OPC Foundation Message Board

RE: Relative time with "MONTH" or "YEAR"

Randy — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:45:35 GMT

Ok the the fix should set the month/days to 1 in all of the switch statements where they are set to zero now.

RE: Relative time with "MONTH" or "YEAR"

GLaurier — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:36:32 GMT

Randy,
Looks like your code is the same as mine, and has the same bug.

The root problem is that something like:
Debug.print Opc.Hda.Time.Parse("MONTH").ResolveTime() will fail.

The reason is that the ResolveTime call will select this case segment which sets days=0.

case RelativeTime.Month:
{
days = 0;
hours = 0;
minutes = 0;
seconds = 0;
milliseconds = 0;
break;
}

days=0 is an invalid argument in the DateTime constructor, and thus the exception.

time = new DateTime(years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds);

I hope that this is clearer.

RE: Relative time with "MONTH" or "YEAR"

Randy — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:21:54 GMT

Code:

// get local time from the system.
DateTime time = DateTime.UtcNow;

int years = time.Year;
int months = time.Month;
int days = time.Day;
int hours = time.Hour;
int minutes = time.Minute;
int seconds = time.Second;
int milliseconds = time.Millisecond;

// move to the beginning of the period indicated by the base time.
switch (BaseTime)
{
case RelativeTime.Year:
{
   months = 0;
   days = 0;
   hours = 0;
   minutes = 0;
   seconds = 0;
   milliseconds = 0;
   break;
}

case RelativeTime.Month:
{
   days = 0;
   hours = 0;
   minutes = 0;
   seconds = 0;
   milliseconds = 0;
   break;
}

case RelativeTime.Week:
case RelativeTime.Day:
{
   hours = 0;
   minutes = 0;
   seconds = 0;
   milliseconds = 0;
   break;
}

case RelativeTime.Hour:
{
   minutes = 0;
   seconds = 0;
   milliseconds = 0;
   break;
}

case RelativeTime.Minute:
{
   seconds = 0;
   milliseconds = 0;
   break;
}

case RelativeTime.Second:
{
   milliseconds = 0;
   break;
}
}

// contruct base time.
time = new DateTime(years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds);

RE: UA HA Quickstart?

kenhanson — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:54:45 GMT

Randy,

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes I would like to get ahold of the source that you have so far for the UA Quickstart.

When you say that there are issues with the spec, is it that the spec for HA is not fully defined yet?

Thanks again,

Ken

Relative time with "MONTH" or "YEAR"

GLaurier — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:44:46 GMT

Is there an official update to the OPC.HDA.Time.ResolveTime function?
In the code set I downloaded, the problem code section is:

case RelativeTime.Month:
{
days = 0;
hours = 0;
minutes = 0;
seconds = 0;
milliseconds = 0;
break;
}

subsequently:

/ contruct base time.
time = new DateTime(years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds);

Since "0" for days is invalid, this throws an error.

There is a similar issue parsing a time with the keyword "YEAR"

It is easy enough to get something to work, but if it has already been fixed somewhere, it would be good to be consistent.

RE: Doubts about QueryAvailableLocaleIDs/SetLocaleID

marina.ceccherini — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:54:09 GMT

Ok Randy, thanks a lot.

RE: UA HA Quickstart?

Randy — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:22:16 GMT

I have a HA Data and Events quickstart that is partially implemented. There are some issues with the spec that need to be resolved before it can be released. But I can make it available to anyone who would like a preview. They are complete enough to be useful.

RE: Doubts about QueryAvailableLocaleIDs/SetLocaleID

Randy — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:20:26 GMT

Locales and the wrappers is an issue for many. I will look into what its required to add the correct solution for this. Give me a couple days.

RE: Doubts about QueryAvailableLocaleIDs/SetLocaleID

marina.ceccherini — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:52:13 GMT

Ok.
So, returning to my WinCCExplorer Text Library messages, how can I get for instance spanish text using COMServerWrapper and UA Client?
Thanks a lot.

Connection problems via DCOM using 2 network interfaces

lugbauer — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:21:44 GMT

We want to connect 2 OPC clients on one host to an OPC server on another host via DCOM.
The problem is that each client should use a dedicated network interface for communication and this seems to be impossible.
Though we specify IP address of the second network interface for the
second client, the communication takes place via the first interface.

Can anybody tell me why this happens and how we can avoid this?

