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CAB Portal
Edition 10/2007
A5E01504167-01
Guidelines
This manual contains notices intended to protect the products and connected equipment against damage. These notices are graded according to severity by the following texts: Caution Indicates that if the proper precautions are not taken, this can result into property damage. Notice Draws your attention to particularly important information on handling the product, the product itself or to a particular part of the documentation.
Trademarks
All names identified by are registered trademarks of the Siemens AG. The remaining trademarks in this publication may be trademarks whose use by third parties for their own purposes could violate the rights of the owner.
Disclaimer of Liability
We have reviewed the contents of this publication to ensure consistency with the hardware and software described. Since variance cannot be precluded entirely, we cannot guarantee full consistency. However, the information in this publication is reviewed regularly and any necessary corrections are included in subsequent editions.
A5E01504167-01 10/2007
Preface
Purpose
This Concept Guide covers the basic concepts underlying SIMATIC IT Client Application Builder (CAB) and CAB Portal. Important This guide does not intend to act as a technical manual or reference for SIMATIC IT Client Application Builder
Readme
The installation includes a readme file, which contains information on upgrade procedures and compatibility with previous releases. This file is supplied both in standard text (Readme.wri) and in Acrobat PDF (Readme.pdf) format. This file is available in folder \ReleaseNotes of the setup DVD and is available from the shortcut Start > SIMATIC > SIMATIC IT Documentation.
Online help
The SIMATIC IT online help integrated in the software complements this Concept Guide and provides detailed support for using the software. The help system consists of: The Contents and Index command on the Help menu to open the online help window, from which you can choose the topic of interest. You can search for the desired information, using the table of contents or the index A context-sensitive help that offers information on the current context, for example, an open dialog box or an active window. You can open the contextsensitive help by clicking the Help button in any dialog box. A status bar that offers another type of context-sensitive help. It displays a short explanation for each menu command when the mouse pointer is positioned on the menu command.
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Preface A brief explanation (ToolTip) for each icon in the toolbar when the mouse pointer is positioned on the icon for a short time.
Related documentation
The following documents contain information related to the content of this Concept Guide. SIMATIC IT CAB online help SIMATIC IT CAB Good Programming Practice manual SIMATIC IT ASP.NET Best Practice manual CAB Portal Startup guide CAB Portal Advanced development manual CAB Portal Developer manual CAB Portal Reference guide All these documents are available online from the shortcut Start > SIMATIC > SIMATIC IT Documentation.
Conventions
The table below describes the specific typographic conventions that are used throughout this manual:
Symbol/Convention Indicates...
Where examples are given. The names of menus, commands, dialog boxes and toolbar buttons and, in general, all strings (e.g. File menu; Save command). Shortcut keys, which permit rapid access to commands (e.g. CTRL+C). The names of keyboard keys (e.g. RETURN key). The names of parameters that must be replaced with a specific name or value. E.g. filename indicates that the name of the file must be specified; input indicates that the corresponding value must be specified.
>
A succession of commands in which the command preceding the symbol must be selected before the command following it.
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The following options are available: Standard support: 9 hours/day, 5 days/week Premium support: 24 hours/day, 5 days/week Advanced support: 24 hours/day, 7 days/week
Preface
The principal language of the SIMATIC IT hotline is English. SIMATIC IT partners and customers covered by the Software Maintenance program are entitled to direct access to the TSS.
Online Support
A customer who is a registered TSS user, can access the Technical Support Web site (http://www.siemens.com/mes-simaticit/tss), which contains technical information such as: Service conditions (Phone numbers, Working hours, Reaction times,) SIMATIC IT knowledge base: a technical support database that includes practical service solutions from the Technical Support or the SIMATIC IT community SIMATIC IT software (e.g. hot fixes, software examples) and release notes that can be downloaded SIMATIC IT cross-industry libraries that can be downloaded (limited access to SIMATIC IT certified partners) SIMATIC IT product documentation that can be downloaded Frequently Asked Questions and useful tips.
