GêBR - User Guide


Table of Contents

1. What is GêBR?
1.1. Project GêBR
1.2. What's new in version 0.14.0
1.3. Technical Information
1.4. GêBR Core Team
2. Projects, Lines and Flows: an overview
2.1. Creating Projects and Lines
2.2. Creating Flows
3. The Projects and Lines tab
3.1. New Project
3.2. New Line
3.3. Deleting a Project or a Line
3.4. Editing a Project's or Line's properties
3.5. Editing the Project's or Line's parameter dictionary
3.6. Editing the Line's preferred paths
3.7. Import a Project or a Line
3.8. Exporting a Project or a Line
3.9. Editing comments
3.10. View report
4. The Flows tab
4.1. Creating a new Flow
4.2. Copying Flows to the clipboard
4.3. Pasting Flows from the clipboard
4.4. Deleting Flows
4.5. Editing a Flow's properties
4.6. Editing the Flow's parameter dictionary
4.7. Saving a Flows state
4.8. Importing a Flow
4.9. Exporting a Flow
4.10. Executing a Flow
4.11. Editing comments
4.12. View report
5. The Flow editor tab
5.1. Copying programs to the clipboard
5.2. Pasting programs from the clipboard
5.3. Deleting programs
5.4. Editing a program's parameters
5.5. Changing a program's state
5.6. Editing the Flow's input and output files
5.7. Executing a Flow
5.8. Execution a flow multiple times
6. The Job control tab
6.1. Saving a Job's information in a file
6.2. Clear a Job
6.3. Ask the server to cancel a Job
7. Variables
7.1. The dictionary
7.2. Defining and using variables
7.3. The variable iter
7.4. Dictionary features
8. Additional features
8.1. The Action menu
8.2. The execution log
8.3. Sample projects

1. What is GêBR?

GêBR is a simple graphical interface which facilitates geophysical data processing. GêBR is not a package for processing, it is designed to integrate a large variety of free processing packages, such as Seismic Un*x and Madagascar.

GêBR can manage Projects and Lines, assemble and execute Flows, follow the results of your data processing, and everything in a simple and friendly way.

Being a free software, anyone can use and customize GêBR for free, according to the terms of the GNU Public License. Making this software very attractive for academic research and for use in courses.

1.1. Project GêBR

GêBR's interface is only a part of Project GêBR. Our main objective is to help bring together the Brazilian geophysics community, by developing tools to aid in the dissemination of research in the area.

For more information, visit the project's official site: www.gebrproject.com.

1.2. What's new in version 0.14.0

The release of GêBR (0.14.0) suffered some changes. GêBR is more stable and present some new functionalities:

1.3. Technical Information

This guide is for GêBR version 0.12.0. The images used in this guide where captured in the system Ubuntu 10.04. Therefore you may observe slight differences if you are using another operating system. For specific installation instructions for each operating system, see the install guide, in the project's official site.

1.4. GêBR Core Team

Director:

Developers:

Consultants:

Thank you for using GêBR!

2. Projects, Lines and Flows: an overview

In GêBR each processing Flow is organized into larger units called Lines. Lines are grouped together into Projects. In other words:

  • A Project is a set of Lines

  • A Line is a set of Flows

Before you can organize and execute a Flow, you must first Create a Project and a Line.

2.1. Creating Projects and Lines

In order to create a New Project:

  1. Select the tab Projects and Lines.

  2. left-click on

  3. In the Project 'New Project' properties dialog box, fill in the Project's title ( for example, My First Project).

  4. You can also give a brief Description of the Project, the Author and an e-mail for contact.

  5. Click OK.

Figure 1. 

In the Project's properties dialog box you can edit the title, description, author and email.

The Project title should have appeared on the left hand side of GêBR's main window. Information about the Project is shown in the Details box on the right hand side of GêBR's main window. Notice that some of this information comes from what you inserted in the Project 'New Project' properties dialog box when you created the Project. Details such as creation date and modified date, the date of the last change, are automatically generated by GêBR.

Figure 2. 

This is an example of one Project called "My first project", to the left is the list of Projects and Lines, at the moment only one Project. To the right you will see the details box which exhibits information on the currently selected Project or Line.

Now that you have created a Project, you can create Lines inside this Project. To add a New Line:

  1. Check that you have selected the Project you created, just like in the window above.

  2. Click on the button

  3. In the dialog box Line 'New Line' properties, fill in the Line's Title ( for example, My First Line).

  4. You can also give a brief Description of the Project, the Author and an e-mail for contact. You can also add paths to directorys that are relevant for this Line, this will be explained in greater detail in Section 3.6, “Editing the Line's preferred paths”.

