The Open Automation Software Data Connectors are designed to give you reliable and easy to configure OPC protocol connectivity and Tag data routing. There are four main products in this category of connectors:
Data Route
OPC UA/DA Client Connector
OPC UA/DA Server Connector
OPC Alarms & Events
Data Route
The Data Route feature allows you to independently configure Tag-to-Tag targets and multi-Tag-to-Tag rules for the purpose of copying data between two tags. This is the perfect solution for moving data between Tags and it can be used to move data between Tags on the same OAS instance or to move data between local Tags and Tags on a remote OAS instance. The Data Route feature is great for protocol conversion, moving data between OT and IT networks using triggering rules, dynamically controlling data flow and creating redundancy architectures.
The OPC UA/DA Client Connector allows unlimited local and remote OPC Clients to communicate with your OAS instance. This is typically used where external OPC clients, such as SCADA systems, HMI panels and custom OPC client applications need to communicate with Tags in your OAS instance. In this feature, the OAS instance acts like an OPC server.
The OPC UA/DA Server Connector allows you to source Tag data from OPC UA and OPC DA servers and devices by configuring OPC data sources in your OAS instance. This is typically used to source data from PLCs and remote devices. In this feature, the OAS instance acts like an OPC client.
The OPC Alarms & Events Connector integrates with the OAS Alarm Logging and Notification features such as .NET Alarm and Web Alarm. This connector allows you to ingest alarm directly from an OPC A&E server.
Open Automation Software Tags can be defined to connect to OPC UA Servers with the built in OPC UA Driver Interface. Once you have connected to your OPC UA Server, you can use the Open UIEngine No-Code User Interface to create HMI screens and visualize your data in a browser. The Open UIEngine is a web-based interface that allows you to create HMI screens using a simple click and drag interface. This tutorial walks you though downloading and installing OAS, configuring an OPC UA driver, configuring tags and building a screen using Open UIEngine.
Step 1. Download and Install the Open Automation Software and Start the OAS Service
If you have not already done so, you will need to download and install the OAS platform. Fully functional trial versions of the software are available for Windows, Windows IoT Core, Linux, Raspberry Pi and Docker on our downloads page.
On Windows run the downloaded Setup.exe file to install one or more of the Open Automation Software features. Select the default Typical installation if you are not sure what features to use or the Custom installation if you want to save disk space on the target system. When prompted agree to the End User License Agreement to continue the installation.
The OAS Service Control application will appear when the installation finishes on Windows. Use this application to start the 3 Services. Run the Configure OAS application on Windows and select Configure-Tags; if the first time running, the AdminCreate utility will run to create an Administrator login as shown in Step 1 of Getting Started – Security.
Step 2. Configure Your OPC UA Data Source
First, you will need to open the Configure OAS application from the program group Open Automation Software.
Select Configure >> License from the top menu and verify that OPC UA is one of the available Drivers in the lower left of the form. The demo license will have this by default. If you do not see OPC UA available, contact support@openautomationsoftware.com to update your license.
Select Configure >> Drivers from the top menu.
Select localhost or the remote service you wish to modify with the Select button to the right of the Network Node list.
The Configure Drivers Screen will appear. Select OPC UA from the Driver dropdown box.
Enter a meaningful Driver Interface Name that you will refer to this physical connection when defining Tags with a OPC UA Data Source.
Define the properties for the desired physical connection.
Click the Add Driver button above the Driver list in the left pane to add the Driver Interface as an available selection when defining Tags in the next step.
The OAS Open UIEngine allows you to build and publish interactive UIs, HMIs and web applications powered by the OAS Platform and your real time data without writing any code.
Open the OAS Configuration application and select Configure > Options, then select the network node (localhost if working on the local machine) and click Select. Under the Networking tab, locate the field for REST API and Web Port Number. The default is 58725 but can be changed. If you are accessing the server from a remote client, you will also need to make sure your machine and/or company firewalls allow TCP traffic on the selected port. If you are using SSL we suggest using a different port number such as 58726 to avoid port conflicts. You can find more detailed information in our knowledge base article Configuring OAS Web Services.
Accessing the UIEngine interface
The UIEngine web application is included as part of your OAS platform installation and can be accessed on the following URL (based on the above configuration):
Follow the steps in this section to create a new UIEngine project and screen with a label that displays your tag value data.
In the left hand side panel, click on the green plus sign next to PROJECTS to create a new project.
In the popup window, type in a project name and click on the Create Project button.