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Table of Contents
1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 1-1 1.1 What is SIMATIC IT Client Application Builder?............................................................ 1-1 1.2 Benefits of custom interfaces in the MES environment ................................................. 1-1 1.2.1 Data display and aggregation ...........................................................................1-1 1.2.2 An interface to support run-time operations......................................................1-1 1.2.3 Easy application distribution .............................................................................1-2 1.3 Sample scenario: Data aggregation and run-time interaction ....................................... 1-2 1.3.1 Description ........................................................................................................1-2 1.4 Overview of CAB features ............................................................................................. 1-3 1.4.1 Data retrieval.....................................................................................................1-3 1.4.2 GUI development ..............................................................................................1-3 1.4.3 Security Management .......................................................................................1-3 1.4.4 Production Modeler Integration.........................................................................1-3 1.4.5 Exchanging messages with other applications .................................................1-3 1.4.6 CAB Portal ........................................................................................................1-3 1.5 Additional documentation .............................................................................................. 1-4 2 Client Application Builder Architecture ............................................................................ 2-1 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Overview ........................................................................................................................ 2-1 What is a Web Application?........................................................................................... 2-1 Multi-level architectures ................................................................................................. 2-1 Technology .................................................................................................................... 2-2 CAB Components .......................................................................................................... 2-3 2.5.1 CAB Engineering ..............................................................................................2-3 2.5.2 CAB Server .......................................................................................................2-3 2.5.3 CAB Web Server...............................................................................................2-3 2.5.4 CAB Client.........................................................................................................2-3 2.6 CAB data access strategies........................................................................................... 2-3 2.7 CAB security .................................................................................................................. 2-4 3 CAB Portal............................................................................................................................ 3-1 3.1 Overview ........................................................................................................................ 3-1 3.1.1 Faster and easier development ........................................................................3-1 3.1.2 Application reuse ..............................................................................................3-1 3.2 Features......................................................................................................................... 3-1 3.2.1 Modules for common functionalities .................................................................3-2 3.3 Architecture and workflow.............................................................................................. 3-2 3.3.1 Engineering CAB pages....................................................................................3-2 3.3.2 Adding pages to the CAB portal hierarchy........................................................3-2 3.3.3 User management ............................................................................................3-2 3.4 Additional documentation .............................................................................................. 3-3
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Introduction
1.1
1.2
1.2.1
1.2.2
1-1
1.2.3
1.3
1.3.1
Description
Lets imagine a hypothetical company which has implemented a SIMATIC IT solution to manage production definition, production planning and order dispatching. In accordance with S-95 specifications these functionalities are implemented in SIMATIC IT by the following components: SIMATIC IT Product Definition Manager (PDefM) through which the steps in product manufacturing are defined. How these steps are defined is independent from the product itself, as dictated by S-95 specifications. SIMATIC IT Production Order Manager (POM) handles production planning and the dispatch of orders. Each of these components manages data independently and features its own graphic user interface despite the fact that their data are hosted on the same repository, the SIMATIC IT Components database. Our hypothetical customer needs a special tool which grants plant operators access to aggregated POM and PDefM data. Operators should also be able to trigger the dispatch of production orders. Specifically, our user needs access to: PPR (Product Production Rules, managed by PDefM) Orders (managed by POM) Entries (managed by POM)
A CAB application gives users a single interface with which they can perform all of the following operations: Display PPRs per finished products Select a PPR to display its relative orders Select an order to display its relative entries Dispatch selected orders
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1.4
1.4.1
Data retrieval
CAB facilitates the retrieval of data from various SIMATIC IT sources. There are two fundamental approaches to data retrieval: 'Connected' (COM) and 'Disconnected' (standard .NET approach to data management, implemented with ADO.NET). Which to use depends on a number of factors, the most important being the type of data source. For more information, see the section CAB data access strategy.
