A number of the exercises in this online course use Asset Based PI System references.
You might be asking, "Well what if I don't have an asset database?" Well,
never fear we actually have an answer for you. So in this short video I'm going to
show you how to take an XML file that we provide and how to import it into the PI
System really easily so that you can use all the same examples within AF that we're using.
Now it's going to use some random based tags that are on your PI System and every PI System
so some of the data might not make contextual sense but it will be coming through as numbers.
I'm going to show you in this video how to take that XML file with an example PI Asset
Database and put it into the PI System. Okay so let's get started. All right now
the first step in importing a new AF database is to get that AF database in an XML format.
So your instructor can provide this for you or we might have provided it through download but I have
it here in my Windows Explorer here. I can see I have this folder and I have these three XMLs.
Now I'm going to be importing these--well these four XMLs--I'm going to be importing
these XML files but you may have just one, you might have more than this depending on what the
course is. And what this is is it's a file in XML format that includes all the information
needed for the PI System to construct a new asset database. All right so let's get started.
So we have those files and we're going to open up "PI System Explorer".
Now this is kind of an administrative program that's meant to explore a PI Server and administer
a PI System. In it we can see asset databases, we can see data but it's mostly meant to build
or construct asset databases. If you don't have access to this software that's okay.
You should go talk to your PI administrator. If you don't have access to build anything you
should probably talk to your PI administrator. So first off I'm in a blank database and you can
select "database" and find a database in your list here. So I have created--and you can do whatever
you want here--but I've created just a blank database for what I'll be doing for this class
so it's just a bunch of example databases. So once I have this there is nothing in it,
I am going to want to import these files. The way I do that is I go to "file", "import from file",
and I'm going to go browse to where those files are and I can select one--so let's say
"new green"--and I'll say "open" and I want to say "allow", "create", "update",
"automatic check-in" and I'm not going to be creating any points so you can leave this
unchecked. Press "okay" and you'll see a bunch of text flash on the screen and once it completes
you'll select "close". Once you've imported the database you'll see an asset show up here.
So this is "New Green"--it just represents a company--and underneath it we see different
assets, different divisions within the company and finally all the way down to "equipment"--this is a
boiler, this is a cooling fan. If we click on "attributes" we can see attributes about that
fan and if you click on different assets you'll see different sets of attributes. One thing,
if you go to one of these yellow tag-based attributes, you should see numbers and if you go
over here you should see your default PI Server. So this XML is configured so that it will go find
whatever default PI Server you have and enter it there. If you don't know what your default PI
Server is you can check it by going to "file", "connections" and it will be whichever blue PI
Server has a checkmark next to it. So you see that little checkmark next to "Pipes" there? I'll zoom
in so you can see it. That checkmark next to "Pipes"; that means that's the default. If I
wanted to set a different one as default I could just right click and set as a default PI Server.
Okay so this one looks like it successfully came in. Also notice if I go to "library"
there is a set of tables and there might also be some element templates that came
in as well. Okay so everything looks good. I'm going to import the other XML files. So "file",
"import from file" and select "Office H-Vac"... I can see this one has come
through okay. "File", "import from file", "Red Fox Reactor"... "File", "import from file",
"Wintermans". Okay. And finally we should be able to open up any of these and see data underneath
them. Now all of the data in all of the assets you imported will just be going off of the random tags
that are installed on every PI Server. So the data will be a little...it will be the same; it will be
the same tags and the same data that's feeding all these attributes but there will be some
variety. We've randomized which tags are going to which assets and which attributes and they should
all be going off your default PI Server. Okay that's importing an XML to form an AF Database.
Good luck and enjoy the exercise with them. Play around. Once you have these in here play
around--do whatever you want. You can edit the templates, you can edit the elements; if you break
it you can just delete it and re-import it again. There's no problem; go ahead and try things.