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Remote Engineering and Multi-User Collaborative Development is a powerful tool that helps to shorten project development time. By utilizing this feature, a project development team can work together at the same time on the same project without the need to do any sort of merging, importing, etc.  In addition, this feature can also be used to centralize projects in a server and edit projects remotely.


Quick video tutorial

System Requirements

To make use of this feature the following system requirements need to be met:

  • A WebServer (TWevbServer or IIS) must be running on the server
  • The same product version must be installed on all computers using this feature
  • The server computer must contain a license that enables multi-users


How to Use

Engineering users can configure the server project by using workstations, which are attached to the network, instead of having to work on the server itself.

Within the local workstation the software they can point to the remote server (instead of a local project) and, thereby, work on the server project (possibly in conjunction with other users) without having to work from the server.

To use this feature with all computers connected to the same network, the following configurations are required: 


Server Computer

Open the welcome screen and navigate to the License tab. You should see a square box with information on engineering.

Under the Engineering User field, you will find the amount of concurrent engineering users supported by the current license.

 

Make sure you have TWebServer (or IIS with services installed) running and make notice of which port it is running. That information is available on the Icon Tray.

You cannot mix local project (without the web server) and remote project. If you have one instance of local project (without the web server) the remote ones will open as ReadOnly.

In order to enable Multiple Engineering Users to edit the same project, the Project Server must connect to itself as well.


Client Computer

 Open the Welcome Screen and Navigate to the Server Tab. On Project Server click on Remote and insert the server IP Address and TWebServer port number using the syntax.

http://<Server IP Address>:<Port Number>/


 

Once the connection is established, navigating to the Projects Tab you will see the projects from the Server computer.



Launching a project

After a Project is opened and edited, it can be executed using different settings. On Run-Startup the Startup Computer can be configured as Local or Project Server.

  • Local: The TStartup (Project) is launched on the client (locally).
  • Project Server: The TStartup (Project) is launched on the server PC.

On Run Modules you should see two options regarding Displays.

  • If Displays is selected - A RichClient is opened on the Project Server when project is started.
  • If LocalDisplays is selected - A RichClient is opened on Local PC when project is started.

Launching Project.

 

The Diagnostic Tools (Property Watch, Trace Window and Module Information) can be accessed through the TStartup buttons or through the command line (Server Domain).


Editing a project

The configuration over spreadsheet like Tags, Alarm, Dataset, etc are accessed without any semaphore or lock control. The last user to apply a configuration will be the last configuration to be the current and valid.

The system will synchronize the modified configuration with all another client, time to time (around 10s). So, if someone to create a tag. After some seconds, this tag will be available to be use by another remote user, it is the same to another spreadsheet configuration.

When talking about documents like Display, Scripts and Reports. There is a LockState and LockOwner property and the user cannot edit a document when another user is already editing this same document. A right top indication on display will show when it happens.

In the spreadsheet about Display, Scripts and report the user can see the content of these properties LockState and LockOwner, including the remote computer where the document is already opened.

If a document is blocked to edit there is a way to force the release. In the welcome you need close the connection of this specific client with the server. Clicking on drop connection button.


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