Chapter 8 Servers
© National Instruments Corporation 8-3 BridgeVIEW User Manual
When you register a device server, its name appears in the list of servers
shown in the various Edit Tag screens of the Tag Configuration Editor.
Once you configure your server, you can create a BridgeVIEW
Configuration using that server. Depending on the server, different
information is written to the Common Configuration Database (CCDB)
when the server is registered.
The most simple servers register no more than their names and launch
paths. You can select items by adding in the item strings in the Edit Tag
dialog box for each tag using that server. To select a device, you must create
an I/O Group and select or enter the device name in the I/O Group dialog
box. Refer to your server documentation for the correct formats for these
device and item strings.
The IAK Servers allow you to create and configure communication
resources, devices, and items directly in the Tag Configuration Editor.
Communication resources and devices are configured in the I/O Group
dialog box. Items are configured in the Connection tab of the Tag
Configuration dialog box.
Other servers register the devices to which they are connected and available
items for those devices by name. These servers also can register the data
type, directions, and engineering range and units of the various items, if
applicable. When you select these servers in the Edit Tag screens of the
BridgeVIEW Tag Configuration Editor, you must first create an I/O group
and select a device. Then you see a list of available devices, and a list of
items connected to that device in the Edit Tags screen. For a selected device
and item, the BridgeVIEW Tag Configuration Editor imports any available
item engineering range and unit information and also checks that the
directions or access rights for an item are compatible with the access rights
you have selected for the tag. Check your server documentation to find out
if it registers device and item names and item parameters with
BridgeVIEW.
Installing and Configuring the NI-DAQ OPC Server
The NI-DAQ OPC Server is available as part of NI-DAQ 6.x, and is
included on the BridgeVIEW CD. You can choose to install the NI-DAQ
OPC Server at the same time you install NI-DAQ, or you can install the
NI-DAQ OPC Server at a later time. Select the NI-DAQ OPC Server when
you are prompted to install servers.
After you install the NI-DAQ OPC Server, you must run the NI-DAQ
Configuration Utility and the Channel Wizard to configure your DAQ
system before you can use the NI-DAQ OPC Server with BridgeVIEW.