Create InTouch tags, UDTs, and Alarm groups from OPC UA server

In InTouch, the Access Name defines the communication channel to external data sources. When connecting to an external OPC UA server, the Gateway Communication Driver must be configured to establish this communication channel. This configuration typically includes the OPC UA server IP address and required security settings and is generally a one-time setup activity.

In system commissioning, however, the most time-consuming task is not communication setup but tag generation. This involves creating InTouch tags with correct OPC UA item references and bind them to appropriate graphic elements. In systems with thousands of tags, manual tag creation can be a significant effort.

System Platform 2026 simplifies this process. InTouch can now browse the OPC UA server namespace from WindowMaker. The OPC UA browser, previously available only in the Gateway Communication Driver, is now embedded at the point where tags are created. This eliminates the need to switch between tools or perform export-import steps.

The enhanced OPC UA browser also presents the server object model in a structured, intuitive UI. This allows OPC UA objects to be imported directly into WindowMaker and mapped to User-Defined Types (UDTs). For example, a Pump object defined in the OPC UA server namespace can be imported as a corresponding UDT in WindowMaker, enabling faster, more consistent creation of tags, UDTs, and alarm groups.

The External providers option under Tag dictionary lists all the OPC UA server connections configured in the Gateway Communication Driver that is present on the same machine. Using this option, you can avoid several manual steps and create access names, InTouch tags, alarm groups, and UDTs from OPC UA item references easily.

Note: You must to be a member of the oiAdministrators Operating System user group to open External Providers in WindowMaker.

Create InTouch tags and UDTs from OPCUA Server configured in the Gateway Communication Driver

Prerequisites:

• Configure the OPC UA server connection in the Gateway Communication Driver. Refer to the Gateway Communication Driver help for more information.

• Gateway Communication Driver and the InTouch WindowMaker must be on the same machine.

1. Open the InTouch application in WindowMaker.

2. On the Home menu, in the Tags group, use the dropdown arrow under Tag Dictionary and select External providers. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Q.

   

   All the OPC UA server connections configured in the Gateway Communication Driver are displayed.

3. You can expand the OPC UA tree to view and browse the item references.

   

   Note:
   The OPC UA servers from the remote Gateway communication Driver will not be displayed.
   After the OPC UA items are displayed, if you configure another OPC UA server, select Refresh at the bottom of the External providers window to view the newly added OPC UA server items.

4. Open the Model - Tagname pane.

   The Model - Tagname pane displays all the alarm groups, UDTs, and tags of the InTouch application. For more information on the Model - Tagname pane, see Model - Tagname.

   

5. Drag and drop the items from the External providers window to the Model - Tagname. You can select multiple items by pressing and holding Ctrl key while selecting the items.

   

   Selected hierarchy, including alarm groups, tags, UDT templates, instances, and members, appear in the Model - Tagname under $System node. The alarm groups that you dragged and dropped is also created under Alarm group list. Alarm Groups and objects are created based on OPC UA server hierarchy, not based on user drop location. Drag and drop objects from OPCUA it will not create Supertags, it creates UDTs instead based on its object type definition.

   

   When you drag and drop items, the corresponding OPC UA tags or UDTs are automatically created based on its object type definition. If the item is a object type, a UDT is created; otherwise, standard OPC UA tags are created. All created tags are converted into one of the following data types: Boolean, Integer, String, or Real. View the newly created OPC UA tags in the Model – Tagname pane.

6. To close the External providers window, select Close.

Additional information

• Search: Search functions only on expanded nodes; it does not work when nodes are collapsed. Because the browsing is per node basis, so you can only search for items in expanded hierarchies.

• Close: If it is taking time to process the expansion of tree node, you can close the page using Close.

• Refresh: There are two types of refresh. One is next to each OPC UA object, and the other is a global refresh option at the bottom beside the Close button. The refresh button next to each object clears the cache and reloads the latest data from the server, but it does not validate already created or dragged and dropped tags. The global refresh option updates existing server data only and does not clear the cache.

  

• For different OPC UA connection different access name is added. The access name of the tag will be the node name of the OPC UA connection in the Gateway Communication Driver.

  Note: After adding the tag if you rename the OPC UA node in the Gateway Communication Driver, you have to manually change the access name and it will not be changed automatically.

• Duplicate tag names are appended with the index number. For example: if there are two tags named ‘Input’, then the first tag will be named as ‘Input’ and the second tag will be named as ‘Input_1’.

  Note: If a tag name length exceeds maximum tag length of 128 characters, then the characters truncated from end to limit the tag name to 128 characters.
  When the tag name length exceeds 128 characters length and there is a duplicate tag name, then the number of characters from end of the tag name are removed so that the tag name +_{ index } length measures 128.

• If the object type is derived from BaseObjectType and its specific type definition is not available, then a template is created for each instance. The template name and instance name will be the same.

• If the tag name matches a predefined field name (dot field name), the tag is not created.

• After a UDT template is created, updates to the OPC UA object are not automatically synchronized. Drag-and-drop actions do not overwrite the existing UDT; instead, a new UDT is created.

• For a single node, the Browse API is limited to 10,000 items. If this limit is exceeded, a warning is logged and only the first 10,000 items are returned. The External providers will not display any additional items beyond this limit.

• To use InTouch as OPC UA server, configure it as OPC UA server in Application Manager. For more information, see Configure and using the InTouch OPC UA server.

• In Log Flag Editor, under WindowMaker, select the OPC UA Tags Creation checkbox to view the log messages related to OPC UA tags in the Log Viewer.

  

• If the OPC UA item name has unsupported special characters, while creating the corresponding InTouch tags the unsupported special character in the tag name will be replaced by ‘A’ or ‘_’. If the unsupported character is at the beginning of the tag, then it is replaced with 'A', in other places it is replaced with '_’. View details on what character is replaced in the Message Details window of the Log Viewer.

  

• Data Type handling

  • Below are support types for this release

    • Object type

    • Primitive type (basic data type such as Integer, Boolean)

  • Non-object primitive type are created as native tags. Flat tag under folder will be created as native InTouch tag. If there is tag name collision, suffix will be added to the new tag name

    

  • Properties of Primitive type are not supported. Primitive types having properties are not supported and will not be displayed in External Providers.

  • Properties of Primitive type are not supported. Alarm groups and instances will be created based on OPC UA server hierarchy only, but not based on where the user dropping the instances in the Model - Tagname view. After creation of instances, you can then move the instance to the any alarm group.

  • If data type of the OPC UA object is unknown, then those objects are disabled and cannot be dragged and dropped.

  • If the data type of the OPC UA object is not supported, then UDT of message type will be created.

  • STRUCT-type OPC UA elements are not supported. Those objects are disabled and cannot be dragged and dropped.

    OPC UA Type	Mapped Type
    Integer	Integer
    Double, Real	Real
    String	Message
    DateTime	Message
    Discrete	Discrete
    Byte	Integer
    StatusCode	Integer
    Array	Message