Installation of the Excel Report on a client computer

Setting up the computer link between client and server

The following example demonstrates, with specific reference to Excel Report, how to establish a connection from a client to a server to create reports.

Example

The network contains two computers, a server and a client.

The server is that computer on which:

  • WinCC OA has been installed (together with the Data Manager and Event Manager).
  • The WinCC OA project has been set up.
  • Excel Report (WinCC OA Excel Report) software package has been installed as base (in the user-defined installation options) (optional).

You can always run Excel Report on the server (= default) whereby everything operates locally.

The client is that computer on which:

  • Excel Report has been installed as UI client (in the user-defined installation options).

  • All the necessary WinCC OA components have been set up as well as a local project including Excel Report wincc_oa_path /data/xls_report/ has been created. Create a remote UI project on the client and the components are automatically installed - see Remote UI.

Make the following settings in the order given:

  • Start System Management > Reports > Excel Report on the server.
  • Open the Settings dialog box through the button Report/Configuration/Options (see figure below. For an explanation of the dialog box, refer to Configuring WinCC OA Excel Report).
  • Default is the server, the computer you are on: select Default in the Options for host combo box.
  • Set the path for the Config file in the first field with the File Browser button in the ComManager tab.
Figure 1. Configuring COM Manager for the server computer

  1. On the client computer set up a network connection to the server computer.

    For example, assign "F:" for the drive name, and "eiwnt066" for the computer name (Server Host Name)

  2. Switch back to the server computer and perform the following steps in sequence for the client host:
  • Create a new Config file in the "config" directory, for example, "config.client".
  • Change the project path to match the driver letter by entering the following in the Config file: proj_path = "F:/<proj_path>/<Project_name>".
  • Open the Settings window via the Add-ins > Report > Configuration > Options button (see figure) and enter the client computer name in the combo box to add it as host (for example, "eiwnt066", "ServerHostName").
  • Enter the Data Manager and Event Manager in the "config" file. data = "server host name" and event = "server host name".
  • You can now create new reports on the client computer using WinCC OA Excel Report ("Report.xls").
    Figure 2. Setting up the COM Manager for the client using example entries