Reliance 4 Smart Client – Visualization on mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, Android)

August 28, 2012

Reliance 4 Smart Client is a thin client of the Reliance SCADA/HMI system intended for making visualization applications available to the user via Web pages. It is designed for use with touchscreen smartphones and tablets, which are very popular among users these days and their popularity is rapidly increasing. In addition to smartphones and tablets, the client can also be used for any device equipped with a Web browser (e.g., standard PC with a touchscreen).

Below are basic features of Reliance 4 Smart Client.

Visualization windows

Visualization windows are displayed as Web pages
The display size corresponds to the size of a visualization application
A Web browser allows for increasing/decreasing the windows' display size

Components in visualization windows

Support for basic components used to create a visualization application (for more information on using components in Reliance 4 Smart Client, go to the Components supported in Reliance 4 Smart Client Web page)
Automatic update of data (tag values) displayed by components with no need for reloading the entire page
Allows for displaying detailed information about tags

System windows

System windows, i.e., windows that are not part of a visualization project (e.g., alarm/event viewer, Enter Value for Tag dialog), are generated by jQuery Mobile, an HTML5-based JavaScript framework. Thanks to that, they have the following features:

Adjusted to the display size on a target device
Optimized for touch control
Modern and user-friendly appearance and behavior

Control

Allows setting values
Allows acknowledging alarms/events
Allows running scripts (scripts get executed on the server in the same way as with the Web client)
Supports executing actions
Allows setting up Teco time programs

Alarms/Events

Support for displaying current alarms/events
Allows displaying detailed information about alarms/events

Trends

Support for displaying real-time trends

Reports and Custom reports

They are supported in the same way as with the Web client, i.e., generated by the data server as Web pages.

Languages

Support for multilanguage projects (applies to text strings in visualization windows)
Support for switching program languages (applies to text strings in system windows); currently supported languages are English and Czech

Security

Support for using access codes
support for user log-on and log-off
respects the security settings configured in a visualization project
crucial operations (setting tag values) are encrypted internally and verified by the server
support for encrypting all transferred data in a standard way (TLS 1.0, SSL 3.0)

Principle

Creating and putting a visualization application into operation is based on the same principle as used for Web Client and Mobile Client. Web pages, which correspond to individual visualization windows, are pre-generated in Reliance's development environment as part of the project's export for remote users. After starting the visualization project in a data server (Reliance 4 Server or Reliance 4 Control Server), Reliance 4 Smart Client can be easily run by clicking on the respective link in the data server's Web page. When displaying a visualization window's Web page, real-time data is dynamically added to the pre-generated Web page. Subsequently, only changes in the process data are transferred with no need for refreshing the entire page. Demands on the server's performance are decreased to a minimum, Web pages can be generated for the client very quickly. The resulting Web pages contain valid HTML/CSS/JavaScript code. They do not contain Flash, Java applets, ActiveX components, or other objects that are not necessarily supported on all platforms or Web browsers.

To quickly open a Web page, simply enter a valid address in your Web browser in the following format:

http[s]://<server:port>/m, e.g., http://reli:40000/m

Licence

The same license policy applies to both Smart Client and other thin clients (Reliance 4 Web Client and Reliance 4 Mobile Client).

Software and hardware requirements

To develop an application, the Reliance 4 Design Enterprise development environment is required. An HTML5-based Web browser suffices at the client side (it is required that cookies be enabled in your browser). jQuery Mobile, on which the display of Smart Client is based, is supported on the platforms and Web browsers listed on this Web page. At the server side, Reliance's data server (Reliance Server or Reliance Control Server) with a license for the corresponding number of simultaneously connected clients is required.

Plans for the future

The development of Reliance 4 Smart Client is proceeding continuously. In next versions of Reliance, the following features are expected to be implemented: