Overview
Solutions are the foundation of your automation solutions, encompassing all the necessary components such as tags, screens, scripts, alarms, and more. To help you manage and customize your solutions effectively, our platform offers a range of settings and utilities designed to streamline your development experience.
Solution settings provide control over essential aspects of your solutions, such as communication configurations, user access, and alarm management. These settings allow you to tailor the platform to your specific requirements and ensure seamless integration with external systems.
Utilities further enhance your solution management capabilities by offering tools such as the Tag Browser, Database Manager, Event Logger, and Security Manager. These utilities facilitate efficient organization, monitoring, and control of your solutions while maintaining a secure and controlled environment.
Together, solution settings and utilities in our platform empower you to create robust, scalable, and secure industrial automation solutions to meet the demands of your applications.The Solution Settings interface provides a centralized location for configuring various aspects of your solution. Users can adjust parameters related to licensing requirements to run the solution, Python interpreter paths, among others. This page includes Solution Information, Target Platform and License, Solution Options, Modules in Runtime Process, and Python Interpreter.
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Key Concepts and Terminology
Target Platform
The target platform refers to the operating system and hardware environment on which your solution will be deployed and executed. Our platform supports various target platforms, including Windows, Linux, and real-time operating systems, ensuring flexibility and compatibility with a wide range of industrial automation systems.
By selecting the appropriate target platform, you can optimize your solution's performance and ensure seamless integration with your existing infrastructure.
Target License
The platform uses a licensing model to provide different levels of functionality and scalability, depending on the needs of your solution. The target license determines the features, modules, and tag limits available within a specific solution.
We offer several licensing options, catering to various solution sizes and complexity levels. By choosing the right target license for your solution, you can ensure access to the necessary tools and features while optimizing costs.
Categories
One interesting feature in the software platform is the ability to use Categories to organize and group items on runtime, such as variables, alarms, and trends.
Plugins
Plugins are additional software components that can be integrated into the platform to extend its functionality and compatibility. These plugins can be developed by third-party vendors or even end-users. They enable you to add custom features, support for specific devices, or integration with other software systems.
Our platform provides an SDK (Software Development Kit) that allows developers to create their own plugins, ensuring maximum flexibility and adaptability to meet unique solution requirements. By leveraging plugins, you can tailor the platform to fit your specific needs and create highly customized automation solutions.
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Solution Settings User Interface
Understanding Solution Settings and Utilities
OverviewAccess the Solution Settings through Solution → Settings
to tailor your solutions to specific requirements and ensure seamless integration with external systems. Here, you'll find the configuration options that apply to the entire solution and you can view and change the solution settings that you configured when you created the solution.
Solution Information: Includes solution information (read-only), such name, file size, description, solution path and tag counters for local and external.
Target Platform and License: Includes options to modify the solution's target platform and enables license customization, allowing you to select the best family and product model for your solution. You can also customize the historian license.
Solution Options: Defines runtime behavior, including language settings in "Culture Info," enabling client-side tasks for WPF applications, and activating diagnostic logging for system analysis.
Run Modules inside main Runtime process: Checkboxes allow the use of script-based tasks and enable the primary communication channel utilized for device interactions.
Python Interpreter: Users must specify the location of the Python interpreter when running Python scripts and tasks within the application. There are two options available: "Local," which refers to a Python installation on the user's machine, and "Server," which points to a Python installation on a remote server.
Settings Configuration
This section is organize in the the following topics:
- Verify the Target Platform
- Customize Settings
- Define Categories
- Import Tag Definitions
- Manage Solution Plugins
- Export the Solution Configuration
- Access the Solution History
You can verify the Target Platform, which is set when creating a new solution, at Solution Settings → General. Information such as Product Family, Product Model and Canary Historian are also located at this environment and they are editable even after the solution is created.
The Solutions Management Tool documentation explains in details the procedure to create a new solution, as well as how to select the target platform.
Categories are used to organize and manage various elements of an industrial automation solution in a structured and logical manner. By grouping similar components or items under specific categories, you can streamline your solution development process and maintain a clean, organized workspace.
Categories can be applied to several elements, including:
- Tags: categories help you to group and organize tags based on their purpose, type, or function. This makes it easier to locate, manage, and monitor the tags during the solution development and runtime.
- Alarms: categorizing alarms helps in differentiating alarm types, priorities, and sources, enabling efficient alarm management, filtering, and response.
- Screens: organizing screens into categories allows you to manage various user interfaces, such as operator screens, reports, and diagnostics, in a structured manner.
- Scripts: categorizing scripts helps to group related scripts or functions, facilitating easy navigation, editing, and maintenance.
Check Working with Solution Categories for detailed information about how to create categories and assign items to them.
The Import Tag Definitions feature enables you to efficiently import tag information from external sources, such as CSV or Excel files, allowing for quick and easy integration of pre-existing tag definitions into your solution, streamlining the development process. Check the Import Tags for detailed information about this subject.
Add, remove, or configure plugins that extend the functionality of your solution, allowing for seamless integration of custom modules and third-party tools to enhance your industrial automation solution.
Create a backup or share your solution's settings, such as tags, screens, alarms, and more, facilitating collaboration, version control, and easy migration between different environments.
View and track changes made to your solution over time, providing insights into modifications, user actions, and version management, ensuring traceability and effective collaboration throughout the solution's lifecycle.
