jSuite is a set of Industrial Packages that comprises:
- jHistorian: A historian that enables you to save data from any OPC compatible server in the relational database of your choice at a reasonable price. (See the jHistorian specs below)
- A browser that lets you look at your relational history data in chart or in numerical form. (See the jBrowser specs below)
- An Excel Add-In that allows you to retrieve information from any of the Industry Standard relational databases and store the information into an Excel Spreadsheet. (See the jWorkBook specs below.)
- An OleDB Server that lets you easily view the data with standard off-the-shelf packages and create reports with Excel.
- Industrial applications like the electronic logbook, knowledge book, order book and handover book that capture comments and makes them available to all the users on the network.
The individual packages each perform a specific Industrial task but fit together seamlessly to satisfy a large range of common Industrial data requirements.
Industrial Software for Industrial Operations
The jSuite software was created by Industrial Engineers with many years of Industrial Experience in the most arduous of environments. The software concepts are classical and have been tried and tested in many hundreds of plants by thousands of users. The look and feel of the software was designed to cater for diverse range of requirements of the whole spectrum of plant personnel from operator to technician to maintenance manager to process engineer. Our users report that the software, once installed just continues to operate reliably, consistently and without the need to adjust it or change it.
A logical, practical set of Industrial Packages
The diagram on shows how each component interacts to provide the necessary services.
Diagram 1
The products provide a rich set of tools and utilities to capture real time, event and historic information and show the information in a set of simple yet powerful visual tools that can be easily integrated to the existing Workstation applications. The applications comprise:
- The jHistorian Product. This is a high-speed historian that has been optimized to store information into relational databases such as Oracle®, SQL Server and MS Access. The historian has been designed to reliably and efficiently process information from small to extremely large process plants. The tag information is automatically uploaded into the history manager.
- The Ole DB Provider package which provides a standard OLE connection to the optimized relational Historical tables. This enables a clear and simple SQL mechanism to retrieve data from the tables both locally and over a Network. Additionally, it provides a series of Process specific Active X controls (such as Charts, Period controls etc.) that can be used in applications that access the data.
- The jBrowser which is a small footprint, visual window into the historical and event data stored in the Oracle®, SQL Server or Access tables. Users can quickly locate and view the information in multi-pen charts, data tables and event tables. The presentation of the information has a classic DCS feel, as the information is stored in functional groups of information. Users can also copy and paste information and images into Microsoft® packages such as Excel® and Word®.
- The jWorkBook Package which is an Excel Add-In that manages and executes queries to any of the supported relational databases. Queries can be run in test mode or they can be made to store the information directly into the Excel spreadsheet. The queries can also be grouped and multiple queries can be run sequentially.
- The jLogBook Package, which replaces the conventional pencil and paper logbook in a control room with a corporate wide electronic logbook. Entries made into the logbook are seen immediately on any of the machines connected into the system. The operations of the process become highly visible to all the personnel in the operating environment and it becomes simpler to troubleshoot problems and situations. Additionally, the filtering and finding mechanisms in the jLogBook enable users to quickly find historical information relating to a specific piece of equipment or event.
Reference site or free trial software
We respect the privacy of our current users and so promote the idea of unlimited period trial software. We issue a small but completely functional system that can be set up in a couple of hours and can be storing your information in the database of your choice. There is no time limit on the use of this free software.
Training Programs and facilities
The software is intuitive and easy to use. There is also an easy-to-use, extensive on-line help system available to you. If you require training, then your system integrator is qualified to do this using one of the training courses provided by our experts. You can contact us to get the name of the Systems Integrator closest to you.
Choose from various levels of support
We offer several levels of support. On-line support by e-mail is offered at no cost by our support personnel and by our systems Integrators. Just send an e-mail to
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and within 24 hours, you will have an answer. Alternatively, there are various telephonic support contracts available. Our Gold Support Contract provides for unlimited number of calls in normal office hours and costs 15% of the contract price per annum. For more details please contact our sales executive.
The future and where our product is going
While we make no commitment to the overall direction, we can say that the evolution of the product will in general be as follows:
- We will expand the number of relational database that we can support. (Already, we support Oracle, Access and SQL Server.)
- We will expand the number of Process Information Sources. We currently support any Process Source that supports the OOPC standard.
- We will be coming out shortly with various Industrial Specific Applications similar to our jWorkBook application. Our next planned application will be a Downtime monitoring package.
- We will of course be enhancing our existing packages.
A simple, workable licensing strategy to cover all the components in jSuite
Essentially, our server (historian) licensing is based on the number of tags you need to historize. There is an initial free (unlimited time) version that supports 15 tags and then you purchase tags in one of several increments ranging from 75 tags up to 70,000 tags.
