Siemens SIMATIC PCS 7 Function Manual page 84

OpenPCS 7 interface
6.7 OLE DB
Access with the WinCC OLE DB provider
With WinCC OLE DB, you can access all PCS 7 OS archive data. Depending on the
configuration, process data of the PCS 7 OS is stored in compressed form. The WinCC OLE
DB provider allows transparent access to this data.
Access with Microsoft OLE DB
With Microsoft OLE DB, you can access the WinCC user archives. User archives are part of
WinCC, not of PCS 7 OS. The user archives can be used within the framework of TIA (Totally
Integrated Automation). However, the licenses must be obtained separately for WinCC .
Note
With Microsoft OLE DB, only access to WinCC user archives has been tested and released,
but not access to message and process value archives. Use the WinCC OLE DB Provider to
access message and process value archives.
Configuration options
To access the databases with the WinCC OLE DB provider, you can write your own
applications. For communication with the WinCC OLE DB provider, ADO DB is used in
applications. ADO DB can, for example, be used with Visual Basic or VBA.
Note
Special characters in tag names
In terms of the tag names, remember that programming languages such as Visual Basic,
VBScript or VBA only permit the following characters in tag names:
"A...Z", "a...z", "0...9" and "_". If you use special characters such as "," or ";" in tag names in
WinCC , the script will abort with an error message. In this case, use the "Tag ID" to address
a tag in the script if it has special characters in the name. We also recommend that you use
the "Tag ID" to improve performance.
Basic procedure
1. The OLE DB application must always run on the OpenPCS 7 station. Remote access is
2. With swapped archives, establish the connection between the SQL database and the
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not possible.
swapped archives with the WinCC Archive Connector.
Note
The WinCC RT archives in the directory "<project directory> \ ArchiveManager" and the
subdirectories belonging to it must not be connected or disconnected using the Archive
Connector because the connection to the SQL Server is managed by the WinCC basic
system.
Function Manual, 05/2012, A5E02780178-02
OpenPCS 7