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How to create a "goto location" search box by entering Tagnames??

Created by: schreyer at: 6/7/2006 4:48 AM (25 Replies)

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6/9/2006 8:47 AM	Rate (0)
schreyer Posts: 65 Rating: (3)	[quote user="salma"]Hi nemo, I just tried this but it appears that the tag search button is only available if Advanced Process Control is installed. Is this correct? When I try to manually run the program it just terminates itself immediately. The only other way I can see to do this would be: a) Program it yourself using the ODK b) Use the Cross-Reference Editor to manually build your own lookup list. You can store this in a database and then use C / VBS scripting to open the correct picture. Of course you would have to manually keep the lookup list up-to-date. Neither solution is ideal and involves a lot of scripting. But I cannot see any other way to do this. Does anyone else have any suggestions? Hi, Lets say i were to use option (b), how i go about it?? I had never used the cross reference editor before, let alone using c scripting to link to it. My scripting is notthat good, can give me some tips and tricks?? Keeping it up to date would not be a problem later on. Thanks and Regards Schreyer
schreyer Posts: 65 Rating: (3)
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6/12/2006 9:47 AM	Rate (0)
Salma Gold Member Joined: 9/27/2005 Last visit: 11/27/2007 Posts: 1398 Rating: (151)	I did not mean to link directly to the Cross-Reference Editor, just to build your own look-up list using it's data as a starting point. Let me explain: - Open the Cross-Reference Editor - Run a search to return all tags in all locations - Save the results out to a file - Import the file into a database- maybe using DTS (Data Transformation Services) (I would create a database in WinCC's SQL Serverfor this but MSAccess or anything else would work too) - Have VBS scripts in WinCC to query this database to find which page a tag is being used on. This is a fairly advanced solution that requires knowledge of databases, SQL, ADO and VBS. You can find code snippets / more informationon this forum and on Google. The first thing to do is to run the Cross-Reference Editor to see if it provides a comprehensive list of all your tags in all the correct locations. If you can get the seach results to match your requirements ( i.e. tag1, page1)the rest is fairly easy (although quite script intensive ! ) Good luck Salma

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6/12/2006 11:09 AM	Rate (0)
schreyer Posts: 65 Rating: (3)	Hi all, The only knowledge that i have on programming languages is C++. I know a bit of every thing that you mentioned but i don't think its sufficient to perform all that you had suggested to me. But thanks anyway for all the help that you and Nemo had provided me with. Regards Schreyer
schreyer Posts: 65 Rating: (3)
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6/13/2006 11:29 AM	Rate (0)
Salma Gold Member Joined: 9/27/2005 Last visit: 11/27/2007 Posts: 1398 Rating: (151)	Oh well. Maybe someone else can think of another way to do this. Anyone??

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9/11/2006 7:37 AM	Rate (0)
schreyer Posts: 65 Rating: (3)	Hi all, Does anybody knows of a simplier way to do this?[:cry:][:cry:] Regards Schreyer
schreyer Posts: 65 Rating: (3)
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9/11/2006 3:14 PM	Rate (0)
Reuben Posts: 70 Rating: (13)	Hi there I have also found that those functions are only available if Advanced Process Control is installed, for which you must have PCS7 (also the function to manage user-defined trends in runtime). Also, they only work if you are using the Basic Process Control templates (Picture Tree and OS Project Editor), and probably only work if you perform an OS Compile from CFC editor where the Plant Hierarchy is defined. If you have such a project, then you should use the BPC picture template, as then everything will be the "SIMATIC" method and should work OK with things like client/server configuration and WebNavigator. You can achieve the same with scripting, but if you are not careful you may find problems withadd-ons like WebNavigator, especially if your picture reference is in an external file or database. There are many ways as suggested to create a database or a text file holding the tagname/picture data, but these have to be changed everytime the project is edited. Here is another idea. It is not too simple, as it requires abit of knowledge of the WinCC APIs or VBA interface, but it could be used on any project: 1) Make sure you usea Customized Object for all your devices, and that these objects all have a property called something like "TagName" that holds the tag root (everything before the "." if you use structured tags). This is exactly how PCS7 generates pictures from CFC charts from the @@templates.pdl file. 2) Using ODK or VBA methods, you can iterate through all objects on allpictures and look for the "Tagname" property, compiling the map file of tagname/picturenames. 3) Create a simple c-script to determine picturename from tag name using the map file, then open the picture in whichever picture window. 4) If you are really clever you can give the user a choice when the same tagname appears on more than one picture, something which I don't think can be done with normal PCS7... If anyone is interested reply here and I will write such a program and post it here! Reuben
Reuben Posts: 70 Rating: (13)
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9/12/2006 2:14 AM	Rate (0)
Dec Gold Expert Joined: 5/19/2006 Last visit: 12/3/2024 Posts: 549 Rating: (107)	I think Salma option b (simplified) is the easiest solution. Run XREF with filter only for Tags - Used existing in Screens. Then export to CSV file. In your C Script open the file and run a search for the tag /screen knowing the file format until EOF. No SQL DTS, VBS or other buzzwords. See <stdio.h> and <string.h> C RTL You have to maintain the CSV file update manually though. Dec

