Yesterday in this article I described how to download and install FactoryTalk ViewPoint.
Today I’ll walk you through how to use FactoryTalk ViewPoint to publish content for a FTView Machine Edition application destined to run on a PanelView Plus.
NOTE: ViewPoint supports running on the PanelView Plus and ViewSE, but does not support ViewME station runtimes on a PC. For more detailed information on ViewPoint see this post from last week.
Publishing ViewPoint content to run on a PanelView Plus.
When you’ve finished your ViewStudio for Machine Edition project and wish to enable ViewPoint support, the first thing you’ll need to do is install the ViewPoint Administration Tool which we covered in yesterday’s article here.
Once installed, you’ll find a new option under the “Application” menu. Select it to start the ViewPoint Administration Tool:
After selecting it you will see the ViewPoint splash screen…
…followed by the FactoryTalk ViewPoint Administration Tool Wizard, as seen below:
To successfully publish your content to ViewPoint, you’ll start here on the default page by selecting which screens you wish to be published. You’ll also need to select an initial display which will be the first display users see when they log in to ViewPoint from their browser.
Once you’ve made those selections, select the “publish displays” button in the bottom right corner.
Once all the selected displays have been published, click on the “security settings” option in the top red menu bar.
This reveals two new security tabs as shown in the following two screenshots:
NOTE: I recommend “view only” access (i.e. no control) in most situations as it would typically be improper to control a manufacturing system remotely.
Once you’ve setup the security to your system’s requirements, you’ll need to press the “save” button on the bottom right.
Now you’re finished with the ViewPoint setup and can close the ViewPoint Administration Tool Wizard.
Creating a PanelView Plus runtime with ViewPoint content
To transfer our newly published ViewPoint displays and security settings to our PanelView Plus we need to create a new Runtime File.
First, select “Application” and “Create Runtime” from the ViewStudio menu as you would normally do:
Next, at the very bottom of the “Create Runtime Application” pop-up window insure you have the “include ViewPoint content” checkbox checked, and that the version selected matches the version installed on your PanelView Plus:
Once the runtime file is created, download it like any other runtime file. Note: it may take longer to download as in now includes the additional ViewPoint content.
When the project runs on the PanelView Plus you should be able to connect to it using your PC’s web browser. When you do you should see the default display of your running project as in the example below:
I hope this post about how to use the ViewPoint Administration Tool to publish ViewPoint content to a PanelView Plus was helpful. If you have any comments or questions please don’t hesitate to click on the “post a comment or question” link below.
Until next time, Peace ✌️
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Shawn M Tierney
Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator
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Hi Shawn,
Im trying to connect to FviewPoint server but i got this error message:
“Unable to open the Web application
The FactoryTalk View ME application is not running on the terminal. Contact your System Administrator or try connecting later.”
I created already the .mer aplication including the viewpoing app on FTview Studio.
I download it to the Panelview. I also Activated the Viewpoint server on the Panelview.
What else can i check?
Thank you!
I’m honestly not sure why you’re seeing that error?
I won’t be updating my PVPlus course for a few months, so all my PVPs are in storage as I complete my Siemens HMI course (prior to moving on to updating my A-B PLC courses.)
If you figure it out please let us know how you solved it!
Shawn
Getting on pc, inyernet explorer
” unable to open web application.”
” managed runtime error”
“Error code 4004”
Fave,
1) Since Internet Explorer is obsolete and not widely supported anymore, you really should try a supported/modern browser
2) What specific devices are you using (server and client models, versions, os, software versions, etc) – without specifics like this I’d suggests you contact the vendor’s paid support staff, since they are better equipemd to walk you thought all the Q&A needed for someone to help you.
Shawn
Hey Shawn,
I have my PLC where I can go online remotely but I can not ping my HMI IP Address unless I hook up a ethernet cable. If I have the Ethernet cable installed I can get viewpoint to work. If I unhook it then it quits working. How do I need to hook the HMI up to be able to view it wireless?
Thank you!
Good morning Eric,
Just to clarify, you can access your PLC and HMI when your PC is connected to the Wired network, but you can only connect to the PLC when wireless, and cannot ping the HMI or connect to ViewPoint via wireless?
If that is the case I have to ask, did you setup the wireless system?
If not, you should ask the people who did to allow access to your HMI – give them the HMI IP address and tell them you need to access it as well from the wireless network.
Hope this helps,
Shawn
Hello Shawn
is there a way to add a headline to the mobile web option under displays ?
using FT viewpoint administration 🙂
Hope to hear from you soon
Check the release notes – I think this feature was added quite some time ago – but if a feature is not in the manual or release notes, it’s not in the product.
Shawn
PS – If you read my reply please reply yourself to let me know – the reason I don’t do deep responses to questions here (instead I use automation.locals.com) is that most people do a “dump and run” with their questions, most of which are time consuming to answer and are also never read by the questioner, resulting in a huge waste of time on my part – sometime I avoid like the plague as I’m self-employed 🙁
Thanks i’ll try and look it through again, i must have missed it then 🙂
HI im using ftv v12 and i can not see the alarm banner, do you know if ab fixed it for v13 of ftv?
