FTView SE Alarm Display Object - always on top?

[ASF]

Hi all,

Just had a customer who requested that I add a button to the alarms page of their FTView SE application. The alarms page is wholly taken up by the alarm display object (navigation etc is done by separate displays that are docked to other parts of the screen.

I added a button, but no matter what I do, at runtime it is placed behind the alarm display. I shrunk the alarm display object down and placed the button half overlapping with the alarm display object, brought it to the front, send the alarm display to the back, and tested the display - and sure enough, at runtime the alarm display object is brought back to the front and covered the overlapped section of the button.

This happens with all objects - I tried it with some text and a rectangle too; same results.

Any idea why this is, and if there's anything I can do about it? FTView is v7 if that is relevant.

 

[rdrast]

Because it is FTView, and FTView is garbage.
Rockwell firmly believes that since their software is the best thing in the world, you shouldn't be messing with their pre-defined objects, they must always show in all their glory.

Shrink the alarm display enough to put your button row on the edge of the window, that is about all you can do.

 

[ASF]

I was afraid of that.

Rockwell firmly believes that since their software is the best thing in the world, you shouldn't be messing with their pre-defined objects, they must always show in all their glory.

Funny you should say that, I spent 43 minutes on the phone to tech support yesterday, and 41 of those minutes were trying to get the tech to understand that what I wanted the button to do wasn't the issue, the issue was that I wanted it to be in front of the all-glorious Alarm Display Object. Once we finally made that breakthrough, I left it with him to chase down. I don't suspect I'm going to have much luck.

 

[ASF]

Well, I got a call back from Tech Support. Apparently it's a "safety feature", to ensure that the alarm display remains unobstructed.

I didn't know whether to laugh at him or give him a lecture about how the positioning of objects on a SCADA screen that may or may not even be open at the time should in no way form any part of any "safety" feature.

In the end I choked them both back and ended the phone call as quickly as I could, before one of those two options got the better of me