Enterprise Objects Concepts

Usage of EIS Enterprise Objects can be enhanced through knowledge of certain concepts.

CygNet Concepts

Enterprise Operations are composed of two distinct types:

• CygNet Native Operations
• CygNet Business Object Operations

CygNet Native Operations present the CygNet SCADA data using concepts and corresponding terms native to CygNet, such as real-time point values, point configuration attributes, facility attributes, point naming conventions, and UDC naming conventions. By using CygNet Native Operations, an administrator can configure their system in numerous ways, based on the company's specific needs and setup.

CygNet Business Object Operations present the CygNet SCADA data using concepts and logical terms recognized across an enterprise, such as "wells," "valves," "meters," "compressors," etc. CygNet Business Objects facilitate SCADA data model abstraction and encapsulation. By using CygNet Business Objects, an administrator can configure the SCADA data model to map to their specific enterprise data model, based on the company's specific business enterprise data requirements and setup.

Enterprise Operations are "opt-in," and must be configured by an administrator. The services allowed to provide data for processing the requests are specified in the Service Filter for Native operations, or in the Business Object Interface for Business Object operations.

CygNet Enterprise Objects operations rely on well-formatted XML request and response documents. These operation request and response files can be passed through the Enterprise Gateway, utilizing the Gateway Client or custom system applications.

The Enterprise Gateway is a web service which can be utilized to validate the file against the XSD, and place it in a file directory system which is monitored and processed by the Enterprise Operations EIE.

Enterprise Objects also supports utilization of Sonic MQ as a gateway.

The Enterprise Operations EIE is the primary operation execution engine. It is responsible for parsing XML requests, executing operations, generating XML responses, performing file management, and more. The Enterprise Operations schema language (XSD) is compiled into the Enterprise Operations EIE. All Enterprise Operations request and response (XML) documents can be configured to be submitted for validation against the XSD files. If a submitted request file fails validation, an error response is generated indicating the failure, and the operation will not be executed.

The CygNet Business Object Builder (CygBOB) provides administrators with a tool to configure Business Object Packages. Within CygBOB, the Business Object Interface configuration determines how each entity is presented in non-CygNet terms, while the Business Object Mapping configuration determines how a given SCADA data model translates to a Business Object Interface.

A Business Object Package file can be created using CygBOB. The Business Object Package encapsulates Business Object Interfaces, Business Object Mappings, point interfaces and point mappings to create a data model configuration "package" that can be loaded into the Enterprise Operations EIE and the Enterprise Gateway.

External Concepts

Enterprise Objects incorporates the following XML-based concepts.

• XML — Extensible Markup Language (XML) is similar to HTML, but designed to carry and store (not to display) data. Tags are not predefined in XML, so they must be defined.
• XSD — XML Schema Definition (XSD) is an XML schema language. XSD, an XML-based alternative to DTD, describes the structure of an XML document by defining the legal building blocks (elements, attributes, data types, etc.) of an XML document.
• XSD Validation — XSD Validation is the process of checking an XML file against an XSD file to see if it conforms to the defined schema.
• WSDL — Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is an XML-based language for describing and locating web services. WSDL is a document written in XML specifying the location of the web service and the operations the service exposes.
• SOAP — Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is a protocol which facilitates communication between applications via the Internet. SOAP is a platform-independent and language-independent protocol based on XML. Interaction between a service and client is done via an Endpoint node, using a SOAP envelope in simple XML form.

Refer to external websites such as w3schools, W3C, or MSDN for further information about any of these external concepts.