FactoryTalk database connection

Hi Everyone,

Can FactoryTalk SE connect directly to a msSQL database?

Does anyone have any other software package they recommend to achieve a GUI that can grab data from msSQL and be web based?

Regards,

Josh

FactoryTalk View SE 6.10 uses Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express as its basic back-end database engine.

But this isn't really apparent to the user: you're still using FTView's trend and log objects to get at the data.

My preferred SQL-oriented, distributed, browser-launched HMI/SCADA software is Inductive Automation's Ignition. It is much more explicitly an SQL-centric product.

Hi Ken,

I'm not asking what the architecture of FactoryTalk is, but would it be able to communicate with an external application's DB, which is MS SQL.

I'm trying to publish data onto the HMI, like I would from an OPC, but I prefer lessening the load on my OPC and just reading directly from the DB source.

Regards,

Josh

Yes you can. But you're going to have to write some VBA code to retrieve data from MSSql. Or there is probably an ActiveX control out there that can help you do it too.

Thanks for expanding your question.

I agree with jekerekes: FactoryTalk View's relationship with Microsoft SQL Server is in the background: it creates an Instance of the SQL Server for its own use but doesn't really expose it to the user.

The principal connection between FactoryTalk View and an ODBC database (including Microsoft SQL Server) is for data logs: this includes the Data Log Models that fuel the Trend objects, as well as the Alarm and Event logs, and the diagnostic event logs.

For objects that aren't alarms, events, or trends, you can access information inside an external database using VBA and Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). This typically requires the execution of a Command to run the VBA routine, so it's run by an Event or a button onscreen, rather than just being "create a display field and connect it to a database field".

I'm not trying to push Ignition on you: I don't have a commercial relationship with Inductive Automation. It's just that "query data from an external SQL database and show it onscreen" is the fundamental feature on which Ignition is built, rather than something you can get to with custom code, and I thought that was important to your original question.

Hi Every one....
I would like to know about FTView logging..
Is it possible to retrieve 1Month Trend data instantly from Factory talk view with in seconds.

It probably depends on how much data we are talking about. If you log one tag, once per minute, then you are talking about retrieving 40,000 records. If you are logging data once per second then we are at 2,400,00 records. For just one tag. Then, were is this data being logged? Is it being logged locally or is it being logged to a network location? Is the client on the same physical machine where the HMI server is located with the data, or is it a remote client? So, can it retrieve the data within seconds? Probably. Might it take longer? Possibly. There are lot of things that can affect the performance.

OG

Thank you very much for your positive reply....
It is a local machine with in that SCADA is also working, I am logging data every second but I want to retrieve the data with user defind intervals like 1min avg, or 1hr avg or 8hr avg.... Will it possible in Factory talk studio "Trend Pro".
Is there any specified retrieving time for the records 40,000 or 80,000 etc.