pvMail: graphical user interface

The PvMail program GUI is started from the command line with the -g or --gui command-line options. If either GUI option is used, then the positional arguments (triggerPV messagePV email@address) are optional. Without either GUI option, the command-line interface is started.:

$ pvMail -g &

Tip

Usually, you want to run the GUI as a background task by appending the ampersand (&) on the command line, as shown above.

GUI of the PvMail application

The GUI provides editable text entry widgets for each of the required command-line terms (a.k.a. positional arguments): trigger_PV message_PV email_addresses. The list of email addresses is separated. The GUI provides a tool to add additional address or remove addresses.

Warning

At present, the GUI provides few visual cues about the success of PV connections or even that the program is working. This will be fixed soon.

The GUI also shows (using True or False text) whether or not the PV monitor process is running.

Warning

If either of the PVs fails to connect, it is likely that the GUI may become confused whether or not it is running. In such cases, press the Stop button, then press the Run button to try to restart monitoring.

All PvMail monitoring will be stopped if the GUI window is closed. At present, there is no feature to detach or reattach a monitor set. Also, PvMail can only monitor a single set of PVs using the current design. A request to enhance this capability is on the TODO list (see TODO items for a future release).

At the bottom of the GUI panel, a status line is shown. At present, this does not indicate the status of the monitoring process. Again, this will be fixed soon.