The GLG Toolkit is an extremely flexible and robust graphical framework for building visual interfaces that display real-time data, such as operator displays for Process Control and Monitoring, SCADA / HMI mimics and diagrams, Traffic, Telemetry and Network Monitoring displays, and other mission critical applications.

The Toolkit includes the GLG Graphics Builder used to create dynamic graphical displays, either from scratch or by selecting from a supplied collection of pre-built components. The Builder allows the designer to add elaborate dynamic behavior and define data interfaces for updating from real-time data at run time. A simplified HMI Configurator for the end users is also available.

Graphical displays created with the Graphics Builder are deployed in an application using a GLG library that loads drawings, updates them with real-time data and handles user interaction. Various deployment options are available for a variety of programming environments and platforms:

• Cross-Platform C/C++ Libraries for Windows and Unix/Linux
  Include QT, GTK, Motif and MFC widgets and bindings

• Java Class Library for cross-platform deployment
  Includes several integrated Swing Java Bean containers

• C# Class Library for C# and VB.NET with an integrated C# Control
  
  

• ActiveX Control for C# and VB.NET

• JavaScript / React / Angular / Next.js Library for Web / Mobile deployment

• AJAX Graphics Server for server side Web / Mobile deployment
  ASP.NET or JSP

Depending on the required run-time deployment, C/C++, C# / .NET, Java and Web / Mobile Editions of the Toolkit are available.

The Toolkit comes with either a Professional or Enterprise version of the Graphics Builder and provides a choice of royalty-free APIs, the GLG Standard API or the GLG Intermediate API .

Several widgets sets and an integrated GIS Map Component can be added to the package.

An optional GLG Extended API may be used to create objects dynamically at run-time.

The Web Edition of the GLG Toolkit provides a framework for developing web applications that are deployed in a browser on any desktop or mobile devices.

The Web Edition includes the GLG Graphics Builder used for creating dynamic HMI pages , and the GLG Java Library that is used to load the HMI displays on a web page, update them with real-time data and handle user interaction.

The GLG JavaScript Library implements full GLG run-time functionality present in the GLG C/C++, C# and Java libraries, allowing the same graphical page and programming logic to be shared between the desktop, web and mobile versions of an application.

The library uses the standard HTML5 canvas and JavaScript to render graphics and supports all major browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari, as well as mobile browsers. GLG Components for React, Angular and Next.js are also provided.

The GLG Graphics Server provides an alternative server side web deployment option with either ASP.NET or JSP for legacy applications that can reuse existing C# or Java application code. With the Graphics Server, the graphics is generated on the web server and displayed in a browser as an image that is periodically updated.

The Toolkit comes with either a Professional or Enterprise version of the Graphics Builder and provides a choice of the GLG Standard, Intermediate or Extended API.

Several widgets sets and an integrated GIS Map Component can be added to the package.

A Basic Edition of the GLG Toolkit containing one or more widget sets provides applications with custom components, such as dials, meters, real-time charts, 2D and 3D graphs, avionics gauges and process control widgets. The components may be used as individual widgets or combined into elaborate dashboards that contain multiple widgets. Each widget can be updated with real-time data and can take user input.

All GLG widgets are highly configurable and may be customized using the GLG Graphics Builder which is included in the package. The Graphics Builder may also be used to create custom instrumentation dashboards or control panels. The Professional or Enterprise Editions of the Graphics Builder may be used to design new custom widgets.

At run-time, an application uses the GLG library to display the widgets, update them with real-time data and handle user interaction. Various deployment options are available for a variety of programming environments and platforms:

• Cross-platform C/C++ libraries for Windows and Linux/Unix
  Includes QT, GTK, Motif and MFC widgets and bindings

• Java Class Library for cross-platform deployment
  Includes several integrated Swing Java Bean containers

• C# Class Library for C# and VB.NET with an integrated C# Control

• ActiveX Control for C# and VB.NET

• GLG JavaScript / React / Angular / Next.js Library for client-side deployment in a Web browser.
  A cross-platform solution for Web and Mobile deployment

• AJAX Graphics Server for an alternative server-side Web deployment via ASP.NET or JSP

All widgets may be distributed with an application royalty-free.

