Navigation and screen hierarchy in SCADA systems - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Navigation and Screen Hierarchy in SCADA Systems

📖 Scenario: You are working on a SCADA system interface. The system has multiple screens showing different parts of a factory. You need to organize these screens in a hierarchy so operators can navigate easily.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple screen hierarchy using a dictionary where each screen points to its child screens. Then create a function to navigate from one screen to its child screens.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a dictionary called screen_hierarchy with exact screen names and their child screens

Add a variable called current_screen to hold the starting screen

Write a function called get_child_screens that takes a screen name and returns its child screens

Print the child screens of the current_screen

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

SCADA systems use screen hierarchies to organize complex factory data so operators can find information quickly and safely.

💼 Career

Understanding navigation and screen hierarchy is essential for SCADA developers and operators to build and use efficient control interfaces.

1

Create the screen hierarchy dictionary

Create a dictionary called screen_hierarchy with these exact entries: 'Main': ['Overview', 'Settings'], 'Overview': ['Temperature', 'Pressure'], 'Settings': ['Network', 'Display'], 'Temperature': [], 'Pressure': [], 'Network': [], 'Display': []

SCADA systems

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a dictionary with keys as screen names and values as lists of child screens.

2

Set the current screen variable

Create a variable called current_screen and set it to the string 'Main'

SCADA systems

screen_hierarchy = {
    'Main': ['Overview', 'Settings'],
    'Overview': ['Temperature', 'Pressure'],
    'Settings': ['Network', 'Display'],
    'Temperature': [],
    'Pressure': [],
    'Network': [],
    'Display': []
}
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Set current_screen exactly to 'Main'.

3

Write a function to get child screens

Write a function called get_child_screens that takes a parameter screen and returns the list of child screens from screen_hierarchy for that screen

SCADA systems

screen_hierarchy = {
    'Main': ['Overview', 'Settings'],
    'Overview': ['Temperature', 'Pressure'],
    'Settings': ['Network', 'Display'],
    'Temperature': [],
    'Pressure': [],
    'Network': [],
    'Display': []
}

current_screen = 'Main'

def get_child_screens(screen):
    # Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the dictionary get method to return child screens or an empty list if none.

4

Print the child screens of the current screen

Write a print statement that prints the result of calling get_child_screens with current_screen

SCADA systems

screen_hierarchy = {
    'Main': ['Overview', 'Settings'],
    'Overview': ['Temperature', 'Pressure'],
    'Settings': ['Network', 'Display'],
    'Temperature': [],
    'Pressure': [],
    'Network': [],
    'Display': []
}

current_screen = 'Main'

def get_child_screens(screen):
    return screen_hierarchy.get(screen, [])

print()  # Your code here

Need a hint?

Call get_child_screens(current_screen) inside print().