Starting the MERLIC Frontend on Windows

There are various options to start a MERLIC Frontend on a Windows system.

Starting the MERLIC Frontend via the MERLIC GUI

You can start a MERLIC Frontend directly from MERLIC Creator or MERLIC Designer. In this case, it will automatically connect to the respective MERLIC Creator instance and load the Frontend design of the MVApp that is currently loaded in MERLIC Creator. The connected MERLIC Creator and Frontend Designer are locked while the MERLIC Frontend is open.

This option is recommended only during the development of an MVApp for testing purposes.

How to Start the Frontend From the MERLIC Creator
  1. Open the MERLIC Creator.
  2. Open the drop-down menu "Run" in the menu bar.
  3. Click on "Launch Frontend".
How to Start the Frontend From the MERLIC Designer
  1. Open the MERLIC Designer
  2. Click on " Launch Frontend" in the menu bar.
How to Start the Frontend via Keyboard Shortcut:
  • Open the MERLIC Creator or MERLIC Designer and press F10.

Starting the MERLIC Frontend via the Windows Start Menu

  1. Open the Windows start menu.
  2. Navigate to "MVTec MERLIC 26.10"
  3. Click on "MERLIC 26.10 Frontend".
  4. When the MERLIC Frontend has started, you can select the system and MERLIC instance you want to connect to.

This option allows connecting the MERLIC Frontend to a MERLIC RTE instance on a remote system. For more information, see Connecting the MERLIC Frontend to a Remote Server.

Starting the MERLIC Frontend via the Command Line

  1. Open a command prompt and change to the "bin\x64-win64" directory within the MERLIC installation path, for example, "%PROGRAMFILES%\MVTec\MERLIC-26.10\bin\x64-win64".
  2. Enter the following command to start the MERLIC Frontend:
    Copy
    merlic_frontend.exe
  3. When the MERLIC Frontend has started, you can select the system and MERLIC instance you want to connect to. You can also use the command line option "‑‑url" to connect the MERLIC Frontend directly to the desired MERLIC server and MERLIC instance.

This option allows connecting the MERLIC Frontend to a MERLIC RTE instance on a remote system. For more information, see Connecting the MERLIC Frontend to a Remote Server.

Command Line Options

MERLIC provides the following command line options for "merlic_frontend.exe":

Command line option

Description

-h [‑‑help]

Display help message.

-V [‑‑version]

Display MERLIC version and exit.

‑‑ini

Path to the INI file.

‑‑url

Use specified connection URL. Supported formats:

  • ws[s]://<HOST>[:<PORT>]/instances/<INSTANCE_NAME>
  • unix:///<PATH_TO_INSTANCE>/me-<INSTANCE_NAME>
  • tcp://<HOST>:<PORT> (legacy option for use with MERLIC version 26.03 or older)

For more information, see the section Specifying a Connection URL.

‑‑tcp

Use specified TCP connection. Supported formats:

<HOST>:<PORT>

This option is legacy and provided only for use with MERLIC 26.03 or older. To remotely connect to newer MERLIC instances, use the "‑‑url" option with a WebSocket (ws:// or wss://) URL.

‑‑hide_window_title_bar

Hide the MERLIC Frontend window title bar (true). Default: false

When using this option, you have to add the desired value.

Example

Copy 
merlic_frontend.exe --hide_window_title_bar=true

‑‑icon_file

Specify an icon to replace the MERLIC icon in the window title bar and task bar. You have to define the absolute path and file name of the icon.

‑‑fullscreen

Start the MERLIC Frontend in full screen mode.

Specifying a Connection URL

With the command line option "‑‑url", you can specify in advance to which system and MERLIC instance the MERLIC Frontend should connect to. It can be used for connections to the local system as well as to remote system. However, for local connections, you might typically start the MERLIC Frontend directly from MERLIC Creator or MERLIC Designer while developing and testing a MERLIC Vision App (MVApp). The most common use case for the "‑‑url" option would be to connect to a MERLIC instance running on a remote system.

Connections to the Local System

For connections to a MERLIC instance on the local system, UNIX-domain sockets (UDS) are used. The URL needs to specify the path to the UDS files created by MERLIC and the name of the desired MERLIC instance. The name of the instance must be prefixed with "me-" to match the name of the directory containing the UDS files. The URL requires the following format:

Copy 
unix:///<PATH_TO_INSTANCE>/me-<INSTANCE_NAME>

The UDS files are typically located in the following user-private directory:

Operating system

Path

Windows

C:\ProgramData\MERLIC_<username>

System-based Linux

$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/MERLIC

Other Linux systems, for example, WSL

/tmp/MERLIC_<username>

The connection URL must be specified with forward slashes on all operating systems.

Example

On a Windows system, an example URL for a local connection might look like the following. It connects the MERLIC Frontend to the MERLIC instance "testing-instance" that was started by the user "test-user".

Copy 
merlic_frontend.exe --url unix:///C:/ProgramData/MERLIC_test-user/me-testing-instance

Alternatively, you may also use URL format for WebSocket connections to connect the MERLIC Frontend to a local MERLIC instance.

Connections to a Remote System

For connections to a MERLIC instance on a remote system, WebSocket connections are used. The URL needs to specify the remote system and MERLIC instance. MERLIC supports different URL formats for remote connections depending on the configuration of the respective MERLIC server. The following URL format is used for connections with Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption.

Copy 
wss://<HOST>[:<PORT>]/instances/<INSTANCE_NAME>

For more information, see section Connecting via the Command Line on page Connecting the MERLIC Frontend to a Remote Server.

Starting the MERLIC Frontend in MERLIC RTE Mode

A MERLIC Frontend is also started when starting MERLIC RTE. The MERLIC Frontend will automatically load the Frontend design of the current recipe file. For more information, see Starting and Stopping MERLIC RTE.

By default, the MERLIC Frontend will be locked for modifications when it is connected to a MERLIC RTE instance because the used communication device is given control over MERLIC. For more information, see Write Access in the Frontend and Acquiring and Releasing Write Access in the Frontend.