With the recently released 2019.2 (5.56) version of the OPC Data Client Toolkit, developers of OPC UA custom client applications can now add the latest extension to the OPC UA specifications, PubSub, short for Publish-Subscribe, to their applications. This version also brings items of value for developers of any type of OPC client application, and also highlights some updates from a 2019.1 release we did last month to prepare for this big release.
In this blog post, we will cover the most significant updates to OPC Data Client and how they will benefit you and your custom OPC client projects.
Before we dive into PubSub support and the other key features of the latest OPC Data Client, I'd also like to encourage you to visit the OPC Data Client website, if you haven't done so recently. You'll notice a major update designed to make it easier for you to find the information about OPC Data Client that you're looking for in as few clicks as possible. It's a hint of what's to come in 2020 throughout the Software Toolbox website.
Now let's cover the key updates available in the latest OPC Data Client.
Operating System, .NET and Development Environment Support
To keep you current with the latest technologies, the following changes were made:
.NET Framework 4.8 support added- .NET Core 2.1.3 to 2.1.12 support added
- Windows Server 2019 (x64), including Core, supported
- Visual Studio 2019 support added
- Some older .NET Frameworks , OS and development platform support has been retired. Click for latest details
OPC UA Improvements including NEW PubSub support, security updates, and more
Part 14 of the OPC Unified Architecture adds the ability to deliver data sets using message-oriented middleware in a publish-subscribe communications model. This important new OPC UA specification expands the use cases for OPC UA in cloud applications and to lower power, low latency devices. PubSub allows OPC UA clients to publish and subscribe to data in OPC UA PubSub middleware and then every client subscribed can receive updates. This effectively enables a one-to-many configuration between a data source and consumers.
The OPC Data Client implementation of OPC UA PubSub in the 2019.2 release supports the subset of functionality that we believe based on user input that are useful now, and further features will be supported in future releases. If you’re an early adopter of OPC UA PubSub, we’d love to hear from you about your needs.
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Subscribe to dataset messages with data or events from a publisher
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Use OPC UA UDP, UADP, and OPC UA Ethernet protocol mappings
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Included OPC UA Demo Publisher helps you test your client application
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Load and inspect PubSub configuration from a binary file, or access it live in an OPC UA server over its information model
In addition to adding OPC UA PubSub, this release of the OPC Data Client includes:
- Support for OPC UA security policies Aes128_Sha256_RsaOaep and Aesop_Sha256_RsaPss
- Support for the OPC UA 1.04 namespace classes, and for .NET Standard applications
- Updates to use the latest OPC Foundation's OPC UA .Net Standard Library 1.4.357.28
- Properties for UADataValue members for ServerPicoseconds and SourcePicoseconds to increase timestamp resolution
- Enhanced exception handling messages
New Specialized Client Object & Browsing Dialog Updates
A new EasyUAPublishSubscribeClient component allows (read-only) access to OPC UA PubSub configurations, accessed either through an information model in an OPC server, or stored in a binary file- Search box added to many of the built-in browsing dialog components, including search history and various search options including Starts with/End with/Contains/Does not contain/Precise text, Match case, and Regular expression
- Point Browser control now has a built-in legend pane that can be turned on/off as needed
More Examples!
Every developer loves examples and sample code. We couldn’t let this release go by without adding more and doing some updating, including:
- OPC UA PubSub Examples
- Integration of OPC with Microsoft Trill
- More C# Examples
- More Object Pascal (Delphi) Examples in Delphi 10.3 Rio
- More VBScript Examples
- Visual Studio examples are in Visual Studio 2017 and also work in Visual Studio 2019
- Improvements to error handling and organization of Delphi and VBScript examples for consistency with C# examples
New Enterprise Edition of OPC Data Client
With the addition of OPC UA PubSub and based on market feedback, we’ve now introduced a new Enterprise Edition. This new Edition sits between the Professional and Ultimate Editions and helps you to be able to license just what you need if you aren’t planning to use OPC UA PubSub which is available exclusively in the Ultimate Edition. You can learn more about the OPC Data Client Editions on our product pricing web page and in the online product documentation.
Learn More, Upgrade, or Try the OPC Data Client
There’s lots more in this release you can read about in the release notes in our knowledge base.
Existing OPC Data Client License Owners
If you already own a license of the OPC Data Client and are on an active support agreement, you can download the software from the trial version request page and upgrade for free by following the licensed user upgrade instructions.
If you have an older license and aren’t on an active support agreement, you can still get the latest version with an upgrade fee. Contact us for upgrade options.
Ready to try the latest OPC Data Client Toolkit?