Our client licensing is based on the number of users. I.e. You can buy user licenses in singles, five packs, twenty packs or one hundred packs. For each client program, there is also a free version which is valid for a month but can be renewed an unlimited number of times by dialing into our web site.
Our Product is Guaranteed
Our product carries a limited warrantee against faulty workmanship for a period of twelve months.
Quality Assurance carried out rigorously and scrupulously
Our development team adheres strictly to the Extreme Programming Paradigm, which means that we are able to create quality products, economically and in the required time. For more information of the Extreme Programming Paradigm, please feel free to look at the Extreme Site.
Source Code Availability
Our source code is generally not available. In certain circumstances, we will entertain the idea of an escrow arrangement.
St James Software jHistorian
The diagram below shows how data is collected from the InTouch SCADA package and stored in the relevant Oracle, SQL or MS Access tables.
Diagram 2: click to enlarge
Initially, the configuration of the historian is carried out automatically by uploading the InTouch configuration into the historian's configuration files. Based on the required sampling rates, the historian creates and maintains the various Oracle® History tables so that users can access the information directly using the tools provided.
The historian then cyclically collects information from the InTouch system and stores the data in the tables. It also calculates the averages, maximums, and minimums and stores the events such as the process alarms as they occur in the process.
The historian is also responsible for the management of the various tables as well as ensuring that the files are kept to the required sizes etc.
A monitoring, configuration and control console is available to manage the historian. This console provides live information on the operation of the historian.
Brief Specifications
Platform: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000 or NT machine capable of running Oracle®. An InTouch® system or driver to the Process Control System (PLC, DCS or Data Acquisition Device.)
Architecture: The historian is a single executable that stores information at multiple sampling rates into a set of Oracle®, SQL Server or Access Tables. The behavior of the historian is dictated according to the configuration tables, which are created by the AutoConfig package and input from the end user. Typically, the historian runs as a service and is started when the machine boots up.
Storage Strategy: The historian comprises multiple storage managers. Each manager is responsible for a single storage rate and stores the information in a single Oracle® table for that storage rate. E.g. the ten-second manager stores data in the ten-second table, the one-minute average managers stores data in the one-minute table etc. Each manager is responsible for maintaining the tables (e.g. managing the size of the tables) according to the configuration.
Each tag is assigned a profile of storage rates. E.g. a fast moving tag may be assigned the "Fast" profile which could consist of storage rates of ten seconds, one minute, 6 minutes, and hourly. Whereas a slower moving tag could be assigned the "Slow" profile, which could consist of the following storage rates: 6 minutes, hourly, every shift and daily averages.
Console: A diagnostic console provides information on the status of the historian and the individual managers as well as providing a means to modify the configuration.
Diagram 3:click to enlarge
Capacity: There is no software limit to the number of tags or storage managers. However, the amount of data stored will be limited by the capacity of the hardware. I.e. The amount of data collected may be dictated by the DCS or PLC providing the raw data or it may be limited by the network. The rate of data stored in the Oracle tables may be dictated by the speed of the machine or the speed of the hard drive.
Performance: The performance (i.e. data storage rate). In benchmark tests, data storage rates of one million values per minute on a Pentium Pro II have been measured. Obviously, this speed could be increased by adding more processors, improving the speed pf the hard drive or using a faster processor.
Data: The data is stored in floating point format in the Oracle®, SQL or Access Tables. Each historian can store the data as raw data (i.e. samples,) or as calculated values (i.e. averages, maximums or minimums.) In the case of calculated values, the source of the calculation can be defined. For example, the six-minute average could be calculated from the data in the one-minute average table or it could be calculated from data in the ten-second sample table. A quality word is also stored for every value stored in the table. A standard quality-coding scheme has been used.
Table Sizes: The system administrator defines how much data is to be stored for each sampling rate. E.g. it may be decided to store 2 days of ten-second values, 2 weeks of one-minute values, 3 months of six-minute averages etc. These configuration details are entered into the system via the jHistorian console.
Access to the data stored by the jHistorian: The data is stored in the tables in a highly optimized form. The Ole-DB provider makes the access of the optimized tables simple because it maps the optimized tables into a set of easy to understand views of the data. Using this provider, and the interactive SQL tool, it is possible for a user to enter simple queries such as "Select FIC100 from oneMin where Logtime = sysdate".
Alternatively, the user can use the St James Software Browser and see the information directly in a Chart or in Tabular form.
