Application Connectivity

OPC Data Access 1.0a was the original specification the OPC Foundation developed back in 1996. Many of the OPC client applications in use today support this original specification. The 2.0 version of the interface was developed to make better use of the underlying Microsoft COM technology. Most OPC client applications now support the 2.0 OPC DA specification. KEPServerEX now fully supports OPC Data Access 3.0. The DA 3.0 spec is an enhancement of the DA 2.05a and DA 2.05 specs. KEPServerEX was tested at the 2005 North American Interoperability Workshop in Tampa, FL and now has 100% compliance test success. The DDE format CF_Text is the standard DDE format as defined by Microsoft. All DDE-aware applications support the CF_Text format. AdvancedDDE is a variation on the normal CF_Text format. Advanced DDE allows larger amounts of data to be transferred between applications at higher rates of speed, and with better error handling than a normal CF_Text DDE link. FastDDE/SuiteLink format provides native support for Wonderware Factory Suite products. In keeping with Kepware's goal of providing the broadest range of connectivity, KEPServerEX simultaneously supports all of the client server technologies listed above. Client applications using any of these technologies can access data from KEPServerEX at the same time.

Based on Microsoft's COM technology, OPC servers can share data with remote client applications using DCOM(Distributed COM). DCOM allows you to use a single OPC server to provide data to client applications running both locally and on remote machines. DDE is not without its own means of allowing remote access. All of the DDE formats supported by KEPServerEX can also be accessed remotely using what is known as NETDDE. NETDDE allows a remote DDE client application to use the machine name of a remote DDE server when specifying a DDE link. KEPServerEX has been designed to allow both of these methods of remote server access. In terms of OPC connections, KEPServerEX will properly configure your DCOM settings to allow remote OPC clients to access and browse KEPServerEX. For DDE clients, KEPServerEX will automatically start NETDDE services and register all of the required DDE shares to allow remote DDE clients to access device data. Establishing DDE share names can be a time consuming process with this in mind, NETDDE services are not enabled in KEPServerEX by default.

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