Use the hidden attribute property

A hidden attribute is one that cannot be retrieved in searches from PI AF client applications such as AVEVA PI Vision. This property is useful if an attribute is being used to hold an intermediate result, such as a table lookup result that can then be retrieved by a PI point data reference, or is being used solely to populate a PI point name in a substitution parameter.

It can also be useful to set an attribute property to Hidden in a template when configuration has not been fully completed in the element itself. For example, elements are being created from a template with a PI point data reference, but because some instrumentation is missing, PI points do not yet exist for all the elements. By setting the attributes for the missing instrumentation to Hidden, a PI AF client application is prevented from obtaining an error result from a search.

When the Hidden property is assigned to an attribute in an attribute template, the property is indicated by in the Hidden column beside the attribute name. The same icon is displayed next to the attribute name on the Attributes tab when the template is assigned to an element.