Advanced Visual Scripting

For the basic information please see the "Understanding Visual Scripting" page for Robot Operators as that page introduces the basic information that will be expanded here.

Ports

A forward in port defines an entry point to a node that can be called to instruct the node to run some task.

A forward out port defines an exit point for a node.

A backward in port is how a node to define data that it needs to work correctly. Some backward in ports will have default values defined so there isn't always a requirement to provide backward in ports with data. Default values can also be modified using the visual script editor in case a different value is needed.

A backward out port creates a mechanism to pass data out of a node. This allows a node to generate some data which can be feed through to other nodes that require that same data.

Something that is specific to backward ports is the idea of types. Each backward port, whether they are in or out ports, will have a type defined on them in order to make assurances that data transferred along backward connections will be understood correctly at the receiving end of the connection. What this means is that to create a connection between a backward in port and backward out port, the type of the backward out port has to be convertible to the type of the backward in port. To help make creating backward connections easier with various types, the visual script editor uses specific colors for groups of types. The type groups are shown below.

Type Groups
Boolean
Number
Duration
String
URI