showcase app consolidation

[PTKu]

Summary

This PR consolidates 31 separate showcase/testing applications — previously scattered across individual library component directories — into a single, unified showcase application at src/showcase/app. This eliminates massive duplication of boilerplate (hardware config, Blazor scaffolding, build artifacts), simplifies the build pipeline, and provides a centralized place for documentation, integration testing, and live feature demonstration.

The unified showcase app includes both the PLC-side Structured Text code and a Blazor Server UI with documentation pages covering every component and core feature in AXOpen. The PR also adds a per-component documentation layer (README, CHANGELOG, component pages, DocFX integration) and full-text search across the showcase site.

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Motivation

• Duplication problem: Each library component maintained its own standalone app/ folder with near-identical scaffolding: hardware config, Blazor host, security setup, data repositories, and build configuration. This resulted in ~1.5M lines of redundant generated/boilerplate code.
• Maintenance burden: Any change to the showcase infrastructure (e.g., updating the Blazor host, adjusting security, or changing the PLC configuration) had to be replicated across 31+ directories.
• Testing fragmentation: Integration tests were spread across individual app folders with no unified test surface.
• Documentation gap: No consistent per-library documentation surface (README/CHANGELOG/component pages) and no cross-library search.
• Onboarding friction: New contributors had to navigate dozens of nearly identical app folders to understand how components work together.

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What Changed

1. Removed Individual App Folders (31 directories, ~1,511 files deleted)

The following library app/ directories were completely removed:

Category	Removed Directories
Core/Foundation	src/abstractions/app/, src/core/app/, src/data/app/, src/inspectors/app/, src/io/app/, src/probers/app/, src/timers/app/, src/utils/app/, src/integrations/app/, src/simatic1500/app/
Drives	src/components.drives/app/, src/components.festo.drives/app/, src/components.rexroth.drives/app/
Robotics	src/components.robotics/app/, src/components.abb.robotics/app/, src/components.kuka.robotics/app/, src/components.mitsubishi.robotics/app/, src/components.ur.robotics/app/
Vision	src/components.cognex.vision/app/, src/components.keyence.vision/app/, src/components.zebra.vision/app/
Tightening	src/components.desoutter.tightening/app/, src/components.rexroth.tightening/app/
Other Components	src/components.elements/app/, src/components.pneumatics/app/, src/components.rexroth.press/app/, src/components.dukane.welders/app/, src/components.balluff.identification/app/, src/components.siem.communication/app/, src/components.siem.identification/app/, src/components.abstractions/app/
Template	src/template.axolibrary/app/

Also removed the legacy integration/ folder and dead sandbox references.

2. New Unified Showcase App (src/showcase/app/)

PLC Application (src/)

src/showcase/app/src/
├── Foundation/
│   ├── AbstractionsShowcase.st
│   ├── FoundationShowcase.st
│   ├── InspectorsShowcase.st
│   └── IoShowcase.st
├── IO/
│   ├── HwIdentifiers.st
│   ├── Inputs.st / Outputs.st / IoStructures.st
├── ShowcaseContext.st          # Unified context for all showcases
├── configuration.st            # Hardware/PLC configuration
└── program.st                  # Main program entry point

Blazor UI (ix-blazor/showcase.blazor/)

