The Greensea Workspace can be entirely configured through a configuration file. The configuration file defines the form and function of the workspace as well as the appearance, layout, and content. A full how-to of the configuration file is out of the scope of this article but with a basic understanding of the underlying contents of the configuration file and a few examples, users will be able to become proficient quickly.
Items within the workspace are referred to as "widgets", using the nomenclature of the QT graphical framework used to develop the Greensea Workspace. The configuration file can create widgets, define the location of widgets, define the size of widgets, and define the data output and input of widgets. The Greensea workspace is based heavily on the LCM messaging framework and manages data through channels and signals. The configuration file allows users to specify the channel and signal for status data being input to a widget and the channel and signal for data being output by the widget. Throughout the workspace, "status" refers to input data to a widget or device and "output" refers to output data from the widget.
Configuration files are written as yaml files. These are human-readable text files that use the YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) format. As with any configuration file, the structure, syntax, and punctuation of the file is important. For more information, visit yaml.org.
