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Client Components
| Product |
Summary |
Version Info |
| EasyUA Client SDK |
The EasyUA Client SDK provides a set of .NET classes the handle the UA server communication. Included are sample applications and utilities for configuration and testing.
OPC UA DA, HA, AC and UA Methods functionality is supported.
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| OPCDA.NET |
OPCDA.NET Client Development Component
OPC clients can be developed in .NET without the hassle of COM interoperability. The OPCDA.NET assembly provides .NET classes and methods for for all OPC DA V2/V3 defined functions. Additional helper classes, tools and many samples provide a highly efficient application development environment.
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| OPCDA.NET-UA |
The OPCDA.NET-UA component extends the OPCDA.NET Client Component with an OPC UA wrapper.
The application can access OPC DA and OPC UA servers through the same API.
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| OPCHDA.NET |
OPC HDA .NET Client Development Component
OPC historical data access clients can be developed in .NET without the hassle of COM interoperability. The OPCHDA.NET assembly provides classes and methods take advantage of the .NET features and make OPC HDA Server access real simple and also very efficient.
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| OPCHDA.NET-UA |
The OPCHDA.NET-UA component extends the OPCHDA.NET Client Component with an OPC UA wrapper.
The application can access Classic OPC HDA and OPC UA-HA servers through the same API.
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| OPCAE.NET |
OPC A&E .NET Client Development Component
OPC A&E clients can be developed in .NET without the hassle of COM interoperability. The OPCAE.NET assembly provides classes and methods take advantage of the .NET features and make OPC AE Server access real simple and also very efficient.
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| OPCAE.NET-UA |
The OPCAE.NET-UA component extends the OPCAE.NET Client Component with an OPC UA wrapper.
The application can access Classic OPC AE and OPC UA-AC servers through the same API.
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| XMLDA.NET |
XML DA / OPC DA Client Development Component
XMLDA.NET is a .NET component that handles the access to OPC DA and XML DA servers. The application is coded as an XML DA web client, independent of the type of server to be accessed.
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.Net Applications
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ASP.NET Applications
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WCF Applications
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OPC-DA V2/V3 Servers
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yes
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yes
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yes
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XML-DA Servers
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yes
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yes
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yes
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Powerful helper classes such as BrowseTree, ListBuilder and DataBind reduce the application code to a minimum. Complex data visualization applications can be implemented in a few lines of VB.Net or C# code.
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How to develop OPC Clients with .NET?
Developers have many options for the development of .NET OPC client applications. What's best depends on many factors and on personal preferences.
The basic choices are the API and the communication.
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Type of
Application
Interface
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OPC client applications increasingly have to access different types of OPC servers. This can be accomplished with wrappers, either embedded in the client or as external converter servers.
The chosen application interface and the servers that need to be accessed determine the needed wrappers.
OPC defined interfaces are:
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Classic OPC
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The classic OPC DA, HDA, AE specification define a C++ COM interface and a COM Automation interface. For .NET the OPC Foundation provided sample .Net wrapper code but didn't create a .NET API specification.
Vendors offer .Net client components with widely different APIs:
- Methods that mirror the OPC specified interface functions. The application can use all OPC specified features.
- Usage oriented method that make the server access simple.
- Embedded into an overall product concept.
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XML DA
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The OPC XML DA specification was created in 2003. It defines .NET2 web service SOAP messages for the functionality of OPC DA (Data Access). See OPC-DA / XML-DA Comparison for an overview and comparison of the two OPC specifications.
There are no corresponding web service specifications for OPC HDA and OPC AE.
The .NET web services WSDL tools create API methods from the specification.
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OPC UA
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OPC UA was started in 2003 with the ambitious goal of a multi-platform specification with the capability to model all kinds of systems.
The specification was partially released in 2009 and vendors offer UA products, mostly with only DA functionality.
The OPC UA specification defines communication records. The multi-platform capability requires UA specific communication stacks for each platform.
The communication stack implementation defines the application interface.
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Type of
Server
Communication
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The interface specification defines the communication supported by the server.
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(D)COM
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The Classic OPC Specification defines a COM interface. OPC DA, HDA, AE servers are COM server and need to be accessed through (D)COM.
Microsoft still supports DCOM and for local server access COM is still a good and efficient solutions.
Remote server access is limited and the necessary DCOM configuration is tricky and the cause of most OPC difficulties.
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.NET2 web services
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The .NET2 web services (ASMX) eliminate the DCOM remote communication limitations and configuration issues. However, the communication is restricted to HTTP and the security options are limited. The .NET2 based XML DA is available since 2003 and is often used to remotely access OPC DA servers through an XML DA gateway server.
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OPC UA
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OPC UA communication is either TCP or HTTP. The security handling and the upper layer communication are UA specific to make it consistent on all platforms.
The OPC Foundation is working with member companies to make communication stacks and tools available to its members for different platforms, such as PLCs.
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WCF
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The Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) introduced with .NET3 extends the .NET2 web services with additional W3C standards and Microsoft specific features.
The communication can be configured for a wide range of communication and security options.
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Products are available for many combinations of API and server communication.
Application designers should decide the used API based on:
- communication (server types) that need to be supported (are converters available?).
- communication that is mainly going to be used
- the capability of available wrappers to support all needed features
- the type of client application (GUI application, web client, Windows service, etc.)
Advosol offers the most complete set of client components, converter servers and server toolkits.
EasyUA Client SDK
The EasyUA Client SDK provides a set of .NET classes the handle the UA server communication. Included are sample applications and utilities for configuration and testing.
OPC UA DA, HA, AC and UA Methods functionality is supported.
OPCDA.NET client component
The Classic OPC DA (Data Access) interface is implemented in .NET classes. All OPC DA V2.05 and 3.0 features are supported. In a layered class structure the upper level classes provide server access features with a minimal amount of code. OPCDA.NET can be combined with OPCHDA.NET and OPCAE.NET for HDA (Historical data access) and Alarm&Events.
- UA Option
UA servers can be accessed thru the same API as OPC DA servers. Existing OPCDA.NET based client applications can be upgraded to support UA without application code changes.
OPCAE.NET client component
The Classic OPC AE (Alarms&Events) interface is implemented in .NET classes. All OPC AE V1.1 features are supported. In a layered class structure the upper level classes provide server access features with a minimal amount of code. OPCAE.NET can be combined with OPCHDA.NET and OPCDA.NET for HDA (Historical data access) and DA (Data Access).
- UA Option
UA servers can be accessed thru the same API as OPC AE servers. Existing OPCAE.NET based client applications can be upgraded to support UA without application code changes.
OPCHDA.NET client component
The Classic OPC HDA (Historical Data Access) interface is implemented in .NET classes. All OPC HDA V1.2 features are supported. In a layered class structure the upper level classes provide server access features with a minimal amount of code. OPCHDA.NET can be combined with OPCDA.NET and OPCAE.NET for HDA (Historical data access) and Alarm&Events.
- UA Option
UA servers can be accessed thru the same API as OPC HDA servers. Existing OPCHDA.NET based client applications can be upgraded to support UA without application code changes.
XMLDA.NET client component
Thru the XML DA API the client application can access:
- XML DA servers with .NET2 or .NET3 (WCF basicHttp) communication
- OPC DA V2.05 and 3.0 servers
XMLDA.NET is especially well suited for .NET2 web client applications.
XMLDA.NET is often used in combination with XDAGW-SS server-side XML DA gateway. The client application can access local OPC DA servers directly or remote server thru the XML DA gateway.
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