SCADA Developer Network

Raw data scaling has been highly demanded, although it can be accomplished via script. We always want to go extra miles to provide more than basic scaling, as such we are combining scaling and scripting into one, which is Logical Expression.

Performing scaling is straightforward, the UI needed is nothing more than a column for user to enter a numerical factor. However, scripting is more than mathematics, allowing linkage to other tags can be even more complicated. So combining two capabilities into one column can be quite challenging as we don’t want to add any difficulty for new user who just want to do a basic scaling. As such we have spent a very big effort in designing the UI to ensure it’s friendly and enticing as what can be seen in this release.

Note that the automatically switching mechanism is our effort to make user learn the hidden feature by accident. We are trying to hint that the $ sign is representing the raw source value. This technique is quite effective, some internal beta users started asking if they can replace the multiplication sign by minus or any mathematic operation? The answer is absolutely YES, not only user may enter any mathematical operator, but may also able to enter any logical operators. Read more in the user guide, or grab a copy to explore this feature.

The public release has finally released. Below is the summary of features again from previous Release Candidates.

• More flexible localized number formating. (#.##0,0###)
• Completely powerful expression. ($PressAbs ? 1.01325 : 1)
• Auto complete for Project Editor data entry.
• Redundant Network.
• Multiple connections to database for faster access.
• GUI for menu configuration.

The only feature that we haven’t introduced in previous Release Candidates but very obvious to user is that we have now added GUI for Menu Configuration in Project Editor. And it’s totally compatible with previous release. Yes, pretty soon you will see more GUI for existing configurations like Trending & Alarm, stay tuned.

We have spent lots of time on improving database performance. One of the technique applied is multiple/concurrent connections. You may find that browsing through trending data is now more responsive. Unfortunately concurrent connections is not supported by MS Access flat file database, as such we have added retry sequence for any failed transaction, but using MS Access for production database is not a reliable approach and it’s not recommended.

Be reminded again that commercially we were requested by our distributors to shorten the demo period from 2 days to 2 hours due to piracy problem. However, you may ask for longer runtime period from sales@integraxor.com if you need longer testing period.

Further from previous RC preview, now we are showing another exciting feature for user exploration: Network Redundancy. This feature added network/communication reliability without needing any additional programming work. All user needs to do is to configure the alternative communication path/link, and IntegraXor will take care of the rest, especially on tags handling.

The network configuration can be done for dual physical device redundancy.

Cost effective configuration also can be achieved on multiple ports device.

Our innovative SCADA designers have again come out with a simple yet friendly approach in configuration. The concept is truly designed based on the array of devices. So the naming is also based on the simbolic character in programming that indicating array namespace, square bracket: []. The best thing is there’s nothing added to clutter the existing user interface, and hence will not confuse new user but it’s always there and can be called out when it’s being invoked. Grab a copy of RC 3.70.4173 and check it out! All you need to do is to give an array of device a same name with array number like this: MyPLC[1] & MyPLC[2].

On the other hand, we have an announcement that we were forced to shorten the demo period from 2 days to 2 hours due to piracy problem that complaint by our distributors. We may implement this anytime soon in the next official release. However, you may request for longer runtime period from sales@integraxor.com if you need longer testing period.

As our customer base grows and project scale getting larger and larger, we have been extremely busy in improving the performance issues in all aspect, especially in database performance. And the reason why we haven’t published any standard release is because our development team is coping with customers’ demand so keep issuing out beta with new features/fixes before the Release Candidate is settling down. So in order to ensure the beta user can enjoy the new hidden features before the RC matured to Standard Release, we are listing down two new features for user exploration.

PE is now support Auto complete for combo box fields in any tag entry, so user no longer need to struggle to search through the whole list of tag listing.

Another cool feature is that the long waited Logical Expression can now be used in front-end tag field. And it’s not a proprietary logical operation that imposed with limitation but it’s a full fledged Java Script language, so go ahead and grab a copy of RC and start to be expressive!

We have been working real hard recently as we have been adding features due to growing users’ demands. One new feature is number formatting has now internationalized and can be localized to any country’s commonly used numeric format. And we realized most of the time the commonly used numeric format is following the currency format in that particular country.

The table showing some of the countries that having different currency formats, it is quite surprising to see all kind of possibilities and combinations. So the number formatter need to be extremely versatile almost like a spreadsheet custom formatting. So, is that mean the new number formatter parser will be bloated? No, totally opposite, despite we are adding in more feature, we also working hard in stripping down the code in order to avoid it from growing proportionally to more and more features. Moreover, we even speed up the code execution from every possible aspects.

We have been and still using many external open source libraries like JQuery, and we think it’s time for us to contribute back to the community whenever possible. So we are now publishing this JavaScript Number Formatter to Google Code Project.