Your new project will appear in the side panel. Now click on the green plus sign next to your project to create a new screen.
In the popup window, type in a screen name and click on the Create Screen button.
Your new screen will appear in the side panel. Click on your new screen and then press the Edit button in the top toolbar.
In the Toolbox on the right hand side of the window, click on the Label object to create a new label.
A new label will appear on your canvas. Click on it to select it. In the properties panel on the right hand side, select the TEXT section. Click on the tag icon next to the text box and then again in the second text box that appears.
In the popup window, select a tag that you created in the previous section of this guide and then click on Value to map the label value to the value of the tag. In this example we will use the MyDataTag tag.
Once you’ve selected the tag, its name and property value will appear in the text box and the tag icon will turn green. You’ve now mapped a tag to the label.
To see the tag’s value in real-time, click on the RUN button.
As the data changes in your data source, you should see the value update in UIEngine.
Well done, you’ve now successfully mapped a tag’s value to a label.
Styling your label
You can now play around with the various styling options to make your label look great. The following video shows you how you can adjust various properties to make your tag value stand out.
Optional Steps
View the Water Tank Demo project
The default OAS installation includes a number pre-configured demo tags that will be used in a simple water tank visualization using Open UIEngine. These tags can be found in the Configure > Tags screen under the Tanks tag group. You can use this example to understand how to assign tags to elements such as symbols, labels and gauges to create interactive and dynamic graphic visualizations.
Download the Water Tank Demo project file from the UIEngine Demo Projects page.
Load the demo configuration file by following the steps on Loading a Config.
Open the Tank HMI screen in the Tanks project to view the visualization.
Click on the pump and valves to see how the colors and the tank water level changes dynamically.
Open UIEngine deployment types
You can leverage the OAS networking capabilities and Live Data Cloud to implement different security architectures and communicate with multiple remote OAS server instances.
Some typical architectures include:
Single server – Single OAS instance where tag data collection and the Open UIEngine are hosted on a single physical machine or container
Multiple servers, same network – One or more dedicated OAS instance(s) for data collection and a dedicated OAS instance for hosting Open UIEngine
Multiple servers, different networks – One or more dedicated OAS instance(s) for data collection in one or more private networks and a dedicated OAS instance in a separate public or private network.
Accssing remote tags
You can use OAS Basic Networking to allow the Open UIEngine instance to access remote tag values using the remote tag address notation where the IP address of the remote OAS instance is static and accessible. This can be written as:
\\192.168.1.116\TagName.Value
In Open UIEngine you can specify tag names using this notation. In the following example we will set the FILL COLOR based on a tag value.
Click on the tag symbol to open the DYNAMIC COLORS context window.
Click on the tag symbol inside the OAS Tag text box.
When you click on the tag icon a tag selection window will appear. To select a remote tag follow these steps:
Enter the remote OAS instance IP in the OAS Server text box
Click on the connect icon
Select the tag
Select the tag’s Value variable
You will now see the remote tag notation in the tag text box. This means Open UIEngine is now sourcing its tag value from a remote OAS instance tag.
Create your own visualizations
You can now go ahead and create your own screens and add components that link to the tags you added from your own data source. The Open UIEngine Quick Start Guide will get you started in no time.
You can find more information about the features and capabilities of Open UIEngine in the following resources:
Open Automation Software can transfer data from OPC UA Servers to local or remote MQTT brokers with Sparkplug B protocol as an Edge of Network Node. This tutorial walks you through downloading and installing OAS, configuring an OPC UA driver interface, configuring OPC UA tags, and defining Host Group ID, Edge Node ID, Device ID, and Metric names for the OAS Sparkplug B EoN.
Step 1. Download and Install the Open Automation Software and Start the OAS Service
If you have not already done so, you will need to download and install the OAS platform. Fully functional trial versions of the software are available for Windows, Windows IoT Core, Linux, Raspberry Pi and Docker on our downloads page.
On Windows run the downloaded Setup.exe file to install one or more of the Open Automation Software features. Select the default Typical installation if you are not sure what features to use or the Custom installation if you want to save disk space on the target system. When prompted agree to the End User License Agreement to continue the installation.
The OAS Service Control application will appear when the installation finishes on Windows. Use this application to start the 3 Services. Run the Configure OAS application on Windows and select Configure-Tags; if the first time running, the AdminCreate utility will run to create an Administrator login as shown in Step 1 of Getting Started – Security.
