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OPCconnect.com is an independent site dedicated to the needs of the software/solutions developer working with OPC (formerly OLE for Process Control). The site is run by Mike Dillamore, an engineer with more than fifteen years experience of the automation industry. To find out more, see 'About This Site'.

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Recent updates...

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2008-Sep-05	OPC UA Security Assessment - Part 2 Digital Bond has published the second in its 7-part series on OPC UA security and vulnerabilities. Part 2 focuses on the positive findings, and includes comments such as "OPC Foundation should be commended for their security efforts", "The [OPC UA SDK] code base is surprisingly clean of vulnerabilities for a code base of its size", "The security event logging ... is the best the Digital Bond team has seen in this space by far". Future posts will focus on vulnerabilities in the specification, the SDK and vendor implementations. Part 1, the introduction, is also available.
2008-Aug-22	OpenOPC - a great new open source OPC toolkit for Python OpenOPC for Python is an open source toolkit that arguably makes DA client programming simpler than ever. We love it, and think OpenOPC might even convert you to the Python langauge. Take a look at the kind of code you could soon be writing. (As an aside, it's wonderful to see some of the best innovation in the OPC space continuing to come from the open source community, despite OPC Foundation's overly restrictive licensing of specifications and components.)
2008-Aug-22	The importance of the OPC DA Automation wrapper DLL The OPC DA Automation specification was originally intended primarily to support developers using VB 6 (and earlier versions). With the rise of dynamic languages such as Python and Ruby, this specification is perhaps more important today than ever. The DA Automation specification is normally implemented using a wrapper DLL that sits above conventional DA servers. OPC Foundation's own wrapper DLL is not publicly available (which is odd, given the Foundation's stated commitment to quality). This has inevitably led to 3rd-party vendors offering a mixed bag of alternatives. Perhaps the best-known free option is from Graybox - see our Free Utilities page for download details. Let us know if you prefer a different wrapper DLL.
2008-Aug-22	OPC UA book excerpt available A chapter of a forthcoming book on OPC UA has been published as a free PDF download. The chapter, titled 'Conclusion and Outlook' is primarily a justification of the complexity of OPC UA. The download is available from the OPC Foundation site, to members and non-members alike.
2008-Aug-20	PLCopen to work on OPC UA information model for IEC 61131-3 PLCopen has announced it will work with OPC Foundation on creating an OPC UA mapping of the information model of IEC 61131-3, the IEC standard which addresses PLC programming. PLCopen is an international not-for-profit that supports the IEC 61131 standard.
2008-Aug-18	OPC UA Security Assessment SCADA security specialist Digital Bond has begun a series of posts reporting on a security assessment of both the OPC UA specification, and OPC Foundation's UA SDK. It is encouraging to note that OPC Foundation has actively supported this review, and is taking steps to update both the specification and the SDK in response to its findings.
2008-Aug-18	Updated .NET API OPC Foundation has updated the OPC .NET API to version 2.00.102.0, with bug fixes for DA and AE. The revised downloads are available to Foundation members only.
2008-Aug-04	OPC Foundation newsletter The August 2008 issue edition of OPC Foundation's "OPConnect" newsletter has been distributed by email, and published as a web page. Past editions remain available.
2008-Jul-30	UA DevCon and Workshop, October 2008 OPC Foundation has confirmed the Unified Architecture Developers' Conference and Workshop 2008, to take place October 27-31 in Munich, Germany. The DevCon will run on the first two days, and the Workshop - with a choice of embedded and .NET streams - for the remaining three days. Places are limited, and with OPC UA expected to be a released specification by this time, demand is sure to be high. Early booking is recommended - OPC Foundation has all the details.
2008-Jul-28	UA Simple WCF Applications As well as an updated UA SDK (see previous entry), OPC Foundation has also made available a simple set of WCF applications written to the UA API. These samples (client and server) rely on code generated by VS2008 tools using the published UA WSDL and do not use the UA SDK.
2008-Jul-28	UA SDK Beta update The UA SDK and Sample Code have been updated to beta version 1.00.218.1. Amongst other changes, this release adds the COM proxy configuration capability back into the Configuration Tool, with support for DA and AE clients. The sample server application is now installed as a service and is available as a COM DA and AE server. The downloads are available to OPC Foundation Corporate Members only.
