List of Actions

The subsections within this section summarize the actions that are commonly supported by items on many drivers. The subsections are arranged in order, by pick action name.

You can also display a list of the actions that are commonly supported by a particular driver item, such as a channel, or scanner (see Actions that are Common to Many Drivers).

Be aware that many of these actions are only displayed for an item that is In Service and has valid configuration. Additionally, your User Account has to be allocated the relevant security permissions for the database item—the permission that applies to each pick action is mentioned alongside the description of that pick action. For more information, see Allocating Security Permissions.

On some systems, certain permissions may be denied on a system-wide, ViewX user, or Virtual ViewX user basis, regardless of the permissions that are allocated to your User Account (see Define whether any Permissions are Restricted). On systems on which the Exclusive Control feature is used, some permissions might be denied to other users while an item or area of the system is under Exclusive Control (see Exclusive Control). On systems that use Alarm Redirection, the ability to acknowledge specific alarms might be restricted to a particular User, User Group, or ViewX workstation (see Set Responsibility Action). Any of these may result in various pick actions not being available for selection.

If you believe that a particular pick action should be available, but is not displayed for an item, check the item’s configuration, and Status display (see Status Attributes that are Common to Many Drivers).

Where a pick action request requires further user input before being executed, a pick action window is displayed. Use the window to specify the required information, then select the OK button to confirm the details and execute the request. With text entry fields on some pick action windows, an on-screen keyboard may be displayed to enable you to specify the field’s value on-screen, rather than by using a traditional keyboard. The keyboard is only displayed on ViewX workstations on which the On-Screen Keyboard feature enabled. For more information, see Use the Numeric Touch Screen Keypad, and see Use the Alphanumeric Touch Screen Keyboards. On some systems, users can choose to postpone certain requests on PSTN and direct ‘On Demand’ outstations. On such systems, an additional Queue check box is displayed on the relevant pick action windows—see Queue Check Box.

To find out about the methods that are available for each type of database item, please refer to the Database Schema (see Working with the Database Schema). The Database Schema provides details on the name and arguments of each method, so that you can call the methods from your own programs and scripts.

These pick actions are common to items on many drivers:

Some further options available from the Edit Action, Edit Method, and Pick Action Configuration windows are methods, not pick actions:

• The options Delete Interface Event, Log Interface Event, Modify Interface Event, Refresh Alarms, and Reprioritize Alarms are methods that are purely for use with the Automation Interface. For information, see the database Schema.
• With points on which Historic is enabled, further options are available from the Historic aggregate on the above mentioned windows. The options Annotate, Insert Value, Load Data File, Load Data Value, Load Data Values, Modify Value, Optimize Data, and Processed Value are methods that are purely for use with the Automation Interface. For more information, see the database Schema.
• On items with which alarms can be associated, several methods are available to enable higher-level users to control alarm redirections via, for example, scripting. Such methods include CancelRedirections, ClearAlarmResponsibility, RestartRedirections, SetAlarmResponsibleUser, and SetAlarmResponsibleWorkstation. For further information, see Set Responsibility Action, and see CancelRedirections and RestartRedirections Methods.

Further Information

‘Core’ pick actions that are common to many database items: see Object Menu Options.