ix-blazor/showcase.blazor/
├── Pages/                          # Documentation pages for every component & core feature
│   ├── Core/                       # AxoComponent, AxoTask, AxoSequencer, AxoMessaging, AxoDialogs, ...
│   ├── Foundation/                 # DataExchange, DistributedData, Rendering, Security
│   └── Components/                 # All hardware component showcases (KUKA, Cognex, Keyence, Utils, ...)
├── Shared/
│   ├── MainLayout.razor
│   ├── NavMenu.razor               # Expandable navigation with all features
│   ├── TopRow.razor
│   └── Showcase/                   # Reusable showcase UI components
│       ├── AxoStepCard.razor       # Step-by-step guide cards
│       ├── CodeBlock.razor         # Syntax-highlighted code display
│       ├── LibraryResources.razor  # Shared per-library resources panel (badges, links, deps)
│       ├── MaturityBadge.razor     # Component maturity indicators
│       ├── SourceFileLink.razor    # Links to source files
│       └── SourceViewerModal.razor # Modal source code viewer
├── Services/
│   ├── CodeSnippetProvider.cs      # Dynamic code snippet loader with line-range support
│   ├── DocFxMarkdownProcessor.cs   # Renders DocFX markdown inside Blazor pages
│   └── SearchIndex / Registry      # Full-text search across showcase pages
├── wwwroot/
│   ├── css/momentum.css            # Operon/Momentum design system
│   └── css/tailwind.css
└── Program.cs                      # App configuration & startup

Key features of the Blazor UI:

• Living documentation — CodeSnippetProvider loads real source code from .st and .cs files, supporting line-range extraction and automatic language detection.
• DocFX-rendered pages — DocFxMarkdownProcessor renders the per-library DocFX markdown (READMEs, component pages) directly inside the Blazor UI so docs and showcase share one source of truth.
• Full-text search — Search index over all showcase/documentation pages with a search registry entry per component.
• Dynamic documentation badge — Components surface a live documentation/maturity badge in the UI.
• Momentum/Operon styling — Consistent design system matching the Simatic AX visual language.
• Data exchange showcase — Demonstrates all 4 data exchange patterns: AxoDataExchange, AxoDataFragmentExchange, AxoDataPersistentExchange, AxoDataDistributed.
• Security — Roles-based access control with JSON repository.

3. Per-Component Documentation Layer

Each library now ships a consistent documentation set under src/<library>/docs/:

• README.md — library overview, dependencies, links
• CHANGELOG.md — version-tracked changes (semver from GitVersion.yml)
• {ComponentName}.md — per-component pages with code references wired to the showcase
• index.md + toc.yml — DocFX integration

Examples added/expanded in this PR: Utils (AxoBlinker, AxoCRC, AxoStringBuilder), Keyence Vision (descriptions, hardware config, dependencies, vendor docs), KUKA Robotics, Cognex Vision, plus refactors across all component categories to use the shared LibraryResources component and a unified external-links section.

4. Solution File Updates

Solution	Change
src/AXOpen.sln	Added showcase (PLC) and showcase.blazor (UI) projects; added AXOpen.Data.Distributed.Tests_L4
src/AXOpen.solution.sln	Matching updates
src/AXOpen-L1-tests.sln	Updated test references
src/AXOpen-L3-tests.sln	Updated test references
src/showcase/showcase.sln	New — Standalone showcase solution
src/showcase/app/showcase.blazor.sln	New — Blazor-only solution for UI development

5. Build Pipeline Updates (cake/)

cake/BuildContext.cs:

• Disabled HasApp flag for all 32 library configurations
• Removed app folder paths from GetControllerAxFolders(), GetApplicationAxFolders(), and GetApaxYmlFiles()

cake/Program.cs:

• Simplified test runner to no longer traverse individual app/ directories
• Changed folder discovery from checking both app and ax to only ax

Other:

• Initial apax-traversal configuration added at the repo root for unified dependency traversal across libraries.

6. Hardware / Twin / Tooling Updates

• AXSharp bumped to 0.47.0-alpha.476 across all AXSharp.config.json files.
• PLCSIM compatibility: showcase HW switched to 1518_v40 so the app loads on PLCSIM until V41 is functional.
• NTP exposed in 1500 hardware templates (expose ntp confs in 1500 hw temps #1094).
• New UiHostProject field added to AXSharp.config.json files.
• Showcase twin project added to git.

