Supported features in IoT View

This is a list of the features that are currently supported by the IoT View software.

Graphics

Projects running in IoT View can be viewed only through Mobile Access. As such, IoT View and Mobile Access generally share the same list of supported features with regards to project screens, screen objects, and animations. For more information, see Supported features in Mobile Access.

One exception is the Combo Box object, which is supported on IoT View but cannot be configured to use Database as its data source.

Built-in Language

Many but not all of the Built-in Language functions are supported in projects running on IoT View. To see if a specific function is supported, please refer to the documentation for that function — it will be marked as either Supported or Not supported in IoT View, and there might be additional notes describing how the function is executed. For more information, see Appendix: Built-in Language.

More functions will be supported in future releases of IoT View.

Note: VBScript is not supported at all in projects running on IoT View. For more information, see "Important features not supported" below.

Unicode

Unicode is supported in projects running on IoT View, with the following limitations:

• Screen objects and built-in functions that use the database interface to connect to external databases support only single-byte Unicode characters (that is, up to U+007F). Multi-byte Unicode characters are not supported at this time.

• The following String functions fully support multi-byte Unicode characters: StrGetElement, StrSetElement, StrStr, StrTrim, StrTrimAll. All other String functions — at least those that can be used in projects running on IoT View — support only single-byte Unicode characters. For more information, see the documentation for each function.

When you view project screens in the browser, if you see blank white squares where you expect to see Unicode characters, make sure your computer and browser have all necessary fonts installed. Some languages — especially Asian languages that include thousands of unique characters — require special fonts that implement the entire multi-byte Unicode character table.

Tag properties and startup values

You can specify startup values for the following tag properties:

• Description

• Value

• Min

• Max

• Unit

The startup values will be used to initialize the tag properties when the project is run.

Individual indices of array tags can have different Min, Max, Unit, and Description properties. These properties cannot have different startup values for each index, but the values can be changed during run time.

The Description property for class members will be initialized based on the Description column in the datasheet for that class, rather than on the Description column in the Project Tags datasheet.

The Min and Max properties are enforced, and when they are, tag quality is set to "Uncertain" as appropriate.

Indirect tags

Indirect tags are supported, with the following limitations:

• Using String-type tags as arbitrary indirect tags is not supported.

• Each indirect tags must be created with a leading @ character, and it must be typed correctly depending on how it will be used (for example, an indirect tag that points to an actual Integer-type tag must be typed as an integer).

Alarms

Alarm worksheet and the Alarm control in the Mobile Access web interface are supported.

Alarm history can be saved to Proprietary and Database formats (that is, to proprietary history files and external databases), with the following limitations:

• Dead band is not supported.

• Custom columns are not supported.

• If an Alarm/Event Control object is configured to save both alarm and event history (that is, if Type is set to Alarm History + Event, in the object properties), that history can be saved only to Proprietary format.

The database gateway cannot run on a non-Windows platform, so it must be installed and configured on a separate Windows computer — typically, on the computer that hosts the database itself. For more information, see Database Interface.

The following limitations apply to alarms in general:

• Hi, Lo, HiHi, and LoLo alarm types only. The related tag properties — HiLimit, LoLimit, HiHiLimit, LoLoLimit, AlrStatus, Ack, and UnAck — are also supported.

• No email notifications.

• Clearing the Display in Alarm Controls option has no effect. Online alarms will always be displayed in properly configured Alarm controls.

• The Beep option is not supported.

• The Send to printer option is not supported.

• The Dead Band Time settings are not supported.

• Alarm-related tag fields (for example, MyTag->Hi) are not supported. If you try to reference them, the values will always be 0.

• When an alarm is created, it will not be attributed to any user. When an alarm is acknowledged by a user through Mobile Access, however, the acknowledgement will be properly attributed to that user.

Events

The Event Logger is supported for tag change events, security events, display events, custom messages, and system warnings.

Event history can be saved to Proprietary and Database formats (that is, to proprietary history files and external databases), with the following limitations:

• Custom columns are not supported.

• If both alarm and event history are being saved, they can be saved only to Proprietary format.

The database gateway cannot run on a non-Windows platform, so it must be installed and configured on a separate Windows computer — typically, on the computer that hosts the database itself. For more information, see Connect to an AVEVA historian database located on premises.

Trends

Trend worksheets and the Trend control in the Mobile Access web interface are supported.

