Cimplicity HMI WebView

hi,
our company just installed a PLC/HMI system for controlling a college boiler system. they have an office in the boiler house with a computer with Cimplicity HMI and a 300 I/O point license with internet access via the college network. they're interested in monitoring and controlling the system from outside the campus (at the homes of a couple of supervisors). i've been looking into WebView and reading up on it but am unfamiliar with it and have some questions. does this have the capability for control through the internet? does there need to be licenses for each outside user's PC? does Cimplicity HMI need to be installed on each outside user's PC? if anyone familiar with WebView could give me a few tips or info, that would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

pete

Usually the easiest method is to have VPN access to the computer with Cimplicity installed. That way you can allow external access and control of the PC

Yeah, we handle that a couple of ways and a VPN is used for both of them. We install PCAnywhere on most of the HIMs we install and either dial into them with a modem or use the customer's VPN to connect with PCAnywhere over the internet. A few of our customers do not allow the use of PCAnywhere so we use Microsoft's Remote Desktop to connect to these desktops over VPN.

I could be wrong but I don't think Webview allows for much control.

The computer running CIMPLICITY will need to be on the company ethernet LAN. This LAN will need to have internet access via a firewall. The supervisors will need to have VPN access to the firewall (and thus the LAN). Once into the LAN, they can access Webview by opening internet explorer and using the following path

http://[hostname]/Webview/index.html

where hostname is the name of the CIMPLICITY computer.

There is some setup involved inside CIMPLICITY too. Firstly, you need to go to Computer - Webview in the project tree, select the WebView/ThinView tab and check the boxes for "Start Webview server at boot time" and "Use built-in Web server". Then hit "Create Web Page". Select your project's overview screen and hit browse. Enter a filename "index" and hit Save. This is the webpage that users will access when they start Webview. Other cimview screens navigable from this main screen will automatically be served as webpages by the Cimplicity web server.

When using Webview, user accounts on the main CIMPLICITY server machine are not required. This lets you isolate the server completely. This is the best method of remote access since you do not want people to play with important project files on the server. Webview is relatively harmless. Your security setup inside CIMPLICITY will need to be well-defined though. There should be thorough considerations for what actions can be taken remotely versus what actions need people to be present on-site to handle emergencies that may arise. I am sure you get the idea by now...

When using Webview, user accounts ** on the main CIMPLICITY server machine are not required...

** I meant Windows user accounts

thanks for the tips. i think i get the general idea. doesn't sound too bad. i've never set up a vpn before but just reading about them today, it doesn't sound too terrible and i can toy around at home with a couple PC's lying around. probably the hardest part for me is going to be dealing with the IT department at the school. thanks again.

Dont we all love those IT departments!!!