Thanks in advance for any hints

Andreas

RE: OPC UA Profiles

Randy — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:03:24 GMT

The SDK has the support required to implement these facets:

Base Server Facet
Core Server Facet
Standard UA Server
DataAccess Server Facet
Standard DataChange Subscription Server Facet
Micro Embedded Device Server
Embedded DataChange Subscription Server Facet
Address Space Notifier Server Facet
Standard Event Subscription Server Facet
Method Server Facet
ComplexType Server Facet
A & C Alarm Server Facet
A & C Simple Server Facet
A & C Enable Server Facet
A & E Wrapper Facet
A & C Address Space Instance Server Facet
A & C Acknowledgeable Alarm Server Facet
A & C Dialog Server Facet
A & C Non-Exclusive Alarming Server Facet
A & C Exclusive Alarming Server Facet
A & C Simple Server Facet

The Sample Server and the Quickstart Servers implement all of them. However, the exact set of facets supported by a given Server depends on the Server.

RE: OPC UA Profiles

jbudzynski — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:09:41 GMT

And what about the sample server? Which profiles does it support?

UA HA Quickstart?

kenhanson — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:10:07 GMT

Any update on when the UA HA Quickstart might be available. I understand that we could interpolate the specifics by looking at the COM Wrapper, but it would be nice to see a full on working example.

Best Regards,

Ken

RE: New OPC UA Training Videos and Webinars?

Randy — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:05:38 GMT

Sorry the webinar work was deferred in order to focus on getting HA and CTT released.

There is nothing deeper than quickstarts and the webinars. If you have specific questions I will answer them on this forum.

Timing for Callback Retries

jal — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:49:59 GMT

I have an OPC Client having callback connection for some items to OPC DA 2.5a Server and when I am crashing OPC Client then OPC Server is keep trying for Callbacks. I have noticed it does for some 10 Minutes.

How this Callback Retries timing are controlled?

Thank you.

Write a Value With ValueRanks

Thomas_Z — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:47:02 GMT

hi,

i want to write a value with the java stack, which has more dimensions (is an array).

This is done in c#:

in class opc.ua.TypeInfo:

Code:

public static TypeInfo Construct(Type systemType)
{
// check for null.
if (systemType == null)
{
return TypeInfo.Unknown;
}

// using strings in switch statements is much faster than the typeof() operator.
string name = systemType.Name;

// parse array types.
string dimensions = null;

if (name[name.Length-1] == ']')
{
int index = name.IndexOf('[');

if (index != -1)
{
dimensions = name.Substring(index);
name = name.Substring(0, index);
}
}

and thats the count of the array (in the same method):

Code:

int count = 1;

for (int ii = 1; ii < dimensions.Length-1; ii++)
{
if (dimensions[ii] == ',')
{
count++;
}
}

it looks total clear for me. But when i started to implement it in java, i looked in the Variant class and the Constructor removed the [] brackets, so i got the ValueRank xxx and something for example like
from java.lang.String[] to java.lang.String

Code:

public Variant(Object value) {
   this.value = value;
   if (value != null) {
      compositeClass = value.getClass();

//       if(compositeClass == Variant.class) {//test TODO
//          this.value = ((Variant)value).getValue(); //test TODO
//          if (value != null) {
//             compositeClass = ((Variant)value).getCompositeClass();//test TODO
//          } else {
//             return;
//          }
//       }//test TODO

      while (compositeClass.isArray()
            && !compositeClass.equals(byte[].class))
         compositeClass = compositeClass.getComponentType();
      assertValidClass(compositeClass);
   }

Why is this done? Does this make sense?

Whats the way to get the array"count" in the javastack? The ValueRanks in the Nodes are not enough, i guess.

Maybe it is the wrong section to ask for, please move this post!

best regards

RE: OPC UA Profiles

Randy — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:41:40 GMT

THe sample client should implement Core Client Facet Profile but it has not been officially tested. It also implements features that are not in the Core Client Facet Profile.

RE: Monitoring a know PLC tag from Java.

Dobipt — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:28:50 GMT

Thanks!

The NamespaceIndex that I should use is 4, and the string was just "Fabio-X731-$IO X422A K2 HWForced" for example (without the "F:Path").

Best Regards,
F�bio Ferreira

RE: OPC UA Profiles

jbudzynski — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:06:05 GMT

What profiles does the sample client support? Does it support Core Client Facet Profile ?

