The Quick Tutorial to Tatsoft's FrameworX
This guide provides you steps on creating new data-driven robust applications, from Downloading and Installing the software to executing your first solution.
Software Download and Requirements
The FrameworX Designer software, which allows creating solutions, is provided at not cost for evaluation. You can download it by filing the form here.
The evaluation allows unlimited use to create and edit multiple solutions, with unlimited tags and configuration time. The Runtime (the execution of your solution) is enabled for two hours of resettable time, for information on licensing for production usage go to section <Licensing> or contact us.
The FrameworX Designer requires Windows 10 or newer, the solutions you are creating are multi-platform and can execute in multiple operating systems.
On this page:
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Software Installation
In order to install, just click on the MSIX file, which installs in just a couple of seconds, install FrameworX as a Windows App.
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When the application is running, you can right-click on its icon at Windows TaskBar, and select Pin To Taskbar, so you have a shortcut to access it. Otherwise when you want to execute, type FrameworX in the Windows Search box. |
Solutions Management User Interface
When you open the software, the first User Interface is the Solutions Management tool, which will list the Solutions in your computer and allow to create, edit or run the solutions. When the software was first installed, it will show the Demo solutions that are installed in you Documents folder.
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You can go ahead and use the New button to create your solution or first explore the installed demos.
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To open a Demo Solution, just select from the list and click "Run" to simply deploy it or "Edit" to take a look at how we created it. You can also double click the solution to load it.
In order to know what each demo is featuring , check the page Demo Projects Overview When you open a Solution, you'll find the following Welcome Window.
Navigate to Runtime, and press START button to execute the Solution.
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Creating a New Solution
If you want to create your own solution, simply click "New" in the Solution Manager, and following the Wizard steps.
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Our platform doesn't require a license for you to explore the Engineering space! With the evalution version, you'll be able to run the solution for only 2 hours, but has no limitation on the engineering time. |
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The first step is to select the Product the solution is intended to use. In order to facility multiple scenarios in a cost-effective way, FrameworX has its product line organize in Family and Models, more information about it on Platform Overview > Product Series.
Then, you'll move , you must choose what kind of solution you'll build, Windows or Multi-Platform.
Finally, add a title and a description and choose a location on your computer to install this solution (we install it inside the Documents folder, by default). You can choose a template for your solution here as well, but for this example, we won't select anything. When you're ready, simply click "Create New Solution".
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Once loading is complete, you'll see our Home Page, that contains all of the basic information for this solution.
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n the homepage you can change the Theme you'll be using: we offer five different options (Light, Dark, Indigo, Blue and Live). By default, Light will be selected. On the right side of the screen, you'll find the common steps to start exploring our platform, from DataExplorer to Runtime. We'll explore those basic features in this quick tutorial. I By default, our Solution Explorer Navigation is filtered by All Modules and Features. If you wish to work with a simplified version of the platform, simply change the filter in the first box.
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Designer, Editing the Solution
When a new solution is created, or you open an existing one, the Designer user interface is presented. The Designer in a an integrated enviromelnu that allow you to configure you solution, draw display, creating script code, queries, reports, execute your solution and monitor your real-time data..
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There are various ways to work with the Designer, you can configure the Modules in order that is suitable to you. In this first Getting Started, we will do these steps:
- Use the Data Explorer to find data in a MQTT Broker and create automatically Tags and Connections.
- Go to Unified Namespace to create Asset Folders and Tags
- Go to Devices to create mapping of Tags to address in field Devices.
- Create a Display showing the data we acquired.
Data Explorer Tools
The DataExplorer tools allow you to easily perform data mining and monitoring from various data sources, including MQTT Brokers, OPC-UA, PLCs and SQL databases. Here, let's see how you can connect to our MQTT Simulator to browse its data.
Go to Data Explorer → MQTT Tools to start. You can connect to your own broker, if you wish, but our system has a native SpartkplugB MQTT Built-In Broker that you can use.
Out platform also offers a MQTT Publisher Simulator, that has customizable data being published. Simply click both of the green "start" buttons to start the Broker and Simulator.
Once you've done so, click Connect to see and browse the generated data.
We'll be using this simulated data to make it easier to build a simple solution. Select DeviceD1, from the list of simulated data, and click Map to Solution. This will create a new Data Model with the device properties. In this example, we named the new Data Template SolarPanel. In the Module option, we'll leave the first option selected, which represents the more typical behavior of mapping tags to external devices, but we can also do dynamic connections with the External TagProviders functionality.
Unified Namespace and Tags
In the Unified Namespace section, you'll be able to define the data models you'll use in the solution. When building a new solution, a good practice is start by creating Data Templates. In this case, the SolarPanel data template will have already been created, since we exported it from the MQTT Simulator. You can also create your data templates manually or import from csv or other libraries.