1.4.2
GUI development
CAB offers a set of graphic controls to enhance the capabilities of environment development; users can easily create powerful interfaces.
1.4.3
Security Management
Several objects are available for the management of CAB application security. These objects validate user credentials and set access levels for application pages and embedded controls. For more information see the section CAB security.
1.4.4
1.4.5
1.4.6
CAB Portal
SIMATIC IT 6.3 SP1 features the CAB Portal: a new and easier way to build CAB applications. Its main features: It provides centralized management of CAB users and applications. Allows you to customize the look of application pages by selecting a layout style.
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Introduction Additional documentation The main benefit of CAB Portal is that it helps cut down application development time: several functionalities that once had to be developed explicitly (e.g. user authentication) are now managed directly by the portal. Moreover, CAB Portal allows existing applications to be reused more easily. For more information see the chapter CAB Portal.
1.5
Additional documentation
This document provides a functional and architectural overview of the SIMATIC IT Client Application Builder component. For more detailed architectural and development information, refer to the following materials: SIMATIC IT Client Application Builder online help contains detailed procedures to handle any implementation issue concerning CAB applications. It also features a reference guide for the public interfaces of CAB-specific classes. SIMATIC IT ASP.NET Best Practices manual has been developed under partnership with Microsoft. It provides useful suggestions to help ASP.NET programmers develop better applications. SIMATIC IT CAB Good Programming Practices manual comes with recommendations, code samples and CAB component descriptions so that you can get the most out of SIMATIC IT Client Application Builder. An architectural overview of CAB applications is also provided. It focuses on the differences between CAB and standard ASP.NET applications.
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2.1
Overview
Applications created by means of SIMATIC IT Client Application Builder are webbased.
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2.3
Multi-level architectures
Typically web applications are built on a four-tiered architecture and rely on the HTTP protocol for communication between clients and servers. They can support technologies either lightweight (such as HTML) or non-lightweight (such as ActiveX) for returning data and user interaction. Software system logical architecture relies on multi-layer architectures distributed over a physical system spread out over multiple tiers (tiers are subsets of the physical system over which the application is distributed).
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Client Application Builder Architecture Technology CAB extends the classic three-tiered SIMATIC IT model to a four-tiered architecture. In four-tiered architecture, a web server represents the additional tier, adding one computer to the tier count.
The application's user interface (UI) rests on the Client tier. In three-tiered architecture, the UI is furnished typically by the client components of the main application. In a four-tiered web-based architecture, the UI is delivered by standard Windows applications (generally a web browser) and/or ASP.NET technologies for browser-based interaction. The Web tier hosts the web server, i.e. the applications that deliver web pages. Scalability and fault-tolerance are handled via a Server Farm made up of a large number of parallel servers able to manage large numbers of clients. The Application tier implements the systems business functionality and contains business rules, data manipulation tools, etc.. The Data tier contains data access components which expose the data stored in databases to the Application tier.
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Technology
The technology underlying SIMATIC IT CAB is ASP.NET. SIMATIC IT CAB employs Visual Studio .NET 2005 as its development environment. Visual Studio .NET 2005 features tools and plug-ins specifically designed for accessing and managing SIMATIC IT data. SIMATIC IT libraries can be used in conjunction with standard .NET classes.
Note The document does not aim at a full description of .NET technology nor does it provide technical details about the development of CAB applications For more information on these subjects see the following documents: - SIMATIC IT Client Application Builder online help - SIMATIC IT ASP.NET Best Practices manual
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Client Application Builder Architecture CAB Components - SIMATIC IT Client Application Builder Good Programming Practices manual
2.5
CAB Components
SIMATIC IT Client Application Builder is a distributed solution implemented by means of the following modules: CAB Engineering CAB Server CAB Web Server CAB Client
2.5.1
CAB Engineering
In the CAB Engineering environment, CAB applications based on Visual Studio .NET are developed with both NET standard and SIMATIC IT specific objects.
