Bosch Appliances 3.5 manual Open Interface, 62.1Introduction, 62.2Scope

Praesideo 3.5 Installation and User Instructions 11 Optional Software

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62 Open Interface

62.1Introduction

The Praesideo Open Interface is based on a Visual Basic implementation and is based on the COM technology (OLE automation subset), as described by Microsoft.

It is preferred to use .NET to implement the Praesideo Open Interface. .NET is the successor of COM, COM+ and DCOM and is comparable to these. Existing COM interfaces can be used in a .NET environment. Many programming languages recognize .NET, which makes development of user interfaces by third parties easier.

At this moment, the Praesideo Open Interface is based on COM to enable connections to existing systems that are not built on .NET. Most current third party systems support COM, but not yet .NET. However, in the future, Bosch Security Systems will convert the COM interfaces to .NET.

It may be convenient to develop third party applications (e.g. PC call stations) in .NET already. These .NET applications can communicate with the current COM interface without any problems and will cause no problems in the future when the interface is based on

.NET. If the application is developed in a COM environment, it must be rewritten when the interface is based on .NET.

The open interface connection (i.e. an Internet connection) is regarded as an open connection that requires extra safety precautions. For example, a firewall to prevent unauthorized persons from (ab)using the system. The system can also limit the access of TCP/ IP devices (see section 42.9).

Use of the open interface can lead to situations in which the Praesideo system does not comply anymore to the evacuation standards that have been verified by TÜV. In that case, the TÜV certificate can be lapsed.

62.2Scope

As mentioned before, the Open Interface manual describes how to use the Praesideo Open Interface in combination with Visual Basic. To understand this manual, knowledge in the following fields in necessary:

•The Visual Basic 6.0 programming language and its development environment.

•The principle of COM interfaces and OLE automation.

•The Praesideo system and its installation.

Note

The COM interface is not limited to Visual Basic. It can also be used in other programming languages that support COM. Visual Basic is just used as an example here.

The Open Interface Manual is intended for users, who want to use the Praesideo Open Interface. It is not possible to derive any rights from this manual regarding the programming interface. Extensions and improvements on the open interface can be implemented when new versions of Praesideo are introduced. Since this manual is intended for programmers, it is only available in English.

Although the open interface DLLs contain the previous versions of the open interface (for backward compatibility), only the open interface version 3.4 is described in this manual. The interfaces in the DLL are identified using a name extension. The original version does not have a name extension.

Note

A maximum of 5 TCP/IP devices, such as the PC Call Server or Logging Server, with Open Interface access can be used with a network controller. The configuration web browser uses a different port (port 80) for the connection and is not part of this limitation.

Bosch Security Systems 2011-02