Operator action event log

Hey guys,

We're going to install a PlantPAx system. We're using Controllogix PLC and FTView SE and Historian on the workstation.

My question is, how do you guys usually log an operator action on the workstation to the event log or historian based on their user login?

For example, if operator A is logged in and he changed some alarm set points, how do I log that action so I can have it recorded in the historian? The client wants the end product to be an excel sheet displaying all the events that happened when a certain user is logged in.

On the top of my mind, I think I can create a tag for each user which will be activated by login macro when that user is logged on. When it's activated, the event log will detect the change of value and based on that information we can have a timestamp that will indicate which user is logged on in a certain time. But in this case, the information will not be straightforward.

Is there any way to have like:
Operator A changed setpoint of PTXXX from 0 to 50?

Sorry if my english is not that clear.
Thanks!

I have used VBA with FTView SE to do something similar and log it to a CSV file. It does not log to Historian, so it may not be helpful for what you want to do, but I get the following sort of information:

Setpoint xxx changed to yyy by login zzz on computer abc on 2016-01-25 at 08:39

You could also log such a message to the local event log if that's any help?

Setup FT Diagnostics to log to SQL, Then you can build a report using SSRS, Crystal, VantagePoint, whatever to display all activity.

Use Microsoft Visual studio to help with this rather than using any 3rd party non Microsoft products. These problems will disappear. Contact me if you need any help with this.

Thanks guys for the replies!

@ASF The client ask to log to historian, but I think your solution might be enough. How do you do this? Can you give an example? My knowledge with VBA is a little bit limited.

@Dravik I will try your suggestion. Will I be able to see it in runtime using the FTView client historian connection?

D. Chris - So yes that's possible. You could build a processbook to display the log and then embed that processbook into the FTVSe application. I suspect that's overkill.

If I was building this, I would create the access log 'report' in VantagePoint(which if you are using FT Historian SE you have). I would then have a button on my FTVSe client that would launch the report as a webpage(assuming your client can talk to the Vantagepoint server).

@Dravik Wouldn't I need a different license to use vantage point? If not, then that's a really good way to do it! I'll try this as soon as I have the system set in my staging. Do you have any literature to help me as a starting point?

Well, I'm running under the assumption you purchased some level of license for FTHistorian(and that by Historian, you meant FTHistorian!) or the Site has one already. If so, That comes with a single seat license for VantagePoint.
I don't have a document handy, but the install guide for FTHist has a section for installing Vantagepoint.
For quite small applications, you can technically install everything on the same box but it isn't recommended/supported beyond the 'quite small' size.

Another option, same concept except don't use Vantagepoint and use SSRS(sql server reporting services) instead. That's pretty straightforward to setup but of course requires you know something about SQL server.

Or, skip those and just run a query(from the SQL source you are storing the Diag log too) into Excel or Access for a less 'fancy' solution.

I always thought Vantage Point would need a different license. I'm not really familiar with the licensing, since it's usually somebody else's job. I will definitely try this route first and do the "less fancy" one as a last resort.

Thanks for the suggestions!

D.Chris is correct, the FTHistorian license includes one use license for VantagePoint as well.

I'll attach the VBA module I used for the logging - keep in mind this is just the code to add the entry to the file. You have to pass it all the other information when you call it (filepath, user, computer name, message, etc), so there's a little more to it than this, but if you end up going down this path it might at least get you started!

Note - only the first two functions are related to this task - the other two do something unrelated. You're just interested in the LogMessage and CreateFile functions.