Are you asking about the FT A&E alarm summary in a Viewpoint Client?
PS – You should be able to see the release notes for v8 – v13 via the below link – just search on Alarm and you’ll see lots of info like, “FactoryTalk ViewPoint does not support: HMI tag alarm summaries”:
– https://compatibility.rockwellautomation.com/Pages/ProductReplacement.aspx?dlpop=1&id=60881&crumb=101
Shawn
Join my free community to follow along! You can also become a member and support our work at: Automation.Locals.com
Hi,
I guess the by default Time out of the session for FT VP client is 20minutes. Can any guide where to change this to some other higher value?
Thanks.
Have you searched the Help or Manual? Or RA Knowbase?
That’s what I would do first if I had the same question,
Shawn
Join my free community to follow along! You can also become a member and support our work at: Automation.Locals.com
Hi Shawn,
I did the manual and forums. For RA KnowledgeBase, it’s asking for a TechConnect login to see the answer 🙁
No worries… Will explore more on it…
Are you sure that’s a Viewpoint Tech Note?
Looks to be a ThingVerse technote to me…
Shawn
So I have a customer that want to access ViewPoints screen outside their network with an I-phone using his provider network. Some one told me that I needed to do a redirection so the traffic coming to the provider modem will be send to the IP of the machine running Panel View. He mentioned that I will need to use a port different than 80 for this. But I need a bit more details on this (I am not an IT person)
Good morning @Victor Bonachea,
This is a common request, and I could talk about it for an hour but simply put there is only one way to accomplish this securely: Use a VPN connection.
Anyone who’s never connected their PC directly to the internet will be completely oblivious to the fact that bots relentlessly probe all IP addresses on the WWW for vulnerabilities, day and night.
So the only way to safely connect to any device inside any business is to use a secure VPN.
In your customer’s case, he would want one that is compatible with his iOS device, and will allow his iOS browser to connect to the PVPlus.
Note that if his company already has a VPN in the “front office”, his routers might not be setup to (safely) bridge his plant floor network with his office network.
One way to check this is to see if you can connect to ViewPoint from the office PCs first, prior to trying the front office’s VPN.
Good luck!
Shawn Tierney,
Instructor at http://www.TheAutomationSchool.com
Hi Shawn,
Is there a way to setup HTTPS for a ViewPoint ME application?
Good morning @Jacob Miller,
Looks like v9 supports this: https://computer_name_or_ip_address/FTVP
The release notes state this (I haven’t tried it myself):
Enhanced security settings
You can create an HTTPS binding for your site and use the following URL to connect to the web application, replacing computer_name_or_ip_address with the common name specified in the certificate:
https://computer_name_or_ip_address/FTVP
Not sure if there is enough info there to make it work?
Sincerely,
Shawn Tierney,
Instructor at http://www.TheAutomationSchool.com
Viewpoint does not support Alarm Lists configured in ViewME. Does not show up in web browser. What is recommended to be used in place of an alarm list so I can view online? Or, do I need to create and manipulate alarm strings in my plc program?
Good afternoon Bryan,
While ViewPoint for SE has seen a lot of new alarm features added, I still don’t see anything about Alarm support in ViewPoint for ME:
https://rockwellautomation.custhelp.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_id/57596
Sincerely,
Shawn Tierney,
Instructor at http://www.TheAutomationSchool.com
can this be accessed wireless? if so how?
i have done this with a networked HMI but would like to setup to access from home via WiFi, is this possible?
Good afternoon Arron,
Sure can. I used a Belkin Access Point to add WiFi to my Ethernet Switch so I could use my iPhone and iPad (To get iOS to work you’ll need ViewPoint 8.1 which supports HTML 5.)
However, if the network you plug the PanelView Plus into also WiFi you should be all set.
Hope this helps.
Shawn Tierney
Join my free community to follow along! You can also become a member and support our work at: Automation.Locals.com
Good Morning, I finished the step to step, but I have an Error at Web, I saw:
Unable to connect to the Web application
Located=true,Type=0,ViewAuth=Allow,WriteAuth=Allow
Thaks for your Help
Good morning Hernnan,
Just want to confirm a few things:
– Did the ViewPoint publish without errors?
– If yes, did you create and download a new MER “with ViewPoint” content to your PVPlus?
– Also, is it a PVPlus 6 or just a PVPlus v5.1?
– Are you connected to the PVPlus via hardwired Ethernet, and can you ping the PVPlus?
– What are you trying to view the ViewPoint page with – a PC running Windows 7 pro and Internet Explorer?
Hope this helps,
Shawn Tierney
Join my free community to follow along! You can also become a member and support our work at: Automation.Locals.com
For some reasons, scripts at the popup level don’t work on the view point
Good afternoon Asad,
I know ViewPoint doesn’t support all ViewME features, but I’m not sure which one exactly you are referring too? When you say scripts, are you reference to parameters or macros? Or maybe ViewSE?
Thanks,
Shawn Tierney
Join my free community to follow along! You can also become a member and support our work at: Automation.Locals.com