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9/13/2006 8:56 AM	Rate (0)
Reuben Posts: 70 Rating: (13)	Hi Sounds like you can get your solution to work. Loading a runtimefile by whatever means has one drawback, which is that it will not (as far as I have tried) work in the WebNavigator (eg: loading CSV files or even custom header files). Client/server is no problem, as long as the file is available to all machines. If your system does not use WebNavigator then there is no problem, good luck! If you plan to use WebNavigator in the future, here is a slight modification to your solution: instead of loading your data file with a script, hardcode your data file into one of your script functions as a data structure. That way your tag/picture reference is compiled into the scripting, which means it will work via WebNavigator. Unfortunately I thinkyou are limited to 65k of local data, which could be a problem if you have lots of tags/pictures. Example add this structure at the top of your c-script, then loop throught the TAG_PICS[i] structure to find the picture: typedef struct { char TagName; char Picture; } TAG_PIC; // Tag/Pictures TAG_PIC TAG_PICS[2] = { {"Tag1", "Pic1"}, {"Tag2", "Pic2"} };
Reuben Posts: 70 Rating: (13)
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10/2/2006 7:46 AM	Rate (0)
schreyer Posts: 65 Rating: (3)	Dear Reuben, Right now i'm using strcmp in my scripting which isvery tedious even though it works. Due to the 65k restriction i have to seperate out my script into2 different project functions. If what you had explain is true then this will save me a lot of trouble I have no experience in using structure in my scripting. So i don't know exactly how to go about implementing your script. Can you elaborate more on the scripting part?? Thank you so much. Regards Schreyer
schreyer Posts: 65 Rating: (3)
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10/3/2006 10:44 AM	Rate (0)
Reuben Posts: 70 Rating: (13)	Hi Unfortunately you still have the 64k limit on static data with the script as I described. I'm hoping that you are not using code like this: --- if (strcmp('this', pic)==0) { show 'this' picture }; else if (strcmp('that', pic)==0) { show 'that' picture }; else if (strcmp('theother', pic)==0) { show 'theother' picture }; else ... --- If you are, then you first should reimplement your code bylooping through a data structure. Once you get that going, you can decide whether to load the data structure from a file or simply hardcode it inline (for WebNavigator). I'm writing this from memory so I may not get all the function/params correct, but you get the idea: --- typedef struct { char TagName; char PictureName; } TAG_PIC; // Tag/Picture Count #define TAG_PIC_COUNT 2 // Tag/Pictures TAG_PIC TAG_PICS[TAG_PIC_COUNT] = { {"Tag1", "Pic1"}, {"Tag2", "Pic2"} }; // Function to return picture name from tag name, from the data structure defined above char * FindTagPicture(char *TagName) { int i; for (i=0; i<TAG_PIC_COUNT; i++) { // partialcase-sensitive match if (strncmp(TagName, TAG_PICS[i].TagName, strlen(TagName))==0) { return (TAG_PICS[i].PictureName); } } } --- I think strcmp is case-sensitive - you can enhance the above by converting everything to lowercase to do a case-insensitive compare, try using tolower() on all characters. Attach you fct function here and I will have a look at it.
Reuben Posts: 70 Rating: (13)
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