Tag placeholders for imported windows and scripts

When you import a window or QuickScript, you can configure how you want the associated tags to be handled.

• Use placeholder tags.

  By default, imported tags are converted to "placeholder" (or "index") tags. A maximum of 4096 placeholders is allowed.

  Placeholder tags include a three-character prefix. For example, if the original tag is WaterHeater, then the placeholder tag is ?d:WaterHeater.

  If you import a tag that contains 30, 31, or 32 characters, the placeholder prefix is still added to the beginning of the tag, and the length of the existing tag is not truncated. For example, for placeholder tags only, a 32 character tag is increased to 35 characters. This increase in tag length is not supported for standard tags.

  To use a placeholder tag in the application, you must either:

  Convert it to a regular (local) tag and define it in the Tagname Dictionary.

  Convert it to a remote tag reference. An example of a remote tag is PLC2:WaterHeater. Remote tag references allow your application to instantly receive data from a remote tag server and eliminates the need to define a single tag in the local Tagname Dictionary.

• Using existing tags.

  During an import, if you select to use existing tags, the InTouch HMI verifies that the imported tags already exist in the Tagname Dictionary. If a tag already exists, then the tag is imported as a fully qualified tag. Using this option reduces the total number of placeholders, allowing you to import applications with larger tag databases.

The following flowchart describes how tags are handled for imported windows and QuickScripts.