool/spool/hgc/int2r/

To upload XML files, the GUI essentially runs this command in a subprocess. It will expect to see a prompt "Password" (actually twice, so you need to type in your password twice) but if it doesn't in the case of first establishing a connection to hosts, it will report an error.

Running and using the GUI

To run the GUI, cd into the SharedUI directory and run the following command:

python mainUI.py

If your default python version is 2.x, you may need to use python3 mainUI.py instead.

(NEW) Before the GUI appears, a request box will pop up asking for a username and password, which will be used for uploading the parts data. Please ensure that the account used here has the necessary permissions to upload to HGCAL dbloader (please check with Ludivine and Umesh).

The GUI is divided into two main sections: Parts, tooling, and supplies; and production steps and testing. There is also a part search page that lets users quickly find existing parts. To switch between pages, simply double-click on the page name in the sidebar. (If a page does not open, it's probably WIP.)

Parts, tooling, and supplies

Before performing an assembly step, you will have to go through the parts, tooling and supplies pages to ensure that all required objects exist in the GUI. For instance, a sensor placement step requires an existing sensor tool, baseplate, sensor component tray, araldite batch, and so on. Each of these objects must be created in its corresponding page; e.g. you must use the "Baseplates" page to create a baseplate B1 before you can use B1 to build a protomodule.

To create a part, navigate to the corresponding page, enter the desired part ID into the "ID" box, and click "New". The part will not be fully created until you click "Save"; "Cancel" will discard the current changes. "Load" will check to see whether a part exists, and if the part is found, all relevant data will be downloaded so you can view and edit it. Parts may also be edited after creation with the "Edit" button, which will replace "New". (If "Edit" is greyed-out, try pressing "Load" first.)

Tools and supplies may be created in a similar manner. Note that protomodules and modules cannot be created using the Protomodules and Modules pages, only viewed, because they're automatically created upon completion of a sensor or hexaboard step.

Note that protomodules and modules are automatically created by the sensor placement and hexaboard placement steps, respectively. They cannot be created manually, but can be edited after creation. (Some protomodule/module information can't be inherited from their component parts, and has to be entered in manually.)

(NEW) Currently, central DB communication has been implemented. Parts (baseplates, sensors, etc) can be created locally and uploaded to the central DB. In real production, all baseplates, sensors, and hexaboards should be entered into the DB prior to being shipped to MACs, so that they can be accessed by the GUI and used for assembly. By that time, creation of those parts with the GUI will be disabled.

Production steps and testing routines

Once all necessary information in the parts, tooling, and supplies section has been filled in, you can proceed to the production steps. The production step pages are broadly similar to the previous ones, but with one major difference: the data will be automatically checked for errors, and if any are found, a message explaining the problem will appear in the status box. (For instance, entering in a nonexistent part or partially filling a row will produce errors.) Once all errors have been resolved, you can save the step.

(NEW) The "select" buttons are used to search for available parts for assembly. This search list includes both local and remote parts in DB. The local parts will be filtered out if they are already assembled on certain (proto)modules. However, the remote DB parts are not filtered in the same way, meaning that parts already assembled will still show up on that list. To avoid duplicates, the GUI will report the error "part xxx on position xx is already assembled on (proto) module xxx" in such cases and prevent the step from being created.

(NEW) Auto-naming protomodule and module

In production step 1, by clicking the "generate" button, the protomodule ID can be auto-generated (in standard naming scheme) after providing the sensor ID, baseplate ID, version (preseries/production) and serial number. The next largest serial number will be assigned if the "next" button under "serial number" is clicked. Similarly, in step 3, the module ID can be auto-generated after providing a protomodule ID in the standard format after clicking the "generate" button. The auto-generated IDs are also allowed to modify if there's a need for editing.

Part, tool and supply search

The Search page is designed to search for both parts and tools/supplies. They are organized into two parallel sections, and can work simutaneously without conflict.