Figure 3. 

The Line's property dialog box; not only you add information such as the Line's description, author and email, but you can also add the preferred path in the path text box.

After creating your first Line your GêBR window should look something like the window below. Notice that when a Line is selected the Details box, on the right of the main window, will show information about this selected Line.

Figure 4. 

In the Projects and Lines tab, you will find information about the currently selected Line in the Details box on the right side of the main window.

Tip

At the top left corner, ActionsPreferences then fill in your details in the fields User name and Email. New Projects and Lines by default will use this information.

Now that you have the basic Project and Line structure you can create your first Flow.

2.2. Creating Flows

In GêBR a Flow is a sequence of operations defined by the user. These operations, also called the Flow's programs, are organized into the following categories according to their purpose:

  • Data Compression

  • Editing, Sorting and Manipulation

  • File tools

  • Filtering, Transforms and Attributes

  • Gain, NMO, Stack and Standard Processes

  • Graphics

  • Import/Export

  • Migration and Dip Moveout

  • Multiple Supression

  • Seismic Unix

  • Simulation and Model Building

  • Utilities

To create a Flow you must select and order programs from the above categories. Let us see how this is done:

  1. In the tab Projects and Lines, check that you have selected My First Line, the Line you created before.

  2. Now click on the tab Flows, then left-click on .

  3. The dialog box Flow "New Flow" Properties will appear, fill in a title for this Flow (for example, My First Flow). You can also give a brief description of the Flow, the author and an e-mail for contact. If you are done filling in this Flows properties click on OK.

  4. Now select the tab Flow Editor, look for the category Graphics and expand its list, then double click on the component SU Simple X Image. You have now added this component to your Flow, note that the program SU Simple X Image now appears in the box Flow sequence, on the left side of the window. Your window should now look something like this one:

    Figure 5. 

    In the Flow editor, on the ride side of the main window you will see the Menus box. From this box you can add programs to your Flow, which will appear in the Flow sequence box on the left side of the main window.

  5. Scroll down the Flows window until you find the category Seismic Unix, expand its options then double click on SU Plane. You have now added the SU Plane program to your Flow. Notice that SU Plane is positioned in your Flow sequence just below SU Simple X Image.

  6. For this example to work we will need SU Plane to come before SU Simple X Image in the Flow sequence. To accomplish this just drag the program to the desired position, as is shown in the following window:

    Figure 6. 

    In the Flow editor tab, on the left side, you can change the order of the programs in the Flow sequence box by simply dragging them with the mouse.

  7. With the program SU Plane on the top of your Flow sequence list, press the right click on SU Plane. From the menu that has appeared select the option Configured. This configured state, represented by , means the program is ready to be executed, contrary to the state represented by . Then do the same for SU Simple X Image.

    Figure 7. 

    You can set the state of a Flow's programs as configured, not configured and disabled, by using the context menu.

    Tip

    If you want to change all programs, or a few, to the configured state simultaneously, select them by using Ctrl+Click. Then right-click on one of the selected programs, choose the option Configured from the menu that appeared. All the programs that where selected will be altered to the state .

    Important

    To run a Flow all the programs listed in the Flow sequence box must be Configured (). Otherwise the Flow will not be executed as expected.

    Important

    The state of a Flow, or a set of Flows, can be changed by using the hotkey spacebar, which alters the state of the selected Flows in the order Not configured, Disabled and Configured. The meaning of these states will be further described later on.

Your Flow is now ready to be executed, to do so left-click on . You should see the following:

Figure 8. 

Example of a Flow being executed.

3. The Projects and Lines tab

The tab Projects and Lines has nine command buttons just below the tab. These command buttons will allow you to:

Tip

Try using a context menu instead of command buttons. To do so, right-click on one of the Projects or Lines you have created. Notice that many commands can be found in this context menu. For certain cases this method is easier and faster then using command buttons.

3.1. New Project

To create a new Project click on the button , more details are given in Section 2.1, “Creating Projects and Lines”.

There is no limitation on the number of Projects in GêBR. You can have as many as you desire.

After creating a Project it will be visible on the left side of GêBR's main window. The Details box, on the right side of the main window, will show information about the selected Project.

3.2. New Line

To create a new Line, select an existing Project and left-click on , more details are given in Section 2.1, “Creating Projects and Lines”.. A new Line will appear in the selected Project.

There is no limitation on the number of Lines in GêBR. You can have as many Lines in a Project as you desire.

