Dropzone Datasource

AspenTech Inmation’s powerful Dropzone feature can be used to import time series data from a chosen file source. The imported data is converted into an OPC complaint format so the file data can be handled exactly like any other OPC item (inclusing historization and aggregation). Although imported files should contain certain information to simulate an OPC item, the system is highly flexible in the formats it accepts, including a host of configurable options to make the file-based data import feature as easy to use as possible.

Any number of Dropzone data sources can be added to a Folder object and a variety of file types are accepted as inputs (separated text, XML data, JSON data, MS-Excel Workbooks and MS-Access database files). For different file types, there are certains variations and restrictions that apply.

For details on how to create Dropzone datasource objects, see the Dropzone Datasource object configuration guide.

General Behaviour

Once a Dropzone datasource is added to a Folder, it will automatically start importing new files from the Dropzone folder (specified as the Disk Folder during configuration). You can visually track the execution using the performance counters of the Dropzone Datasource in the Object Lens.

It is required that the file for import should be exclusively accessible to AspenTech Inmation when it appears in the Dropzone folder, meaning that no other process can have an open handle to file. For this reason, any process which creates a file for input should not use the Dropzone folder as its 'working directory'. The data should be written into a file in a different folder, and copied over to the Dropzone folder once it is completely written.

In addition to performance counters, the Dropzone Datasource will generate log entries of type 'Information', 'Warning' and 'Error'. The conditions that are treated as a notifiable error will depend on the detailed settings of the particular Dropzone Datasource. To view these log entries, the Dropzone Datasource can be added to a Log Display tab.

Dropzone Working Folders

The Dropzone Datasource object will maintain various folders that are created below the main import folder (specified as the Disk Folder during the configuration of the Dropzone Datasource object) when importing files. Thes sub-folders should not be renamed, reused or altered, as this may lead to unwanted results. However, you can switch the detail behavior of the datasource which deal with the usage anfd information granularity in such subordinated folders on and off.

Text File Format, Widlcard Matching and Encoding

Files that are imported via Dropzone may use different types of encodings (UTF-8, UTF-16 or ANSI encodings). If the encoding is stored in the files, it will be automatically retrieved during imported. If the encoding is not stored in the file, an ANSI code page is expected. In this case, the correct code page should be configured manually.

To configure the code page manually:

  1. Select the Dropzone Datasource object in the I/O Model and open the Object Lens.

  2. In the Object Lens, select the Dropzone property compound. Expand the drop-down for the Code Page property and select the correct encoding for the file to be imported.

  3. Click Apply to save the changes.

The Dropzone can be configured to match and process specified file format types designated by the file extension. Wildcard patterns can also be configured to match against filenames to be processed by the Dropzone. One file can consist of many rows, which are sequentially processed. Therefore, one file can hold information about multiple items, as well as multiple updates for any number of items.

Dropzone Processing Options

The Dropzone Datasource object has three main processing options for data files containing VQT data:

  • Column Based

  • Line by Line

  • Custom Script

The Dropzone creates data items automatically based on the content of the imported files. To archive the data from the files, the Archive Selection property must be configured in the Dropzone Options > Dropzone New Item Preset > Archive Options must be configured to archive history. If this is not configured, any history calls made on these items will indicate that there is no data in the archive. If there are no data stores configured, see here.

The first time that a file is copied into the configured Disk Folder, a "work" folder will be created in the Disk Folder indicating that the file is being processed. If there are any issues whilst processing the file, an "error" folder will be created here instead. This folder will contain a text file containing the error message(s). See the Troubleshooting Processing Errors section below for more details.

Troubleshooting Processing Errors

When troubleshooting processing errors, it is also useful to check the Log Display for the Dropzone object. To open the Log Display and view the errors:

  1. Click the Add Tab button at the top of the Config App and select the Log Display option from the drop-down menu

  2. Drag the Dropzone Datasource object to the Log Display

  3. By default the Log Display shows the last hour but this can be configured using the time pickers if required.

  4. To view more details about a specific log, click the search icon in the corresponding row of the table to open the Log Entry Details.