Step 2. Configure Your OPC UA Data Source
First, you will need to open the Configure OAS application from the program group Open Automation Software.
Select Configure >> License from the top menu and verify that OPC UA is one of the available Drivers in the lower left of the form. The demo license will have this by default. If you do not see OPC UA available, contact support@openautomationsoftware.com to update your license.
Select Configure >> Drivers from the top menu.
Select localhost or the remote service you wish to modify with the Select button to the right of the Network Node list.
The Configure Drivers Screen will appear. Select OPC UA from the Driver dropdown box.
Enter a meaningful Driver Interface Name that you will refer to this physical connection when defining Tags with a OPC UA Data Source.
Define the properties for the desired physical connection.
Click the Add Driver button above the Driver list in the left pane to add the Driver Interface as an available selection when defining Tags in the next step.
Step 4. Define Sparkplug B Group ID, Edge Node ID, Device ID, and Metric Names.
Select Configure-Drivers.
Enter a meaningful Driver Interface Name that you will refer to this connection and define the properties.
Set the driver to Sparkplug B.
Enter the Host property to the IP Address of the of the host broker or just use localhost for a local broker.
Set the Port property of the host broker to connect to. The default port is 1883 or 8883 for SSL.
Note: The OAS MQTT Broker can be used to host data locally. To use another broker on the default ports on the same computer change the OAS MQTT Broker Port under Configure-Options-MQTT Broker.
Enter the User Name and Password if required.
Set the MQTT Protocol Version to V311 or V500.
Set the Client ID to a unique value, each driver interface must have a specific value different than all other clients connecting to the host.
Set the Mode to Edge Node.
Set the Hode Mode to Remote Hosted if a Host Application to control the state of this Edge Node including another OAS driver set as Host App. Set to Self Hosted to have this OAS driver control the state of the Edge Node.
Set the Host ID to the specific value that the Edge of Nodes will be using as the Host Application ID.
Set the Sparkplug B Version to 2.2 or 3.0.
Set the Group ID and Edge Node ID that defines this EoN Node.
Note: This Group ID and Edge Node ID values will be used in the next steps to define which OAS tags will be enabled for hosting values in the next step to Define OAS Tags as EoN Node using the Host Group ID and Host Edge Node ID tag properties.
Optionally set the Device ID Filter to include only a specific device defined by the Tag property Host Device ID. Leave blank to include all tags with all Host Device IDs defined with same Group ID and Edge Node ID.
Select the Add Driver button in the left part of the form to add the Driver Interface.
Select Configure-Tags.
Select a tag defined in the first step as the data source.
Set the Host properties of the tag to match the Group ID and Edge Node ID defined in the Sparkplug B Driver Interface. Set the Device ID to represent the Sparkplug B device. Set the Metric Name to represent the value from the source tag.
Note: The Group ID / Edge Node ID / Device ID / Metric Name combination must be unique in the OAS Engine.
Repeat the same step for all source tags or use the CSV Export button to save to a CSV file then update the Value – SpB Host Group ID, Value – SpB Host Edge Node ID, Value – SpB Host Device ID, and Value – SpB Host Metric Name columns in the CSV file using Excel, save, close Excel, then use the CSV Import button.
Data is now publishing to the MQTT broker defined in the Sparkplug B driver interface if running in Self Hosted or the Host Application state for the Host ID is online.
Select the Save button from the toolbar to save your configuration.
You can view the Getting Started with Sparkplug B Video to familiarize yourself with the above steps to setup OAS as a Sparkplug B Edge of Network Node and a Host Application
This guide explains how to use Open Automation Software (OAS) to transfer data from Sparkplug B Edge of Network Node devices to OPC UA servers, locally or over a network. The process involves downloading and installing OAS, configuring Sparkplug B and OPC UA drivers, setting up Sparkplug B and OPC UA tags, and implementing Data Route to automate data transfer from Sparkplug B Metric values to OPC UA server nodes.
OAS also acts as an OPC UA server, allowing OPC UA clients to access Sparkplug B data. For more information, please refer to the Getting Started OPC UA Client guide.
Step 1. Download and Install the Open Automation Software and Start the OAS Service
If you have not already done so, you will need to download and install the OAS platform. Fully functional trial versions of the software are available for Windows, Windows IoT Core, Linux, Raspberry Pi and Docker on our downloads page.