Exception on KeepAlive

GaryT — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:58:26 GMT

While creating a custom client I have run into a significant road block (I ended up having to change some of the code in Xi.Client.Base to get around it.

Here is the scenario:

1) Connect up to any Xi Server with any Xi Client (even the generic client supplied with the code)
2) Kill the Xi server abruptly.
3) Wait for keep alive on the client
4) When the keep alive occurs, XiContext.ClientKeepAlive is called, since IResourceManagement is null, the following code throws the exception:

Code:

if (null == _IResourceManagement)
throw new System.ApplicationException("No Server Context");

The calling method is a Threading.Timer and so this code:

Code:

/// <summary>
   /// This method is the Timer Callback for keeping contexts alive.
   /// </summary>
   /// <param name="state"></param>
   private static void KeepContextsAlive(object state)
   {
      DateTime timeNow = DateTime.UtcNow;
      List<XiContext> sleepingContexts = null;
      lock (_ActiveContexts)
      {
         sleepingContexts = _ActiveContexts.Values.Where(ctx => ctx.CheckIdleTime(timeNow)).ToList();
      }
      if (0 < sleepingContexts.Count)
      {
         foreach (XiContext ctx in sleepingContexts)
         {

ctx.ClientKeepAlive();

         }
      }
   }

Has no try/catch block which ends up throwing an unhandled exception that you cannot handle (it's running on the Threading.Timer).

What is the best way to handle this? Shouldn't the keep alive be smart enough to handle this case and properly remove the context?

This behaviour happens on every single Xi Server shutdown.

RE: Server PC & Client PC in different time

Randy — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:47:51 GMT

Try ApplicationConfiguration/ServerConfiguration/MaxRequestAge
Default is 5 mins.
Units are in milliseconds.

The time rule is to prevent attackers intercepting messages and resending them at a later time.

I recommend you use a time service NTP. It will be a lot less of a hassel in the long run.

RE: ChangePreferredLocales and AE ComServerWrapped

Randy — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:35:01 GMT

The wrapper currently shares one instance across all sessions so setting a locale based on one session is not an option.

That said, the ComClientManager class is intended to allow this capability to be added with relatively little effort. The downside is it will be less efficient to have a one COM server instance per session.

RE: Server PC & Client PC in different time

Anza — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:01:59 GMT

We are using OPS UA .NET SDK (file versions 1.0.250.3). Is there a specific parameter in server configuration that can be adjusted to make the server-client time difference possibility longer without making the system security fragile? We are using opc.tcp-protocol.

ChangePreferredLocales and AE ComServerWrapped

marina.ceccherini — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:01:30 GMT

Hi,
our application acquires AE attributes using ComServerWrapper and UA Client (we are using sdk v.1.01.318.0).
We must be able to change the AE Server localeID at runtime.
To do that, we added a m_session.ChangePreferredLocales call in our UA Client but we continue to receive AE attributes in the former language (using m_session.UpdateSession we got same results).

ComServerWrapper side, the call stack is the following:
Opc.Ua.Server.Session.UpdateLocaleIds
Opc.Ua.Server.Session.Activate
Opc.Ua.Server.SessionManager.ActivateSession
Opc.Ua.Server.StandardServer.ActivateSession
Opc.Ua.EndpontBase.ActivateSession

Don't we miss a call to Opc.Ua.ComClient.ComClient.SetLocale?

Thanks a lot for any suggestion.

RE: New OPC UA Training Videos and Webinars?

Vincent Vanderputten — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:32:41 GMT

Dear Randy,

Any news on the next webinars?

Related to this: concerning support for developing applications with the UA .NET SDK, am I missing certain resources? There is the helpfile of the SDK (which contains the comments in the SDK code) and there are these (interesting) developer webinars, but are there any tutorials based on the .NET SDK that touch more specific issues and go deeper than the webinars? A lot of questions on these forums could be topics of "How-To-Tutorials"!

Thank you for feedback on this!

Kind Regards,

Vincent

RE: Server PC & Client PC in different time

Randy — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:29:15 GMT

There are security configuration paramaters that control how much clock skew is allowed. What SDKs and what protocols were you using? However, the client and server must be reasonably synchronized because it would open security holes if they are not.

Server PC & Client PC in different time

Anza — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:11:57 GMT

Hi!