Trend history can be saved to Proprietary, Database, and Historian On-Premises formats, with the following limitations:

• File compression is not supported.

• Batch is not supported.

• Custom values on BAD quality is not supported.

The database gateway cannot run on a non-Windows platform, so it must be installed and configured on a separate Windows computer — typically, on the computer that hosts the database itself. For more information, see Connect to an AVEVA historian database located on premises.

The following limitations also apply when saving to database:

• When you configure the database connection settings, you cannot specify project tags in curly brackets (for example, {MyConnectionString}) in order to change the settings during project run time.

• Database redundancy is not supported. In other words, only the database that is configured as Primary can be used.

• All timestamps are in UTC format.

Math worksheets

Math worksheets are supported, and you can call the Math function in order to execute them.

Please note that when a Math worksheet is executed on IoT View, an empty expression or an expression that contains only comments will set the value of its associated tag to either "" or 0, depending on the tag's data type. This behavior is different from other platforms, where the tag value is not changed.

Scheduler worksheets

Scheduler worksheets are supported for Clock, Change, and Calendar events. There are no known limitations.

Communication drivers

The Communication Driver runtime task is supported. At this time, however, only a limited number of drivers have been updated to work with IoT View. Those drivers are listed in the following table:

Note: MQTTE and MQTT drivers can be used in the same project.

More drivers will be supported in future releases.

The following limitations and notes also apply to the configuration and execution of Driver worksheets:

• Station fields accept string expressions (tag only).

• Simultaneous connections are not supported.

• Always scan mode only. The Screen or Auto scan modes are not supported.

• Even if a driver (such as ABCIP, MQTT, and MOTCP) is documented as supporting strings longer than 81 characters, reading and writing strings is still limited to 81 characters. To get around this limitation, you can divide long strings into shorter strings of 81 or fewer characters per string, and then store those shorter strings in multiple device registers.

• IoT View does not support Serial Encapsulation.

OPC UA Client

The OPC UA Client feature is supported with some important limitations.

• Many of the advanced settings will not apply when your project is running on IoT View. The default values (if applicable) for the settings will be used instead. These changed advanced settings will still apply when the project is running on the other runtime editions.

• When you create and configure an OPC UA connection, none of the connection's advanced settings will be supported. For more information about these settings, see Create a new OPC UA connection. Also, redundancy groups are not supported.

• When you create and configure an OPC UA Client worksheet, the Always Scan mode is supported, but the Screen mode is not. Additionally, only some of the worksheet's advanced settings will be supported, as shown in the following table. For more information about these settings, see Create a new OPC UA Client worksheet.

  Group	Setting	Supported?
  Read actions	Enable subscription	Supported
  	Maximum group size	Not supported
  	Synchronous read trigger	Supported
  	Asynchronous read trigger	Supported
  	Read count	Supported
  	Status	Supported
  	Status message	Supported
  	Maximum aging	Not supported
  	Sampling rate	Not supported
  	Queue Size	Not supported
  Write actions	Enable write on tag change	Supported
  	Maximum group size	Not supported
  	Synchronous write trigger	Supported
  	Asynchronous write trigger	Supported
  	Write count	Supported
  	Status	Supported
  	Status message	Supported
  Other	Reload trigger	Not supported
  	Refresh IDs on startup	Not supported
  	Ensure cache synchronization	Not supported
  	Enable bit notation	Not supported

Finally, array-typed items on the OPC UA server are not supported at all in projects running on IoT View, neither as entire arrays nor as individual array elements. If you associate project tags with such items and then run your project on IoT View, you will receive runtime errors that say the items are not supported. Please keep this in mind if you intend to develop your project to run on both IoT View and the other runtime editions.

OPC UA Server

The OPC UA Server feature is fully supported.

Security system

The Local Only and Local Plus Domain (LDAP) security modes are supported. The Distributed – Server and Distributed – Client security modes are not supported.

Runtime Access security levels are enforced, and the Edit Security System option is supported. If that option is selected, the following functions can be called during run time: BlockUser, UnblockUser, and GetUserState.

The other, more specific options under Runtime Access are not supported, and the Engineering Access settings do not apply at all because IoT View does not include the project development environment.

In the advanced settings for groups, Auto LogOff/LockUp is supported but Password Options is not supported.

