The PLCnext Runtime

Component Methods

After completing the previous sections, an instance of your PLCnext extension component - called MyComponentInstance - has been created by the PLCnext runtime. At the moment, this component instance is not doing much. The PLCnext runtime has called a number of the methods that you defined in the MyComponent class, but because these methods are empty, we don't see any evidence that this has happened. Let's write some messages to the Output.log file, so we can see when these methods are called.

One way that our component instance can write to the Output.log file is if it inherits a base class created from the template Arp::System::Commons::Diagnostics::Logging::Loggable.

The main steps to do this are:

• Add the header file to the .hpp file of our component:

  #include "Arp/System/Commons/Logging.h"
  

• Inherit the Loggable template class, by adding the following to the component class definition:

  private Loggable<MyComponent>
  

  The component class thereby inherits a private field - called log - of type Arp::System::Commons::Diagnostics::Logging::Log.

• Add log messages where required.

  In this case, we have added a log message to every method in the component's .cpp file. The resulting source files are available here:

  • MyComponent.hpp
  • MyComponent.cpp

  You can use these files to update the project you created in the previous section.

• Rebuild the project.

• Copy the resulting library file to the target.

• Restart the PLCnext runtime:

  # sudo /etc/init.d/plcnext restart && tail -f -n 0 /opt/plcnext/logs/Output.log
  

Among the messages that appear in the Output.log file, you should see the following:

INFO  - MyComponent::Initialize
INFO  - MyComponent::SubscribeServices
INFO  - MyComponent::LoadSettings - settings path = ''
INFO  - MyComponent::SetupSettings
INFO  - MyComponent::PublishServices
INFO  - MyComponent::LoadConfig
INFO  - MyComponent::SetupConfig

These methods are called, in sequence, when the component instance is created by the PLCnext runtime. Other methods are called when the PLCnext runtime shuts down, just before the component instance is destroyed. Some types of components even have methods that are called during normal PLCnext runtime operation, under certain circumstances. For example, it is possible for a component to be notified when the PLC component - which executes deterministic, real-time tasks - stops and restarts.

Each of these methods allows the component to perform one or more common functions, if required, at the appropriate time. For example, the SubscribeServices method, as the name suggests, is a good place for the component to subscribe to any RSC services that it needs to use.

The table below shows when ComponentBase methods are called on ACF components. It is based on a similar table in the PLCnext Info Center.

In the above table, all the methods listed in the sections marked with * are called one after the other on each component instance in the order listed, so in practice it makes no difference in which of these method(s) the user chooses to implement their application-specific code.

You can see that only one of the standard component methods has a parameter. The const String& parameter on the LoadSettings method allows this method to receive a string value. This parameter is generally used by firmware components to get the path to a settings file - hence the parameter name. However, you can use this parameter to pass any string information to your component instance during startup:

• In the .acf.config file, replace this line:

    <Component name="MyComponentInstance" type="MyNamespace::MyComponent" library="MyProject" process="MyProcess" />
  

  ... with these lines:

    <Component name="MyComponentInstance" type="MyNamespace::MyComponent" library="MyProject" process="MyProcess">
      <Settings path="Settings data" />
    </Component>
  

• Copy the .acf.config file to the target, and restart the PLCnext runtime.

You should now see a line in the Output.log file with this message:

INFO  - MyComponent::LoadSettings - settings path = 'Settings data'

Using this method, it is possible to pass user-configurable String data to the component during component startup.