Introduction to Objects and Namespaces

Accessing Objects Directly in Your Project

In most systems, custom logic and the creation of tags or variables for all internal properties are necessary. However, our platform allows your application to directly access all the objects you create in your project. This means that user-created temporary tags are not required to manage the status of PLC network nodes, the total number of alarms in a group, or the number of rows in a dataset. You can access runtime objects, business objects (representing a network node), or an alarm group or dataset directly. This allows you to display the required information or take action through the object's built-in properties.

There is an underlying .NET object model with 100% managed code, specifically targeting the development of real-time data management applications. The hierarchical object model includes the following top-level objects that correspond to the main modules in the platform:

The top-level hierarchy is implemented as .NET namespaces. Each namespace includes .NET classes and objects that are created when building projects. These objects have runtime properties, methods, statuses, and configuration settings.

For instance, the Tag namespace contains every tag within an application, and each tag has built-in field properties, such as Quality, Timestamp, Min, Max, Units, etc.

Examples:

Tag.tagname1.bit0, tag.tagname2.timestamp

The same concept of tag fields applies to all namespaces, for instance:

Alarm.TotalCount

Alarm.Group.Warning.Disable

Our platform features IntelliSense auto-completion for building projects, filling in input fields, and creating scripts. This functionality guides you to any existing properties allowed for the object you are editing and enables you to easily "drill down" to a specific property.

When accessing a project's object in the .NET Script Editor, you must prefix the namespace with an "@" symbol to avoid conflicts with the names of .NET local variables.

Examples:

In Script → Tasks and CodeBehind, use:

@Device.Node.Node1.Status

The at "@" symbol is not necessary on Grids and Dialogs. Some input fields may require objects of only one type, such as Tag or Display. For these, IntelliSense will automatically guide you to the required objects. 

These concepts may seem abstract for users that do not have experience in .NET or similar object-oriented systems. However, the power of these concepts will become clearer when users learn the engineering configuration tools and the FactoryStudio modules. When users get used to working with object models and Intellisense, they realize that there is a huge increase in productivity so they no longer want to work with systems that lack these features.

You can see the available Namespaces on the platform here.

What's Next?