To use the search page, simply select the type of item you want to search for using the drop-down menu at the upper-left-hand corner, then select any other criteria you want using the options below. You can then press "Search" to perform the query and display the results. Lastly, you can jump to an item's info page by clicking on the item's name in the "search results" box, then clicking the "Go to selected item" button underneath.

(NEW) The search page will list parts that are created locally or exist in the central DB without repetition. A part that exists only locally will be marked with "not uploaded to DB" in parentheses next to its ID.

XML generation and uploading

Once a part (or a step in the case of protomodules and modules) has been created and saved, XML files formatted for the DB loader will be automatically generated in the part's storage directory. The storage directories are located at SharedUI/filemanager_data/[part-name]/[creation-date] by default. As an example, the following files will be generated for a protomodule PROTO_b1_s1:

• filemanager_data/protomodules/6-28-2023/protomodule_PROTO_b1_s1_build_upload.xml
• filemanager_data/protomodules/6-28-2023/protomodule_PROTO_b1_s1_assembly_upload.xml
• filemanager_data/protomodules/6-28-2023/protomodule_PROTO_b1_s1_cond_upload.xml

(NEW) By using the panel on the bottom left of the GUI, the generated XML files can be uploaded to the central DB in two ways:

• "Upload current object": go to a part page (baseplate, sensor, hexaboard, protomodule, module), load a part (type in the name or click "Go to selected item" on the search page), then click "Upload current object" button; XML files of this specific part will be uploaded;
• "Upload objects created on date": select a date (make sure there are parts created on that date by checking the filemanager_data folder), click "Upload objects"; XML files of all the parts created on that date will be uploaded.

Instructions for developers

This section is intended for developers only, and ordinary users can safely ignore this section.

(Currently an outline, pending future architecture changes)

GUI overview

In general:

• GUI receives data from:
  • Manual user input
  • Downloading from DB upon user prompting
  • Direct connection to lab software (TBD)
• GUI creates:
  • json files for:
    • local cache
    • longer-term, local storage at institution for data not stored in DB
  • xml files for uploading to DB loader
  • NOTE: Currently planning to package the above w/ a custom-built software library

Architecture

• mainUI.py: Entry point, runs main user interface window + manages page switching
  • UI defined by main_ui/mainwindow.py
  • mainwindow.py file generated from graphical mainwindow.ui file via compile.sh
• pages/search.py, view_*.py: Manage user interaction/data updating/etc for each GUI page
  • UI defined by pages_ui/search.py, view_*.py
  • *.py files generated from graphical *.ui files via compile.sh
• filemanager/*.py:
  • Responsible for all data management
  • Defines classes for each object used in GUI (baseplate, sensor tool, PCB step, etc)
    • Each class has built-in new(), save(), load(), etc functions
  • Responsible for all json/xml generation, uploading, downloading, etc
    • Auto-created/saved/etc by built-in methods for each class
  • Also defines UserManager - class for tracking list of users at the institution (stored locally w/ json)

Class structure for filemanager/fm.py

• fsobj: Base class
  • fsobj_tool: Class for all tools
    • Sensor tool
    • PCB tool
    • Assembly tray
    • Sensor component tray
    • PCB component tray
  • fsobj_supply: Class for all supply batches
    • batch_araldite
    • batch_wedge
    • batch_sylgard
    • batch_bond_wire
  • fsobj_db: Class for objects that can interact w/ DB (Note: may remove, merge properties into child classes)
    • fsobj_part: Class for parts used in assembly process
      • baseplate
      • sensor
      • pcb
      • protomodule
      • module
    • fsobj_assembly: Class for assembly steps
      • step_sensor
      • step_pcb

Making changes to the user interface

It's recommended to use Qt Creator for editing the .ui files. If it's not already installed, you can download it from the Qt Creator tab of this page. After making changes to the .ui files, run the script compile.sh (or compile.bat) in the .ui files' directory to carry all of the changes over to the corresponding .py files. (Note: Adding new .ui files will require you to modify compile.sh and compile.bat accordingly.) Installing SQL Developer is also highly recommended for developers, since you may need to view the raw contents of the DB and test SQL queries. You can download it here.