Lines that you have created will be visible on the left side of GêBR's main window inside their respective Projects. The Details box, localized on the right side of the main window, exhibits information on the selected Line.

Tip

In GêBR you can collapse or expand a Project. When collapsed the Projects Lines are hidden, when expanded the Project's Lines are visible. To collapse click on the icon immediately to the left of the Projects name. To expand, click on the icon .

3.3. Deleting a Project or a Line

To remove a Line or Project select the Project or Line then left-click on .

Note

To delete a Project you must first delete all of its Lines. A Project can only be deleted if it is Empty.

Caution

When you delete a Line you are also deleting all of its Flows.

3.4. Editing a Project's or Line's properties

To edit a Project's or Line's properties, first select the Project of Line and then click on button .

In the Project properties or Line properties dialog box you can edit the following fields Title, Description, Author and Email. A Line's properties also has the option of adding a Path, which will be explained in Section 3.6, “Editing the Line's preferred paths”.

3.5. Editing the Project's or Line's parameter dictionary

This feature is documented in the Section Section 7, “Variables”.

3.6. Editing the Line's preferred paths

The Section Section 5.6, “Editing the Flow's input and output files” will show how a Flow can be associated to some data files, this association is simpler if we add preferred paths to the Line.

The Line's preferred paths are defined in the Line's properties dialog box. To open this dialog box select the Line then click on the icon , in the tool bar, or open the popup context menu and select the option Properties. In the Line's properties window, in the field Paths, write the path to the directory you want and then left-click on .

You can also add preferred paths by clicking on the button and then choosing a directory.

When you completed editing the preferred paths click OK.

There is no Limit to the number of paths you can add.

Tip

The path at the top of the list will be set as the standard path, which will be opened when the user clicks on the icon as to search for a file or directory.

Tip

To remove a path from the list, select it by pressing the right-click and then left-click on Remove or Delete.

Tip

To change a path's position in the list, with the mouse simply drag it to its new position.

You can also use hotkeys to add paths (Enter), move paths up and down (Ctrl+arrow up/down), send a path to the top of the list (Ctrl+Home) and send a path to the bottom of the list (Ctrl+End).

Figure 9. 

In the Line's properties dialog box, other than add useful information such as the Line's description, author and email, you can also add the Line's preferred paths in the paths text box.

3.7. Import a Project or a Line

In GêBR you can import Projects or Lines that where previously exported Section 3.8, “Exporting a Project or a Line”. To do so:

  1. Click on the button

  2. Select the project or line you want to import at window Choose project/line to open. Only files with extension prjz or lnez will be show.

  3. Click at button Open.

The imported project is added to the list of projects, found on the left of the main window. An imported Line joins the other Lines, if they exist, of the Project that was selected when the Line was imported. In both cases the imported item is identified with the suffix Imported.

Note

In GêBR, Lines may only exist inside a Project, see this concept in the Section Section 2, “Projects, Lines and Flows: an overview”. Therefore to import a Line you must first select an existing Project . (If there does not exist one then Section 3.1, “New Project” ).

3.8. Exporting a Project or a Line

Although GêBR continuously saves all data, some times it is desirable to have copies of your Project and Lines in a file (for example, to share with others or to make backups). To export a Project or a Line:

  1. Select the Line or Project you wish to save.

  2. left-click on

  3. A dialog box will appear where you can choose the name of the file that will be saved; select a directory then type the file name, GêBR determines the extension automatically, prjz for Projects or lnez for Lines.

  4. left-click on Save.

3.9. Editing comments

You can edit comments on the report to specify information about the Project or a Line. To edit a comment:

  1. left-click on Edit comments, which is located just below Details, in the Project's properties or Line's Properties dialog box.

  2. Fill in your comment in the text editor that appeared, when you have finished save your comment then close the editor.

    In this editor you can save, print and pre-visualize your comment(s) by pressing one of the icons in the tool bar, or by using the editors menu.

Figure 10. 

The comment editor window.

Tip

In ActionsPreferences (the top left corner of GêBR's main window) you can determine the text editor that will be used to edit reports. The standard editor is gedit. To use another editor, type the name of the editor in HTML Editor.

Note

You can only have one comment for each Project or Line.

Important

To view a report:

  • Select a Project or a Line and click the button View report, found at the bottom of the Details box, which is on the right side of the main window.

3.10. View report

As explained in the above section, you can edit a report containing additional information about the Project or Line. To view the report left-click on View report, found at the bottom of the Details box, which is on the right side of the main window.

