Citect Text Entry At Runtime

[Snowy]

I have been asked to provide a pop up form for each item of equipment on a Citect 7.40 page. The purpose of these popups is to allow the operators and maintenance people to enter comments and instructions relating to the equipment selected. The comment would include date, time and some text describing repairs done etc. The data would need to be stored in files somehow until cleared manually or maybe a preset time period had elapsed. Never tried this before. Can anyone help with the most sensible way of going about this please.

Best Regards
Snowy

 

[kellian]

Do you want the text to be visible to all clients in the system or just the PC it was entered on?

 

[Snowy]

Its only a stand alone pc at this stage.

 

[kellian]

Ok you have multiple options.

Create a DBF device and add the records to there.
Have your code create a text/Doc file for each piece of equipment. you can then write/ append to this document whenever called.
Install MS access on the PC and build a DB in there to hold the Info.

 

[Snowy]

Thank you for the suggestion. Much appreciated. I will need to do some research on how to set this up now.

Kind Regards

 

[kellian]

For documents look at the exec cicode command

 

[Snowy]

Thanks again Kellian. I can see a way forward now.
When the operator selects an item of equipment I can use the exec function to open Access or Word etc. and then a worksheet dedicated to that piece of equipment. They can enter whatever data they like and save. Sounds like it should do what I need.

 

[tragically1969]

Thanks again Kellian. I can see a way forward now.
When the operator selects an item of equipment I can use the exec function to open Access or Word etc. and then a worksheet dedicated to that piece of equipment. They can enter whatever data they like and save. Sounds like it should do what I need.

Why not just open a Citect popup window with a text field containing string variables mapped to a disk PLC ?

 

[Snowy]

Thanks tragically1969,
Sounds like a good option.
Do you have an example showing how this would be configured. As I said I have not attempted this before.
Are you suggesting allocating a string variable for each item of equipment. What limitations would apply as far amount of text I can store using this approach.

 

[kellian]

You would be limited to the string data (256 bytes)
http://www.citect-webhelp.schneider-electric.com/citect/Content/Tag_Data_Types.html

 

[Snowy]

Yes thats what I thought.