The St James Software jBrowser package is a low footprint, web-enabled viewer that displays both historical and event data stored by jHistorian in the Oracle®, Microsoft Access® or Microsoft SQLServer® database.
You can see the trended information in both chart and numerical form and you
can see the alarms or events. The trend information is arranged in groups of
20 or more logically associated tags.
This is a classical DCS type strategy which operators, engineers and management
are familiar with. For each group, you can choose the time period to look at
and whether you want to see trends of samples, maximums, minimums or averages.
All these values are calculated by the jHistorian and stored in the database
tables.
The Browser was designed by experienced Industrial Engineers for the complete capabilities of plant personnel. It is designed to slot economically and easily into the kind of computer network (if any) that exists in most Industrial sites.
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The package is designed with a classical DCS feel so operators take to it very easily. Just looking at the Browser, you will see that great care in the design has been taken to make the use of the package simple and at the same time powerful so that it meets the needs of not only of the casual user but also the power user. For example, to use the groups and see trends, the operator only has to select the group of interest from the pull down menu. At this point, he can move the mouse over the chart and see the values of any of the tags at that point in time. |
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If however you are a power user and want to customize the period looked at or want to look at maximums instead of averages or maybe want to look at several windows at the same time, then this too is possible and easy with the special pop up controls.
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The
chart or numerical information comes up extremely quickly. This is because of
the unique algorithm for choosing the data set. So whether you are looking at
one hour of information or several months of information the data will be in
front of you within a couple of seconds.
All the windows are synchronized so that, when you move the cursor over the chart, the data view and legend show the information for that point in time.
Once you have your jHistorian connected and are storing information, you are ready to start loading the jBrowser. First, confirm with your Information Manager that you have access to the historical tables. Now just insert the CD (or register on the web and download the installation software) and follow the installation directions.
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Getting the historical information into a spreadsheet is simple and logical. First get the information you are interested in onto the chart. Then click on the "Copy historical data" menu item, go to the spreadsheet and press Paste. Nothing more to it than that. The same applies to the alarm information or the chart itself. Of course, you can use the same technique to copy data into any of the MS compatible packages.
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As an example, for 8 users, you would purchase a 5 pack of licenses plus the
price of 3 single users licenses. You can get full prices from your dealer or
directly from our sales offices here.
You can of course take advantage of our Free jBrowser offer. This is identical
to the Professional version but you must re-register its usage every month.
Just click the "Live" icon on the jBrowser and the chart will update
every time a new value is stored in the database. You can also see Maximums,
Minimums, Averages and Samples. (Whatever you have stored in the database.)
It is easy to configure the groups…just bring up the configurator screen,
give the new group a name and description and select the tags from a pick list.
Now go back to the main screen and see the group you have just created. …that's
it. Of course, there are also buttons to rearrange the groups so that they are
in a meaningful order.
You can zoom in to an area just by holding the shift key and dragging a rectangle
around the area you wish to look at in more detail. Or pan a screen at a time
by clicking the left and right keys above the chart.
You can mix points with different scales on the same chart. The left axis shows a percentage of scale and the right axis will show the scales of the pen that you point the cursor at.
Generally, you may have more than one source of historical data, feeding into
the same database. In this case, the tag names will have the name of the node
prefixed to the tag. (This enables you to have the same tag name in different
areas.) When you configure a group, you will see the tags from all the different
nodes in the same pick list. Now (if you want) just select the tags from different
nodes and they will appear combined in the same group.
Even if you decide to place the data in different databases on the site, say,
one for each area, you will be able to see the data from each database simultaneously.
In this case however, you will use the multi-window feature of the Browser."
There is no practical limit to the number of pens on a chart. You may however choose to limit the number of tags to say 16 so that you can distinguish the points and colors clearly.
The current version of the jBrowser only looks at data and events in the historical
database. The next version of the Browser (Professional version) will support
the collection and presentation of data from tables that have been created by
applications other than the jHistorian. You will be able to combine for example,
Lab data with historical or alarm data.
To install the browser on the client machine, just select the install program
from the client machine and follow the instructions. Once this is complete,
your new user will immediately have access to the data (and the group configuration)
stored on the server. There is no need to shut down the historian for this operation
and you can start off small and just add clients as the need arises.
Currently, the jBrowser will look at and display information from the historical data stored in Oracle, Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQLServer. As mentioned above, the next version will be able to access historical data from other programs and also non-historical data such as Lab or downtime data.
Using a single jBrowser license, you can connect to multiple sources of data.
(Not simultaneously in this version.) The same software will connect happily
to Access, SQL Server and Oracle databases.
You can load your jBrowser software on any machine that is running Windows
95, 98, NT or 2000. We recommend that you use a Pentium processor to get quick
chart updates.
You purchase a license for each jBrowser user or seat on the network. The number
of named users is held in a file on the central server, which you can increase
at any time by connecting to our web site, paying for the new users and we send
you a new license file. If you exceed the number of users, then someone trying
to start up their jBrowser will get a message to that effect and will be given
the option to register a free version which they will need to reregister each
month.
If you want to adopt a floating license strategy, i.e. the license is not related to a single machine but can be used on any machine, then you must pay 3 times the fixed license fee. The same license can be used by as many users as required but obviously not simultaneously.
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You may customize the color of the pens by over riding the default colors with your own color selection by simply entering your colors into a table. The format of the chart, the colors, pen thickness etc. has been chosen based on extensive experience and industrial feedback. We feel that the overall effect is effective and ergonomic. If however, you want to change this configuration, for example, you want to choose a new a different pen thickness, and then if you are authorized, you just click the right mouse button over the chart and change the defaults. |
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You can look at the data from your home over the Internet or a direct dial
connection. You must of course have the right authority to get through any firewalls
at your site.
With the current version, the Browser configuration is the same for each user
across the site. If you need to have an area that you want to fine tune to your
particular requirements, then you need to set aside a set of groups for your
personal use. In the next release, we plan to have the ability to be able to
look at the system groups as well as your own personal group area.
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Your jBrowser has the ability to show multiple windows and each window could be showing a different group with different time scales. You can use the usual Windows features such as tiling the groups horizontally, vertically or cascading them. All the windows will operate independently so you could for example have the same group but be looking at the last hour on one chart and the last shift on another. |
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You can view or hide any of the presentation panes. For example, if you
are only interested in the chart, you can make this fill the window. Or,
if you want to see the numerical data and the chart together then just
click on the "View, Data" The table of numerical history data
(synchronized to the mouse) will appear. |
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You can get the trial jBrowser which has a 30 day license. With this version,
you can see whatever data you are storing in the historian. (This could be the
15 tag Free Historian or it could be a large application with hundreds of thousands
of tags.)
You can get more summarized information on the jBrowser by looking at our jBrowser specs or if you want more detailed information you can look at the complete on-line documentation. Alternatively, you can register and download the trial jBrowser or finally, purchase the jBrowser here. Of course, you can email us or request a call from one of our engineers or from one of our system integrators. Look forward to hearing from you!