What's new in OPC Studio 2024.1

See also: Versions; Previous version: What's new in QuickOPC 2023.2

Internal version number: 5.80

Key changes:

• PubSub topic tree
  
• Python support on Linux

Nomenclature

• Introduced a "product family" concept. The product family is "OPC Studio". The OPC client toolkit product now belongs to this family, and it remains called "QuickOPC" (or "OPC Data Client", as branded by Software Toolbox).
• A new product in the "OPC Studio" family is "Excel Connector". This is now a separate product, providing essentially what what was before available through the "Excel Option" to the QuickOPC product.

Targeting

• Python is now supported on Linux operating systems.
• .NET runtimes: Added support for .NET 8.
• Operating systems: Added Windows 11 version 23H2.

Licensing

• Excel Connector becomes a separate licensing component (earlier, Excel Option was an "add-on" license under QuickOPC licensing component).
• The trial license for Excel connector allows for up to 15 points to servers other than our own demo servers.

Delivery

• Python examples are now also available in a public repository on GitHub, https://github.com/OPCLabs/Examples-QuickOPC-Python .

Installation and Uninstallation

• The installer is common for the whole OPC Studio product family. At the beginning of the installation the user is given a choice from the predefined products (QuickOPC, Excel Connector), or a custom selection of components.

Component Improvements

OPC UA PubSub

• JSON message parsing has been updated to cover version 1.05.03 of OPC UA.
• UADP message parsing has been updated to cover version 1.05.03 of OPC UA.

Component Refactorings

OPC UA Administration and PKI

• The automatically determined OPC UA application URI now uses only the major version part of the application version information, instead of the full version string. This means that all builds of the application with the same major version number are now (by default) considered to be the same OPC UA application. This results in reduced number of situations in which the OPC UA application certificate has to be re-generated. More information: OPC UA Application URI Derivation.

Excel Connector

• For OPC integration with Excel, Excel Connector is now a separate product in the OPC Studio product family, providing the functionality that was earlier available by combining QuickOPC and Excel Option for QuickOPC.

Tools and Online Services

Demo Servers and Publishers

• The OPC UA Demo Publisher is now available under .NET 8.0.

OpcCmd Utility

• The OpcCmd utility is now available under .NET 8.0.
• The JSON ApplicationDescription, PubSubConnection, ServerEndpoints and Status discovery message types (new in OPC UA 1.05.03) are now recognized by the uaPubSubSniffer subscribeCapture command.
• The UADP Status discovery message type (new in OPC UA 1.05.03) is now recognized by the uaPubSubSniffer subscribeCapture command.

OPC UA PubSub Formatter

• The OPC UA PubSub Formatter now allows a selection of specification level 1.05.03, and formats the messages accordingly with this new specification. For 1.05.03, it also offers a selection of pre-defined formats (from OPC UA specification Part 14 Appendix A).

Documentation and Help

• The User's Guide is common for the whole OPC Studio product family. It contains parts common to all products in the family, and parts that are specified to the individual products (QuickOPC, Excel Connector).