Sign in

What is an Attribute Segment?

Attribute Segments are building blocks of information that are concatenated to form an Attribute Value.  Segments can be configured as follows:

 

Events-AttributeSegmentAdding.png

 

  • Retrieved
 The value of the segment is retrieved from a Data Source. If the retrieved value is an integer value, the segment can be linked to an Enumeration to map the integer values into string values (e.g. 1 represents Orange, 2 represents Apple, etc.) Create a Retrieved attribute segment by dragging a tag (or data source item) from a Data Source Namespace in the Integration tab.
  • Constant
 This is a constant string that can be added as part of an Attribute. This is useful for generating Attributes for Batch Numbers (e.g. “PK001” for packaging line 1).
  • Period Start
 This segment uses the start date and time of the event period. Use its “Format” property to change the way you want the date and time to be displayed (e.g. “YYYYMMddHHmmss” will generate a new “ID” attribute every second)
  • Period End
 Similar to the Period Start segment type above but uses the end date and time of the event period.
  • Period Index
 This segment uses a unique Index that Flow assigns to each event period created (see section below)
   

The following retrieved attribute segment will retrieve a value from the “FL001.Product” integer tag.  Flow will query the Historian for this tag at the time the event period started (i.e. event Start Trigger). 

You can view the retrieval configuration by selecting the "Retrieval Tab" after selecting the Attribute Segment.  

 

Events-AttributeSegmentRetrievedConfig.png

 

By selecting the "Properties" tab, you can also configure additional properties specific to Retrieved Attribute Segments.

 

Events-AttributeSegmentProperties.png

 

  • Format:
 Use this if the retrieved value needs to be formatted (e.g. “00” will force a value of 3 to “03”)
  • Retrieve Point
 Number of seconds before or after the start or end of an event period. This is the time Flow will query the data source for an attribute segment value.
  • Enumeration
 Use an enumeration to automatically map a string value to the retrieved integer value for the attribute segment.
   

When more than one Attribute Segment is configured, Flow will concatenate them to form a single Attribute Value that is stored against the Retrieved Attribute that you configured the multiple segments for.