Main Engineering
Main Engineering is a tab in every LCARdS card editor. It is a live window into the systems behind the card: its data sources, rules, theme tokens and templates, and where each of its values comes from.
Opening Main Engineering
- Click the pencil (edit) icon on any LCARdS card
- Select the Main Engineering tab in the editor panel
Panels
Data Sources
Manage the Data Sources attached to this card.
- This card: the sources in this card's config. Add, edit or remove them; the editor previews the processors over the entity's recent history (see Data Sources: in the card editor).
- All on this page: every source running on the dashboard, which cards use it and how it was created.
- Browse sources: a browser of every source on the page: its entity, processors and buffers, with live values.
Create a source here, then use it in the card as {ds:source_name}.
Rules
The Rules Engine from this card's point of view.
- Rules targeting this card, and all rules on this page, with each rule's status, source card, target, conditions and changes.
- Add rule opens the rule editor; its Apply section is a YAML editor that completes this page's targets and each card's own settings.
- Edit as YAML (
{}) edits one of this card's rules as a whole; other cards' rules open read only. - A rule you have just changed or removed says refresh to apply until the page reloads: the engine loads each card's rules once.
Theme
The Theme tokens this card uses, live: each token's value on the card (with a swatch for colours), the fields using it, and whether a theme override changes it. The copy button copies the theme: reference, ready to paste into card config.
Open Theme Studio and Pack Explorer open those tabs of the LCARdS Config Panel in a new browser tab, so the editor stays open: browse every token and CSS variable there, tune alert modes and set overrides.
The tokens come from the card editor's preview, like Provenance.
Provenance
Where each of this card's values comes from, live.
Open inspector lists every field the card knows about. Pick one to see its value now and how it got there, in order:
| Step | What it is |
|---|---|
| Card defaults, theme defaults | Defaults registered for the card type |
| Preset / Component | The active preset: or component: |
| Your config | The card's own YAML |
| Applied by the card | Values the card sets after reading the config: the state branch that applies now (active, inactive, a range key ...), a component preset's segments and text, a preset's default parameters, and built-in defaults (with the theme token they come from) |
| Theme token | For theme: values: each step to the colour on the card (an override and its scope, token references, the CSS variable, the final value) |
| Template | The template, its result and what it uses (entities, data sources, variables) |
| Rule | A rule changing the field right now, with its condition and the value it replaced |
Later steps win: a rule that applies overrides your config, which overrides the preset.
- Show narrows the list: changed from defaults, set by rules now, templates, theme tokens, set by the card.
- Tokens lists every theme token the card uses, how each resolves, and the fields using it.
- Live follows the card as it changes (a rule starting or stopping, the entity changing state). Switch it off to hold the view; Refresh catches up.
Provenance comes from the card editor's preview, the card rendered from the config you are editing. Layout cards and the alert overlay don't record it.
Templates
Every template in this card's config, one row per field, with its live result (Jinja2 included) and any syntax mistake. Open in sandbox loads a field into the template sandbox, which completes entity attributes, data sources, theme tokens and variables, shows what the template used, and can save it back to the field. See Templates.
Related
- Data Sources: subscription config and processing pipeline reference
- Rules Engine: rule conditions, targets, and style patches
- Themes: token namespaces and colour palette
- Templates: template syntax
- Presets: how presets compose with card config