OPC Office Link - Version 4 available

F e a t u r e s

The OPC Office Link application consists of two computer programs: OPC Office Link Stand-Alone/Client and OPC Office Link Server. You can buy a license of OPC Office Link Stand-Alone/Client by itself, or you can buy it together with an OPC Office Link Server license. The combination is called OPC Office Link Client/Server.

OPC Office Link Stand-Alone/Client works independently from OPC Office Link Server or as a client of OPC Office Link Server. It has the full functionality to link live OPC data into spreadsheets from local or remote OPC servers, and allows for user-controlled sampling into ODBC databases or text files. You can upgrade later to OPC Office Link Client/Server for extended functionality if required.

OPC Office Link Client/Server allows for centralized, user-independent sampling via a Windows service. With OPC Office Link Client/Server the sampling process can be started through the client's user interface on the server machine or remotely across the network. Sampling continues controlled by OPC Office Link Server, even after logging out of Windows. With OPC Office Link Server sampled data can also be distributed directly via integrated Web service or to linked applications such as spreadsheets on network computers.

The feature list on the right helps you decide if you should choose OPC Office Link Stand-Alone/Client or OPC Office Link Client/Server. You can also download OPC Office Link for a trial run.

C o m p a r i s o n
 

 Core Features

  Feature   OPC Office Link Stand-Alone/Client OPC Office Link Client/Server
  No OPC server connection limit There is no limit on the number of OPC connections you can use with OPC Office Link.
  No tag limit There is no limit on the number of OPC tags you can use with OPC Office Link.
  Remote OPC Server access Browse the network neighborhood OPC servers to connect to OPC servers on other computers, for example to factory-floor computers on the Intranet. All sampling modes plus Copy & Paste of data links into Excel are also supported for remote OPC servers.
  Partial tag address space browsing Only the newly entered branch of the address space is requested from the server in a network friendly way. This, in combination with browse filters, makes working with servers that offer a great number of OPC items easy.
  Live Data display Live value display capabilities have been added to provide a more generic tool for all OPC Office Link integration needs.
  Automatic re-connect OPC Office Link re-connects automatically to OPC servers and databases should the connection be lost.

Data Sampling Features
  Feature   OPC Office Link Stand-Alone/Client OPC Office Link Client/Server
  Click & Sample into ODBC databases or text/CSV files Log data into MS Access, SQL Server, Oracle, MySql, and other ODBC database or into Comma Separated Value text files; choose from synchronous, asynchronous or trigger-based sample modes.
  Create tables automatically or manually Database table structures for data collection with matching field names and data types can be automatically created or user defined
  Sampling of arrays OPC Office Link supports data logging of OPC arrays. The maximum number of array elements is limited only by the number of supported table fields of the database in use.
  Automatically delete old data OPC Office Link allows you to specify when old sample records should be deleted from the database.
  Custom queries Use your own queries for storing samples. Simply type your query and use place holders where actual OPC item values, timestamps or qualities are to be substituted.  
  Database to device sampling Configure OPC Office Link to sample data from the database and write value changes back to the device. This gives database applications write access to the device without any additional programming.  
  Recipe Transfers OPC Office Link supports device-controlled data transfers from the database to the device ("recipe transfers"). Initiated by the device, data sets are looked-up and read from the database, then written back to the device via the OPC server.  
  Sampling Schedule Specify the times when logging of data should take place  
  E-mail Alerts Send e-mail alerts when a sampling error occurs or when no new data has become available for a defined period of time.  
  OPC Office Link Server Client to manage data collection Use OPC Office Link Stand-Alone/Client to connect to OPC Office Link Servers elsewhere on the network and control or monitor the data collection process remotely.
(client only)

Live Data Linking / Excel Linking Features
  Feature   OPC Office Link Stand-Alone/Client OPC Office Link Client/Server
  Copy & Paste live data links into spreadsheets Copy & Paste live data into Excel, Word and other OLE-link-capable applications from local OPC servers or OPC servers on a different computer.
  Link individual items or groups of items Copy links for individual items or efficiently copy whole groups of 1000s of items as a single link.
    Link OPC array tags OPC Office Link supports linking of arrays.
  Configurable link update rate Update link data at a configurable rate.
    Switch between OPC server hosts Design spreadsheets pointing to one OPC server host and change to a different host later without modifying the spreadsheet.
  Historic Links Link historical values to show values-over-time charts or X/Y charts in your spreadsheet.
    Function Library Use the OPC Office Link function library to easily extend the spreadsheet functionality with macros; i.e. read/write cells or cell ranges from/to to the OPC server on the click of a button.
  OPC Office Link Server Client to retreive data for live data links Use OPC Office Link Stand-Alone/Client to connect to OPC Office Link Servers elsewhere on the network and retreive data for data links from OPC Office Link Server.
(client only)

Web Services
  Feature   OPC Office Link Stand-Alone/Client OPC Office Link Client/Server
  Integrated Http Web server Access HTML or XML formatted data from anywhere in your office. Simply point your browser to the OPC Office Link Server computer to view sampling states and latest snapshots of sampled tags. Use XML formatted data to prepare a view of current tag values in your own layout.  
  Automatically create ASP Web Pages Automatically create Active Server Web pages for use with Internet Information Server or integrated Web server to retrieve samples from the database for Web presentation.  
  .NET Web Service Relay data to business systems via a .NET Web Service interface; .Net clients are able to read or write OPC server tags through the Web service interface.  

Miscellaneous Features

  Feature   OPC Office Link Stand-Alone/Client OPC Office Link Client/Server
  Script & Macro programming Use the provided function library to read and write OPC tags with one line of code. Delphi, Visual Basic and other programming languages can also be used to access OPC Office Link as an Automation Server. This way it is possible to start and stop sampling externally controlled via a few lines of, for example, Visual Basic code.
    Run as Service OPC Office Link Server runs independent of users logged in; this allows automatic re-start of sampling processes after re-boot  
  Event Log View OPC Office Link Server sampling events locally or across the network using OPC Office Link Stand-Alone/Client  
  OPC server redundancy Switch between primary and secondary OPC server hosts as the data source for data collection in case of a failure or controlled by a trigger.  
  OPC data bridge Sample data into a database table row from one OPC server and transfer the data from the database to a different OPC server.  
  OPC Server interface OPC Office Link Server is also an OPC DA 1.0 and OPC DA 2.0 compliant OPC server that exposes OPC tags to control and monitor sampling processes.  
  Individual auto-start settings Configure database authorization settings for auto-start data groups individually.