Introduction to Open Message Format

The Open Message Format (OMF) defines a format for data messages that can be read by compliant AVEVA products. It defines how the messages should be constructed and what they can contain. OMF messages can be constructed using any message protocol that defines headers and bodies. The Open Message Format specification contains the complete definition of the Open Message Format.

Use OMF messages to input data from any hardware on any operating system to the PI System using any development tools, as long as PI Web API with OMF is installed as part of the PI System infrastructure. If your hardware, operating system, language, or platform allows you to send HTTPS requests, then you can use OMF. PI Web API is required for the PI System to receive and ingest OMF messages.

This Developer Companion Guide is specific to the PI System and OMF with PI Web API. It describes how use OMF messages in a custom application that sends data to PI AF server and Data Archive. It includes the following information:

• Installation and configuration

• Message types and how they are interpreted by the PI System

• Message headers

• Responses to OMF messages and OMF event codes

• Development considerations

• Application Development

• Migration of existing OMF applications to OMF with PI Web API

This guide is based on version 1.2 of the Open Message Format specification. We strongly recommend that you review the entire document before you begin developing your application, even if you have developed applications that use OMF in the past. This document contains details that may be critical to the success of your application.

Note: AVEVA Cloud Services and Edge Data Store also use OMF to ingress data. Those use cases are detailed in the corresponding product documentation.

The following additional resources are available to help you get started with OMF:

• OMF on PI Square

• OMF samples