After clicking on View report, a window will appear where you can:

  1. Save;

  2. Print the report.

In the menu Options you can:

  1. Include user comments;

  2. Include the Flow's report;

  3. Configure the parameter table pertaining to the Flow's programs;

  4. Choose the presentation style of the report, as well as include other styles.

Figure 11. 

In the view report window, you can print or save to a file this report. In the options menu, as is shown above, you can include: the user's comments, the Flow's report, the parameter table and choose from a few pre-defined styles for the report.

Section 4.12, “View report” explains in greater detail the View report tool for Flows, which is very similar to the Line's and Project's View report except that in this one you can add the Flow's report.

4. The Flows tab

Just bellow the Flows tab there are nine buttons, plus two more buttons at the bottom of the Details box. These buttons will allow you to:

Tip

Instead of these buttons, try using the context menu. To do so, right-click on a Flow you have created, notice that many features can be accessed through this method. For certain cases this is an easier and simpler choice.

4.1. Creating a new Flow

To create a new Flow first check that you have already created and selected a Line in the Projects and Lines tab. When you have done this, select the Flows tab and left-click on . In the dialog box that opens, Section 4.5, “Editing a Flow's properties”, fill in the required information then click on OK. For more details see Section 2.2, “Creating Flows”.

There is No limit on the number of Flows you can have inside one Line or in total.

After you have created a Flow it will be visible on the left side of the main window when the Flows tab is selected. The Details box, found on the right side of the main window, shows information on the selected Flow .

Tip

You can alter the position of the Flow in the list by dragging the Flow with the mouse to the desired position.

Tip

Observe that the information bar just bellow the menu Actions shows the complete Flow tree of the selected Flow.

4.2. Copying Flows to the clipboard

The clipboard provides the popular set of tools known as copying and pasting. In GêBR a Flow (or set of Flows) can be copied to the clipboard by using the button or by using the known shortcut Ctrl+C.

Tip

You can select several Flows and then copy all of them to the clipboard by holding Ctrl+Left-click or Shift+Left-click.

4.3. Pasting Flows from the clipboard

After copying Section 4.2, “Copying Flows to the clipboard”, a Flow (or a set of Flows) you can paste the it by clicking on the button or by simply using the shortcut Ctrl+V.

Tip

Any Flow (or a set of Flows) that has been copied to the clipboard can be pasted to any Line. Simply switch to the Projects and Lines tab, select the desired Line, then go back to the Flows tab and paste the Flow(s).

4.4. Deleting Flows

To delete a Flow (or set of Flows), select them then click on .

Tip

You can select several Flows at once and then delete them by holding Ctrl+Left-click or Shift+Left-click.

4.5. Editing a Flow's properties

To edit a Flow's properties you must first select the Flow, then left-click on .

In the Flows properties dialog box you can edit the fields Title, Description, Author and Email.

4.6. Editing the Flow's parameter dictionary

This feature is documented in the section Section 7, “Variables”.

4.7. Saving a Flows state

When working with GêBR you will encounter situations where it will be useful to use an existing Flow as a basis to create new Flows. For example, you might want to experiment with Flows that are only slightly different from one another, however without having to discard or modify the original Flow.

One way of doing this is to copy and paste the Flow (see the section Section 4.2, “Copying Flows to the clipboard” and Section 4.3, “Pasting Flows from the clipboard”), and the proceed to only edit the copies. Another way is to save the state of the original Flow, then edit it to your hearts desire, and when you wish you can return the Flow to its original state. To save the Flow's state:

  1. Select the Flow and left-click on .

  2. If you want, you can write a comment on the state in the dialog box Save the Flow's state, as to identify this saved state later on.

  3. Left-click on OK.

Note

There is no limit on the number of states for each Flow.

To open the list of saved states left-click on , to the right of the button , then select the state you wish to recover. Whenever you select a saved state from the list, the dialog box Backup current state? will appear. If you click on Yes the dialog box Save the Flow's state will appear, where you can save this new state. If you click on No, GêBR will simply revert to the chosen state without saving the current state.

Tip

If you are sure you have saved your current state, we recommend that you click on No, in the dialog box Backup current state?, as to avoid a bloated state list.

Caution

GêBR continuously saves the list of Flow states. Even if you turn off your computer this list will be recovered when you open GêBR again. However, if you delete the Flow all the saved states will immediately disappear forever.

