Specifications

Chapter 15. Creating Custom Client Applications 241
15. Creating Custom Client Applications
The SI7 I/O Server is an OLE application you can control programmatically. It
exposes its functionality to other OLE applications through its interfaces, which
means you can create custom OLE applications to access or control the driver.
Depending on your needs, you may want your application to configure and/or access
data from the SI7 server. To configure the server programmatically, use the OLE
Automation interface. In order to access server data, your client can use the OLE
Automation interface or the OPC Custom Interface to communicate with the SI7 OPC
server. The SI7 OPC server does not support the OPC Automation Interface for data
access.
For example:
• You can use Visual Basic to programmatically enable channels, devices, or
datablocks, depending on user input.
• You can use VBA in Excel to create a program that generates reports
comparing device statistics within a driver.
• You can write programs that control the driver with higher performance using
C or C++.
• You can write C++ program to access data from the SI7 OPC server, calculate
driver statistics, and then store them in a relational database, such as Oracle or
SQL Server.
Refer to the following topics for steps on getting started with creating custom
applications:
• Creating a Custom Application Using Microsoft Visual Basic
• Creating a Custom Application Using C or C++
• Accessing SI7 Server Data Using an OPC Client