If a OPC UA server PC is in different time than the client PC, UA connection won't work. Is this a default functionality of the .NET OPC UA?

We have solved this problem by synchronizing all PC's clocks to same time but it is not a clean solution because there is always a possibility that any of the PCs will get out of sync.

Is there a clean way to fix this in configuration etc.? To somehow adjust that server and client won't have to be in the "same time".

BR.
Antero Salonen

RE: Monitoring a know PLC tag from Java.

jaro — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:19:36 GMT

Check the NodeId that you are using. In your screenshot, the NodeId that is shown (upper right corner) is namespaceIndex=4;string="F:Path:Fabio". So it is difficult to tell if the NodeId that you are now using, is referring to the correct node.

NamespaceIndex=1 is reserved for "server nodes", which typically do not contain actual data nodes. Probably you need to use NamespaceIndex=4 for your node as well. It seems to relate to the nodes in the DA server.

RE: Toolkit

djpattsouls — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:30:39 GMT

u can also try http://www.matrikonopc.com

OPC UA Client with csharp

djpattsouls — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:16:55 GMT

Hello,

i have to develop a OPC UA Client with C#

i need the Informations about how to get a pricelist about the :

the .NET OPC UA Stack and the .NET OPC UA Client SDK

I couldn�t get the Information on the Opc Foundation site.

maybe you can give me some Link or something like that

i need ur help about it pleaseeeeeeeeeee

Mail simokouam@hotmail.com

Best Regards

RE: Monitoring a know PLC tag from Java.

Dobipt — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:38:39 GMT

Hello,

I'm having some issues to get the value of a specific NodeId.

I try the two options that you refer in this post. But I can't manage to put them working.

This image shows the structure of my OPC UA Server:

When I use the method browse it has this result:
Code:

Code:

NodeId nodeId = Identifiers.RootFolder;
client.getAddressSpace().setMaxReferencesPerNode(1000);
List<ReferenceDescription> references = client.getAddressSpace().browse(nodeId);
for (int i = 0; i < references.size(); i++)
printf("%d - %s\n", i, referenceToString(references.get(i)));

Result:

Code:

0 - Views: FolderType (ReferenceType=Organizes, BrowseName=Views)
1 - Objects: FolderType (ReferenceType=Organizes, BrowseName=Objects)
2 - Types: FolderType (ReferenceType=Organizes, BrowseName=Types)

If I get de NamespaceTable I get this result:
Code:

Code:

NamespaceTable nt = client.getNamespaceTable();
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
System.out.println("index= "+i+" Uri= "+nt.getUri(i));

Result:

Code:

index= 0 Uri= http://opcfoundation.org/UA/
index= 1 Uri= urn:fabio-c34316393:UnifiedAutomation:UaGateway
index= 2 Uri= http://opcfoundation.org/UA/DI/
index= 3 Uri= http://unifiedautomation.com/Configuration/
index= 4 Uri= opcda://localhost/TACOS.OPCServices.DA.1

Finnaly when I try to read a specific NodeId, I can't get the path rigth. I already tried with "Root" and "Fabio-X731-$IO X422A K2 HWForced" (I get this id by browsing) and they give the same error.

Code:

Code:

int ns = nt.getIndex("urn:fabio-c34316393:UnifiedAutomation:UaGateway");
System.out.println(ns);
// Tag we want to get to
String name = "Fabio-X731-$IO X422A K2 HWForced";
// Create the node
NodeId ni = new NodeId(ns, name);
System.out.println(ni.toString());
client.readValue(ni);

Result:

Code:

ns=1;s=Fabio-X731-$IO X422A K2 HWForced
com.prosysopc.ua.StatusException StatusCode=Bad_NodeIdUnknown (0x80340000) "The node id refers to a node that does not exist in the server address space."
at com.prosysopc.ua.client.UaClient.a(Unknown Source)
at com.prosysopc.ua.client.UaClient.readAttribute(Unknown Source)
at com.prosysopc.ua.client.UaClient.readValue(Unknown Source)
at bios.schneider.com.CommunicationSchneiderOPC.getTag(CommunicationSchneiderOPC.java:372)
at bios.schneider.test.testComm.main(testComm.java:25)

Can you give some tip in how I can do this?

Thanks in advance!

