Tag Integration

Tag Integration is an enhanced framework for communication with third-party applications and devices.

Tag Integration is built on the same communication drivers that are described in the Drivers section, but instead of manually configuring driver worksheets to associate project tags with device registers, you can use the Object Finder to browse a Tag Integration source and then import device registers directly into your project.

Device registers imported in this way appear as integrated tags in your project's Shared Database folder, and they count against your project's tag limit as determined by its target system. Integrated tags are "live", which means they are continuously and bilaterally updated during project run time as long as the Tag Integration source is also running and connected. In most cases, you can use integrated tags in the same ways that you would normally use project tags you created.

Tag Integration is available only for certain applications and devices, because additional work is required to upgrade a traditional communication driver to support this feature. Many of the drivers included with this software can be upgraded, however, so if the one you want is not listed in the Tag Integration settings, please contact your software distributor and ask about custom development.

Tag Integration is configured in the Communication tab of your project settings.

Note: By default, the project runtime server will update integrated tags every 600 milliseconds, which is the rate at which BlinkSlow toggles. To adjust the rate, manually edit your project file (<project name>.APP) to add the following entry:

[Options]

MainDrvAlwaysTrigger=<tag name>

<tag name> can be either another system tag (for example, BlinkFast, Second, Minute) or a project tag you created. Whenever the value of that tag changes, the integrated tags are updated.

This works because the project runtime server automatically creates a virtual Main Driver Sheet to manage integrated tags. The same trigger updates all Main Driver Sheets in your project, however, so be careful if you are using both Tag Integration and traditional communication drivers to communicate with devices. (Standard Driver Sheets have separate, configurable triggers.)