Possible config entries of the OPC A&E client

Entry

Type

Default

Range

Description

addTimeToComment

int

1

0-2

Due to the correction of timestamps in the client the original server timestamp can be appended to the alert comment.

The config entry specifies the adding mode:

• 0 => The time will not be added to the comment

• 1 => The time will only be added if a timestamp correction has been performed

• 2 => Time will always be added to the comment

alertClassPrefix

char

''

-

Prefix of alert classes.

If you set the config entry twoStateConditionsOnly to 1, the client and server enable the automatic adaptation of alert classes.

The alert classes have to be structured as follows:

alertClassPrefix_AE_<priority>

Priority is a number from 1 to 1000.

alwaysWriteComment

bool

0

0|1

This config entry defines if the AE client forces the writing of comment, though the timestamp check in the client failes. This is necessary, if timestamps are not reliable and therefore the event manager executes timestamp corrections.

• 0 => Do not force comments

• 1 => Force comments

browseOnStart

bool

0

0|1

By default the transfer of all current server data (Event Categories, Conditions, Server Items) during client start is deactivated. This prevents that erroneous data from the server are automatically adopted by the client during connection establishment. With this config entry the transfer at start-up can be activated (browseOnStart = 1).

The transfer can also be triggered manually at any time using the "Update" button in the client configuration panel.

correctFutureTimes

bool

0

0|1

Defines if future times shall be corrected or not.

• 0 => Do not correct the time
• 1 => Do correct the time

reduPostfix

char

''

-

Is not used.

refreshDelay

int

-1

>= -1

The AE client executes a refresh if the server state changes to RUNNING or TEST. For this refresh a delay in seconds can be specified.

The default is -1 which means that there is no automatic refresh on state change.

refreshMessage

string

""

-

The AE client executes a refresh if server indicates that refresh is needed using the event message specified with this config entry.

e.g.

refreshMessage = "I need refresh"

Per default this entry is empty, which means that the client does not execute

a refresh depending on simple event messages.

server

string

""

-

Defines the data point for the A&E server. Several this kind of entries can exist for the OPC A&E client of WinCC OA since the client can process alerts/events of several OPC A&E servers.

sourceSeparator

cahr

'.'

-

Separator used by the server for the items. The source separator separates the items passed by the server during the browsing into elements. The default is a dot ("."). The client also has to use this separator (for example, PVLEVEL4.Level1). An arbitrary separator can be used.

startDelay

int

0

-

With the entry startDelay the setting of the manager state "running" can be delayed to avoid that subsequent managers, depending on the OPC AE client start, are started too early.

timeFormatComment

string

"[]{original time: %Y.%m.%d %H:%M:%S.%z}"

-

Defines the format of the time when appending to the alert comment.

For details of the allowed constants for the format string see: formatTime()

Entry

Type

Default

Range

Description

prefix

string

"AE_"

-

Defines the prefix which is used in all automatically generated data point elements. If the same items exist in two or more servers, the prefix has to be different for each of the servers.

simpleEventDp

string

DP<prefix + SimpleEventNotifications>

-

Defines a data point of type string to which all simple events are mapped on the client. If this entry is not specified, the simple events are mapped to the data point <prefix+SimpleEventNotifications.

[opcae_ABB1]

simpleEventDp = "GU_SimpleEvents."

The string that is written by the AE client, is composed as follows:

EventSource + "|" + EventMessage + " (severity " + EventSeverity + ")"

Thereby the italic written values are the values sent by the OPC server in it's message and put together to the string (shown below) by the client.

Example:

"123.124.23.17_ConERR | No Alive Signal (severity 250)"

twoStateConditionsOnly

bool

0

0|1

Use this config entry to inform the client that the server only provides boolean alarms. If the server only provides boolean alarms, you cannot create master data points using the panels or assign server items to client items. You have to create the configuration manually in the PARA or import it by using the ASCII manager.

The OPC A&E client automatically creates a master data point with two alert ranges (0=inactive, 1=active) at run time.