So, let’s say we are creating a daily repot, the user can open the report and change the date cell to any date they wish and the report will update automatically. For advanced users you can automate the date by simply changing the cell value using VB or macros. Click Insert Data to insert the formula.
Note: be sure to have the portal ‘IP Address:Port’ correctly specified. You can also use the portal’s computer ‘NetworkName:Port’. This will tell the add-in where on the network the portal is running. This allows you to create reports with data from more than one SCADA portal.
And that is all there is to it! Fill in all the data you need and link to another worksheet you customize and use all the functions of excel to formulate the perfect reports. Report data is refreshed when file is opened, menu button ‘Refresh’ is clicked, or if formula cell is edited. Foe example, if you change the date value in the date cell all historical data derived from the formula containing the date cell reference, the associated formula will re calculate querying the portal to get data for the new date.
When you select this menu, the following form pops up to allow you to select a tag and associated date/time parameters. For example, let’s select the first tag and ask for data for one day aggregated by average and grouped by hour. Notice the start date is dynamic and refers to a cell to get the date/time. This allows you to manipulate the date/time using the cell value and as a result the historical formulas will query the data if changed.
Let’s get some historical data for this sheet as well. Select a cell on the sheet and go to iFIX Developer Portal->Get Historical Data.
This can be repeated for as many cells and worksheets as you need. In addition any of the fields can be selected to return the values. For example you can select A_DESC for the tag description, or A_CUALM for current alarm status, and many more as you can see. For definitions of fields see iFIX documentation or invoke the GetTagFields method using your browser navigated to the portal address.
Once installed, you will notice that Excel has a new menu item called “iFIX Developer Portal”. This menu is enabled by the add-in being enabled under Tools->Add-Ins. During installation the installer automatically loaded and enabled the new Add-in for you.
When you select this menu, the following form pops up to allow you to select a tag and a tag field. For example, we can select the first tag and select its F_CV value that will be the current value. Then click the Insert Data button to insert the formula that retrieves the value to that cell. Yes I said formula; you can also simply type in the formula instead of using the form.
Once installed, open Excel and you will notice that Excel has a new menu item called “iFIX Developer Portal”. This menu is enabled by the add-in being enabled under Tools-> Add-Ins. During installation the installer automatically loaded and enabled the new Add-in for you.;see the figure below:
First, you need to simply install the Excel Add-In on any network connected computer that has Excel installed. The installer will launch from the CD or your downloaded demo.
Here is how it works:
From any computer on the network, this Excel Add-In can consume data from any number of portals to produce custom reports without drivers or additional software. All you need is Excel and a network connection to the portals.
The best way to consume data from the portal using Excel is to use our free Add-In described here. This Excel Add-In installs to allow menu driven data selection. You can simply select the destination cell(s) and use the add-in features to select data you need for the cell or range. It allows for dynamic date ranges for reporting historical data and can insert any real-time data values available in the portal.
iFIX Developer Portal Excel Reporting Add-In