The Active application is the currently selected application on the Application page. It contains the screens related to a particular use case, which will be compiled into a single application to be published to the web server for viewing in the TWC browser. Once selected you can configure the application's name, the start page, any menu items, add Blob folders, save, publish, and/or delete the active application.

See Configuring the TWC Application for more information.

The CygNet Thin Web Client provides a way to add any CygNet point presented in the main web view to an on-demand or ad hoc chart. For any point-based control that supports a context menu, an option is available to add a selected point to a new chart or existing chart, which then opens in a separate browser tab.

See Viewing Data in a TWC Ad Hoc Chart for more information.

A published application is a fundamental TWC concept. An application is a set of related Canvas screens (a page of controls) that functionally group together and link to each other navigationally and present workflows that apply to a particular related use case. Each application is stored to a single dedicated folder in the CygNet BSS with a fully qualified BSS folder path in the form "[<DOMAIN>]<SITE>.<SERV>.<FOLDER>".

The Publishing Service will publish the grouped screens for a specific application by name and will ignore all other displays not contained within the application’s grouping of files. Each application is published to the web server by the Publishing Service for viewing in the web view.

Each application is defined in the Canvas Backstage view with a long name that equals the [DOMAINID]SITE.BSS\FOLDERNAME, a short name for easy access in the web view, a start page, and a menu hierarchy. A Blob folder contains the screens that will be used for each application. When published, the screens are compiled into a single application, which is available on the web server via a start menu to direct the user to the selected application's start page.

The general approach is that a system administrator or screen designer will create multiple applications, each containing a set of screens in a Blob folder, representing a systematic workflow for a common use case. For example, an administrator could create an Operator application, an Administrator or Engineering group application, a SCADA technician application, or a Field Pumper application. Those applications would contain different screens and menu options for different users.

The Blob folders listed on the Application page include a list of BSS folders that are referenced by the active application.

See Configuring the TWC Application for more information.

The Blob folders listed on the Server page present a list of BSS folders that are referenced by all of the configured applications.

See Configuring the TWC Server for more information.

The Publishing Service requires a Collected-Packages.zip file, containing various software packages, which are used to compile an application during the publishing process. One of the included software packages may vary based on the client’s computer’s configuration. If your server configuration changes, for example, after an upgrade, you may need a different package version to be able to publish applications.

If you see a package error in the Details section on the Publishing status page similar to the following:

Unable to find package Microsoft.NET.ILLink.Tasks with version (>= 8.0.5)

you need to update the Collected-Packages.zip file.

See Updating the Collected-Packages .zip File for information on how to update the Collected-Packages.zip file.

The regular publishing process simply converts changed Canvas files when building an application, which should be sufficient to get your applications published to the TWC web server. However, a force publishing option is provided to redownload and reconvert all Canvas files for the application. Force publishing is provided as a troubleshooting step if you've already tried the regular publishing process and your applications don't look quite right. Force publishing will add a few more seconds to the publishing process.

See Configuring the TWC Application for more information.

The CygNet Thin Web Client Installer is the TWC.Installer.SetUp.exe, and is used to install, upgrade, repair and uninstall the TWC server files. Download the TWC Services Installer files from the CygNet Download Site (login required)  site.

See Installing CygNet Thin Web Client for more information.

A TWC installation may have multiple applications, each containing many screens. Rather than recompile, publish, and download an entire application each time a user can make incremental changes to their screens, which can sometimes take a long time, the TWC uses lazy loading techniques to delay initialization of a resource on a screen and only presents the actual content when the user needs it. Whenever you call on the page directive, the web server will go and retrieve the compiled .dll if it doesn't already have it. You can refresh a screen and force the retrieval of the .dll, and the web server will go and grab the .dll that is associated with that page directive.

• Force Refresh — Note that different operating systems and browsers use different commands or shortcuts to force refresh the browser. In Chrome or Edge on Windows, the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F5 (or Ctrl+Reload) refreshes. On a Mac, hold Cmd-Shift-R or Shift-Reload. Most browsers also have a refresh button next to the URL. For Safari on a Mac right-click on "Safari" at the top left of the page and select "Empty Cache". Confirm your choice, then reload the page. For Windows, click the "Alt" key to reveal the menu bar. Select "Edit" – "Empty Cache". Then confirm the selection.

Each TWC application must have a hierarchical menu that will be displayed for the selected application when viewed in the web browser. An application must have at least one Menu item. Each menu item will open a specified page. Menu icons and separators are optionally supported.

See Configuring the TWC Application for more information.

• Use the check boxes to select the application(s) you want to publish.
• Click Multi-app publish to publish the selected applications together in a single action.