4.8. Importing a Flow

GêBR allows you to import Flows that where previously exported Section 4.9, “Exporting a Flow”. To do so:

  1. Check that you have already created and selected a Line, in the tab Projects and Lines . Remember that Flows can only exist inside Lines (see this concept in Section Section 2, “Projects, Lines and Flows: an overview”). To import a Flow you must first select a Line (or Section 3.2, “New Line”, if one does not exist).

  2. Select the tab Flows and left-click on .

  3. Navigate through the Choose a Flow to import and select a Flow you wish to import (only the file types flw will appear).

  4. Left-click on the button Open.

The imported Flow will be listed along with any other Flows of the selected Line.

4.9. Exporting a Flow

Although GêBR maintains all your data, you still might wish to copy your Flows to file (perhaps to share with others or as a backup). To export a Flow:

  1. Select the Flow you wish to save.

  2. Left-click on .

  3. In the window Save Flow, navigate to the directory you desire and type a name for the file (GêBR will automatically determine the extension flw).

  4. Left-click on the button Save.

4.10. Executing a Flow

This command is present in the tab Flows and the tab Flow editor where both work differently. In the tab Flows, the button executes several Flows in a sequence. See Figure:

Figure 12. 

In the tab Flows you are able to execute several Flows sequentially by first: selecting the Flows you wish to use, and then left-click on .


In this version of GêBR a concept called queues can now be employed to run a Flow, or sequence of Flows, in different queues:

  1. In the tab Flows, each time you execute a Flow or a set of Flows a queue is created.

  2. Each queue will be visible in the field Queue found in the tab Flow edition, which will be better explained in Section 5.7, “Executing a Flow”.

  3. The Queues will also be visible in the tab Job Control. See Section 6, “The Job control tab”.

4.11. Editing comments

This button appears in the Projects and Lines tab and in Flows tab. This button allows the user to add comments about the selected Line or Flow. See Section 3.9, “Editing comments”.

4.12. View report

This button appears in the Projects and Lines tab and in Flows tab. This button allows the user to View the report on the Line or Flow in question, with the difference that the Line's report can include the Flow's report. All other functions are described in Section 3.10, “View report”.

5. The Flow editor tab

Every Flow is born empty, that is without programs. For a Flow to be functional you need to add programs to it, and configure these programs to carry out specific tasks. All this can be done in the Flow editor tab.

In Section 2.2, “Creating Flows” we saw that the Flow editor's standard Menu is divided into twelve categories, listed in the Menu box to the right of the main window:

  • Data Compression

  • Editing, Sorting and Manipulation

  • File tools

  • Filtering, Transforms and Attributes

  • Gain, NMO, Stack and Standard Processes

  • Graphics

  • Import/Export

  • Migration and Dip Moveout

  • Multiple Supression

  • Seismic Unix

  • Simulation and Model Building

  • Utilities

By default the categories are shown in their collapsed form, concealing their components. To reveal a categories components you must expand the category by clicking on the icon just to the left of the category.

To add a program to a Flow follow these steps:

  1. Select a Flow from the Flows tab. Then select the Flow editor tab.

    Tip

    When in the Flows tab try double clicking on a Flow. This way you will have selected the Flow and already find yourself in the Flow editor tab.

  2. Expand a category and double click on one of its components (you might have to scroll down the Menu box to see all the category's components). The selected component is added to the Flow sequence box, on the left side of the main window, and is now a program of the Flow.

    Tip

    You may consult the component's documentation before adding it to your Flow. To do so, right-click on the component and choose Help.

    Tip

    Note that the information bar just bellow the Actions menu, at the top of the main window. Shows which Flow is currently selected at all times, in every tab.

    Tip

    You can reorder the positions of the programs in the Flow sequence by simply dragging the program of your choice to the its new position.

Now that we know how to add programs to the Flow let us learn how to configure these programs, and investigate the other tools found in the Flow editor tab:

Tip

Instead of command buttons, try using context menus. To do so, right-click on a program you have added. Notice that many command can be accessed through this menu. For certain cases this method is easier and faster then using command buttons.

5.1. Copying programs to the clipboard

In the same manner we copy and paste Flows (see Section 4.2, “Copying Flows to the clipboard”), a program (or set of programs) can be copied to the clipboard by clicking or by using the shortcut Ctrl+C.

Tip

You can select several programs to be copied by holding Ctrl+Clique or Shift+Clique.

5.2. Pasting programs from the clipboard

After selecting and coping Section 5.1, “Copying programs to the clipboard” a program (or set of programs) you can then paste them by clicking on or by using the shortcut Ctrl+V.

