bfitALCExt

Overview

The BuildingFit ALC Connector is designed to connect to the Automated Logic Control System. It implements standard connector functionality to read current and historical (trendlog) data. At present, writing back to the control system is not supported. Where available, metadata from the system will be applied and translated to SkySpark standards.

Deployment

What you will need to connect:

• The Web Services URI
• A sufficiently permissive login username and password. For example, write capabilities require an account with write permissions.

Setting up the connector is simple:

• Create a new connector in the Connectors app where the ALC URI terminates at the host address. The address MUST end with a trailing /. For example: If your API endpoint is https://www.foo.net/ALC/_common/webservices/ then use https://www.foo.net/ALC/ as your uri. In most cases, this will simply be the web address of the ALC system.
• Add username and password to the appropriate fields of the connector record. This can be done during the above step or after creation by using the edit function of the Connectors app.
• Points can be discovered and added using the Connectors aspect of the Builders app.

• If the connector returns an SSL error after creation it may be necessary to add the ALC URI to the trusted URIs list.
• Navigate to the desired SkySpark site -> Host app -> Crypto tab.
• Click the "Trust Uri" button.
• The URI field should be the ALC URI as it was set up for the connector. The alias is any human readable name to describe the trusted uri record.

The useGeoOnly boolean tag:

• The ALC system only can discover points in two modes. By default, the useGeoOnly flag will be false for new connectors. This indicates that the connector will only return nodes that are visible in the web interface. All system nodes will be suppressed. This mode also is able to gather additional metadata such as the point names and types. If a system level view is necessary switching, this flag to false will show all nodes but it will be unable to gather metadata.

Known Issues

• By default, all data passed by the ALC system is done as a string. When the metadata exists, the connector will attempt to make conversions to the proper type. However, if unable to convert or metadata does not exist the resulting data will be passed in as a string that can be converted with curConvert or hisConvert.
• Some point house metadata without being connected to live data. In these cases, a call to bfitALCSyncCur will not return an error but the curStatus value will remain in the unknown state.