2008-Jul-26	OPC Analyzer test tool update OPC Foundation has updated its OPC Analyzer utility to version 1.02. OPC Analyzer - available only to Foundation members - is used at interoperability workshops for monitoring the behavior of OPC DA clients. More details here. Version 1.02 includes a number of fixes and enhancements.
2008-Jul-20	OPC UA Parts 1 - 8 available for final review OPC Foundation has stated that the current release candidate versions of UA Specification Parts 1 - 8 are available for final review by Foundation members. The goal is a full release on August 16th. The only recent change to this document set is an update to Part 7 - Profiles, released July 16th.
2008-Jul-20	Core Components update Apologies - a little late with this item... Updated versions of the OPC core components, .NET API and sample code have been made available. It turns out the wrong key had been used to sign the .NET assemblies in the prior version.
2008-Jul-20	OPCTechs Demo Server Our listing of free OPC server downloads has been updated to include the OPCTechs Demo OPC Server.
2008-Jul-15	European Interoperability Workshop 2008 - Nürnberg OPC Foundation will run an Interoperability Workshop in Nuremberg, Germany, from Monday, October 6th through Friday, October 10th. Focus will be on the existing OPC specs: DA, AE, HDA and XML-DA. See OPC Foundation for full details.
2008-Jun-30	OPC Webinars available for download Recordings of two recent OPC webinars are now available to download from OPC Foundation. These are "OPC UA as a Competitive Advantage" by ICONICS/Kepware, and "Unleash the Power of OPC" by Software Toolbox. Both may be accessed by members and non-members alike.
2008-Jun-27	Updated UA SDK The UA SDK and Sample Code have been updated to beta version 1.00.215.2. As well as bug fixes, the sample source now includes examples on how to create a custom NodeManager. Due to time constraints, the DA proxy in not included in this build. The next release will include support for DA and AE proxies. The downloads are available to OPC Foundation Corporate Members only.
2008-Jun-05	OPC-UA on Windows without .NET? According to Microsoft's PDC2008 overview, a session is promised on Windows 7 - Web Services in Native Code: "Windows 7 introduces a new networking API with support for building SOAP based web services in native code". This raises the enticing prospect of the full UA stack on Windows, without the cumbersome baggage of the .NET framework. We look forward to finding out more!
2008-Jun-05	Compliance Tests Updated OPC Foundation has updated most modules of its Compliance Test suite - available to Corporate Members of OPC Foundation. Coming exactly 12 months after the last round of updates, numerous bug fixes are included. These new releases are the result of a beta test program which began in December 2007.
2008-May-22	Free OPC-UA webcast from ICONICS ICONICS will host a free UA webcast, "Applying OPC-UA as a Competitive Advantage", on Thursday June 5th. Speakers include OPC Foundation's Tom Burke, Russ Agrusa of ICONICS, and Roy Kok of Kepware. ICONICS has more details and how to register.
2008-May-12	OPC now officially supports 64-bit computing Updated versions of the OPC core components, .NET API and sample code are now available. This release provides full 64-bit support, plus all redistributables are now code signed by OPC Foundation.
2008-May-08	UA DevCon presentations now freely available The 2007 UA DevCon was held over 3 days during June in Scottsdale, AZ. OPC Foundation has now released PowerPoints and screen capture videos for more than 20 of the DevCon presentations. These are available to Foundation members and non-members alike.
2008-May-06	Join the debate on OPC openness Following our post last week, Matrikon's Eric Murphy has taken up the debate (again) on whether the OPC specifications should be freely available. He's seeking your input - why not let him know what you think?
2008-May-01	OPC not an open standard? The debate on openness of the OPC specifications continues on the OPC forums, with OPC Foundation's justification for its policy on charging looking as weak as ever. An attempt is made to draw a distinction between IT specs, which are traditionally free and open, and Automation specs that are often charged. This distinction is moot: the OPC specs are standards in both the IT and Automation spheres. Any protocol that can run on Ethernet needs to be documented in a free and open way. As an IT manager, I would not be happy running any OPC standards on my network while access to specifications continues to be charged or restricted. As Randy Armstrong suggests, you are encouraged to lobby the OPC directors to make your views known.
