Main window

When the PI APS Configuration Utility opens, it loads the interface instances registered with PI APS into the Interface list. Select an interface from the list, which sets the scope for all modifications and dialog boxes until you select another interface from the list.

The bottom area of the main window, which is initially empty by default, is an Excel-like grid control. You can configure the PI APS Configuration Utility to automatically load the grid at startup; see APS Connector tab. The controls in the Tag Search Criteria area, particularly the option buttons, determine the contents that are loaded into the grid when Display Now is clicked. If the PI points option is selected, the Tag, Descriptor, Point type, and Sync boxes allow a subset of the points configured for the interface to be loaded into the grid. For other categories of points, only filtering by tag name is allowed.

Interface

The Interface list contains all interface instances that are registered for PI AutoPointSync on this computer. Click the arrow in this box to display the list and select an interface for which to view points and configure PI APS. The Interface box shows the currently selected interface. The format of names in the list is ICU-display-name > PIServer where ICU-display-name is the descriptive name assigned to the interface in PI ICU and PIServer is the PI Server to which it sends data.

Point Source

This box displays the PointSource assigned to points belonging to the selected classic interface. If the interface is configured with multiple PointSource parameters, an arrow appears in this box. Click the arrow to display a list of the PointSource parameters. The first PointSource is assigned to the PointSource attribute of any points that PI APS creates. The PointSource attribute of existing points can be set to any of the PointSource parameter strings. The PointSource parameters are obtained from the PI ICU interface configuration and cannot be changed by the PI APS Configuration Utility. This box is not displayed if the selected interface is a COM connector.

Interface ID#

This box displays the Interface ID number assigned to points belonging to the selected classic interface. The displayed value is obtained from PI ICU interface configuration and cannot be changed by the PI AutoPointSync Configuration Utility. If this interface does not use an ID number, the box displays n/a. This box is not displayed if the selected interface is a COM connector.

Note: When the selected Interface is a PI COM Connector, the Point Source and Interface ID# boxes are replaced by a PI COM Connector ProgID box. This box is not shown in the two preceding figures.

Sync Status of this Interface

This box shows status of the selected interface. This box usually contains Not Currently Synchronizing, which indicates that the selected interface is enabled for synchronization and awaiting the next scheduled time to execute a synchronization scan. This box can also show the following messages:

• Synchronization in Progress

• The Sync Engine is currently synchronizing points belonging to the selected interface.

• Not Currently Synchronizing

• The Sync Engine is not currently synchronizing points belonging to the selected interface.

• Waiting To Synchronize

• You have clicked Sync Now, and the selected interface is now waiting for the Sync Engine to synchronize its points.

• Completed Synchronization

• A synchronization scan has just completed for the selected interface.

  Note: This message appears only briefly.

• Synchronization Disabled

• Synchronization is disabled for the selected interface. To enable synchronization, click Enable on the toolbar.

Tag Search Criteria

Click one of the option buttons in this area to select one of the following categories of points to view in the grid area:

• PI points

• Points in PI Server that are configured for the interface.

• Available points

• Points that PI APS found on the data source during the last synchronization scan that do not exist in PI Server and are not marked as hidden points.

• Hidden points

• Previously available points that someone has marked for PI APS to ignore as available points.

• PI point edits

• Points in the PI Server that PI APS found on the last synchronization scan with different attribute values in the data source.

• PI point deletes

• Points in the PI Server that PI APS detected on the last synchronization scan as being configured for a nonexistent tag on the data source.

The boxes and lists in this area allow a subset of the points of the selected category to be displayed in the grid area. By default, these boxes contain * which is the wildcard that matches anything. Filtering in the Tag box is allowed for any category of points. For the PI points category, the Descriptor, Point type, and Sync boxes are also available for searching and displaying subsets of the points belonging to the current interface. For a PI point to be selected, it must match the patterns in all four boxes. That is, the logical AND of the match status for each attribute must be true for a PI point to be selected. Therefore, for any attribute that you do not want to participate in the selection, set the pattern to *, which matches all points.

After selecting or changing the point category (and specifying any search criteria), click Display Now to initiate the search for points. While the search for points is executing, the Abort button is available and may be clicked to discontinue the search. When the search finishes, the Points displayed: box is updated and the selected points are displayed in the grid.

Note: Except for PI points, information for all other categories of points is obtained from data stored in the APSPoints database by the Sync Engine during the last synchronization scan for the interface. That is, the information for categories other than PI points is not obtained in real time. Only information for PI points is retrieved in real time from PI Server.

The Sync Engine only stores information in the APSPoints database when rules for handling points not in PI Server, PI point edits, or PI points that no longer exist on the data source are configured to store synchronization information in the APSPoints database. If a rule is configured for any other option, the Sync Engine does not store synchronization information in the APSPoints database. For example, if the rule for points not in PI Server is Create Automatically, no available points are in the APSPoints database.

When a rule is configured to store synchronization information in the APSPoints database, the information can become stale when the following events occur between synchronization scans.

• The data source tag database changes (tag attributes changed, tag added, or tag deleted).

• PI points for the interface instance are changed using any tool other than PI APS (point attributes changed, point added, or point deleted).

• PI APS configuration settings that affect selection of available points change (either the general Tag Selection feature or a connector-specific feature for data source tag selection).

When working with Available points, PI point edits, and PI point deletes categories, remember that the information is from the last synchronization scan and, therefore, may be old.

PI Server Connection Status

The PI Server Connection Status area indicates the member server in a PI Collective to which the PI APS Configuration Utility is presently connected. When connected to the primary PI Server, the Writeable icon appears. When connected to a secondary server, the Read-Only icon appears.

If the primary PI Server becomes available again without the PI APS Configuration Utility automatically detecting this, the Connect to Primary command on the Interface menu causes the PI APS Configuration Utility to attempt to connect to the primary PI Server.