An alternative to writing applications that use the FlashPro-ARM DLL, some programming sequences can be written using a script file. A script file is a text file with basic syntax that can execute all buttons available, and has rudimentary flow control such as IFs and GOTOs. Generally, buttons available on the main dialog can be used in the script file; however, other options available on screens like memory options, serialization etc., can only be changed by loading a different configuration file. A typical script file will start by loading a configuration file and code file, followed by Auto Program and an IF statement to test Auto Program result to decide what happens afterwards.
The script file can be selected in the GUI, or appended as a parameter for the FlashPro-ARM executable (usually used to create shortcuts that call a specified script file right away):
- press the "Script" button in the main dialog, and
- append the option -rf <script file> to the executable.
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The "Script" button is the dynamically programmable device action button that takes a selected script file and executes it. The Script button has a name "Script – none" (Figure 10.1) if the script file is not defined or Script: <script file> when the script file is selected (Figure 10.2). When the Script button is pressed and the script file not defined, the Open File dialog will be used to select a script file. When the Script file button is pressed and the script file is defined, the script till be executed. After that, a new script file can only be loaded using the pull down menu File→Open Script File.
The Script button is very useful for implementing a short programming sequence not present directly in the Device Action group buttons. Below is a sample script used for downloading two different code files to a target device - first code used for hardware test, and second code is the final user code. The same sequence 
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;--------------------------------------------------------------------------
; easy script file;
;--------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOADCFGFILE C:\Program Files (x86)\Elprotronic\ARM\FlashPro-ARM\test.cfg
LOADCODEFILE C:\Program Files (x86)\Elprotronic\ARM\FlashPro-ARM\code.txt
AUTOPROGRAM
IF FAILED GOTO finish
; now the hardware is tested according to downloaded firmware
MESSAGEBOX YESNO
"Press YES when the test finished successfully."
"Press NO when the test failed."
IF BUTTONNO GOTO finish
LOADCFGFILE C:\Program Files (x86)\Elprotronic\ARM\FlashPro-ARM\final.cfg
LOADCODEFILE C:\Program Files (x86)\Elprotronic\ARM\FlashPro-ARM\code.txt
AUTOPROGRAM
>finish
END
;--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The script file above loads the first configuration file and the first code file into the programmer's data structures. The Auto Program function will flash the selected code file into the selected MCU based on given configuration settings. If the wrong MCU is selected, Vcc too low, or any of the Auto Program features fail, then the function will not succeed. The user can insert an "IF DONE" or "IF FAILED" line to interpret the Auto Program result. The script file then follows with a message box that lets the user decide if the final code should be programmed. If NO is clicked, the GOTO statement will jump to the "finish" label denoted by the special character ">". Some users add protection settings to disable debug access in the final Auto Program configuration to protect their code from end-user access, the specifics of which depend on the target MCU.
Before running the script file the configuration files named test.cfg and final.cfg required in the setup should be created using the GUI software first. To do that connect target devices to programming adapter, select desired configuration and save the configuration file as test.cfg and create final configuration file in a similar way.
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The script file can be automatically loaded by appending the option -rf <script file> to the executable file (described in the "Setup and Image Load and Save" chapter in more detail).
Briefly, when the executable FlashPro-ARM.exe is called with a script file as an option,
FlashPro-ARM.exe – rf C:\Program Files (x86)\Elprotronic\ARM\FlashPro-ARM\script.txt
access to other buttons is blocked. When the selected script file sequence is finished then the FlashPro-ARM GUI will close. There is not option to modify the running sequence when script sequence is used. This option can be useful in production since operators will not be able to modify prepared sequences.
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A comment cannot be placed after a filename.
For example, when specifying a configuration file to be loaded, the path to a file must be given, and this filename cannot be followed by a comment.
- > - start of a label. Place the label name after the character with no spaces in between.
A line with a label cannot also contain a command or another label.
For example, this would be illegal >START VCCOFF
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MESSAGE - message declaration. Contents must be placed between quotes below message declaration. Maximum of 50 content lines. Example:
MESSAGE
``Hello.''
``This is my script.''
GUIMSGBOX setting - Enable or disable pop-up message boxes in the GUI (warning, errors, etc.). Setting can be either ENABLE or DISABLE.
IFGUIMSGBOXPRESS option - Apply the option when a message box created by GUI is generated. Option can be OK or CANCEL. GUIMSGBOX must be set to DISABLE.
