You
can save recipes as .XML files using the InTouch Machine. Here
are a few reasons why you may want to do this:
- save time and maintain consistency by automating part parameters or production quantities with flexible recipe management tools (Recipe Manager)
- allows plant-floor dynamic data in XML format to be accessed easily and incorporated in other software products such as The Wonderware System Platform
- old recipes will continue to load correctly (that is not the case when you save as .DAT format) and new recipes can be added containing values for the new class members.
This blog article shows a potential problem with the .DAT recipes in ITME and a way to address it using the XML format.When a recipe is saved as a .DAT file, the format of the recipe is tightly associated with the recipe tags on the recipe worksheet or the class tag member structure that you have defined. For instance, if you created two tags, “ChocoCake” and “VanillaCake” from the generic Cake class called “cCakes” having the members, “Flour”, “Yeast”, “Sugar”, “Milk”, “Eggs”, “OvenTemp”, “BakeTime”; and forgot to add an input field for “Eggs,” and also forgot to enter the class member, “Flavoring,” then saved the recipe, you would have the scenarios shown below.
The first recipe for
ChocoCake (Figure A) was saved in .DAT format and the recipe broke when the
class structure was changed. However the second recipe for VanillaCake
was saved as an .XML file and each class member is fully qualified (Figure B).
Loading this recipe file will continue to populate the correct class members or
tags, even though newly added members or tags will contain a default value of
“zero”. Therefore, old recipes will continue to load correctly and new
recipes can be added containing values for the new class members.
Figure A: Dat Recipe
Figure B. XML recipe
Related articles: InTouch Machine Edition'suse of XML
(http://blog.wonderware.com/2014/08/xml-on-the-plant-floor-intouch-machine-edition.html)
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