Events: The historian keeps a record of all events coming from the process. The events are stored in a single table indexed by the log time. The user can specify (i) which tags are to have their events recorded and (ii) what types of events are to be recorded. For each event, various information is stored This information includes the log time and date (to millisecond resolution), the tag name, event name, alarm type, value, limit, priority, alarm group etc.
The Event table can be accessed directly in the Oracle®, SQL Server or Access Database or alternatively, it can be used accessed via the jWorkbook query tool or using the St James Software jBrowser package
Drivers: The historian can connect to any OPC compatible server. Custom drivers that connect directly to the data acquisition devices are also available.
Getting Started
The on-line help file can be down loaded from the St James Software Internet address. This help file provides detailed user and technical details and a "Frequently Asked Question" FAQ document. Alternatively, the thirty-day jHistorian trial can be downloaded from the same address.
To get more information on the jHistorian, you can contact us at
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or contact one of our distributors listed on St James Software's web site.
St James Software jBrowser
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®, MS Access® or SQL Server® databases.
Brief Specifications
Platform: Any windows (95,98,2000 or NT) based machine that can run Internet Explorer.
Architecture: Form based, multiple window application communicating via Internet or Intranet to an Oracle®, SQL Server or Access Database. Alternatively, direct invocation of the Browser in an html file. The clients can be any Windows based workstations.
Organization: Up to 20 (or more) Trend pens can be organized in "groups" of multiple tags that are associated with an area or process function. The user accesses these groups from a pull-down combo. The jBrowser screen shows various user selectable windows of information such as the Chart, Data Table, Event Table, Legend, etc. These windows are controlled by the Group Control and the Period Control.
Period Control: The Period Control provides a simple method of choosing the historic period of interest. Anchor points may be set at the start, end, middle and either end of the period. The sampling rate can be automatically chosen by the system or can be manually overridden. Averages, maximums, minimums or samples may be selected. The Period Control can also be set to update in live mode so that real time data is displayed.
Chart: The chart shows the pens in multiple colors for the period selected in the period control. Vertical and horizontal crosshairs show the position of the data of interest. A tooltip show the current point and date/time of the point and the Y axis responds to the cursor movements by showing the scales of the selected point. Holding down the shift key provides a floating legend of each point aligned to its position on the chart. Holding down and dragging the cursor provides a zoomed image of the selected area. The data table and event table are synchronized to the cursor position on the chart. (I.e. as the cursor is moved across the chart, the data and event tables selected records are updated.)
Historic Data Window: This window shows the data in tabular, numeric form. As the cursor is moved across the chart, so the table synchronizes to show the values at the selected time.
Event Window: This window shows the events associated with the period of time selected in the Period Control. A button on the Event Window allows the user to view only events associated with the tags in the selected group or the events of all the tags for the selected period.
Legend: Shows the details of the tags in the current group as well as the values at the position of the cursor on the chart in both numeric and Bar format.
Group Configuration Window: This window enables authorized users to configure the tags in the groups. The user can allocate up to 20 (or more) pens to each group and define the position of the group and the user description etc.
Export of data and images to other applications: Once the user has located the data of interest, the historic data, event data or the image can be exported to other Windows based applications. This is achieved by simply selecting the Edit Copy menu item and pasting the information directly into the Spreadsheet, Word Processor or other document.
Getting Started
The on-line help file can be down loaded from the St James Software Internet address. This help file provides detailed user and technical details and a "Frequently Asked Question" FAQ document. Alternatively, the thirty-day jBrowser trial can be downloaded from the same address. To get more information on the jBrowser, you can contact us at
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or contact one of our distributors listed on St James Software's web site.
St James Software jLogBook Package
The jLogBook is a corporate wide electronic logbook designed for Industrial Operating Conditions. The jLogBook replaces the paper-based logbook that is typically situated in most control rooms or technical and maintenance workshops.
In contrast to the paper-based logbook, jLogBook provides many advantages over the conventional form of recording logs. For example:
- There is immediate corporate visibility to log entries made in any of the logbooks across the sites. As soon as an entry is made to a logbook, that information is available to all the consoles across the site and to authorized users off site. The primary advantage reported by users of electronic logbooks is that an immediate improvement in the coordination of operations is achieved since everyone is aware of the operations being undertaken.
- Entries to the logbooks are not limited to the people in the particular area. For example, a maintenance manager can add an entry to the control room logbook if the repairs he is undertaking relates to that area.
- It becomes very easy to find information in the logbooks using the filtering and sorting tools. If for example, a user wants to see all log entries relating to a particular piece of equipment, then he may filter on that equipment name and only the relevant records will appear.
- The presentation of the logs is improved. Instead of hand written logs, the information is sorted, ordered and displayed in color-coded form in a grid.
