Configuration for Remote Clients

This documentation shows detailed information to setting up Action.Net to run Remote Clients

Windows Rich Clients

You can deploy your application for use by Windows Rich Clients. The Table 1 describes how windows rich client implementation works.
Table 1: Installation of Action.NET to use Windows rich client

Table 1: Installation of Action.NET to use Windows rich client

Windows Smart Clients

You can deploy your application for use in the form of Windows Smart Clients.
The Smart Client works like the Rich Client, that is, they work the same way, but the smart client uses the ClickOnce installation ™. This technology allows you to have the same functionality as the Rich Client, but without having to install Action.NET on your computer.
The first time you access the application, the system automatically transfers the components needed to run the application. The next time you access the application, the system checks whether the local cache is the same version of the application that is on the server and, if necessary, updates the local cache before running the application. If the version is the same, the application starts immediately.
Table 2 describes how smart client deployment and execution works.
Table 2: Deployment of Action.NET as Windows Smart Client

Windows Web Clients

You can deploy your application for use as Windows Web clients. Table 3 describes how the Web Client implementation works.
Table 3: Deployment of Action.NET as Windows web client

Automatically starting Windows clients

You can create a shortcut to the appropriate executable, depending on the type of client, to automatically launch the application on a Windows client. You can create the shortcut on the desktop or place it in the startup folder as described below.
For the web client, you can also configure the application as the home page in Internet Explorer.

Go to Start> All Programs

1. Right-click the Windows startup folder.

2. Select Open to open the startup folder.

3. In the startup folder, right-click and select New> Shortcut.

4. In the Create Shortcut window, paste into the field that displays.

5. If you are not using redundancy, delete the redundancy part of the text.

6. Proceed in one of the following ways:

• For a Rich Client - At the beginning of the command line, type or paste the full path to the installation folder Action.NET and place quotation marks around it.

It must be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Spin\Action.NET\an-2014.1.3\TRichClient.exe" / ip1:<IP_address>

• For a Smart or Web client - At the beginning of the command line, type or paste the full path into the Internet Explorer installation folder and place quotation marks around it.

It must be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplorer.exe" http://<IP_address>/an- 2014.1/TSmartClient.application
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplorer.exe" http://<IP_address>/an- 2014.1/TWebClient.Xbap

• Click Next.

• Type a name for the shortcut.

• Click Finish.

1. The next time you restart your computer, the project starts automatically.

iOS, iPhone, and iPad customers

You can deploy your app for use by iOS clients: iPhone, iPad, and iTouch. For other tablets, contact support.
Table 4 describes how iOS installation works.
Table 4: Installing the Action.NET as an iOS client

Installation

Install the SCADA HMI client app from the Apple Store.

How to start

Launch the Hmi SCADA client application and follow the initial configuration options.

Execution

On iOS, the app runs natively, thus providing higher performance, greater security, and access to native graphics components compared to other applications using Client Terminal, Remote Desktop, or web HTML.

Communication

Communicates with the server by calling a web service using port 80. The server must be on the same local network or VPN as the iOS device, or it may have a public IP address as long as access
HTTP is enabled.

To deploy to an iOS device:

1. From your iOS device, tap the App Store icon.

   • You can also go to the Apple App Store from iTunes.

2. Browse and install the Hmi SCADA client application.

3. Launch the SCADA HMI Client application.

4. Enter the following information:

Field

Description

Host Server

IP address or project server name.

Port

Door 80.

Polling

Sets the refresh rate between the client and the server, expressed in rooms of a second. The default value of 1 means that the client receives new data from the server every 250 ms. When connecting to servers located on Internet or low bandwidth networks, this value should be increased. For more information, see the app's help.

User

User name as configured in the project. The default is GUEST

Password

Password associated with the user name in the project..

Project

Project name on the remote server.

1. Tap Login.

   • The graphics and screens are downloaded, and then the application starts. The application when starting for the first time may take a little longer than in subsequent startups.

Auto Start Windows Smart Client

The Auto-Start SmartClient (ASSC) watchdog application is used to automatically launch the TSmartClient on the remote stations of your project. This application requires software version 2014.2.12 or newer. When installing the software, the AutoStartSmartClient.exe will be added to the installation folder.

In the current version, the files AutoStartSmartClient.exe and AutoStartSmartClient.exe.config must be manually copied from the server station installation folder to a folder on the remote station. After copying the ASSC application to the remote station, the user must configure the .config file or the ASSC will start with several parameters that will take priority over any parameters in the .config file.

The remote station must have already installed Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 or 4.5.

When the ASSC application is running on the remote station, the ASSC application checks every 30 seconds to see if the TSmartClient is running or the user can set a time parameter for the application's scan frequency.

If the TSmartClient is not running, the ASSC application consults its configuration parameters to verify that there is communication with the server station. If the ASSC application is able to connect to the project through the TServer on the server station, it restarts the TSmartClient on the remote station using the url parameter.

Parameter Setting

Before you run the ASSC application, you need to set the parameters in the AutoStartSmartClient.exe.config or you can pass the parameters using a shortcut file.

The available parameters are:

Configuration Example

To pass the parameters in the file AutoStartSmartClient.exe, you must create a shortcut to the file in a folder on the remote station. To do this, go to the installation folder and look for the executable.

Right-click the file and select Create shortcut. Then place it in the desired folder. To finish the setup, right-click the newly created shortcut and select Properties.

Configure the file path to:

AutoStartSmartClient.exe /url:http://<IP Address>/<binary folder>/TSmartClient.application /timer:<seconds> 
E.g.: AutoStartSmartClient.exe /url:http://192.168.15.31/xx-8.1/TSmartClient.application /timer:30

The url can be copied from the Engineering environment in Info> redundancy> smart client URL. See the image below:

After setting the settings, double-click the shortcut file and keep it running. You should see an open window with a message saying that the application is waiting for tserver to run. Once the project runs, the TSmartClient opens automatically.

The TSmartClient needs a WebServer (ISS or TWebServer) working correctly on the server computer.

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