On Windows run the downloaded Setup.exe file to install one or more of the Open Automation Software features. Select the default Typical installation if you are not sure what features to use or the Custom installation if you want to save disk space on the target system. When prompted agree to the End User License Agreement to continue the installation.
The OAS Service Control application will appear when the installation finishes on Windows. Use this application to start the 3 Services. Run the Configure OAS application on Windows and select Configure-Tags; if the first time running, the AdminCreate utility will run to create an Administrator login as shown in Step 1 of Getting Started – Security.
Step 2. Set Up Sparkplug B Host App to Access EoN Node Data.
Select Configure-Drivers.
Enter a meaningful Driver Interface Name that you will refer to this connection and define the properties.
Set the driver to Sparkplug B.
Enter the Host property to the IP Address of the of the host broker or just use localhost for a local broker.
Set the Port property of the host broker to connect to. The default port is 1883 or 8883 for SSL.
Note: The OAS MQTT Broker can be used to host data locally. To use another broker on the default ports on the same computer change the OAS MQTT Broker Port under Configure-Options-MQTT Broker.
Enter the User Name and Password if required.
Set the MQTT Protocol Version to V311 or V500.
Set the Client ID to a unique value, each driver interface must have a specific value different than all other clients connecting to the host.
Set the Mode to Host App for OAS to control the online state of each Edge of Node defined to the shared Host Application ID. Or set to Client App to access EoN Node data without controlling their state.
Set the Host ID to the specific value that the Edge of Nodes will be using as the Host Application ID.
Set the Sparkplug B Version to 2.2 or 3.0.
To automatically add tags for each Metric from the matching Group, Edge of Nodes, and Devices enable the property Add Client Tags Automatically.
When enabled optionally set the Filter Groups, Edge Nodes, and Devices that tags should be added from for each of their Metrics. Leave the Filter fields blank to include all Edge of Nodes publishing data to the broker.
Select the Add Driver button in the left part of the form to add the Driver Interface as an available selection when defining Tags in the next step.
You are now ready to add tags for specific Sparkplug B EoN Node Metric values.
Note: If the Driver Interface property Add Client Tags Automatically was enabled tags will be created for you, you can skip this step to add tags manually.
Select Configure-Tags.
Note: You can add organizational Groups as many levels deep as you prefer and add tags to groups. To do this first add a Group to Tags Group at the root level, then right click on the Group in the right window to add additional Groups or Tags.
Select Add Tag.
Change the Data Source Tag property to Sparkplug B.
Select the correct Driver Interface from the Driver Interface pull down list.
Specify the Client Group ID, Client Edge Node ID, Client Device ID, and Client Metric Name for the Edge of Node Metric value to read and write.
Select the Data Type of the Tag to match the data type of the Metric.
Select Apply Changes and the current value for the Metric should appear with Good Quality.
Select the Save button from the toolbar to save your configuration.
You can view the Getting Started with Sparkplug B Video to familiarize yourself with the above steps to setup OAS as a Sparkplug B Edge of Network Node and a Host Application
00:00 – Introduction
01:10 – Download OAS
01:46 – Quick Start
02:08 – Edge of Network Node
05:52 – EoN Tags
07:04 – Host Application
09:20 – SpB Client Tags
10:22 – Programatic Interface
10:59 – CSV Export / Import
12:27 – Multiple Metric Tags
13:46 – Modbus
16:10 – DCMD Metric Write
17:00 – Data Route
17:58 – Networking
18:17 – Save Configuration
18:56 – OAS Platform
Step 3. Configure Your OPC UA Data Source
First, you will need to open the Configure OAS application from the program group Open Automation Software.
Select Configure >> License from the top menu and verify that OPC UA is one of the available Drivers in the lower left of the form. The demo license will have this by default. If you do not see OPC UA available, contact support@openautomationsoftware.com to update your license.
Select Configure >> Drivers from the top menu.
Select localhost or the remote service you wish to modify with the Select button to the right of the Network Node list.
The Configure Drivers Screen will appear. Select OPC UA from the Driver dropdown box.
Enter a meaningful Driver Interface Name that you will refer to this physical connection when defining Tags with a OPC UA Data Source.
Define the properties for the desired physical connection.
Click the Add Driver button above the Driver list in the left pane to add the Driver Interface as an available selection when defining Tags in the next step.
Step 5. Configure the Target Tab of the Source Tags
Select one of your source tags.
Select it’s Target tab.
Enable Write to Target
Select the Target Type (Tag, OPC, Azure IoT, Azure IoT Edge, or MQTT) from the dropdown.
