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Importing procedure

The process of importing tags and other data is a crucial task when setting up your project. The procedure is designed to be simple, efficient, and adaptable to your specific requirements. The core of the import process involves selecting a source file, which contains the information to be imported. During the import process, the system automatically creates tags or other necessary project components based on the source file data. This automation significantly reduces the time and effort needed to manually create these elements, allowing you to focus on more complex tasks.

It's important to note that the system remembers your import settings. When you use the import tool for the first time, it saves the settings, transforming the import button into a "Sync" button. This feature ensures that subsequent import operations are even more streamlined and efficient, as the system can automatically check previously imported addresses against new ones. Ultimately, the import procedure is designed to increase your productivity and make the setup of your project as seamless as possible.

Importing Tag and PLC Addresses

You can copy and paste the contents of an Excel table. As long you include the title of the columns when you copy and paste the contents of the table, the tables in your project can have different columns or can be ordered differently. The system will put the data in the expected columns, even if the order is different in the source.

To create and import Tags:

• In Excel, make a table with the columns that are shown below. 

To successfully import the tags, you need the TagName, Type, and Address columns. 

• After you chose the device protocol and create a new node, click the Import button. Then, choose the .CSV file that contains the tag's information and click the Ok button. 

• The Tags and Points will be created automatically in Edit > Tags.

• Edit > Device > Points 

After you use the Import tool for the first time, the system will save whatever settings you used. The import button switches to now be called the "Sync" button. This make the button execute a synchronization that verifies the previously imported addresses and the new ones.

Import from CSV Files

Individual CSV File

In this scenario, we are importing items for each individual table that is available throughout the Engineering Environment.

In your Engineering Environment, you should find a toolbar located on the top of the display with green arrow in it.

In Tabs that do not contain a table, the import icon is unfocused and is unable to be selected.

For Tabs that do contain grids, the import button is available when the grid is on focus (selected). When the import button is clicked, a dialog window will open.

Browse for the csv file and click Open.

Examples

To better understand how to use this feature, we are going to add Alarm Items into our sample project.

Assuming we have two Tags, Tag1 and Tag2, in our project. Each tag must have an alarm configured to it.

1. Tag1 - Belongs to ’Critical’ Alarm Group and triggers an alarm when its value is lower than 20.

2. Tag2 - Belongs to ’Warning’ Alarm Group and triggers an alarm when its value is higher than 80.

The import steps are:

• Go to  Alarms → Items, create a dummy row, and copy it (Ctrl + C).
• On your external Table Editor (e.g. Excel, Google Docs, Notepad, etc), paste the copied content.

3. Fill your table with the required information.

4. Save the file as a ‘.csv’.

5. Go back to the  Alarms → Items page and click the Import CSV File Button.

If you used a text editor (Notepad, Notepad++, etc), you need to add the comma separator (‘ , ’) between each column.

Extended CSV Files

In this scenario, we are using a single .csv table to import information on Tags, Devices, Alarms and historian items.

In your Engineering Environment, navigate to Run → Extensions → Import. You should see many supported files that can be imported into a project.

Select the CSV file and browse for your Table File.

The table must obey a certain format. The required columns can be obtained by following the same method as in the previous section; copy from project and paste on Sheet Editor.

The difference in this method is that the final table is a concatenation of the various grids from the project.

Examples

To illustrate the usage of this feature, we will add a couple of items to our sample project. The following items will be added:

Tags:

• MyTag1: Integer DataType and StartValue = 0.
• MyTag2: Digital DataType.

Alarm Items:

• MyTag1:

1. HiHi alarm limit (configured for ‘Critical’ alarm group) set to 95
2. Lo alarm limit (configured for ‘Warning’ alarm group) set to 10

• MyTag2:

1. Hi alarm limit (configured for ‘Critical’ alarm group) set to 1 and Message ’Tag Alarm is Hi’.
2. LoLo alarm limit (configured for ‘Warning’ alarm group) set to 0, Priority set to 1 and Message ’Tag Alarm is LoLo’.

Historian:

• MyTag1: Added to default Historian Table ‘Table1’.
• MyTag2: Added to default Historian Table ‘Table1’.

The table that contains all the columns and rows required to import the items described above can be found in the pictures below (with additional columns):

Following the importation procedure in Run → Extensions → Import, select the CSV option, browse for the filled csv file, and click Import.

Export the Historian DataBase Into an Excel File

To retrieve older data that has been archived using SQL Server Historian in Excel, follow the steps below:

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To save the historian database to an Excel file, write the following line of code in CodeBehind and set it up so that when the button is clicked, the code is executed:
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The result will be the data exported as follows:

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To access a project example that presents an out-of-box solution for exporting historical data to CSV files, visit: Historian - Export to CSV - 9.2 (LINK TO 9.2, NEED TO UPDATE THE TPROJ TO V10).

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