Solution Settings Configuration and Utilities UsageThe Solution Settings navigation on Solution Explorer has general settings that applies to the entire Solution , and Utilities to assist the creating and maintenance of the solution. It includes:
- General Settings
- Categories
- Using Import Wizards
- Managing Plugins
- Exporting Solution Contents
- Utilizing the Solution History
Solution Information
Includes all the basic information about your solution.
Solution information | |
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Description | |
The Solution Settings page (Solution Settings → General) has the configuration options that applies to the entire solution.
You can view and change the solution settings that you configured when you created the solution.
Solution information | ||
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Field | Description | |
Description | A description for the solution. | |
Solution Path | Read-only path to the solution. | |
Tag Count | How many tags the solution has. | Communication Points |
Help URL | This feature allows users to integrate additional support for their solution by adding Help URLs for knowledge bases and documentationHow many communication points the solution has. | |
Target Platform and License
Provides an overview for understanding the capabilities and limitations of your selected solution.
Target Platform and License | Field | Description|||
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Target Platform | Shows the target platform selected in the solution creation procedure. | |||
Product Family | A basic description of the product families is FrameworX — Complete FactoryStudio functionality FactoryStudio — Scales based on the number of Tags & clients. Edge HMI — Use for smaller applications and embedded systems. Express — Use only for test or demonstration purposes. Edge Gateway — Create a solution to work as an OPC server or Data Acquisition Gateway, providing data to other applications from the native protocol drivers. Changing the family settings may cause some configurations to be invalid. For example, some features are only available in the Enterprise version. | |||
ProductFamily and ProductModel | Go to Product Series for information about the options available. When deployment this solution to product, the Product Family and Model select must match your license. | Product Model | The product model is connected with the maximum number of real-time communication points you are allowed on that solution. | |
Solution Options
Here, the users can fine-tune the following configurations:
Solution Options |
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Field
Culture Info | Select the target language for the runtime application. This setting controls the formatting of dates, numbers, and other information so they are in compliance with the selected language. It is possible to change this setting later. |
Allow Client Tasks (WPF only) | |
This checkbox allows the execution of client-side tasks in WPF. |
Diagnostics |
Checkbox that allows enabling diagnostics logging.
The Categories feature within the Solution Settings is a powerful tool that enables you to organize your solution content effectively. By grouping related elements together, it improves solution structure and navigability. For an in-depth understanding of this feature, please visit our Solution Categories.
Our Solution Settings includes an Import Wizards feature, which simplifies the process of integrating external data or components into your solution. These wizards can significantly enhance your solution setup workflow. For a detailed walkthrough, please refer to our Import Tags.
In Solution Settings, the Managing Plugins feature allows you to control and configure the additional functionalities provided by plugins. It's an essential tool for enhancing your solution's capabilities and customizing its behavior. Learn more about plugin management in Import Plugin.
The ability to export solution contents efficiently is a crucial part of Solution Settings. This feature provides a convenient way to backup, share or migrate your solution data and settings. For a comprehensive guide on how to export solution contents, please see our Exporting Solution Contents.
Solution History is a significant feature within Solution Settings, providing insights into your solution's evolution. It allows for better tracking of changes, improved version control, and efficient error resolution. To master this feature, explore our Utilizing The Solution History Guide.
Troubleshooting and Best Practices
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Troubleshooting and Common #Issues
The Historian module may encounter some issues in its operation. Here are some common issues and their troubleshooting:
#Issue
Solution
Best Practices and #Recommendations
To ensure the smooth operation of the Historian module, follow these best practices:
#Best practice
Recommendations
Log Files Location | This dropdown let's you define the location of diagnostic data, aiding in system analysis and troubleshooting. |
Retentive Database Settings
In the Solution Option, click on the gear icon next to the Retentive Database to open the Edit Database Connection popup window.
Edit Database Connection Popup window | |
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Name | Defines the database connection name. |
Description | A brief overview informing the purpose or specifications of the database connection. |
Provider | Data providers serve as bridges between applications and specific types of databases. While some providers like ODBC and OleDb offer multi-database support, others like OracleClient, SQLClient, SQLite, and PostgreSQL are specialized for their respective databases. |
Database | The databases you can connect to will vary depending on the selected Provider. |
ServerIP | If the database you want to connect to isn't on the local computer, the ServerIP should be the IP address or network name of the computer with the database. If a tunneling service is required to access the remote computer, the TWebServices utility must be enabled and running on the remote computer. |
Test button | To test the connection. |
DataSource | Displays the configuration string used to connect to the SQLite database. This string specifies the file path and name of the database file, directing the system to the correct database location. The format typically follows "Data Source =ExecutionPathAndName.dbRetentive". |
Password | The security key to authenticate and access the database. |
Run Modules Inside Main Runtime Process
Here, the users configure the solution settings related to module executions.
Solution Options | |
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Script Tasks | Enables script-based tasks on the solution. |
First Device Channel | Selects the primary route for communication between a software application and connected devices, ensuring a stable and reliable exchange of data and commands. |
Python Interpreter
Specifies the folder where the Python interpreter is installed.
Python Interpreter | |
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Local | Defines the path for Python installation folder on the local machine. |
Server | Defines the path for Python installation folder on the remote server. |
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