Select the destination for the value to be sent.
If Tag is selected then select Browse and select the desired tag from the localhost system or optionally a remote system for transfer over a network.
Local: TagName.Value
Remote: \\192.168.0.1\TagName.Value
If OPC Item is selected select browse and select the OPC Server and Item
If Azure IoT is selected then select the Driver Interface.
If MQTT is selected then select the Driver Interface and Topic.
Enter the desired float value Deadband field. Enter 0 for no deadband.
If you want to specify a desired update frequency for the target check Write Continuously and enter the desired frequency. If Write Contentiously is unchecked the the target will be updated every time the source tag changes.
Click the Apply Changes button to save your changes.
Repeat this step for each tag that you want to transfer data from. This can also be done in bulk with CSV Import/Export or programatically.
For more detailed instructions on Configuring Data Route functionality, visit our Getting Started – Data Route tutorial or watch the videos below:
Below are some helpful troubleshooting steps to resolve connection errors with OPC UA server.
Server Url
The Server Url under Configure-Drivers must be specified correctly to then browse for the available Security Profiles.
Refer to the OPC UA server vendors documentation for the correct endpoint of the server.
Once the Server Url is correctly set use the Browse button to select the Security Profile.
Certificate Authentication
If the OPC UA Server’s authentication certificate is rejected it will be placed in C:\ProgramData\OpenAutomationSoftware\pki\rejected\certs on Windows or the pki\rejected\certs sub-directory where the OAS Engine is located on Linux. To resolve and move the OPC UA Server’s certificate file in the rejected\certs directory to trusted\certs.
OAS Certificate Creation
Version 18.0.0.17 of OAS added the ability to self create a certificate for OPC UA Servers and Clients to authenticate against. Check the current version under Configure-System Status and if older than version 18.0.0.17 update the version of OAS if you are receiving a certificate authentication error under Configure-System Errors.
User Authentication
If the OPC UA Server requires a user name and password to validate the connection enable User Security under Configure-Drivers and specify the Username and Password that is required by the OPC UA Server.
System Errors
Select Configure-System Errors and expand any OPC UA or Driver Interface error to see the details of the error.
The information provided can often help you determine the cause of communication failures.
The history of all systems errors can be found in the OAS Error Log specified under Configure-Options-System Logging.
Log OPC UA Communications
You can enable the OPC UA transaction logging under Configure-Options-System Logging to track all interface calls to the OPC UA server.
Specify the location of where the communication logs will be saved with the property Transaction Log Path further down in System Logging.
Apply Changes, save all configuration files, and restart the OAS Engine.
There will be multiple files generated with the opcua within the file name and also the base OAS Transactions file.
UA Expert
The UA Expert program is a good test application to communicate to OPC UA server to verify the server can be interfaced with.
Open Automation Software can be setup to transfer data from OPC UA servers to Kafka brokers. Use the following guide to setup data transfer from OPC UA servers to Kafka. This tutorial walks you through downloading and installing OAS, defining the OPC server interface and automated tag creation with the One Click OPC UA feature, and publishing data to Kafka in a JSON format. The message topic to publish is automatically formatted to include tag id, value, quality, and timestamp. All JSON packet parameters are configurable to deliver the Kafka topic message in the desired format.
Step 1. Download and Install the Open Automation Software and Start the OAS Service
If you have not already done so, you will need to download and install the OAS platform. Fully functional trial versions of the software are available for Windows, Windows IoT Core, Linux, Raspberry Pi and Docker on our downloads page.
On Windows run the downloaded Setup.exe file to install one or more of the Open Automation Software features. Select the default Typical installation if you are not sure what features to use or the Custom installation if you want to save disk space on the target system. When prompted agree to the End User License Agreement to continue the installation.
The OAS Service Control application will appear when the installation finishes on Windows. Use this application to start the 3 Services. Run the Configure OAS application on Windows and select Configure-Tags; if the first time running, the AdminCreate utility will run to create an Administrator login as shown in Step 1 of Getting Started – Security.
Step 2. Configure Your OPC UA Data Source
First, you will need to open the Configure OAS application from the program group Open Automation Software.
Select Configure >> License from the top menu and verify that OPC UA is one of the available Drivers in the lower left of the form. The demo license will have this by default. If you do not see OPC UA available, contact support@openautomationsoftware.com to update your license.
Select Configure >> Drivers from the top menu.
Select localhost or the remote service you wish to modify with the Select button to the right of the Network Node list.
