Editor

The Editor is meant for creating views and nodes which can be used within the WinCC OA project. This chapter describes the structure and functions of the Editor.

Figure 1. Editor

Structure view

System

The system is the top node for the Common Name Service. This node cannot be changed and is the starting point for all views and trees.

View

A view is a container for an arbitrary number of nodes which are used for the structure mapping.

Figure 2. View
CAUTION:
CNS cannot be used for historical queries.

Node

Nodes are used for mapping datapoints or datapoint elements in a CNS structure. There is no limit to the number of nodes and they can be interconnected in any tree structure.

Create new view / node

Depending on the selected element in the tree, either a View or a Node is created. Moreover it is possible to drag a datapoint of the DP selection to the tree and depending on which element it is dropped, a sub-node is created.

Note:
The characters * : ? as well as the defined separator must not be used for the name.

Remove view / node

Removes the selected element as well as all sub-elements of the tree.

System ID

The ID of the system to which the view is assigned.

View ID

The unique internal name of the view. With this ID the view can be addressed for editing. Changes to the ID will not be applied to a script automatically. Therefore, all scripts where the View ID is used must be edited in case of changes to the ID.

Note:
Not permitted characters for an ID are: dot ".", colon ":", semicolon ";", comma ",", right or left square brackets "[ ]", right or left curly brackets "{ }", blanks, tabulator "/t", question mark "?", asterisk "*", backslash "\", slash "/", percent sign "%", callsign "!", right or left brackets "( )" dollar symbol "$", the commercial at symbol "@" and all other special characters except for underline "_".

View name

Display name that is used within the user interface. This name can be defined in multiple languages.

Note:
The characters * : ? as well as the defined separator must not be used for the name.

Wildcard

If you define a wildcard, the following panel is opened and shows a list of all matching datapoints. You can select the datapoints and add them to the view by clicking on Create Nodes.

As of version 3.20, there is a new default behavior.

The wildcards *, ** and ? can be used depending on the config entry cnsUseDoubleAsterisk in the [general] section.

The config entry is set to 1 by default, which means that:

  • One asterisk * returns one level.
  • Two asterisks ** return all levels.
  • The question sign ? returns one character.

You can also activate the old behavior by setting the config entry to 0. This means that the wildcards * and ? can be used:

  • One asterisk * returns all levels.
  • The question sign ? returns one character.
Figure 3. Wildcard

ID path

The view can be addressed with this unique path.

Permitted groups

Defines the permission of each user group. It is possible to set read or write rights for a group. A group can be added to the field per drag & drop. With a left mouse click the write () and reading rights () can be set.

Node overview

Shows all nodes which are directly connected to the view. It is possible to add data points of the DP view as new nodes by using drag & drop. With a right mouse click a context menu is opened which allows to delete the selected nodes.

Node

Figure 4. Node

Parent ID

The ID of the superior node (parent node) of the selected node.

Node ID

The internal name of the node. Changes to the ID will not be applied to a script automatically. Therefore, all scripts where the Node ID is used must be edited in case of changes.

Note:
Not permitted characters for an ID are: dot ".", colon ":", semicolon ";", comma ",", right or left square brackets "[ ]", right or left curly brackets "{ }", blanks, tabulator "/t", question mark "?", asterisk "*", backslash "\", slash "/", percent sign "%", callsign "!", right or left brackets "( )" dollar symbol "$", the commercial at symbol "@" and all other special characters except for underline "_".

Node name

Node name that is used within the user interface. This name can be defined in multiple languages.

Note:
The characters * : ? as well as the defined separator must not be used for the name.

Node type

Type of the selected node. The node type is used for a further distinction of nodes (e.g. custom icons can be used for each node type). It is possible to create node types by using the Nodetype panel. The types Datapoint and Structure are available by default.

Datapoint

Datapoints or datapoint elements can be assigned to each node which means that it is possible to access elements and values of a datapoint via the node. Therefore, it is possible to create custom structures regardless of the actual datapoint structure in the PARA. The appropriate datapoint from the DP view can be added to the datapoint text field per Drag & Drop.

ID path

Unique path which shows the position of a node. The node can be addressed in scripts via this path. Starting point of the path is the system node.

Name path

The name path shows the node path within the view.

Node icon

Sets the icon which is used for this node. The icon of the node type is used by default. Select a picture and draw it to the Drop node icon here area.