Once you have your Data Model, the next step would be to create tags and map it to a Device. This was already done automatically, but once again, you can do it manually if you wish. Here, you'll find the tag DeviceD1 has already been created, with the type "DataModel1", that contains all of the properties of the device from the MQTT Simulator.
To create a New Tag, simply click the "New Item" option in the Tags menu.
Field Communication: Mapping Data to Devices
The next step is creating the connection with the field. For this, we offer over 50+ native communication protocols installed by default with the product.
The use of those communication protocols is a straight forward process:
- Create a Channel, which is an instance of the Protocol with optional configuration settings
- Create a Node within that Channel, which specifies the location of that Device in your network, using the PrimaryStation Field
- Map a Tag in your application to an Address in the Device Node.
The Export Wizard we used on the DataExplorer did those 3 steps automatically to you.
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In this case, since we mapped the MQTT Simulator to the solution, creating a Channel using the MQTT SparkPlugB protocol
Node Configuration: < > Points Configuration < > |
As an Exercise you can create one more Tag and its mapping
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Simply click to create a new Tag1 in the upper menu of the Points section and create a new Tag1 as a "SolarPanel" type.
Once you do that, add it to Points table and map it to a specific Address. You can either type or browse the available data. A important thing to consider is that you only need to map at the device level, as the system will automatically read all of the properties associated with that device.
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Creating a Simple Display with Symbols
Let's start by exploring the Draw Environment. To access, go to Displays → Draw, or simply click the Draw button at the top menu.
This will open the main Draw Environment. By default, the first page created will be the MainPage, where your main content should go.
On the left side of the screen, you'll find all of the components you can use to build your display. They're categorized by different types of graphical components, such as icons, charts, navigation and symbols (incluindo high-performance graphics). You can also search for something specific in our library using the search input.
To add a component to your display, simply click and drag to the drawing environment. In this example, we'll grab a simple button from the Symbol library. If you double click the symbol, you'll open a popup box where you can map the component's properties to your tags. In this case, the button only has one property (IsPressed), which will map to the device status. To find a specific tag, you can either type "Tag." and it'll show you the options or click the three dots next to the input to navigate on your Asset Tree.
That is all you have to do! The value of Tag is now connected to drive the visual of the Select Symbol
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Another way of creating your UI is by dragging tags directly into the display. On the right side of the screen, you'll find all of your tags - if you drag them into the display, it'll automatically create a text output, but you can also map them to specific symbols to create those automatically. To do that, select the tag (or the whole Device) you'd like to map and click Map to Symbol. You'll then be able to select symbols you've created to display your data. Once that's done, if you drag the tag into the Display, it'll automatically create a symbol. In this example, I already added a CircularGauge to my library to showcase the device temperature.
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Another unique feature of our platform is the ability to customize any symbol with a great number of dynamic properties. Those include custom Actions, Scripts, Visibility, Rotation, and more. For this example, add a simple rectangle to the display and double click it to look at the available properties. For this example, I created a simple expression to change the fill color depending on the value with a simulation tag in the expression.
You can create a new symbol combining those two components and save it into your Symbol Library. To do that, first break apart the button symbol and then select all parts and select "Create New Symbols with Select Elements". This gives you more flexibility to use our library as a base to create custom symbols that fit your industrial application.
As you make changes, make sure to save your display by clicking on the button on top of the page.
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Create a Real-Time Alarm
To test out the Alarming functionalities in the platform, let's create an alarm.
On Alarms → Items, simply type on the first line of the table to create a new Alarm. Type "DeviceD1." and you'll see the available properties associated with that Device - for this example, establish a condition, limit, select a group (there will be a few available as default) and a message to showcase when that limit is reached.
In the Draw Environment, search for AlarmWindow and drag it into the display.
Then, search for button on the graphical components and insert one under the AlarmWindow object and give the name “Warning” by editing it in the Drawing Properties on the right side of the screen.
Double-click on the button and configure the dynamic property:
Do we need More? Suggestions for this step:
- Trends
- Reports
- Scripts
- Layouts
Running your Solution
It's time to run your solution by clicking on the Runtime module (or selecting the shortcut on the top of the page). In this page, you'll find information regarding the solution, including redundancy settings and command lines and URL for the clients.
To run your solution, simply click "Run Startup".
Licensing And Registration
To get the full capabilities of our platform and start building your real solutions, you'll need a License. The information about your license and the links to activate it can be found in the Solution Manager page. There you may choose between online and offline activation. You can learn more Licensing and Activation here. If you don't have a license yet, feel free to reach out at sales@tatsoft.com.
Exploring More Features
With these steps, you've learned the basic on working with FrameworX and you're ready to continue your journey.
In this chapter, you'll find more basic information to get you started.
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Once you're ready, we recommend you:
- Explore the User Guide, that goes into detail on each module.
- Take a look at our Solution Examples, that showcase different aspects and functionalities of the platform.
You can also schedule a introductory meeting with one of our onboarding specialists here.