Probe : Show "description" of VType Display metadata

[GDH-ISIS]

May I enquire as to whether the description field can be displayed for a Phoebus probe, or maybe whether the PV fields displayed with a probe can be configured.

[kasemir]

When you say "field", note the difference between records & fields vs. channels & properties.
For more, check a basic EPICS introduction like https://controlssoftware.sns.ornl.gov/training/2022_USPAS/, "10a CA vs Records vs CAS".

No, you cannot configure what "PV fields" are shown, because there are no PV fields.
There are record fields, and PV (channel) properties.
Probe displays what we get from a control system network channel. You enter a PV name, and we show what we get from that network channel. We do not try to figure out what record is behind that channel, and we do not create a separate channel for each field of the record. The PVTree does that to some extend...
In Probe, we show what's in the channel, specifically what's in the DBR_CTRL.. type of CA or the normative types for PVA, further wrapped into a VType as the common denominator.
We don't show the "EGU" field, we show the "units" if the channel has numeric metadata.
The IOC (rsrv for CA, qsrv for PVA) tends to place what's in the EGU field of the record into the units property of the channel.

For PVA, qsrv does place the DESC field content into the display.description of the PVA channel, and that goes into the VType.
For CA, the VType display description will be empty.

So yes, probe should be updated to show "Description: ..." in the "Metadata" section

[GDH-ISIS]

My apologies for the clear terminology discrepancies in my text above - clearly some training required.
Your interpretation of my request is correct.

[kasemir]

Great, "Description" is now shown

[GDH-ISIS]

Many thanks - that was quick. Building from branch probe_description looks good to me. Is there a space missing after "Description:"?

[kasemir]

Wouldn't say "missing". I tried to optimize the size of the binary by 2 bytes, but if you prefer more spaces, I've just added them. Might also need a proper translation to French.

[GDH-ISIS]

Thank you for this work, it is much appreciated.