Setting up a Communication Table

What is a Communication Table? 

A communication table is a convenient place to view the current status of your controller without the need to leave the current HMI view. The table contains the name of each controller in the project, the current status (Active or Down), and the last Poll (most recent communication time stamp).

Setting up a Communication Table in Simpliscada 

To begin, select a Round Table from the left-hand toolbar in you canvas editor. The table should be 3 columns wide and have the same number of rows as there are controllers in the project.

Once the table is in your canvas, double-click on the first field to select it. This will open a properties panel on the right-hand side of the canvas. Click on the system value's "Select Value" to open a fly-out menu with the available controller information options.

In the first field we are going to link the name of the controller you wish to view in the table. The controller will have the available options listed and the type of data that will be displayed is in [Brackets]. For this field we are looking for "[Controller Name]"

In the second field of the table we want to link the status of the controller. This will be listed as "[Controller Status]"

The last column will contain the most recent poll time stamp. This is listed as "[Last Controller Poll]"

To view the values being populated in the fields, select the green "Save & Exit" icon in the top-left corner of the page. This will return you to the HMI view screen.

As you can see, the default table sizes are to small to correctly display the data being linked. To change this, re-enter the canvas editor by clicking the green "Edit" icon in the top-right corner of the screen.

Double-click on the column that you wish to adjust the width of, then use the "Column Width" adjustment tool on the properties panel on the right. You may have to exit and enter the canvas editor a few times to get the field width to the desired size.

Your table should now look something like this in the HMI view:

Use the same method as above to fill in the rows for any additional controllers that are in your project.

You can add a title to the table by selecting the table and using the "Show Header" toggle switch in the canvas editors property panel. Then select the header by double-clicking on it and enter a title such as "Comms", "Communication", or "Controller Status".

Finally, the overall look and style of the table can be adjusted by selecting the table and using the various table options in the Properties Panel. For an in-depth guide to table customization, see our "Creating a Table" knowledgebase article.

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