MESSAGEBOX type - Create a pop-up message box with buttons. Contents must be placed between quotes below message declaration. Maximum of 50 content lines. Message box types are:
- OK - One button, OK.
- OKCANCEL - Two buttons, OK and CANCEL.
- YESNO - Two buttons, YES and NO.
- YESNOCANCEL - Three buttons, YES, NO, and CANCEL.
Example:
MESSAGE YESNOCANCEL
``You have three choices:''
``Press yes, no, or cancel.''
END
GOTO label - Jump to instruction immediately following the label.
CALL label - Call procedure starting at the instruction immediately following the label.
Stack saves return address.
Example:
>START
MESSAGEBOX OKCANCEL
"Make your choice"
IF BUTTONOK CALL msgok
IF BUTTONYES CALL msgyes
IF BUTTONNO CALL msgno
IF BUTTONCANCEL CALL msgcancel
MESSAGEBOX YESNOCANCEL
"Make your choice"
IF BUTTONOK CALL msgok
IF BUTTONYES CALL msgyes
IF BUTTONNO CALL msgno
IF BUTTONCANCEL CALL msgcancel
>FINISHED
END
>msgok
MESSAGEBOX
"okay"
RETURN
>msgyes
MESSAGEBOX
"yes"
RETURN
>msgno
MESSAGEBOX
"no"
RETURN
>msgcancel
MESSAGEBOX
"cancel"
RETURN
RETURN - Return from CALL.
IF condition operation - Test condition and if true then perform operation. The condition
can be one of the following:
- BUTTONOK - OK button is pressed in the message box.
- BUTTONYES - YES button is pressed in the message box.
- BUTTONNO - NO button is pressed in the message box.
- BUTTONCANCEL - CANCEL button is pressed in the message box.
- DONE - Previous process, e.g. AUTO PROG., finished successfully.
- FAILED - Previous process, e.g. AUTO PROG., failed.
Example:
>START
MESSAGEBOX YESNOCANCEL
"testing"
IF BUTTONOK GOTO msg1
IF BUTTONYES GOTO msg2
IF BUTTONNO GOTO msg3
IF BUTTONCANCEL GOTO msg4
>FINISHED
END
>msg1
MESSAGEBOX
"okay"
GOTO FINISHED
>msg2
MESSAGEBOX
"yes"
GOTO FINISHED
>msg3
MESSAGEBOX
"no"
GOTO FINISHED
>msg4
MESSAGEBOX
"cancel"
GOTO FINISHED
The operation can be one of the following:
- GOTO label
- CALL label
LOADCFGFILE filename - Load configuration file. Provide a full path and filename.
LOADCODEFILE filename - Load code file. Provide a full path and filename.
APPENDCODEFILE filename - Append code file. Provide a full path and file name.
LOADSNFILE filename - Load serial number file. Provide a full path and filename.
PAUSE number - pause a number of milliseconds, between 1 and 100000.
VCCOFF - Turn Vcc OFF from programming adapter to target device.
VCCON - Turn Vcc ON from programming adapter to target device.
Vcc from FPA must be enabled first using configuration file.
VCCINMV - Set Vcc in mV, from 1800 to 4000, in steps of 100.
RESET - Perform hard RESET function from main dialog screen, requires connected RST line.
AUTOPROGRAM - Perform "AUTO PROG." function from main dialog screen.
VERIFYACCESS - Perform "VERIFY ACCESS" function from main dialog screen.
ERASEFLASH - Perform "ERASE FLASH" function from main dialog screen.
BLANKCHECK - Perform "BLANK CHECK" function from main dialog screen.
WRITEFLASH - Perform "WRITE FLASH" function from main dialog screen.
VERIFYFLASH - Perform "VERIFY FLASH" function from main dialog screen.
READFLASH - Perform "READ FLASH" function from main dialog screen.
READSN – Read serial number and label only.
LOCK - Perform "Lock Device" function from main dialog screen.
UNLOCK - Perform "Clear Locked Device" function from main dialog screen.
TRACEON filename - Enable tracing and log to the selected filename. This option is useful for debugging. The trace file will contain the sequence of all executed commands ran from the script file annotated with line numbers. Line numbers are counted without empty lines and without lines only containing comments.
TRACEOFF - Disable tracing.
END - End of script.
Below is an example of a script that executes the following sequence of commands:
- Label START is created.
- Vcc from programmer to target device is turned OFF.
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