What is a Project?
This framework is a powerful platform used to develop and deliver applications that manage real-time information. Applications built with the platform are organized into Projects.
A Project holds the configuration for the various functional Modules, such as Tags definition, Alarms, Communication, Displays and others. We refer to the tool that assist to select Project and open for editing or execution as Project Manager.
This section explains how to create, edit and execute your Projects, using the Project Manager User Interface.
Welcome Page
The Welcome page is the first interface you see when you start our platform. This interface allows you to view the Projects in your computer — or remote computers —, create new ones, open projects for editing and run them.
Each item shown in the table view or card view is a complete Project with the configuration for an application.
Some very unique and powerful features about Tatsoft tools for project management include:
- This Welcome interface is product version agnostic. You can manage and open even projects created with different product versions without the need to upgrade the project in the field or to switch the engineering tool in your computer.
- Each project is a single file. All configuration, including tag definition, displays drawing, images and report templates is stored in a single file, an encrypted SQL database with extension .trpoj, for easy management.
- You can open multiple projects at the same time or allow multiple engineers to work on each project.
About your Software License
There’s the flexible options for licensing according to the each business needs. Read more about license options available and how to license your software in User Guide → Installation and Licensing → Managing Licenses.
About the Project Server
<<<<. basic explanation, says where that list of projects comes from, and link to the License Information page >>>>
License Workspace
Presents and manages information about the computer software license. Go to User Guide → Installation and Licensing → Managing Licenses for more information.
Listing Projects
At Projects workspace, you have a list of the projects on your computer or on the remote computer selected at the Server tab.
Each image shown below is an independent Project. On the top right corner, you can select to use the Card View or the List View.
Project Image
The image used for the Project preview is the contents of the Display named MainPage in that project.
Refresh Icon (at the low right corner): updates the projects list
CardView Visualization
TableView Visualization
Command Buttons
New Project: opens a dialog to enable the creation of a new project
Edit Project: opens the selected project for edition
View (read-only): opens the selected project in read-only mode.
Upgrade Version: if Project was created with a previous version the Upgrade button is enable
Test Project: Starts the project execution using a Testing profile.
Run Project: Starts selected project in startup production mode.
For more information on Testing Profiles and startup, go to section Running Projects
Creating New Projects
To create a project:
- Click New Project. The New Project page will open.
Enter or select any needed information.
- Select the desired Project Template.
Click Create New Project.
Field | Description |
Name | Enter a name for the project. |
Description | (Optional) Enter a description of the project. |
Location | Click the "..." button to select a folder or to create a new folder for the project. Remote access is configured by a project's folder. You can select where the project is created. Be sure to place local projects in their own folder. Do not add them to the same folder that has projects with remote access. |
| Product Family | Depending on your license, this setting may give you options to build applications for a specific version of our platform. You can change this setting later, if needed. If you do not have a license, only the Express family will show. Even when you have a license, you may want to create Express projects to share demos and tutorials with users who do not have a license installed. |
| Product Model | Depending on your license, this setting may give you options to build applications for a specific product model. The product model is connected with the number of real-time communication points you are allowed on that project. |
Project Templates
Pre-built Project Templates get you started faster by building the solutions you need. Some project templates are available when you install the software: Blank, Default, TrendChart, TrendChart with Alarm Pages and Alarm Footer, Redundancy projects, and Asset Viewer.
In the following, you can check the basic content descriptions of each available template:
Blank project
- Logon Dialog
- Several Themes
- Header page navigation using Industrial Icons
- Empty Main page
- Layout with Header and Main page
Default project
- Server Information page using the Dashboard page
- System information template and Scripts
- System Information Data Historian configuration
TrendChart project
- UI data template
- TrendChart page
- TrendChart data templates
TrendChart and Alarm project
Contains all in the TrendChar project - plus:
- Alarm Online and Alarm Historical page
- Alarm data template
TrendChart and Alarm Footer project
Contains all in the TrendChar and Alarm project - plus:
- Alarm Footer page
Redundancy project
Contains all in the TrendChar and Alarm project - plus:
- Redundancy Information page
Using them is the best way to check if they make sense to your need. Just select one, and run it! Then, check the available displays on each one, and explore its settings.
In addition, you can add more templates or create one on your own. See further details about how to do this in the next.
Adding new Templates
The templates presented when creating a new project are standard Project Files located in the product installation folder at Templates.
If you receive a new template from your vendor or integrators, copy it to that project.
And to add a new template, you have to create a project and save them as a Template.
Open Projects for Editing or Viewing
The platform supports two ways to open projects. The View button opens a ready-only version of the Project configuration. That is always the best way to go, if you just want to put the project in execution, or check its configuration.
When opening using the Edit button, it will be possible to modify the project. You may need to use the Logon button in the toolbar before editing if the Security projections were enabled to that project.
Many projects can be opened at the same time. If you already have a project open, select another project in the Project Selection list and open it. When a second instance of the same project is opened, the second instance will open as read-only.
In order to enable concurrent users, your project server must be licensed for multiple engineers. In the License tab, the Engineering Group Box shows the maximum number of concurrent engineering users that are allowed to access the selected server or the local computer.
Upgrading Projects
Projects retain information about the FrameworX version used to create the Project.
When opening a Project with a previous version, the platform will try to find an installation of the previous version in the computer, and use it to edit the Project.
You can bring the Project to the latest version using the Upgrade Version command button.
When Upgrading:
- A copy of the Project is executed, creating a new files with name: <project-name>-<preivous-vesion>.tproj
- A new empty Project is created with the name <project-name>.tproj
- The Previous project is imported to the new Project
After upgrading a project, you should Open it and execute a Run → Build operation, so the system verify all scripts in the new project file.
Running Projects
You can run a project in any of the following ways:
- Use the Run Project command button, or the Test Project
- Setup an Auto-Start option at the Server tab
- Start the execution manually after you open the Project for editing
Both Test Project and Run Project, will start the project execution. The difference is the Test Project will use any testing configuration created in the Project, such as alternate database connections, and other tools that simplify the development and validation cycle of the Project.
For more information, see User Guide → Running Projects.
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