OPC browse control

The OPC Browse Control is incorporated into this dialog; however it is statically linked so the OCX does not have to be on your machine. The new dialog has an embedded RS OPC Browse control. The fields that allow you to select the OPC server are hidden. You have full filtering capability. There is an edit box following the control that displays the current selection, you are free to edit this text. There is also a column and block size edit box for the DDE link.

When you select

Edit > Copy to Clipboard,

a new GUI thread is started, and the dialog appears modal. A wait cursor displays until a connection to the RSLinx Classic OPC Server is established. The local RSLinx Classic OPC Server is the only server you can connect to for copying links, and links are connected automatically. You can use either the online browse, or offline information if you have a symbol file associated with a topic.

As you select different leaves, the data table address edit box displays the currently selected leaf. The choice is displayed as [topic name].itemid. Use the block size and column edit boxes to customize this information. However, these options will not appear in the edit box, only in the DDE link that is pasted in the clipboard. The GUI thread is terminated when you exit the dialog box.

Validation occurs for the following errors. You are prompted with a message box for the following conditions:

Validation is not done for the actual string in the data table address field. You can change this string. Excel and the OPC Test Client recognize invalid links.

When you click

OK

, two things occur. First, the OPC Item ID is copied to the clipboard as CF_TEXT format. You can then paste this link in VB code or the OPC Test Client. Second, the DDE link is copied as a link format to the clipboard. Information from the column and block size edit boxes is added to the DDE Link. This DDE link is accessible by pasting a link into an Excel spreadsheet.