• Select Force multi-app publishing from the drop-down menu to force a republish of the selected applications. The regular publishing process simply converts changed Canvas files when building an application, which should be sufficient to get your applications published to the TWC web server. However, a force publishing option is provided to redownload and reconvert all Canvas files for the application. Force publishing is provided as a troubleshooting step if you've already tried the regular publishing process and your applications don't look quite right. Force publishing will add a few more seconds to the publishing process.

See Configuring the TWC Server for more information.

A Thin Web Client page directive is the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or address where the TWC screen is accessed in the web browser. A page directive takes the form:

• https://<server_name>:5001/<Application_Name>/<Domain ID>_<Site>_<Service>_<BSS_Folder_Name>_<File_Name>

- Or -

• https://<server_name>:5001/<Application_Name>/<Short_Name>_<File_Name>

See Short name.

Click Publish from the drop-down menu on the Application page to convert, compress, optimize, and save the screens in the active application into a single page application (SPA), which is then stored on the TWC web server and available to view in the web browser.

See Configuring the TWC Application for more information.

The Publishing queue on the Publishing page provides a list of currently running applications and all previously run applications since the last time the Publishing service was started. The Publishing queue is erased when the Publishing service is restarted.

See Viewing TWC Publishing Status for more information.

The TWC Publishing service is a runtime Windows service (TWC.PublishingService.Server) that converts, compresses, optimizes, and saves customer-built Canvas screen files into a single page application (SPA). Each application is hosted on the web service and viewed in the CygNet TWC web view in a browser. The publishing service converts and publishes multiple applications in a single action. By default, the TWC Publishing service uses port The port numbers where the TWC services run are configurable. Edit the /Config/configuration.json file and change the port numbers assigned to the TWC.PublishingService.Server and/or the TWC.Service.Server as necessary. Restart the affected server(s). 7301. Use the TWC Setup program to install and upgrade the Publishing service to the CygNetTWC\TWC.PublishingService.Server folder.

Use the Publishing page to view information about the publishing status of TWC application(s) as they are converted, compressed, and saved ready for viewing in a web browser. The queue and status details are erased when the Publishing service is restarted.

See Viewing TWC Publishing Status for more information.

A reference implementation is a series of sample screens and scripts that represent a typical oil and gas production customer’s installation. The reference implementation screens, coupled with a data model, can provide a place to start when designing and building a new workflow using the Thin Web Client application.

An HMI design software application is used to design, create, build, and configure HMI screens for the CygNet TWC web view. Currently the screen designer is a web-enhanced version of the CygNet Canvas HMI desktop client. Screens are constructed using the design and screen-building components of the Canvas client. Use Canvas to layout HMI components onto a screen (a page of controls) and configure a logical workflow between controls and related screens.

Canvas also provides the user interface to configure TWC applications and publish the applications via the TWC publishing service to the TWC web service. Once published, those screens are converted and compiled into an SPA residing on the main web server, which are then viewed in a web browser.

A Short name is an abbreviated name that corresponds to the full Blob folder location for your application, providing easy access in the web browser, so you don’t have to enter a long page directive (URL) to access the application. Spaces are not permitted in the Short name.

See Configuring the TWC Server for more information.

The TWC application is a Single Page Application (SPA) that is built using customer-built screens. Those screens are constructed via the design and screen-building portion of Canvas. Canvas is used to layout the components onto a page and configure the workflow. When published, those screens are converted and compiled into the SPA that resides on the main web server.

The soft publish option is intended to restore the previously published applications after a server upgrade. After a server upgrade, all previously published applications no longer exist and need to be republished. This option gives a user the ability to quickly restore the applications and get back to the application state they were in prior to the upgrade. The soft publish option uses already downloaded Canvas files to republish applications.

See Configuring the TWC Server for more information.

The Start page (or Home page or Landing page) indicates the page (i.e., the Canvas screen) where your users will start when first opening the application.

See Configuring the TWC Application for more information.

The TWC web service is a runtime Windows service (TWC.Service.Server) responsible for hosting the TWC web application, which responds to requests from the CygNet TWC web view (via REST API/SignalR) and serves up data from a CygNet host (current real-time values, historical values, and current alarms) to pages in the CygNet TWC web view. By default, the main web service uses port The port numbers where the TWC services run are configurable. Edit the /Config/configuration.json file and change the port numbers assigned to the TWC.PublishingService.Server and/or the TWC.Service.Server as necessary. Restart the affected server(s). 5001. Use the TWC Setup program to install and upgrade the web server to the CygNetTWC\TWC.Service.Server folder.