The Configure Drivers Screen will appear. Select OPC UA from the Driver dropdown box.
Enter a meaningful Driver Interface Name that you will refer to this physical connection when defining Tags with a OPC UA Data Source.
Define the properties for the desired physical connection.
Click the Add Driver button above the Driver list in the left pane to add the Driver Interface as an available selection when defining Tags in the next step.
Enter a meaningful Driver Interface Name that you will refer to this connection and define the properties.
Set the driver to Kafka. Set the Bootstrap Servers of the brokers you wish to publish to.
If sending data to the cloud set the appropriate Security Protocol.
When connecting with Confluent Cloud set the SASL Username with the provided API Key and the SASL Password with the Secret Key.
Enable Publish Selected Tags at the bottom of the Driver configuration.
Select to publish data continuously at a specified interval, based on event, or at a specific time of day.
If Event Driven browse for a local or remote OAS tag that will trigger the publish. Select a Boolean tag that will change state from false to true, true to false, or both. Or choose an Integer tag that trigger a publish anytime the value changes other than 0.
Specify the Publish Topic Id if choosing to Publish All Tags As One Topic.
When publishing as one topic to optimize communications with Kafka multiple messages are sent for each publish when the number of tag value changes exceeds the Max Tags Per Publish limit.
Specify the Tag Id, Value Id, an optional Quality Id, and Timestamp Id for each tag value that is sent.
When including the Timestamp Id also specify the timestamp format, use Custom to specify your own date and time format.
Specify local and remote OAS tag variables to include in each publish and specify the Id. Value is the current value from the data source or you can select any of the over 600 tag variables of each tag to publish.
Optionally use CSV Export and CSV Import buttons to set up additional tags to publish using Microsoft Excel.
Open Automation Software Tags can be defined to connect to OPC UA Servers with the built in OPC UA Driver Interface. This tutorial walks you though downloading and installing OAS, configuring an OPC UA driver, configuring tags and storing them as JSON packets. You may want to start by reading our What is JSON article.
Step 1. Download and Install the Open Automation Software and Start the OAS Service
If you have not already done so, you will need to download and install the OAS platform. Fully functional trial versions of the software are available for Windows, Windows IoT Core, Linux, Raspberry Pi and Docker on our downloads page.
On Windows run the downloaded Setup.exe file to install one or more of the Open Automation Software features. Select the default Typical installation if you are not sure what features to use or the Custom installation if you want to save disk space on the target system. When prompted agree to the End User License Agreement to continue the installation.
The OAS Service Control application will appear when the installation finishes on Windows. Use this application to start the 3 Services. Run the Configure OAS application on Windows and select Configure-Tags; if the first time running, the AdminCreate utility will run to create an Administrator login as shown in Step 1 of Getting Started – Security.
Step 2. Configure Your OPC UA Data Source
First, you will need to open the Configure OAS application from the program group Open Automation Software.
Select Configure >> License from the top menu and verify that OPC UA is one of the available Drivers in the lower left of the form. The demo license will have this by default. If you do not see OPC UA available, contact support@openautomationsoftware.com to update your license.
Select Configure >> Drivers from the top menu.
Select localhost or the remote service you wish to modify with the Select button to the right of the Network Node list.
The Configure Drivers Screen will appear. Select OPC UA from the Driver dropdown box.
Enter a meaningful Driver Interface Name that you will refer to this physical connection when defining Tags with a OPC UA Data Source.
Define the properties for the desired physical connection.
Click the Add Driver button above the Driver list in the left pane to add the Driver Interface as an available selection when defining Tags in the next step.
The tag browser will open. Select your Network Node. Select the tag and it’s property that you want to fill your key/value pair with. In the Key field enter the key you want to reference. Do this for each key/value pair that you want to fill.
After you are done adding your tags, your results will look like:
Click Apply Changes.
For more detailed instructions, see the JSON Data Source article in our knowledge base.
Open Automation Software Tags can be defined to connect to OPC UA Servers with the built in OPC UA Driver Interface. This tutorial walks you though downloading and installing OAS, configuring an OPC UA driver, configuring tags and visualizing tag data in .NET WPF with either C# or VB. Programming is not required if you use the designer interface.
Step 1. Download and Install the Open Automation Software and Start the OAS Service
If you have not already done so, you will need to download and install the OAS platform. Fully functional trial versions of the software are available for Windows, Windows IoT Core, Linux, Raspberry Pi and Docker on our downloads page.
