How to implement the communication with Zenon from Windows Service (C#)

[MelodieTran]

Hoi guys,

I'm C# developer but Zenon is new for me. For new project I have to work with Zenon editor en runtime. 
At this moment I try to communicate with Zenon from a Windows Service. But I have no idee how to do that.

Zenon has a lot of drivers that support the communication with extern devices. But the most of the drivers are for PLC devices. Is there a driver which I can use for the communication with my Windows Service. Further if these driver is available, how can I implement it in my Windows service?

Thanks a lot for helping me with this problem.

Best regards,
Melodie Tran

[mwieczorkiewicz]

I'm C# developer but Zenon is new for me. For new project I have to work with Zenon editor en runtime.


At this moment I try to communicate with Zenon from a Windows Service. But I have no idee how to do that.

You've got at least a few options to achieve that. I would say your best bets are:

• Using zenon's COM Interface (tricky, but doable) and accessing the variables, functions, settings and so on via it.
• Developing an AddIn (if you want to communicate with Zenon Runtime - use Project Service Extension, docs are on github) which would communicate with your Windows Service via IPC/gRPC/0MQ etc. (might be an overkill and - especially in bigger zenon projects - performance might be tricky, but you can keep your code away from unmanaged resources which might be an advantage). You could also just implement whatever you logic you've got in your Windows Service in the AddIn and run it automatically whenever Zenon Runtime starts.
• Waiting for 8.20 and implementing your own driver which would be then possible.

COM Interfacing is not well described in the docs but basically you access zenon's COM Interface in your Windows Service like this


var zenApp = ((zenOn.Application)Marshal.GetActiveObject("zenOn.Application"));


and then get into the project and - for example - invoke zenon's functions or read variable's value. Basically same idea follows developing AddIns. There are some snippets about it in the help, but nothing too useful, I am afraid - so I suggest to experimenting on your own and maybe get in touch directly with your local COPA-DATA sales team in case of any further questions.



Best regards,
Mikolaj

[jenaehitt]

Thank you, will give both a try