2.5.2
CAB Server
CAB Server handles data exchange between the various SIMATIC IT data sources and the client. This module is invoked whenever SIMATIC IT data is retrieved in a connected scenario. Note For more information on how CAB applications retrieve SIMATIC IT data see the section CAB Data Access strategies.
2.5.3
2.5.4
CAB Client
CAB Client is the end user environment. Via a web browser (typically Internet Explorer) it requests resources such as the display of a data set to the CAB Web Server.
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Client Application Builder Architecture CAB security Strategy Connected Features Connection to the data source is always kept open. Data are updated withing graphic controls eliminating the need to refresh the web page. When to use it When automatic notification for a change of data source is required, i.e. when updates occur at great frequency (typically RTDS and PPA). The following sets of OCX controls rely on a CABconnected architecture: HDD, OEE/DTM, MM, POM, PRM, BPM, MSM, CS, SPC Dependent architecture CAB Item Data Source, a data source that is always connected. It reacts to data modifications and client events. CAB Item, a container for data retrieved by CAB Item Data Source. CABCC (CAB Communication Control), a control that keeps the connection between client and server open. CAB Graphic Components, a set of special graphics used to display data. Developed specifically for the connected strategy.
Disconnected
Connections to the data source or component are kept open only for the time required to retrieve data or call a component method. Retrieved data are then stored locally on the web server and the connection is closed. To check the data source for modifications a new connection must be opened.
When automatic notification of changes to the data source is not required. A web page refresh is required in order to display updated data. Applications built according to this strategy are not able to react to events unleashed beyond the client (i.e.new data added to the data source).
SQBDataSource, to query the data source ADO.NET objects (typically DataSets), to store data Graphic controls,such as a standard .NET datagrid to display data in the web page. PMConnector, opens a connection to Production Modeler thus allowing PM rules to be called from within a CAB application through components generated by PMRuleWizard.
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CAB security
Security policies can be implemented in the CAB environment so that distinct access privileges can be granted to users of a given CAB application. User access security is managed through the application of two separate but inter-linked concepts: the Authentication mechanism verifies whether users are allowed to access CAB applications. The Authorization mechanism on the other hand verifies whether users are allowed to access certain individual pages of the application and/or specific controls and functionalities within these pages.
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Client Application Builder Architecture CAB security CAB provides specific classes for security management and features the following: Web farm support Separate authentication/authorization management, which entails greater flexibility in application building. Authentication and authorization processes can be customized to suit particular application requirements.
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CAB Portal
3.1
Overview
As of SIMATIC IT 6.3 SP1 a new environment called the CAB Portal has been made available for the development of a web-based graphical user interface to access SIMATIC IT data. The benefits of this CAB Portal are: CAB application can be developed quickly and easily. Application can be reused.
3.1.1
3.1.2
Application reuse
The CAB Portal approach allows you to reuse applications thereby saving valuable development time. This approach involves the following: CAB application development no longer need begin from scratch as template applications which embed common functionalities are already provided. Users can customize these templates by developing and adding the features they need. Custom features can be moved across different applications easily thanks to the clean separation of logic and user interface that CAB Portal provides.
3.2
Features
In a single environment CAB Portal provides: an administration tool for users and applications security management. a client interface through which users access CAB applications in line with the permissions established by the CAB Portal administrator. Users can also customize the layout of the CAB Portal.
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3.2.1
3.3
3.3.1
3.3.2
3.3.3
User management
Other essential administration functions include creating users and assigning them permissions on various CAB Portal resources. These actions can be carried out from CAB client when the CAB Portal homepage is requested by the CAB Web Server host. Information about users and their permissions are saved on the CAB Portal database. The architecture of CAB Portal solution and its workflow is outlined in the following image:
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3.4
Additional documentation
See the following for more information on CAB Portal installation, configuration and application development: CAB Portal Startup guide CAB Portal Advanced development manual CAB Portal Developer manual CAB Portal Reference guide
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