Setup guide

OSx Migration Cookbook August 30, 2006
13 – Reports
read and write
writetag
OSx has two report editors: Xess and Classic. Both have similar
functionality, except Xess can produce graphical output while
Classic is text only. Both work from a spreadsheet paradigm. PCS
7 has one editor – the Report Designer. This editor’s paradigm is a
drawing canvas to which you add objects and text, some of which
can get their data and attributes from tag values. As a result, the
internal structure of OSx reports is not the same as the internal
structure of PCS 7 reports. Additionally, the way you tell the report
to access tag and history data differs. There is no software that can
convert OSx reports to PCS 7. You will have to manually redesign
and recreate those you want to migrate to PCS 7.
OSx reports support reading and writing arbitrary non-tag data from
arbitrary OSx database tables via the read and write functions. This
functionality is not available in PCS 7. Since the PCS 7 data store is
organized differently than in OSx, the data you are trying to read or
write in a report may not even exist in PCS 7. You will need to re-
design the logic of reports that use these functions.
OSx reports support being able to write to tags via the writetag
function. PCS 7 reports do not have this functionality. PCS 7
actions can do this and can be triggered on events similar to those
that trigger OSx reports (tag change and time). You should re-
design any writetags you wish to migrate as actions in PCS 7.
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