OPC Programmers' Connection - OLE for Process Control

2008-Dec-27

OPC UA Analyzer Devices Specification review draft available
OPC Foundation's Analytical Device Integration (ADI) Working Group has announced the availability of a completed review draft of the OPC UA Analyzer Devices Specification. Sample Code development will now begin based on this version. The code and final release of the specification is expected mid-2009.

2008-Dec-08

UA SDK Beta update
The UA SDK and Sample Code have been updated to beta version 1.00.230.0. This release supports current release candidate specifications for Part 4 (Services) and Part 6 (Mappings). It includes bug fixes, and more examples of custom node managers - demonstrating better performance than previously. The downloads are available to OPC Foundation Corporate Members only, while the release candidate specs are found on the UA SharePoint Collaboration Site.

2008-Dec-04

OPC General Assembly - Webinar recording available
The recorded video and PowerPoint of the recent OPC Foundation General Assembly are now available to Foundation members. Highlights include an update on UA schedules, and results of recent OPC surveys.
Note that a GoToMeeting codec may be needed to view the video.

2008-Dec-01

OPC Foundation General Assembly
The annual OPC General Assembly webinar takes place Wednesday, December 3, 10:00am - 11:00am EST (15:00 - 16:00 UTC). All members are invited to register.

2008-Nov-12

OPC UA Security Assessment Part 5 - Vendor Implementation Security Considerations
After a seven-week hiatus, Digital Bond has published the fifth part of its UA security audit. The originally announced title for this part (OPC UA Vendor Implementation Vulnerabilities) suggested that some specific problems would be discussed. In the event, the post talks only in general terms about possible areas of concern. This is perhaps a little disappointing, though given previous Digital Bond posts (see parts 3 and 4), we should certainly be wary of any vendor making claims about supporting UA today.

2008-Nov-12

OPC Foundation newsletter
The November 2008 issue of OPC Foundation's "OPConnect" newsletter has been distributed by email, and published as a web page. The headline feature looks at some of OPC Foundation's plans for 2009 (without making mention of Kepware's new involvement in the management of the UA codebase). Past editions of the newsletter remain available.

2008-Nov-08

UA SDK Online Help now available
Online help for OPC Foundation's UA SDK is now available in draft form. This resource will offer a comprehensive reference when complete, but most topics remain rather terse at the time of writing. The need for a 'how to' developers' guide also remains unsatisfied. The UA SDK help is apparently open to both members and non-members of OPC Foundation.

2008-Oct-30

UA SDK Overview published
A draft overview of OPC Foundation's UA SDK has been published, to coincide with the current UA DevCon in Munich. Running to 40+ pages, this will be essential reading for anyone working with the SDK. At the same time, updated UA SDK samples have been made available, principally for DevCon attendees. Each of these downloads is limited to OPC Foundation member access only.

2008-Oct-21

UA SDK Beta update
The UA SDK and Sample Code have been updated to beta version 1.00.224.0. This release incorporates fixes from the recent Plugfest event, UI enhancements to the Configuration Tool, and is now built with VS 2008. The downloads are available to OPC Foundation Corporate Members only.

2008-Oct-05

Kassl updates Delphi OPC toolkit, releases freeware utilities
Kassl has released new versions of its excellent dOPC Client Toolkits for Delphi and C++Builder. Enhancements include support for Delphi 2009 and Windows Vista. The company is also offering a range of freeware client programs, plus a useful 'crap cleaner' for removing unwanted server registry entries.

2008-Oct-05

Delphi OPC updates
Our Delphi conversions of the OPC custom interfaces, plus sample Delphi OPC clients, are now compatible with Delphi 2009.

2008-Sep-29

Digital Bond comments on OPC Foundation and UA security
Dale Peterson of Digital Bond has offered us his perspective on OPC Foundation's handling of security within UA, plus Digital Bond's role in the UA security assessment. As expected, this is a mixture of good ("OPC Foundation has always been open to review by security professionals") and not-so-good ("not enough security expertise on the OPC UA team"). Read his comments in full.

2008-Sep-29

UA security - clarifications
Yesterday's post, OPC Foundation responds to UA security concerns, highlighted Eric Murphy's statement that the Digital Bond audit had been expected to find areas of concern. We asked why, therefore, was a similar security expert not involved in the design of UA at an earlier stage.
Subsequent discussions with OPC Foundation staff have made it clear that, in fact, multiple security experts had provided feedback on the UA spec at various stages, and that Murphy may not have been fully aware of this. Murphy has also updated his own OPC TAC post in an attempt to clarify this point, though apparently overlooks the fact that the most serious flaw highlighted by Digital Bond relates to an aspect of the specification (not the SDK) that is at least 2 years old: the reliance on self-signed certificates.
Nevertheless, we're reassured that OPC Foundation personnel are working diligently with Digital Bond's support to ensure UA is published as a robust and secure specification within a few months.

2008-Sep-28

OPC ADI draft spec due December 2008?
Gary Mintchell of Automation World reports that the OPC Analyzer Devices Integration draft specification will be published for review in December 2008. OPC Foundation has more information on OPC ADI, which is being defined as an extension to UA.

2008-Sep-28

OPC Foundation responds to UA security concerns
Eric Murphy of OPC's Technical Advisory Council has blogged in response to Digital Bond's posts on vulnerabilities in the UA spec and SDK. Murphy's post should be read to understood OPC Foundation's perspective, and what action will now be taken. However, his comment "We knew that having someone with a strong security background ... audit the results would show the areas that might be confusing and conflicting" begs the question: why was such a person not involved much earlier in the design and development of UA?

2008-Sep-22

OPC UA Security Assessment Part 4 - SDK Vulnerabilities
The fourth part of Digital Bond's series offers a brief security audit of OPC Foundation's UA SDK. It confirms "the overall code quality was quite good", with a small number of heap and stack overflows that are expected to be resolved in the next revision. A particular concern is that the server test application was easily crashed in black box testing. The Digital Bond blog has the full story.

2008-Sep-20

UA Security Assessment Part 3 - Digital Bond turns its attention to spec vulnerabilities
Part 3 of Digital Bond's OPC UA security series looks at vulnerabilities in the UA specification. Some serious flaws are highlighted, most significantly the reliance on self-signed certificates: "This is similar to verifying a person's identity by asking the person if he is who he claims to be. No trust should be placed on a self-signed certificate ... an OPC UA server, even one requiring encryption and signatures, could be compromised by anyone who is able to gain access to OPC UA client software". Digital Bond doesn't say so explicitly, but the inference is that the specification needs revising before OPC UA can be considered fit for purpose.
See also Part 1 (introduction) and Part 2 (positive findings) of the Digital Bond review.

2008-Sep-12

UA SDK Beta update
The UA SDK and Sample Code have been updated to beta version 1.00.222.0. A range of changes includes improved 64-bit support, and the addition of an AE wrapper to the COM interop library. The downloads are available to OPC Foundation Corporate Members only.

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-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.

Archive - 2008