2008-May-01	OPC Foundation newsletter The May 2008 issue edition of OPC Foundation's "OPConnect" newsletter has been distributed by email, and published as a web page. Past editions remain available.
2008-Apr-30	OPCFailover offers unique advantages for redundant OPC solutions Jemmac's OPCFailover is a simple, lightweight tool that can greatly enhance reliability of OPC solutions where multiple routes to the same data are possible via two or more OPC servers. See our Free Utilities page for more information and access to a 30-day trial download.
2008-Apr-30	OPC Unified Architecture book announced An OPC Unified Architecture textbook has been announced, to be written by Wolfgang Mahnke, Stefan-Helmut Leitner and Matthias Damm (representatives of ABB and ascolab). Publisher Springer is currently suggesting a publication date of January 2009. See our bookshelf page for information on this and other OPC-related publications.
2008-Apr-25	Updated UA docs now available OPC Foundation's Randy Armstrong has posted a new set of documentation to support the UA SDK (available to Foundation Corporate Members only). Included are presentations from the 2007 DevCon, MSDN-style docs generated from code comments, an architecture document (work in progress) and updated diagrams.
2008-Apr-16	New OPC membership category for System Integrators and Distributors OPC Foundation has created a new membership category for System Integrators and Distributors (SI&D), with a fixed membership fee of $1500. SI&D members get access to the OPC specifications and reference implementations (sample code) and the Compliance Test Tools needed to self-certify OPC components. More details on the OPC TAC blog and the official press release.
2008-Apr-10	UA Events for 2008 Eric Murphy, writing on the new OPC TAC blog, recently itemized some of the OPC UA events planned for 2008. These include: - OPC UA Early Adopter Developer Plug Fest, Foxboro, MA, June 2-6 - interop event for early adopters. - OPC UA Developers' Workshop, Scottsdale, AZ, June 16-18 - on getting started with product development. - OPC UA DevCon, Munich, Germany, October 27-29 - a higher-level view for architects, visionaries, end users and integrators. An initial reaction is that we've now had several DevCons, and we need more of the hands-on workshop style of event to really get developers up to speed. Maybe it's not too late to replace the Munich DevCon with a Developers' Workshop in Europe?
2008-Apr-10	New UA SDK Beta The UA SDK and Sample Code have been updated again, to version 1.00.209.0. The main change is the restoration of the sample code, which had been omitted from the previous build. These downloads are available to OPC Foundation Corporate Members only.
2008-Mar-29	XML-DA Interop Server Note to users of our XML-DA Interop Server. The server platform has been upgraded for better performance and with upgraded XML-DA software. As a consequence, the range of available XML-DA servers is currently reduced. Let us know if there's a particular server you'd like to see running there. Access to the XML-DA Interop Server is free to registered users.
2008-Mar-29	Further Release Candidate specs for OPC UA Upissued Release Candidate specs have been made available for the following UA specification parts: 1 (Overview), 2 (Security), 4 (Services), 6 (Mappings) and 8 (Data Access). Part 1 is generally available, the remainder being for Foundation members only.
2008-Mar-29	UA Developers' Workshop - Registration now Open OPC Foundation will host a Unified Architecture Developers' Workshop in Scottsdale, Arizona, June 16-18, 2008. This three-day event is intended to provide a solid foundation for developers building products incorporating UA technology. Registration, limited to 25 participants, is now open.
2008-Mar-27	UA Release Candidate specs and new SDK beta The OPC UA SDK has been updated to beta version 1.00.207.1, supporting new release candidate specs for UA Part 4 (Services) and Part 6 (Mappings). The UA SDK and corresponding WSDL are available to Corporate Members of OPC Foundation. The new RC specifications are said to be available from OPC Foundation's Sharepoint site, but we were unable to reach these. Note: OPCconnect.com has an RSS feed to keep you automatically updated with changes to OPC downloads.
2008-Mar-27	New OPC Foundation blog OPC Foundation has established a new blog for posts from its 18-member Technical Advisory Council. The TAC exists "to guide, monitor and approve the technical deliverables of its OPC Unified Architecture (OPC-UA) technology". It consists of leading OPC vendors, plus bodies such as Fieldbus Foundation, IEC and WBF. The TAC blog has its own RSS feed.
