Creating data source reader plugin

[Manuel]

Hello,

I have used kst occasionally to display logged diagnostic machine data.
Since I like the program, I'm planning to use it on a more regular basis
in the future.

Until now, I've converted the binary logfiles (around 500 MB size) to
ASCII before plotting. This always involves a couple of minutes for
conversion, the loading of the .kst file is slow, and zooming /
scrolling slows down as well.

I hope to speed up loading, scrooling and zooming with a plugin for my
binary format. And I have found this description for creating a data
source reader plugin:

https://kst-plot.kde.org/docbook/html/supportingadditionalfileformats.html

I want to try and create a plugin for my binary files, but there is a
warning that the description was written for kst 1. So are there any
additional recommendations, anything I should be aware of before I start?

Manuel

[Manuel]

Date: Thu, 10 May 2018 12:08:30 -0400
Subject: Re: Creating data source reader plugin
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
I can try to give you some advice.
Does your data source just provide vectors, or does it also have strings,
scalars and matrices?

I'd like to plot vectors in kst, basically some values vs time. And I
would like to load strings from the header, the field names and units,
to display these in the legend.

The file structure is simple, it consists of blocks of equal size (64
bytes), except for the header, where field names and some more data is
stored.

Most of the blocks contain the vectors I want to plot (but no time
information). To be able to plot vs time, I assume a fixed time interval
between consecutive vector blocks. The other blocks contain a time stamp
that is used for synchronisation (these have an event code attached).

For the more distant future, if I find time for it, I would like to
display a list of events in kst ("Date/Time - Event name"), derived from
the file, and use that to navigate through the plots. That would help me
a lot to quickly get to the interesting spots.

[Manuel]

Hello,

I created a datasource plugin, and it works if I compile it together
with the downloaded kst source.

Only when I copy the plugin dll into the 'plugins' folder of the
downloaded windows binaries, I find the following message in the kst
dubug dialog:

instance failed for libkst2_datasource_sma.dll (The plugin 'C:/Program
Files
(x86)/Kst-2.0.x-2018.05.02-13.10-win32/Kst-2.0.x-2018.05.02-13.10-win32/lib/kst2/plugins/libkst2_datasource_sma.dll'
uses incompatible Qt library. (5.7.0) [release])

I read that the plugin will not work, if I use a newer Qt version than
the one used to compile the application, so what Qt version were the
windows binaries compiled with?

Regards, Manuel

Post by Manuel

Date: Thu, 10 May 2018 12:08:30 -0400
Subject: Re: Creating data source reader plugin
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
I can try to give you some advice.
Does your data source just provide vectors, or does it also have strings,
scalars and matrices?

I'd like to plot vectors in kst, basically some values vs time. And I
would like to load strings from the header, the field names and units,
to display these in the legend.
The file structure is simple, it consists of blocks of equal size (64
bytes), except for the header, where field names and some more data is
stored.
Most of the blocks contain the vectors I want to plot (but no time
information). To be able to plot vs time, I assume a fixed time interval
between consecutive vector blocks. The other blocks contain a time stamp
that is used for synchronisation (these have an event code attached).
For the more distant future, if I find time for it, I would like to
display a list of events in kst ("Date/Time - Event name"), derived from
the file, and use that to navigate through the plots. That would help me
a lot to quickly get to the interesting spots.

[Barth Netterfield]

I can try to give you some advice.

Does your data source just provide vectors, or does it also have strings,
scalars and matrices?

Post by Manuel
Hello,
I have used kst occasionally to display logged diagnostic machine data.
Since I like the program, I'm planning to use it on a more regular basis in
the future.
Until now, I've converted the binary logfiles (around 500 MB size) to
ASCII before plotting. This always involves a couple of minutes for
conversion, the loading of the .kst file is slow, and zooming / scrolling
slows down as well.
I hope to speed up loading, scrooling and zooming with a plugin for my
binary format. And I have found this description for creating a data source
https://kst-plot.kde.org/docbook/html/supportingadditionalfileformats.html
I want to try and create a plugin for my binary files, but there is a
warning that the description was written for kst 1. So are there any
additional recommendations, anything I should be aware of before I start?
Manuel