Developing VTS Applications

Step

Relevant reference materials.

Preliminary design

Completed system requirements, hardware reference documents, etc.  Before creating a monitoring and control interface for a system, you must have a good technical knowledge of the I/O hardware systems and at least a basic idea of what you want the completed VTS application to do, including how the user interface should look.

Start a new application

Managing VTS Applications.  Provides reference and how-to information to help you create any type of application.

Create the tag tables

You must understand the addressing format for your chosen I/O hardware, along with the communication driver(s) used before creating an application to monitor and control it (see step 1).

Tags are the building blocks of a VTS application. The topics Tags and Their Properties and the Tag Properties Database (Points.mdb) will tell you everything you need to know about creating the tag tables.

Create display pages for the monitoring and control elements

This step and the next two are generally taken together, one page at a time.

You can learn about creating application pages in Adding and Editing Pages.

Links to those pages can be created through the menu, Editing the Menu or with hotboxes: Linking to Pages with the Page Hotbox.

Lay out the page design with graphic elements and alignment tools

The VTS Graphic Editor is the primary tool for creating design elements on an application page. Page design can be enhanced by Drawing Graphic Objects such as rectangles, circles and lines. Alignment and Positioning Tools are available to help bring a tidy look to your user interface design. The topics Working with Objects and Working with Colors provide even more information to help you create an effective user interface.

Draw the tags

For every type of tag, there are several ways that it can be drawn.  Numeric displays, animated symbols such as tank levels, buttons, text and colors can all be employed to create a dynamic user interface.  The topic Drawing Tags provides a description of each tag drawing method. You can also create your own tag drawing methods with User Draw Methods.

Add alarms

Alarms notify operators when values move outside defined tolerances.  Some tags such as Analog Status Tags include built-in alarms while others require that an alarm tag be added.  (Alarm Tags)

The Alarm Page provides the primary operator interface for viewing and acknowledging alarms, but you can also add alarm monitoring elements to any application page using the Alarm Tools Library.

Log data

Data Logging and Reporting Tags are used to record a history of tag values to encrypted log files and then display that data in a report. The Reports Page and the Historical Data Viewer Page are two tools provided to help you review logged data.

Install a modem

Modems are used to communicate with remote I/O hardware or to phone off-site operators when alarms occur. The chapter Working with Modems provides a complete overview of how to install and configure a modem.  Roster tags are used to control who is phoned/paged/emailed for alarms in a particular area.

Secure the application

Operator privileges are granted on a user-by-user basis.  The chapter, Working with Security, describes how to create and configure user accounts. 

You can extend VTS’s security options by creating your own Application Privileges that apply only to pages or tags within your application.

Distribute the application between primary and backup servers.

For purposes of load distribution and redundancy, a VTS application can be run on multiple servers and workstations.  The chapter, Working with Remote Applications covers everything that a developer needs to know about configuring servers.

Enable the VTS Internet Server

A browser interface is provided that allows you to operate your system from any workstation on your intranet or, (if connected to the internet) anywhere in the world.

Review the topic Browsing VTS Applications on the Web to learn how to configure the VTS Internet Server.