2008-Mar-15	Further Free Stuff update Free Clients: Control See's U.C.ME-OPC demo download offers flexible alarm notification and remote control.
2008-Mar-14	Training and Free Stuff updates Our list of Training Providers now includes OPC Competence Centre South Africa. Free Servers: added simulator and toolkit demo from Graybox.
2008-Mar-03	OPC Foundation newsletter - March 2008 issue A new edition of OPC Foundation's "OPConnect" newsletter has been distributed by email, and published as a web page. The headline item from OPC Foundation President Tom Burke includes an update on the first Independent OPC Certification Test Lab, plus news of an OPC UA Developers' Workshop, scheduled for June 2008. Previous editions of the newsletter are also available.
2008-Feb-18	OPC and the OLE Automation vulnerability A recent Microsoft Security Bulletin has caused some concern in the OPC community. The bulletin, relating to a critical vulnerability with OLE Automation, has been discussed both by Matrikon's Eric Murphy, and by Dale Peterson at Digital Bond. Murphy's post clouds the issue slightly by talking about the origins of the acronym 'OLE'. He correctly points out that OPC has little to do with OLE, but doesn't quite say that OLE Automation is not strictly OLE either: 'COM for Scripting' would be more accurate. So, how many OPC systems will be impacted by this vulnerability? We expect that many systems - a large minority - will make use of the oleaut32.dll at the heart of this problem. Most of these will use the copy from the Windows system32 folder, and these should be patched - either manually or via Windows Update. A small number will use a copy of oleaut32.dll supplied by an OPC vendor. We suggest you contact your vendor for details, but don't be fobbed off if you can see a copy of oleaut32.dll in an application folder!
2008-Feb-18	OPC Test Lab - further RC updates OPC Foundation has made further updates to its Release Candidate specifications for the OPC Test Lab, covering Compliance Tests, Interoperability Workshops, and Independent Test Laboratories. These documents are available to Foundation members only.
2008-Feb-01	First Independent Certification Test Lab now open for registration The first Independent OPC Certification Test Lab, to be hosted at ascolab in Germany, is now open for registration. The test lab forms part of OPC Founation's enhanced certification logo program. At the same time, OPC Foundation has updated some of its Release Candidate specifications for the OPC Test Lab. This comprehensive set of documents covers the proposed model of testing and certification for both OPC-UA and legacy OPC (COM) products.
2008-Jan-27	Delphi support for OPC continues to expand Developers seeking the benefits of native SDK access to OPC will appreciate the ongoing support offered by the Delphi community. Prosys Sentrol, the outstanding Rapid OPC Application Development Framework, offers full DA 2.0 compliance and now supports Delphi 2007. Likewise our free Delphi demo server - kindly provided by Everest Software - is also updated for Delphi 2007 compatibility. Why not discover the advantages of OPC development without the baggage of .NET?
2008-Jan-21	OPC Foundation 2008 Random Status Update On his blog, OPC Foundation President Tom Burke shares his vision for OPC in 2008. In summary, "OPC wants to be the USB for plug-and-play interoperability between anything". However, it's hard to disagree with the anonymous commenter: "this vision would be so much more convincing if you could find a way to make the specs open again - like the USB specs".
2008-Jan-21	OPC Foundation updates DA client analyis tool OPC Foundation has updated its OPC Analyzer utility - available to corporate members only. OPC Analyzer is used at interoperability workshops for monitoring the behavior of OPC DA clients. More details here. This new version includes a number of fixes and enhancements.
2008-Jan-20	Free webinar on OPC & DCOM Troubleshooting OPC Training Institute (OPCTI) has scheduled a free webinar - OPC & DCOM Troubleshooting: Quick Start Guide - for Friday, January 25.
2008-Jan-10	OPC-UA to be an IEC international standard OPC Unified Architecture is currently going through the process of becoming an officially endorsed international standard: IEC 62541-x. As part of this process a formal IEC working group has been created. OPC Foundation has more information.
2008-Jan-07	OPC Foundation - free training seminars OPC Foundation will host eight one-day Training Seminars across the US during 2008. These Seminars are designed to cover the fundamentals of OPC including servers, clients, OPC Data Access, OPC Unified Architecture, best practices and compliance.

See archive of earlier items.

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