This Guide Article has been written for Version 2.1 of the DATAFLOW Software. For Previous Releases use the version selection in the navigation bar at the top of this page.

To reduce the number of channels between containers for complex communication protocols, a software bus has been added. The bus is composed using the following new elements:

• Bus Creator
• Bus Port
• Bus Connector
• Bus Selector

The user can use the bus creator to combine two or more channels into a bus and then use the new bus connector and bus port to connect the bus to other containers. In the receiving container, a bus selector can be used to access the individual channels again.

The bus is resolved on code generation. All required channels are generated automatically on code generation and do not appear in the diagram.

Typical Use Cases

Define Software Bus

To define a software bus, the following steps need to be performed:

1. Create a Bus Creator element by drag and drop from the toolbox
2. Add as many ports to the bus creator as required.
3. Connect each port to an active part port of the correct type

Note: The ports on the bus creator will be synced with the connected bus creator automatically. Any changes on the bus need to be made on the creator. On the creator side, only the protocols connected to input ports on the bus are defined. The protocols on output ports must be defined on the bus selector side.

Forward Software Bus

To send a software bus from one container to another, the following steps need to be performed:

1. Add a bus port to both containers.
2. Connect the bugs ports with a bus connector
3. Connect the bus creator the the external bus port in the producer container.
4. Connect the bus selector to the external bus port in the consumer container.

Note: The bus direction is determined on the ports defined in the bus selector. Even if a bus is bidirectional, it still has a producer side (creator) and a consumer side (selector).

Consume Software Bus

To consume a software bus, the following steps need to be performed:

1. Create a Bus Selector element by drag and drop from the toolbox
2. Connect the bus selector to the forwarded bus (see above).
3. Connect each port to an active part port of the correct type

Note: The ports on the bus selector will be synced with the connected bus creator automatically. Any changes on the bus need to be made on the creator. On the selector side, only the protocols connected to input ports on the bus are defined.

This Article has been written based on V2.1.1 of the DATAFLOW software. 
Latest update 2023-06-21 by WUM.