On Windows run the downloaded Setup.exe file to install one or more of the Open Automation Software features. Select the default Typical installation if you are not sure what features to use or the Custom installation if you want to save disk space on the target system. When prompted agree to the End User License Agreement to continue the installation.
The OAS Service Control application will appear when the installation finishes on Windows. Use this application to start the 3 Services. Run the Configure OAS application on Windows and select Configure-Tags; if the first time running, the AdminCreate utility will run to create an Administrator login as shown in Step 1 of Getting Started – Security.
Step 2. Configure Your OPC UA Data Source
First, you will need to open the Configure OAS application from the program group Open Automation Software.
Select Configure >> License from the top menu and verify that OPC UA is one of the available Drivers in the lower left of the form. The demo license will have this by default. If you do not see OPC UA available, contact support@openautomationsoftware.com to update your license.
Select Configure >> Drivers from the top menu.
Select localhost or the remote service you wish to modify with the Select button to the right of the Network Node list.
The Configure Drivers Screen will appear. Select OPC UA from the Driver dropdown box.
Enter a meaningful Driver Interface Name that you will refer to this physical connection when defining Tags with a OPC UA Data Source.
Define the properties for the desired physical connection.
Click the Add Driver button above the Driver list in the left pane to add the Driver Interface as an available selection when defining Tags in the next step.
Project Setup HMI applications can be developed using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (or later). Programming is not required if you use the visual editor.
Open your existing Visual Studio application or start a new one, either VB or C#. Specify WPF App (.NET Framework) as the project type.
Verify that the Target Framework is Version 4.61 or greater.
If you have installed Open Automation Software after installing Visual Studio you should see the Open Automation Software group in your toolbox. If it is not there you can add a reference in your project to the OPCWPFDashboard.dll. It will be in your installation folder, most likely: C:\Program Files\Open Automation Software\OAS. Add the tools by right clicking on the toolbox and selecting Choose Items. In the Choose Toolbox Items dialog box under the WPF tab, select all of the items that start with OPCWPF and say OK.
Add a Viewbox If you are unfamiliar with the Viewbox control in WPF it is very useful. By setting it’s Stretch property to Uniform, it will automatically transform it’s contents to fit the user’s screen. It is easier to develop with the Stretch Property set to “None” and then set it back to “Uniform” at the end. You will want your Grid inside of your Viewbox. Your XAML should look like this:
Add a Label Control Add an OPCWPFLabel control to the window by double clicking on it in the toolbox. Set the Content_Tag property of the label to the Tag property that you want the label to display. Do this by either typing it in the box if you know the name (they are case-sensitive) or use the ellipse next to the property box. If you are using the demo tag configuration that installs with Open Automation Software use Ramp.Value.
Referencing Tags In the tag browser, you will need to select your network node and then the tag and the property you want to display. Your network node will be the location you have Open Automation Software installed on. If it is your local machine, it will be localhost, otherwise, it could be a registered domain name or an IP address. Here are some examples of referencing tags based on their location:
Local Tag:
myTag.Value
Local Tag in a Group:
myGroup. myTag.Value
Basic Networking:
\\192.168.0.1\myGroup.myTag.ValueLive Data Cloud Networking from Local OAS Engine:
RemoteSCADAHosting.myLiveDataCloudNode.myGroup.myTag.Value
Live Data Cloud Networking from Remote OAS Engine
\\192.168.0.1\RemoteSCADAHosting.myLiveDataCloudNode.myGroup.myTag.Value
Add a Button Control Next, add a button to the window by double clicking on OPCWPFButton on the toolbox. Use the Pump tag for the button, it is a Boolean data type. Set Content_Tag in the properties window to Pump.Value. In the ContentFormatBooleanFalse property enter The Pump is On and the in the ContentFormatBooleanTrue property enter The Pump is Off. That way the button text will be something more meaningful than simply True or False.
To change the color of the button when it’s value changes, use the Background01_Tag property. Set it to Pump.Value. The BackgroundFalse and BackgroundQualityBad properties control the background color for when the value is false and bad quality.
Next, SetValue_Tag property to Pump.Value. This specifies what value to change when the button is clicked.
Add a Radial Gauge Drag an OPCWPFRadialGauge onto the screen. Click the ellipse next to the Needles property. This will open the Needles Collection dialog box. Click the Add button. This adds a Needle to the Radial Gauge. Set the Value_Tag property to Ramp.Value, the Ramp Tag again. It is a Float Data Type, enter 0 for the ValueFormatFloat property.