Tip

A program (or set of programs) that have been copied to the clipboard can be pasted to any Flow, and not just the Flow of origin. Simply switch to the Flows tab, select the desired Flow, go back to the Flow editor tab and paste the program(s).

5.3. Deleting programs

To remove a program (or set of programs), select them then click on .

Tip

You can select several programs to be deleted by holding Ctrl+Clique or Shift+Clique.

Caution

GêBR does not issue a warning before deleting the selected programs.

5.4. Editing a program's parameters

To edit a program's parameters:

  1. Select the program from the Flow sequence box then click on , or just double-click on the program.

  2. The Parameters dialog box will appear. Notice that each program's parameters vary greatly both in size and type.

    Tip

    Click on the Help button ( bottom left corner of the dialog box) to view the program's documentation. This will certainly be useful when your editing the programs parameters.

    Tip

    Click on the Default button when you want the program to return to its default configurations.

  3. When your done click on the OK button.

5.5. Changing a program's state

After you have carried out process of Section 5.4, “Editing a program's parameters” the program's mark is changed to instead of de . This means that the program's state has gone from Not configured to the Configured state. Besides these two states the program can also be set to the Disabled state (). You can alternate between these states by using two methods, you can either right-click on the program and then select from the context menu the desired state, or by using the shortcut Space to change the state(s) of the selected programs.

Tip

You can select several programs whose state you wish to change by holding Ctrl+Clique or Shift+Clique.

Tip

Changing a program state does not alter its parameter configuration. You can safely alternate between the states and the parameters will continue the same.

Important

Disabled programs () will be ignored when you execute your Flow. With this you can enable and disable partes of your Flow as you see fit.

5.6. Editing the Flow's input and output files

In the example Section 2.2, “Creating Flows” we created a very simple Flow, one which did not need to "read" any file, and that generated a graphical result. However on many occasions in which you will need to extract data from an input file and/or generate as a result an output file, or even an log file in case an error occurs.

How to associate an input, output and error file to a Flow:

Figure 13. 

Select the Flow editor tab, in the Flow sequence box you can edit the input, output and log files for this Flow sequence.

  1. Check you have selected a Flow, then select the Flow editor tab, in the Flow sequence box you can edit the input, output and log files paths by double clicking on them. See figure:

  2. Type in the path or click on the icon and browse for the in the Choose a file dialog box.

When you have chosen a path for your Flow's input/output note that their file paths will appear in the Flow sequence box, indicate with the marks and , below and above the Flow's programs (if there are any).

Note

If you wish to remove a set from the list, select them by pressing right-click then click on Exclude.

5.7. Executing a Flow

To execute the current Flow click on .

By default the Flow's are executed on the machine of origin, which is automatically identified by GêBR as local server. However, GêBR does permit that you execute Flows on remote machines. More details on the definition and selection of servers can be found in Section 8.1, “The Action menu”.

In the Flow editor tab, even if you have selected several Flow from the Flows tab, when you click on only the first selected Flow will be executed.

In this version of GêBR a concept called queues can now be employed to run a Flow, or sequence of Flows, in different queues (see section Section 4.10, “Executing a Flow”. In this tab you can choose from the Queue fields in which queue the Flow is to be executed. You can also name this chosen queue:

Figure 14. 

Screenshot of the Flow editor tab. From the Queue fields you can determine in which queue a Flow will be executed.

In the moment that the Flow is executed, GêBR will automatically switch to the Job control tab, which will display a report (log) on the execution of the Flow .

5.8. Execution a flow multiple times

The program Loop (from the category Loops) has a totally different usage compared to the remaining programs from GêBR. We are going to see some of these differences.

When we add the program Loop, we can see it always appears in the top of the flow. That happens to indicate that the flow is going to be executed more than once, according to the parameters set for the program. (see section Section 5.4, “Editing a program's parameters” for further details).

Screenshot of program Loop, added to a flow and properly configured.

After the Loop be added, we have access to a new variable, the iter. This special variable changes its value on each iteration, according to the parameters set.

Screenshot of the edition from parameters of Loop program , with a simple example of parameters setting.

Tip

Further information about the variable iter are available in section Section 7.3, “The variable iter”.

6. The Job control tab

As seen in Section 5.7, “Executing a Flow”, GêBR switches to the Job control tab whenever a Flow is executed. In this tab you can follow and, if so desired, interrupt the Flow's execution. The available commands are:

We discussed how to use Queues in both the Flows tab and Flow editor tab in sections 3.2.10 and 3.3.7. To finalize this subject, in the Job control tab it is possible to view how each Queue is progressing, where each one executes independently. Just as there is one report (log) for every program. See the figure below:

Figure 15. 

