Applies To:
  • VijeoCitect v7.x
Summary:
VijeoCitect v7.x allows the user to import tags from Unity Pro via "Unity Speedlink Dynamic", "Unity Speedlink Static" or "Unity Speedlink via OFS".
An extra feature, called the TagGen Engine allows the user to automatically create alarm and trend tags through the use of special keywords in the custom field of a variable in Unity Pro. (The help file mentions "VJA" and "VJT", but other combinations are customisable).
This article aims at explaining how both features work, and how they interact with each other.

Solution:
 The import process follows two very distinct steps:


1- "Unity Speedlink xxxx" only acts on your variable tag database. This feature imports tags from Unity Pro/OFS into the variable.dbf file in VijeoCitect.
This import feature is customisable via the relevant .fmt file located in the Bin folder (v7.0) or the Config folder (>v7.1):


Database Type corresponding fmt file
 OPC 
  OPC.fmt
 UnitySpeedlink (EDT) Dynamic  UnityProDynamic.fmt
 UnitySpeedlink (EDT) Static  UnityProStatic.fmt
 Unity Speedlink via OFS  OFS.fmt


These four files are very similar but do present differences.
Please read KB Q5426 for an example on customising a .fmt file to import a specific set of tags into VijeoCitect.


2- The TagGen engine is starting AFTER the variable tag import is complete. It does NOT use the Unity Pro file at all. The TagGen Engine uses the Variable.dbf file as an input, and uses the alarm and trend databases as outputs. It will read the variable.dbf file for any "custom" string (such as VJA or VJT by default) and then will create corresponding tags and alarms.



Step 1 (Variable Tag import) and Step 2 (TagGen) will be run sequentially and both steps will log information into a single Log File.
However, you will be able to see in the log file two distinct sections, the first starting at the beginning of the file, and the second starting with "Starting associated tag generation."


It should be therefore be clear that trying to import only a subset of tags into VijeoCitect is not achievable via tuning the TagGen engine, but through the Variable tag import, ie step1, and customisable via the fmt file.
Also, "VJT" and "VJA" are keywords that are reserved by the default TagGen xml template file (Step2), and it is therefore not recommended to use these keywords if you ever wish to customise your .fmt file (Step1).
Keywords:
 VJA, VJT, custom, Unity, Pro, TagGen, Import, OFS

Attachments