Tag paths and the name tree

A tag’s full name reads Plant1.Line1.Press.PartCount. The dots separate segments, and from those segments the interface builds the tree on the left of the Tags page.

A flat name works for twelve tags and collapses at two hundred: everything is called Counter and needs a suffix, and the suffix carries the plant structure in a place nothing can read. The path carries it where the interface can show it.

A folder is not a thing

A folder in the tree is nothing but the leading part of the paths under it. The interface says so when you click one: “{{path}}” is a folder - a part of the tag, not a tag of its own.

Three things follow, all of them intended:

• An empty folder cannot exist.
• A delete cannot leave an empty folder behind.
• The tree can never disagree with the tags.

The price: renaming a folder rewrites every path underneath. TrakState says how many beforehand: {{count}} tags move with it and answer to the new path afterwards.

What a path may be

Rule
Length	at most 400 characters
Uniqueness	the full path occurs only once per tenant
Empty segments	not allowed — .a, a. and a..b are refused
Segments of only spaces	not allowed
Line breaks and tabs	not allowed

Surrounding spaces are removed on save, per segment as well: Plant1 . Press and Plant1.Press are the same tag, not two rows that look identical in the tree.

When a path is refused you get the sentence that names the mistake, not just an error number.

Renaming and moving

Renaming is harmless: Renaming changes the path, never the identity - everything that refers to it follows. Bindings, widgets and masks point at the tag’s immutable id, not at its name.

Moving is the same operation: the new path is a new folder part. A folder may not be moved into itself.

Copying

Duplicate puts a copy next to the original: A.B becomes A.B copy, then A.B copy 2, A.B copy 3. The suffix goes on the last segment so the copy stays in the same folder.

The copy arrives empty: Copied to “{{path}}”. The copy has no value and no bindings yet. A copy that quietly showed the original’s number would look like a measurement.

Deleting a folder

Delete folder takes every tag under the path with it. The dialog names the count and, when there is one, a second number: how many tags outside the folder read from these and will lose their source. The operation cannot be undone.

Names are English

Create tag paths in English — Press1.PartCount, Line1.Tools.Conversion — even when you work with the interface in German. The same goes for record type and field names. The interface is bilingual; your data is not: a path once called Presse1.Stueckzahl reads the same in the English view.