The Flow Historian Simulator Data Source is used for demonstration and training purposes. It simulates a tag historian of a juice production facility, called "The Juice Factory". When you start out with Flow, the Simulator is a great way to test Flow functionality without requiring a real data source.
Create a new Historian Simulator
To create a connection to the Flow Historian Simulator, right-click on the Data Sources group, then click “New”, "Flow Software", “Historian Simulator”.
Give the new Historian Simulator Data Source a name (e.g. “Historian”), and click “Save”.
Properties
The following properties are available to configure the Historian Simulator:
|
Item |
Description |
Value |
|
Name |
Name to identify the data source |
String |
|
Definition |
XML Definition file for simulated data |
File |
The "Definition" file property defaults to the "Juice Factory" XML definition that gets installed with Flow. A custom XML file can be used to create a tag namespace to demo historical data for a specific process.
Namespace
Select the new “Historian” connection in the Data Source view. Notice how the Namespace displays the folders and tags available in the “Historian”. Think of the Namespace as a “window” directly into the configuration of the “Historian”. If the Historian supports engineering units, they will be displayed as part of the tag item. If the Historian supports tag descriptions, they will be displayed as tooltips when you hover over the items.
Create a custom “Namespace”
Note that it is not necessary to create a custom namespace if your Data Source provides one already. However, you may want to use the custom namespace functionality to create a “shortcuts”, “links” or reusable “templates” within your Data Source.