In the Job control tab, to the right of the main menu we can view a list of Flows being carried out, already executed, canceled and failed. To the right there will be information about each execution.

6.1. Saving a Job's information in a file

Whenever a Flow is executed a Job will appear with the Flow's name in the Jobs box, inside the Job control tab.

To save on a file a Job's information first select it from the Job box then click on the button .

6.2. Clear a Job

To remove a Job's log first select it from the Job box then click on the button .

You can only delete Jobs that are not being executed ( they will be marked with or ).

6.3. Ask the server to cancel a Job

In general complex Jobs will take some time to finish. If for some reason you wish to terminate a Job, before it runs its natural course: select the Job being executed (marked with ) from the Jobs box and click on the button .

When a Job is terminated in this manner, the Job will be marked with .

7. Variables

7.1. The dictionary

The dictionary is a very flexible feature, that can be used in many forms and to many ends. It was totally reformulated in the 0.14 version of GêBR.

Now the dictionary accepts expressions as input. This way more complex variables can be defined. In this section we will show some examples of variables usage in a flow.

Follows a simple example of how to define a variable in the dictionary:

  1. Create a flow and insert a program called Echo. Echo's basic function is to show text in the screen. (you can find this program at Shell tools category, at Flow Editor tab).

    Figure 16. 

    Screenshot of the creation of flow "Example flow".

    Figure 17. 

    Screenshot of Flow Editor tab showing the insertion of the Echo program

  2. At the Flow Editor, click at button to edit the variables dictionary.

  3. At the window that pops up (Variables dictionary for flow), click in New at Flow scope. Fill the field keyword with the variable's name var1. Then, press enter to proceed to the next field, Value. Before fill it, you must choose a data type to your new variable (Number or Text), choose Number. The mouse cursor will be located at field Value. Fill that field with 10 and press enter again.

    The last field is the Comments. Fill it with some description of your newly created variable. Remember: The comments are optional, you can leave this field empty if you want.

    When you finish, your window must look like with this one:

    Figure 18. 

    Screenshot of the parameters window.

    Tip

    To better understand about variables definition, check section Section 7.2, “Defining and using variables”.

    Tip

    Positioning the pointer on the icon of the variable type, we can check the solved expression.

    Tip

    We can navigate over the fields using the keys Enter, Tab or with the Left button of the mouse .

7.2. Defining and using variables

We can use the dictionary to define more complex variables. Using the same idea from the creation of variables in Section 7.1, “The dictionary”, we can define two more variables:

  1. Variable named var2, type Number and value var1 + 10.

    Figure 19. 

    Screenshot of the creation of the variable var2, using auto-completion.

  2. Variable named string, of type Text and value Variable 2 is equal to [var2].

    Figure 20. 

    Screenshot of the creation of variable string and verification of the result.

    Tip

    In order to use the variables in fields like Text, you must put the variable name embraced by square brackets [name-of-the-variable].
  3. Now we can use the variables in our newly-created "Example Flow".

    In the Flow Editor, double click Echo in the parameters editor window and use the variable string.

    Figure 21. 

    Screenshot of the parameters editor of the program Echo with the variable string.

Tip

In order to validate a field of an expression or a variable, you just need to use the key Enter.

Tip

To see all the available variables for auto-completion, we just need to type the character [' (open brackets).

Important

We can define the visibility of the variables, managing them in the lists Project, Line and Flow. Variables from the list Project are visible to every flow of every line of the chosen project Line are visible just for the flows of the selected flow. Variables from the list Flow are visible just for the chosen flow .

7.3. The variable iter

As we saw in the section Section 5.8, “Execution a flow multiple times”, GêBR allows the use of loops, through the program Loop. With this program, we have access to a special variable called iter. Then we can show an example of the use of this variable:

  1. Suppose we want to know in which week days the turns of next 5 years will be. To this end, we need the calendar of December from these 5 years. We are going to use the program Calendar (it can be found in the Shell Tools category, in the Flow Editor tab).

    Using the examples about the filling of parameters in section Section 5.8, “Execution a flow multiple times”, we are going to end up with the variable iter in the dictionary as in the following window.

    Figure 22. 

    Screenshot of variable iter and its solved expression.

  2. We can define a variable in the dictionary that represents the present year, facilitating the process of year choice. We define the variable in the line, with the name of ano_atual and value 2011.

    Figure 23. 

    Screenshot of variable ano_atual defined in the dictionary.

