This page presents information about Tag Providers and how to configure them.


Introduction

The TagProvider feature is a tool that allows you to access your Communication Device Data Model from any place inside the Engineering Environment without creating project Tags.

Automatic & Tagless Connections!

  • Connect to external data sources and consume their Namespaces
  • Automatically access all tags and data structures by connecting to the provider with a simple configuration
  • The connected provider’s Tags and Namespace will be available for use in FrameworX (screens, scripts, symbols, and more)
  • Many types of Tag Providers
    • Protocols, Historians or Devices
  • When connecting with Historian, in addition to browse data, application Tags can be archived in the connected Historian.


Supported Communication Protocols, Systems and Historians

The TagProvider feature is available for the following Communication Protocols:

Connection with Remote Systems:

  • Tatsoft FrameworX applications 

Integration for data browsing and archiving with Historians:


TagProvider Configuration

In your Engineering Environment, navigate to Edit → Tags. You should see a tab called Providers.

Click the Create New TagProvider... button to open a dialog window. Select a Communication Protocol from the list, and define its name.


After you select a Protocol, you will see a configuration table with columns that are similar to the ones in the Channels, Nodes, and Points pages. However, the columns will all be grouped on a single page. For this example, we will use MQTTspB.


The configuration settings are detailed below:

  • Name: Name of the provider. This will be used to access elements from this namespace.
  • Provider: Communication Protocol of choice.
  • Parameters: Char separator for the communication protocol of choice.
  • Primary/Backup Station: Connection String information used to establish a communication (same as on Devices → Nodes).
  • Access: AccessType for this connection (Read/Write/ReadWrite).
  • ReadTime: Read Pooling Rate.
  • WriteTime: Write Rate.

The Primary/Backup Station will be configured according to the communication protocol. For more information, please refer to the specific protocol documentation.

Access Elements in Engineering

Once you finish your configuration and establish a successful connection, you will be able to access the variables from the Device in various places within the Engineering Environment.

Browsing the tags

You can start by clicking on the Object Selection button (1). In the left portion of the popup window, you should see a list of objects from every Project Namespace. Use the name that you defined in the TagProvider configuration (2) to search for the namespace. 

Expand the list so you can see all the variables from that Device. By selecting an element, you can see the current value read from the Device (3).

Directly accessing tags

You can also access your variables directly through their addresses, following the same syntax used in Devices → Points: <ProviderName>.("<Type>:<Address>").

E.g.:

  • ControlLogix.("DINT:PROGRAM:MAINPROGRAM.MYDINT")
  • ControlLogix.("DINT:MyArray1DimDINT[0]")

You can also add a Remote Tag to your Display. Go to the Draw Environment, select a TextBox element (or any other component/symbol), and add it to your display. Double-click it and add a TextIO Dynamic with the same method as if you were assigning a tag. 

In the ObjectName field, select the Browse button and search for the desired variables. By doing this, you can display the information from the Communication Protocol directly in you Display, without the need to create a Tag and Communication Point.

The expression field will be filled with the syntax: ?TagProviderName?.(”? Address In Provider ?”).



Since the address in the expression is a string, you can assign other Tags or Properties so that it has a Dynamic Configuration.


This feature is not limited to Displays. You can create AlarmItems, store data in Historian Tables, and use this remote variable as a Communication Point to Write Data for a different Protocol.



Using TagProvider with Assets

It is possible to have a full or partial view of the Data Model inside your Project. On Edit → Assets, you can create your own Levels and assign a part of the Device's structure to it from the Namespace discussed in the previous section.

This method allows you to import all your model, or just a piece of it, from the selected node down. The name of the Level in the Asset Tree (in Runtime) can be edited in the Description column.



In your Draw Environment, add the AssetControl component, open its configuration, and uncheck the Show only tags check box.

Create an Asset component button


If you have done everything correctly, your Asset View should look something like this in Runtime.


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