Click F5 to compile and run your project. Your screen should look similar to this.
For more detailed instructions on using OAS with WPF, visit .NET WPF HMI in our knowledge base or watch the video below:
Open Automation Software Tags can be defined to connect to OPC UA Servers with the built in OPC UA Driver Interface. The OASData component is used for real time and historical data access against a local or remote OAS instance and can be used with .NET 5, .NET Core 2.0 or greater, .NET Framework 4.61 or greater, Xamarin.iOS 10.14, Xamarin.Android 8.0, and UWP 1.0.0.16299. This tutorial walks you though downloading and installing OAS, configuring an OPC UA driver, configuring tags and reading and writing to them with the .Net Data Connector. This page shows code examples in C# but VB works as well.
Step 1. Download and Install the Open Automation Software and Start the OAS Service
If you have not already done so, you will need to download and install the OAS platform. Fully functional trial versions of the software are available for Windows, Windows IoT Core, Linux, Raspberry Pi and Docker on our downloads page.
On Windows run the downloaded Setup.exe file to install one or more of the Open Automation Software features. Select the default Typical installation if you are not sure what features to use or the Custom installation if you want to save disk space on the target system. When prompted agree to the End User License Agreement to continue the installation.
The OAS Service Control application will appear when the installation finishes on Windows. Use this application to start the 3 Services. Run the Configure OAS application on Windows and select Configure-Tags; if the first time running, the AdminCreate utility will run to create an Administrator login as shown in Step 1 of Getting Started – Security.
Step 2. Configure Your OPC UA Data Source
First, you will need to open the Configure OAS application from the program group Open Automation Software.
Select Configure >> License from the top menu and verify that OPC UA is one of the available Drivers in the lower left of the form. The demo license will have this by default. If you do not see OPC UA available, contact support@openautomationsoftware.com to update your license.
Select Configure >> Drivers from the top menu.
Select localhost or the remote service you wish to modify with the Select button to the right of the Network Node list.
The Configure Drivers Screen will appear. Select OPC UA from the Driver dropdown box.
Enter a meaningful Driver Interface Name that you will refer to this physical connection when defining Tags with a OPC UA Data Source.
Define the properties for the desired physical connection.
Click the Add Driver button above the Driver list in the left pane to add the Driver Interface as an available selection when defining Tags in the next step.
Step 4. Access Your Data from a C# or VB .NET Application
The .NET Standard 2.0 OASData assembly is used to provide read and write access to OAS tag variables and can target .NET 5, .NET 6, .NET 7, .NET Core 2.o or greater, .NET Framework 4.61 or greater, Xamarin.iOS 10.14, Xamarin.Android 8.0, and UWP 1.0.0.16299.
Start a new Visual Studio Project or Open Your Existing One
Microsoft Visual Studio 2015+ is recommended. For developing cross-platform .NET Standard or .NET Core solutions, Visual Studio 2019+ is recommended. For developing Android and/or iOS solutions, be sure to include Xamarin extensions to Visual Studio. After creating a new Visual Studio project, add a reference to the OASData assembly and all its dependencies, found in the OAS installation directory. This is typically:
This call returns an object array with the values for each tag variable.
Tags is a string array of tag names and variables to read.
Errors is an integer array returning: 0 if the tag variable quality is good 1 if the quality is bad 2 if the value could not be returned within the timeout specified.
Timeout is specified in milliseconds to wait for the call to return.
Write Tags Asynchronously
oasd.WriteTags(OASTags, OASValues);
With this call, if the tags data source is defined to a device, for example: Modbus; Siemens; Allen Bradley MQTT; OPC UA, or application writes to .Value will be written to the source defined.
Examples: Modbus, Siemens, AB, OPC UA, MQTT
Tags is a string array of tag names and variables.
Values is an object array containing the values to write to each tag.
TimeStamps array can optionally be provided to set the time of the value if the Data Source of the Tag is Value.
Write Tags Synchronously
Errors = oasd.SyncWriteTags(Tags, Values);
Tags is a string array of tag names and variables.
Values is an object array containing the values to write to each tag.
Errors is an Integer array that returns: 0 when successful; 1 when OAS Engine is not reachable; 2 when the Tags array size is not equal to the Values array.
Networking
Tag names can include an IP Address, network node name, or registered domain name if the application is deployed remote from the OAS Engine.