  3. After defining this variable, we improve the parameters of the program Loop, so the variable iter has a better behaviour on the purpose of the problem.

    In the Initial Value we are going to include a variable ano_atual. We fill the parameter Step (step of each iteration) with 1, since we look for consecutive years. We fill the parameter Total number of steps with 5, so the Loop will be repeated five times, covering years 2011 to 2016.

    Figure 24. 

    Screenshot of Loop program with its parameters filled in.

    Important

    The program Loop can only use variables defined at its Line or Project.

  4. Now we open program Calendar to fill its parameters. We gonna fill only two parameters, Month with value December and Year with the variable iter.

    Figure 25. 

    Screenshot of Calendar program parameters filled in.

    We can verify the solved value of the variable iter through the tooltip of parameter Year . positioning the pointer over the Year icon. This way, we can verify the which years we are walking through.

  5. Now, with all the parameters set, we can run the flow (as in section Section 5.7, “Executing a Flow”), to see in which week days the holidays are going to be for the next five years.

    Figure 26. 

    Screenshot of execution of flow, in the tab Job Control.

That was a simple example of iter variable usage in a flow. We can notice that loops and variables ease the execution of repetitive tasks.

7.4. Dictionary features

The dictionary has a big list of resources that increments its functionality. We are going to list some of these resources:

  • Function

    Besides using variables and expressions, we can use some predefined functions:

    Table 1. Available functions

    FunctionSintax
    Square rootsqrt(value)
    Sine s(value)
    Cosine c(value)
    Arctangent a(value)
    Natural Logarithm l(value)
    Exponencial e(value)
    Bessel j(order, value)

  • Drag and Drop

    • We can reorder the dictionary variables through the drag and drop. Since a variable can just use another variable above it, this features turns the declaration of variables more flexible and dynamic.

      Figure 27. 

      Screenshot of the flow execution in the tab Job Control.

  • Dynamic Validation

    • The dictionary validates the variables in a dynamic way, revalidating them you change the name, the value and the position. On this way, it is much simpler to keep everything in order.

      Programs with variables with errors are automatically revalidated, changing its state configuration (see section Section 5.5, “Changing a program's state”).

      Figure 28. 

      Screenshot of the variable ano_atual using a non-existent variable in its expression.

    Tip

    Every field, from program parameters or variables, is going to exhibit the icon , and an explanation of the error.

8. Additional features

8.1. The Action menu

From the Actions menu you can access your Preferences and configure Servers. If your enthusiasm for GêBR has lead you to read the whole manual, you have probably used almost all available features found in these options. But just in case, below you will find the documentation for these options.

8.1.1. Preferences

The details you provide in the Preferences dialog box will be adopted as the default by GêBR. Specifically:

  • User name: will be used as the default for Author: when you create Projects, Lines and Flows.

  • Email: will be used as the default for Email: when you create Projects, Lines and Flows.

  • User's menus directory: will be the default directory where GêBR's Menus are maintained ( mnu files).

  • HTML editor: the default text editor that GêBR will open when creating reports on Projects, Lines and Flows.

Figure 29. 

Preferences menu opens a dialog box where you edit the user name, email, menu's directory and the HTML editor.

8.1.2. Servers

Use the window Server Configuration to configure the local server and remote servers that you have added.

The Local server is automatically defined and connected when GêBR initializes. It is used as the default machine when executing Flows.

Remote servers can be added to execute remote Flows. To add a server type the address in the text box at the bottom of the Configure server's window, then click on the button Add.

Figure 30. 

In Configure servers you can: add servers, connect to them and disconnect from them.

Important

All servers you defined in the Configure servers window will be visible in the Flow editor tab ( you can select which server to use from the Server box, just above the Flow sequence box, on the left side of the main window) and also in the Flow's Input/Output window (the one where the Flow's input and output files are defined).

8.2. The execution log

GêBR remembers most of the users actions, as well as the results of these actions, in the so called execution log. This log is shown at the bottom of the main window, which can be presented in the collapsed form (default) or the expanded form like the window below.

Figure 31. 

At the bottom of GêBR's main window you will find the execution log, which displays information on all of GêBR processes.

Tip

In ActionsPreferences at the bottom of the dialog box, we can see the box Load past-execution log. By checking this box we choose to exhibit the whole log, including actions from past dates. By leaving the box unchecked we choose to have a compact log, which only shows actions that have taken place since GêBR's last initialization.

8.3. Sample projects

In the Help menu, besides the general Help section, we can import available samples:

Figure 32. 

Screenshot of the Samples Menu