If the security mode is Local Plus Domain (LDAP), the following limitations also apply:

• The Use operating system domain/user automatically option is not supported, because it works only when the station is a Windows computer that belongs to a Windows domain.

• The Hours until cache expiration option is not supported.

• The Save Rights to Server option is not supported.

• The Allow simple bind option is ignored, because IoT View always does a simple bind. As such, you are encouraged to use an encrypted connection.

Remote management

Once the IoT View software is installed and running on a target station, you can use the Remote Management tool to connect to that device, install additional system files, and download and run projects. For more informations, see Install and run IoT View on a target station.

Important features not supported

IoT View supports only the features listed above, with the limitations described. Among the features that are not supported, the most commonly used are listed below.

Note: Some but not all of these unsupported features will be automatically blocked in the development environment when you create a new project and then select Embedded as the target platform. For more information, see About target platforms, product types, and target systems.

VBScript

VBScript is not supported at all in projects running on IoT View. All scripting must be done using the built-in functions in Screen Logic and Command animations. For more information, see "Built-in functions" above.

Task worksheets

Alarm, Trend, Math, and Scheduler worksheets are the only task worksheets that are supported in projects running on IoT View, with the limitations described in their respective sections above. All other task worksheets are not supported.

OPC DA and OPC DA Server

OPC DA is not supported in projects running on IoT View. You can only use the supported communication drivers to communicate with other devices. For more information, see "Communication drivers" above.

Importing a project from a target station

The Remote Management tool includes a command to import a project from a target station to a folder on your local computer, but that feature is not supported for projects running on IoT View. As an alternative, you can stop the project and then manually copy the project folder from the target station.

Remote testing and debugging

The Watch and LogWin tools are not supported by IoT View. The runtime log is either displayed in the shell or console window, or it is saved to a log file on the device, depending on how you run the program. For more information, see About the runtime log for IoT View.

System tags

The following system tags are not supported:

• GroupCNFHiLevel

• GroupCNFLoLevel

• Hint

• InputMaxRange

• InputMinRange

• InputOutOfRange

  Some system tags like UserName and GroupName get their values from the client session and the user who is logged on through that session. This is not an issue for users who log on through remote client sessions (such as through Mobile Access).

  Tag fields

  Referencing tag properties using the tag field syntax (for example, MyTag->Name) is supported, but only for the following properties:

  Tag Property	Supported on Type…
  	Boolean	Integer	Real	String
  Name	#	#	#	#
  MemberName
  Size	#	#	#	#
  Index	#	#	#	#
  Description	#	#	#	#
  Value	#	#	#	#
  TimeStamp	#	#	#	#
  Quality	#	#	#	#
  Blocked
  Min		#	#
  Max		#	#
  Unit		#	#
  UnitDiv		#	#
  UnitAdd		#	#
  DisplayValue		#	#
  DisplayMin
  DisplayMax
  DisplayUnit		#	#
  Hi	#	#	#
  Lo	#	#	#
  HiHi		#	#
  LoLo		#	#
  Rate
  DevP
  DevM
  HiLimit	#	#	#
  LoLimit	#	#	#
  HiHiLimit		#	#
  LoLoLimit		#	#
  RateLimit
  DevPLimit
  DevMLimit
  DevSetPoint
  AlrStatus	#	#	#
  AlrDisable
  Ack	#	#	#
  UnAck	#	#	#
  AlrOffValue
  AlrOnValue
  AlrAckValue
  B0 … B31		#

  The script/expression compiler used in Mobile Access and IoT View is stricter than the one used elsewhere in Studio. It will not accept references to unsupported tag fields. For example, if you try to reference MyString->B0 anywhere else in Studio, the compiler will accept the reference and then simply return 0 or some other invalid value. In Mobile Access and IoT View, however, a runtime error will be generated because B0 is not supported on String tags. You can check for such errors in the log.

  Also, only in IoT View, if you reference the Index property of a simple class tag (for example, MyClass->Index), it will return a value of -1. That is instead of a value of 0, as would be expected for a class tag of size 0, and it is due to how the script/expression compiler performs on Linux versus Windows. If you reference the Index property of an array-based class tag with a specified index (for example, MyClass[2]->Index), it will return the correct value.

  For more information about tag fields, see Reference a tag property instead of a project tag.

  Hardkey licensing

  Hardkey licensing is not supported by the IoT View software. Use softkey licensing instead. For more information, contact your software distributor.