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 used to select and open a project as Project Management.
Project Management
The Project Management is the first interface you see when you start the platform. This interface allows to create, open, edit and run projects located in your computer or remote ones.
Each item in the main box is a complete project with the configuration for an application.
Some very unique and powerful features about project management tools include:
- This interface is product version agnostic. You can manage and open projects created with different product versions without upgrading the project in the field or switching the engineering tool in your computer.
- The platform creates a file for each project. All configuration, including tag definition, displays drawing, images and report templates is stored in a single file — an encrypted SQL database with extension .tproj — for easy management.
- You can open multiple projects at the same time or allow multiple engineers to work on each project.
Software License
There are flexible options for licensing according to each business' needs. The Your License box presents information about the computer software license. See Managing Licenses for more information.
Project Server
Clicking Finding Projects box allows managing the Project Server Service settings.
There are two options for Project Server: Localhost or Remote. If you select Remote, you will need to set it up. See Project Server for more information.
Project Selector
The Project Selector shows a list of projects on your computer or on a remote computer set previously.
Each image below is an independent project. On the top right corner, you can select List, Cards or Table view.
Click Refresh to update the projects list. The image used for the project preview is the contents of the display named MainPage in that project.
List View
Card View
Table View
Command Buttons
- New...: opens New Project wizard. See Managing Projects.
- Edit: opens selected project for edition. See Managing Projects.
- View: opens selected project in read-only mode. See Managing Projects.
- Run: starts selected project in startup production mode. See Running Projects.
- Upgrade: upgrades selected project to the newest version available. See Managing Projects.
Creating New Projects
To create a project:
- On the Project Management, click New....
Select a platform where your project will be installed and click Next.
- Select a product family and a product model. Then, click Next.
- Enter desired information. See more information about each field below.
Click Create New Project to finish.
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 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. |
| Canary Historian | <<<< add info here >>>> |
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, such as Blank, Default, TrendChart, TrendChart with Alarm Pages and Alarm Footer, Redundancy projects, and Asset Viewer.
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
All content in the TrendChar project plus:
- Alarm Online and Alarm Historical page
- Alarm data template
TrendChart and Alarm Footer project
All content in the TrendChar and Alarm project - plus:
- Alarm Footer page
Redundancy project
All content in the TrendChar and Alarm project - plus:
- Redundancy Information page
Select and run a template to check the displays available on each template, and explore its settings. By that, you can check if one of the templates meet your needs and speed up your project development.
In addition, you can add or create more templates on your own.
Adding New Templates
The templates presented when creating a new project are standard project files located in the product installation folder in Templates.
If you receive a new template from your vendor or integrators, copy it to that project.
To add a new template, create a project and save it as a Template.
Editing and Viewing Projects
The View button opens a ready-only version of the project configuration, which is very useful if you just want to put the project in execution or check its configuration.
The Edit button enables modifications in 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. When a second instance of the same project is opened, the second instance will open as read-only.
To enable concurrent users, your project server must be licensed for multiple engineers. See Managing Licenses for more information.
Upgrading Projects
Projects retain information about the platform's version used to create the Project.
Opening a project with a previous version without upgrading it will require a platform's equivalent version installed.
Also, you can upgrade the project to the latest version using the Upgrade Version command button.
When Upgrading:
- A copy of the project is executed, creating a new file named: <project-name>-<preivous-vesion>.tproj.
- A new empty project is created named <project-name>.tproj.
- The Previous project is imported to the new project.
After upgrading, it is recommended to open the new project and build it (Execute → Build and Publish → Build... operation), so the system checks all its scripts.
Running Projects
You can run a project by:
- Using the Run button.
- Setting an Auto-Start option at the Server tab. <<<< ainda tem a tab Server? >>>>
- Starting the execution manually after you open the project for editing (Execute → Startup → Run Startup).
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. <<<< ainda tem a tab Server? >>>>
For more information, see Running Projects.
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