Reference Facilities and Relative Facilities

CygNet supports the ability to resolve and/or display information about a facility that is different from the facility of the configured point for an object. For any given facility you can define a path to another facility within your CygNet environment based on an attribute and a definition.

Known as Reference Facilities and Relative Facilities, these concepts are similar, but the implementation and configuration of each differs.

Reference Facilities

Reference Facilities can only be configured for CygNet-aware tools in CygNet Studio via the [ReferenceFacility] property. Referenced facilities only support a single level of resolution. They can be configured to resolve to a facility that matches a Source Attribute or a Facility Filter Rule.

• CygNet-aware tools — See Configuring a Reference Facility for more information about this type of facility configuration for CygNet-aware tools.
• Group Grid Tool — You can also specify a reference facility for a point selected for a column in the Group Grid Tool.

Example

In the CygNet Studio CygNet-Aware tools, a reference facility can be specified by configuring a filter and an attribute. However the resolution is only one-level deep.

Say you have a Well that is connected to a Central Delivery Point (CDP), it would be possible to show both facilities on a templated screen, because of their single relationship. However, say you have a Tank connected to a Tank Battery that is connected to the CDP, and you had a Well screen, you would not be able to show anything other than the Well and the CDP. Further, if you had a Gas Meter linked to the Well. That’s only one-level away, so you could build a Well screen that shows the Gas Meter and the CDP.

Relative Facilities

Relative Facilities represent a more sophisticated method of referencing related facilities because it allows for multi-level resolution of facilities. This type of facility resolution is configurable (or scripted) from different locations within CygNet.

• Canvas — The Canvas HMI application supports relative facilities across its controls, and resolution is based on the CygNet .NET API. Global relative facility definition configuration is done in the Backstage View; the definitions are stored as XML and encoded inside the Canvas global settings file (.gsf). Relative facility definitions can also be exported to an XML file from Canvas. See Configuring Relative Facilities for more information.
• CygNet .NET API — The CygNet .NET API includes the CygNet.API.Facilities.Relative namespace, which provides a collection of relative facility definitions and associated methods. Refer to the standalone online help file CygNet.API.chm, found in the CygNet\Bin directory for more information. See CygNet .NET API.
• CygNet Bridge API — The CygNet Bridge API provides access to CygNet data without direct access to a CygNet system and supports the retrieval of the relationship name and facility tag of a relative facility. See CygNet Bridge API.
• Well Test — The CygNet Well Test Module uses relative facilities definitions to resolve to related facilities within a well test environment. See Creating the Relative Facilities File for usage information and instructions on exporting the relative facilities definitions from Canvas.

Example

Using Canvas or any of the other applications that support relative facility resolution, you define the relationships between all of the entities. Then on a Canvas screen or in script you supply the relative facility definition, the source facility and the relative link, and the referenced facilities will automatically resolve.

In Canvas you would be able to build a Well screen showing a Gas Meter linked to a Well connected to a Central Delivery Point (CDP), and a Tank connected to a Tank Battery connected to the CDP, since a Canvas screen can resolve multiple levels of resolution.

A note about point configuration and facility attributes

In CygNet Studio, you must configure a screen object to the point level to resolve the reference facility, even if you want to only show facility attributes. For example, in order to have a text box object show a facility description, you need to configure the UDC of the text box for facility attributes to work. While not necessarily related to reference facility configuration, it's important to know that you cannot show facility attributes in a Studio object unless you have a UDC defined for the object. In Studio any facility resolution is done at the point level.

In Canvas, however, it is possible to configure objects to show facility attributes without the need to configure the UDC. The relative facility methods in the CygNet .NET API do not require the UDC; they just require relative facility definitions, relative facility name, and the source facility tag. In Canvas the resolution is done at the facility level, rather than at the point level.