The HMI Configurator is a simplified HMI editor intended for use by the end-users. While the GLG Graphics Builder may be used by an application developer or systems integrator for creating elaborate visual components with complex dynamics, the goal of the HMI Configurator is to provide an end-user with an easy-to-use editor to compose custom displays using a library of pre-built components with a minimal learning curve.

With the HMI Configurator, an operator can create and configure HMI displays by dragging and dropping pre-built components from the provided component libraries, as well as draw any graphical primitive such as a polygon, arc or text object. An operator can edit the visual appearance of objects in a drawing, add animation, browse and select data sources, as well as run the resulting HMI and animate it with live real-time data.

The HMI Configurator supports OEM customization features, such as configurable menus and icons, as well as custom Data Browser and Run-mode animation modules. It also allows an OEM vendor to limit editing of custom components to the component's properties exposed by the application designer, define custom dynamics options and color palettes, as well as provide custom dialogs for application-specific editing actions.

The HMI Configurator may be incorporated into an application to provide the end-user with the ability to create and edit HMI displays.

The OEM extension feature allows system integrators to supply custom DLLs that extend the HMI Configurator's functionality by adding custom menu items, custom toolbar icons and custom dialogs. An OEM example provides a sample of a custom DLL that allow the user to adds custom actions to objects in the HMI Configurator. The SCADA Viewer Demo provides an example of handling custom actions at runtime.

The GLG Graphics Server provides a thin-client server-side solution for web-deployment of legacy HMI and SCADA applications written in C# or Java. Since all processing is handled on the server side, it provides addition security for sensitive applications and can reuse parts of the code used to display the graphics in the desktop application.

With the help of the GLG Graphics Builder, elaborate custom graphics, from simple dashboards with graphs and meters to elaborate SCADA and HMI diagrams, may be created interactively. The dynamic displays are deployed on the application's web pages and updated with real-time data.

The dynamic drawings created using the Builder are deployed on the web using the server-side GLG Graphics Server. The Graphics Server updates the drawings with the current data before displaying them on the application's web pages. The Graphics Server also handles AJAX user interaction requests, such as object selection, tooltips and button clicks.

A drawing displayed on a web page may be modified using the Graphics Builder and reloaded into the Graphics Server, with no programming required.

Both the ASP.NET and JSP versions of the Graphics Server are available.

In the ASP.NET environment, the Graphics Server is deployed via custom HTTP handlers written in C#. In the JSP environment, the Graphics Server is deployed as a Java Servlet. The source code of a sample ASP.NET HTTP handler and a sample JSP servlet is provided and may be customized by the application developers to fulfill application requirements.

GLG Extended API is an optional component of the GLG Toolkit, which provides advanced dynamic configuration and editing features at run time.

The GLG Extended API provides an application with capabilities to create drawings on the fly based on the current configuration data. It may be also used to add graphical objects to the drawing dynamically at run time, which is important for applications that display variable number of dynamic icons, such as moving airplane icons on the map. Another example of using the Extended API is a custom diagramming application that creates objects interactively based on user input.

In addition to the methods for creating and deleting objects, the Extended API also provides advanced introspection capabilities, which can be used to traverse objects in the drawing and dynamically determine the drawing's content at run time. The Extended API provides programming access to all operations available in the Graphics Builder, regardless of the chosen deployment option: C/C++, Java or ActiveX.

The Extended API for Java and C# is royalty-free. The Extended API for C/C++ carries a small royalty fee, with various pricing options to suit different distribution modes.

The Intermediate API is a royalty-free alternative that provides all functionality of the Extended API except for the dynamic object creation.