7. Documentation Updates (60+ files)

• All component documentation links updated to point to the unified showcase app (../app/... → ../../showcase/app/...).
• DocFX site refactored to render per-library docs through DocFxMarkdownProcessor.
• External-links sections refactored to a shared component.
• Minor API reference fix in README.md: Entry.Plc.AxoRemoteTasks → Entry.Plc.Ctx.AxoRemoteTasks.

8. Configuration Changes

Directory.Packages.props:

• Added Markdig v0.40.0 — Markdown parsing library used by CodeSnippetProvider and DocFxMarkdownProcessor for documentation rendering in the Blazor UI.

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Architecture Diagram

BEFORE (31 separate apps):                AFTER (1 unified app + per-lib docs):

src/core/app/          ─┐                 src/showcase/app/
  ├── src/              │                   ├── src/  (Foundation, IO, ShowcaseContext, ...)
  ├── ix-blazor/        │                   ├── ix-blazor/showcase.blazor/
  ├── hwc/              │                   │   ├── Pages/   (Core, Foundation, Components)
  └── apax.yml          │                   │   ├── Shared/  (LibraryResources, MaturityBadge, ...)
                        │                   │   ├── Services/ (CodeSnippetProvider,
src/data/app/          ─┤                   │   │             DocFxMarkdownProcessor, Search)
  ├── ...               ├──► CONSOLIDATED   │   └── wwwroot/ (Momentum CSS, search assets)
  └── apax.yml          │    INTO            ├── hwc/ (1518_v40, NTP)
                        │                   └── apax.yml
src/components.*/app/  ─┤                 src/<library>/docs/
  ├── ...               │                   ├── README.md
  └── apax.yml         ─┘                   ├── CHANGELOG.md
                                            ├── {Component}.md
                                            ├── index.md
                                            └── toc.yml

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Testing Considerations

• Verify apax build succeeds for src/showcase/app
• Verify the Blazor showcase app starts and all pages render correctly
• Verify CodeSnippetProvider resolves source files from the correct paths
• Verify DocFxMarkdownProcessor renders per-library README/CHANGELOG/component pages
• Verify full-text search returns hits across all components
• Verify all documentation links in component docs point to valid files
• Verify cake build pipeline correctly skips removed app folders
• Run L1 and L3 test suites to confirm no regressions
• Verify data exchange scenarios (JSON persistence, fragments, distributed) function correctly
• Load showcase app to PLCSIM (1518_v40) and verify NTP exposure on 1500 templates
• Confirm no remaining references to deleted app/ paths or the removed integration/ folder

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Breaking Changes

• Removed 31 standalone app directories — Any workflow, script, or CI job that references individual src/<component>/app/ paths must be updated to use src/showcase/app/ instead.
• Removed integration/ folder — Migrate any references to the unified showcase app.
• Build configuration — HasApp flag is now false for all library components in BuildContext.cs. The build no longer looks for or processes individual app folders.
• Solution structure — Projects removed from solutions; showcase projects added. IDE users will need to reload solutions.
• AXSharp version bump — 0.47.0-alpha.476 across all configs; downstream consumers should align.

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Risk Assessment

Risk	Likelihood	Mitigation
Missing showcase coverage for a component	Low	All 31 original apps were audited; unified pages created for each
Broken documentation links	Low	All doc links verified post-update; DocFX builds against new layout
Build pipeline regression	Medium	Cake scripts updated but need CI validation
Generated code path changes	Medium	AXSharp connector paths changed; verify axsharp.companion.json
PLCSIM load regression	Low	HW pinned to 1518_v40 until V41 PLCSIM is functional

[TomKovac]

Seems that component4 and 5 from the removed test app are missing .

[TomKovac]

seems that component 3 is missing

[TomKovac]

seems that component 3 and 4 are missing

[TomKovac]

gitignore???

[TomKovac]

It seems that some components are missing in library\docs\Component_3-5 especially in Cognex lib and some others. Not sure if it is on purpose as in showcase app there are present.