Best Regards,
F�bio Ferreira

RE: Creating custom data types

emilio — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:08:33 GMT

Hi Randy,
thanks for your explanation, it clarifies very well the general logic behind, what I didn't know before.

I think I have to try it out by myself, by following your hints. It's not very urgent for the time being, but we will have (high probability) also later the need of encoding custom structures, which in fact are the variables coming from field devices.

Thank you, best regards.
Emilio

RE: Creating custom data types

Randy — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:36:53 GMT

You need to have a way to serialize the structure. The SDK model compiler will generate data types that include UA Binary and XML serialization code. Creating this code by hand is quite tedious so you should use the model compiler for any custom data types.

If you already have structures which can be serialized you will need to create one or more DataTypeEncoding nodes which identify your serialization format (e.g. ZIP). These DataTypeEncoding nodes are targets of HasEncoding references from the DataType node.

A DataType can support multiple data formats which is why there are multiple DataTypeEncoding nodes. There must be at least one encoding with a BrowseName of "Default XML" or "Default Binary".

You would then serialize the structure manually as a ByteString or XmlElement. This would then be set as the Body of an ExtensionObject. The TypeId of the ExtensionObject would be the NodeId of the DataTypeEncoding that describes the format of the blob.

Clients will not be able to unpack the structure unless they recognize the DataTypeEncoding. If they don't recognize the DataTypeEncoding they will follow the HasDescription references to the DataTypeDescription nodes which contain the schema that describes the structure. See Part 3 for more information on how to publish schemas in the Server address space.

Does this clear things up a bit?

the AE sample code fails:E_NETWORK_ERROR

banggou — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:08:46 GMT

Hi there:
In HRESULT COPCEventAreaBrowser::ChangeBrowsePosition ()
use ThreadSafe<COPCEventAreaBrowser> AutoLock(*this); // to calls Lock() and Unlock()

but when use the demo client to connect the AE server ,it fails.

E_NETWORK_ERROR
IOPCEventAreaBrowser.ChangeBrowserPosition

what's wrong with these? my IDE is VS2008,
thanks

RE: Creating custom data types

emilio — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:12:43 GMT

Hello everyone, is there any sample code available (or simple explanation) concerning the problem described here above?

Thanks for support.
Emilio

RE: UaGateway - Unified Automation

UnifiedAutomation — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:48:07 GMT

OK that makes things clear:

There is a problem in the TACO Server, returning some strange RPC error on the Advise for shutdown. This might indicate some serious issues in the server. By the way, with this behavior the server will not be compliant with the OPC Specification.

The Matrikon Client ignores this server side error and continues operation without using this callback.

The UaGateway wants this callback, because it reacts slightly different when a server suddenly disappears or when a server (regularly) fires the shutdown. We might ignore this server-side error in the future version of UaGateway to be less error prone.

RE: UaGateway - Unified Automation

Dobipt — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:58:45 GMT

You are right!

Could not ADVISE SHUTDOWN for server TACOS.OPCServices.DA.1; HR = 80010105

RE: UaGateway - Unified Automation

UnifiedAutomation — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:43:31 GMT

The Matrikon OPC Explorer is also using Advise for Shutdown but it continues the normal operation even if the Advise fails.

In the GUI of the Matrikon Explorer go to View->Error log:
After you connect to the TAC Server you should see an entry in the error log:
Could not ADVISE SHUTDOWN for server ...; HR=0x80010105

Can you please verify that?

Best Regards,
Unified Automation support team

RE: UaGateway - Unified Automation

Dobipt — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:59:35 GMT

UnifiedAutomation wrote:

What kind of a server is that TACO Server (Vendor, Product Name). Has it been compliance tested already?

Vendor: TAC Schnieder
Product Name: TAC Vista OPC Server

I don't know anything about compliance tested already.

This is a quote from the manual:
Vista OPC Server is an add-on module to Vista Server, enabling third party OPC-compliant presentation systems to interface with TAC products.
The server consists of two separate interfaces:
-OPC Data Access (DA), version 1.0A and 2.05A.
-OPC Alarms and Events (AE), version 1.10.

UnifiedAutomation wrote:

What other DA Client have you been using to test the connection?

Matrikon Browser:

TAC OPC Tool:

Thank you once again!

RE: Reading XML files with an OPC Client?

Randy — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:47:52 GMT

They will have to write code to get the data from the OPC client to their SQL server. Do they already have something in place? If so what is it?