Alarm Filtering

Introduction

Hello and welcome to a new quick start guide on how to best use Movicon.NExT™.

In this technote we are going to show you how to filter alarm history by using the Historian Log Viewer object in a Movicon.NExT™ application at runtime.

Alarm Viewers and Filters

The Alarm Window and Historian Log Viewer objects allow you to filter alarms based on criteria that are created by using the user-friendly fllter editor offered by the controls.
This editor is activated by clicking the pencil icon at the bottom of the control, immediately after the message display window.
A popup window will appear when clicking this icon. When clicking on the + icon, you will be able to add the following criteria composed of:

• Object's Column (Ex. Message)
• Condition operator (Ex. Contains)
• Condition Value (Ex. boolTest)

Other filter conditions can also be added and linked to each other by using the AND and OR logical operators. After the filters have been created, click OK to confirm. The object will only show messages according to the filter conditions met at runtime.
In addition, the Historian Log Viewer also offers preconfigured temporal filters, which include Time, Day, and Year.
However, there is a fundamental difference between the two controls: while the Alarm Window object only allows filters to be created in design mode, the Historian Log Viewer object also allows filters to be implemented at project runtime instead.
To create a filter in design mode using the Alarm Window, simply:

• Place an Alarm Window object on screen by dragging it from the Alarm Viewers folder located in the Toolbox library offered by the software.
• Once placed on screen, select it to open the properties window located on the right.
• Click the three dots corresponding to the Layout Configuration property.
• Open the Filter Editor to create a filter by clicking on the pencil icon in the Layout Configuration window that opens.
• Once the wizard has opened, create a filter by first clicking on the + button to add it and then by selecting the values for each of its components.

This above procedure is also valid for the Historian Log Viewer.

Example

We will now create an example to give you a better idea of how to do this:

Creating tags

Having started up the software editor and loaded the project:

• Open the I/O Data Server located in the project's tree structure in the Project Explorer window.
• Go to the Tag List by selecting the corresponding I/O Data Server tab.
• Right click within the workspace and select the Add New Tag from the menu that appears.
• Configure the tag by using the properties window in the following way:
• 
  

  Name	boolTest
  Model Type	Variable
  Data Type	Boolean

• Confirm the changes by clicking the Accept Changes button on toolbar at the top of the the tag's properties window.

Creating and associating the alarm

Now we shall create an alarm:

• Open the I/O Data Server resource in the project's tree structure in the Project Explorer window.
• Go to the Alarms Tab by selecting the corresponding I/O Data Server tab.
• Expand the items until you reach the source item in the Alarms tab.
• Select the source and right click to open the contextual menu.
• Once opened, select the Add New Alarm Definition option. Configure the alarm in this way:
• 
  

  Name	boolTestAlarm
  Alarm Type	Trip Alarm
  Activation Condition	Equals
  Activation Value	1

• Confirm the changes by clicking the Accept Changes button on the toolbar at the top of the alarm's properties window.

Now that the tag and alarm have been configured, we can associate them with each other:

• Select the alarm we have just created within the I/O Data Server's Alarms tab.
• Right click it and select the Assign Tag option from the menu that opens.
• Select the boolTest tag we have just created from the table that appears and press the OK button.

Creating the screen

Now, let's proceed with the creation of a screen:

• Look for the Screens resource in the project's tree structure in the Project Explorer window and select it.
• Right click it and select the New option from the menu which opens.
• A New Screen popup will appear which will allow you to set the screen's main properties. Configure the screen as follows:
• • Width: 1920
  • Height: 1080
  • Name: Main
• Click the OK button to confirm the configuration.

Once the screen has been created, we can now change the project's properties by inserting the screen as the project's Main screen to show when the project starts up. To do this:

• Select the name of the project from the application's tree structure.
• Open the Properties window.
• Change following project's properties as follows:
• • Startup Page Type: Main Screen
  • Startup Screen Name: Main

To terminate the project startup page configuration, click on the Save All icon found in the toolbar at the top to save the project.

Make sure that the Main screen is open, and then click on the Toolbox tab on the far left of the editor, next to the Properties window, to open the Toolbox library provided by Movicon.NExT.
Drag the Vertical Switch from the Toggle Switches subfolder of the Switches group on screen.
Drag the boolTest tag on top of the object to assign it.
Open the Toolbox library once more and insert the Alarm Window control, which is found in the Alarms Viewers group, onto the Main screen. Insert the Historian Log Viewer using the same procedure used for the Alarm Window.

Save the project by clicking on the Save All icon located at the Movicon.NExT Editor's toolbar at the top.

Runtime Test

Now we will test what we have just created by clicking the Start Runtime icon.
Once the application has started up and the screen has opened, click on the switch to change the value of the boolTest tag from 0 to 1. In this condition, the alarm associated with the tag will activate.
The alarm will appear in the Alarm Window and in the Historian Log Viewer. By using the Historian Log Viewer's filter editor, we will create a filter to only view messages relating to the boolTest tag.
To do this:

• Click on the pencil icon underneath the list of messages to open the filter editor.
• Click on the + button to add a filter condition.
• Change the first one, being the object's column, to Message by clicking on the orange input box and selecting Message from the list that appears.
• Repeat the same operation for the filter condition, being the second input box, by selecting Contains.
• Insert the value to be filtered, which is the boolTest, in the last green input box.
• Confirm by clicking the OK button.

Once the filters have been confirmed for both the objects, the messages that will display will be the ones that meet the conditions set.