- It becomes much easier to categorize the log information so that the data entry is simpler and later analysis becomes meaningful. The administrator can set up default codes for the various categories that the operator must choose from when adding a log. At a later stage, queries can be made against these codes.
Brief Specifications
Platform: Windows 95, 98 or NT machine or Windows 2000 machine with a connection to the Oracle, MS Access or SQL Server Databases.
Architecture: A centralized database holds all the log entries as well as the configuration information. Users from multiple operating consoles can access the information simultaneously. The structure of the logs, the presentation of the logs and the functionality of the application is controlled by the configuration information. This gives an unprecedented degree of configurability to the package.
Flexibility: The following items can be configured.
- Log data: The number and structure of the fields that are to be logged.
- Appearance of the window: Default sizing, titles, position.
- Category (Field characteristics) Position in the table, Format, whether displayed in the grid or the form, Position in the grid and the form, Format (I.e. color, font, size etc. of the display, whether or not Priority colors are to be used for this field. The structure of the form window can be varied: i.e. the number of rows and columns.
- List of options: For each category, you can define a list of options that will drop down when the user types in a new entry.
- Users: For each user, you can configure what information can be viewed, what information can be modified, whether the user has to log in to make changes etc.
Functions:
- Searching and filtering the information: The criteria for the search is typed into the form at the top of the grid.
- Adding New Logs: When a new log is added, various fields such as time and date, user etc. are automatically updated. For the remaining other fields, the user can select from drop down lists.
- Modifying and deleting logs. Is possible only if the user is authorized and subject to the permissions assigned to that user.
- Printing Information: The sorted and searched logs are printed to any configured printer on the network.
- Viewing Information: When the record is selected, the full information is displayed in the form above the grid. Additional data can also be viewed by clicking on the horizontal scroll bar.
Getting Started
The detailed jLogBook on-line help information is available on this web site. There is also an on-line tutorial to help you get started. To get more information on jLogBook, you can contact us at
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or contact one of our distributors.
St James Software jWorkBook Package
jWorkbook is an Excel Add-In that enables you to build powerful queries to access the information directly and see the information in your Excel Spreadsheet. You can build reports quickly and interactively using the power of single or multiple SQL statements and store the results directly in the spreadsheet. The data can be collected from any Oracle®, MS Access® or SQL Server® database.
jWorkBook: The Need.
Often there is information you need that is stored in the Oracle, Access or SQL database. Typically, to get this information requires that you find a programmer that has access to the database and who will then create an application that will show the information to you in the form you are looking for. This can be a long and tortuous route and may not always be possible as programmers are in short supply and generally have a large amount of "more important" tasks to carry out.
jWorkBook is an easy to use tool that, with a minimal of training (in the form of an on-line tutorial), you can quickly access a database and start getting meaningful results into a spreadsheet. From here, calculations and formatting can be done to manipulate the information to the format you are looking for.
Brief Specifications
Platform: Windows 95, 98 or NT machine or Windows 2000 machine with a connection to the Oracle, MS Access or SQL Server Databases.
Architecture: The jWorkBook is an Excel Add-In. It can be loaded from the Tools menu from within Excel. There is also a toolbar which enables the user to easily run named queries or groups of queries.The jWorkBook also has its own data storage in the form of an Excel like grid where the information can be previewed before it is written to the spreadsheet.
Features
* Conection to Oracle, Access and SQL Server databases.
* Creation and testing of SQL queries.
* Testing of the queries in "local" mode where the output of the queries are displayed in the local grid.
* Writing of the data sets into the spreadsheet into the configured destination addresses.
* Ability to use Spreadsheet cells to act as variables in the queries.
* Management of named queries in a query grid. These queries can be edited and executed from a pull down menu.
* Grouping of queries into sets that can be sequentially run so as to create outputs in various parts of the spreadsheet.
* Support for bi-directional transfer of information via the SQL commands.
* Support for Data Definition SQL commands such as CREATE TABLE etc.
* Provision of on-line help information and a tutorial with a test database (Access format).
* Toolbar facility to enable the execution of queries and groups of queries from the spreadsheet without having to call up the main jWorkBook window.
* No time limit on the license. (Users should register to receive a license but there is no charge for the license.)
* Various cartridges to simplify the queries for more complex structures are to be made available for different products. (Currently jSuite cartridge is available.)
* Ability to store and retrieve the queries for use in libraries.
* E-mail support is available via
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Getting Started
The jWorkBook on-line help file is available on this web site. There is also an on-line tutorial to help you get started. Alternatively, you can get started straight away by registering and downloading the package. If you like, to get more information on jWorkBook, you can contact us at
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