Testing and debugging operator views at design-time

The operator view elements are not live during design-time, they are only placement editors. However, if you have a complex flowchart that changes its behavior based on operator view inputs, you might need a way to test it in emulation mode and design-time. There are 2 ways to test and debug operator view functionality while at design-time: current values and button click simulation.

Using initial and current values

Input elements other than the button have an initial value setting, which is what state the element initially appears in during runtime. When testing or debugging the project at design-time, this value is used for any step, expression, or other need that requires an operator input. However, you can specify a current value to these input elements that will be used in place of the initial value when debugging. Current values will be used by the project during design-time, but will have no impact during runtime.

To set the current value of an input element, select the element in the operator view, click on the dropdown menu from the Navigation toolbar in the Configuration pane, and enter a value.

Simulating button clicks

The Button element set to Set Variable is an important element for controlling a project, often used for entering or leaving a training mode. However, at design-time, the operator view elements are not operational, and this essential feature to the operation of the flowchart would not be testable.

To test the flowchart logic that depends on certain button clicks, you can select the button in the operator view layout and then use the Interface Actions pane to simulate a button click. You can verify the current state of the variable using the Quick Evaluate pane.

The Interface Actions pane only lets you simulate a button click when a button's Command property is set to either Set Variable or Reset Counters.

The Set Variable button can set variables in subflowcharts, as well as in the main flowchart.

Currently debugging flowchart

At the bottom of a flowchart, you might see a Go to flowchart button, preceded by a related message.

This can occur while testing the execution of an event-triggered subflowchart that is called from the operator view. While this is happening, you can experience difficulties testing other parts of the project, such as running to the selected step of the main flowchart. Pressing the Go to flowchart button takes you to the subflowchart, where you stop its execution (step out). For more information, see the Forcing the execution of a subflowchart that runs upon an event subsection of the Testing and debugging a project section in Chapter 2: Building a project.