PI DataLink is an application
that is offered as an Add-in to
Microsoft Excel, also Lotus 1-2-3,
and it lets you import data into a spreadsheet
format for observation or
further analysis. All of
the DataLink functions are driven by the PI DataLink Menu.
You will notice that when it is installed in Excel
there is a PI Menu at the top.
And the Menu is broken out into different
sections as separated by the horizontal rulers.
In the first section, these are functions
that retrieve single values. In the second section
are functions that retrieve series or
arrays of values. These are things,
functions, that return values from a certain start time to an end time
or over a specific range of
time. The third section is
filled with functions that retrieve,
not raw values, but values that have had some sort of
calculation performed on them. The
next segment down is alternative
tag identification methods, and this is
essentially the ModuleDatabase Section
There is a Trend object that you can place in your spreadsheet.
And then, finally, the standard
connections, settings, help and about sections.
And we will talk about each of the Menu Sections as we go
through this part of the course.
A few notes about the Settings Panel:-
There are a few options here. For the most part
people do not change them from their Default Settings.
For example, when you have an Array of Values, do you want them to
appear in a row or in a column? Most people like to see the
columns. You can have your PI Server name returned
when you have information
such as Tag Name returned.
You can use PI Server Time Zone. This is used
if your PI Server is in a different time
zone than the client tool, by default.
PI DataLink will use the client's time
zone. Do you want to display
the characters #N-A
or Not Available instead of just blank
fields when there are more cells than you have data to fill?
And do you want to observe the
localized Time Strings
for the operating system? This is driven by the Regional
Settings in Windows. By default, DataLink
will try to observe all of your local Time Strings.
If you click Locale Independent,
then we will ignore the localized settings
when we parse things like timestamps.
So those are the DataLink Settings, and you can find them in the
PI Menu under PI
Settings.
One note on installing DataLink. When you actually
run the install kit, it registers
all the components with your system and installs the files
in the correct place. But, when you open up Excel,
you will not see this PI Menu at the top.
You actually have to activate the Add-in.
And to do that, you go to Tools and Add-ins,
and, in the list here, what you will not
see is PI DataLink. And, what you will have
to do is Browse your system for that.
And your DataLink Add-in
will be on your C: Drive in
Program Files, PIPC,
and
Excel. And the Add-in is called pipc32.
That is the PI
DataLink Add-in. You will have to Browse to that.
Once you Browse to that and select it, the PI DataLink
entry will appear here in
your Available Add-ins, and you will be able to check and uncheck
it as well. Also, in this
demonstration we had on this system, we have BatchView
but we will not be addressing that as it is
a separately licensed product from
DataLink.