ATTENTION: The DDE standard and driver are now deprecated and are only included in the ClearSCADA product for backward compatibility.
This driver is a simple driver. It provides additional functionality to enable ClearSCADA to interface with specific supported devices using a particular protocol. To interact successfully with such devices, you need to:
- Install and run the driver
- Ensure that the driver is licensed
- Configure the required database items and settings on the driver
- Ensure that the database items (and any database items on which they depend) have valid, saved, configuration and are 'In Service'.
Intended Audience
This guide is designed to be used by engineers who are responsible for configuring database items to make use of the features of the DDE driver. It can also be used by system administrators for diagnosing communication issues relating to the DDE protocol (see DDE Specific Status Display Attributes).
Prerequisite Reading
This guide contains technical information that is intended for users that are sufficiently familiar with ClearSCADA configuration and operation. Before reading this driver guide, ensure that you are familiar with:
- ClearSCADA configuration practices, procedures, and the configuration of properties that are common to many database items. For more information, see the ClearSCADA Guide to Core Configuration, and the ClearSCADA Guide to Core Point Configuration.
- Driver structure, components, and configuration properties, pick actions, and status attributes that are common to many drivers. For more information, see the ClearSCADA Guide to Drivers.
- Simple driver composition, configuration order, and configuration properties and logging options that are common to many simple drivers. For more information, see the ClearSCADA Guide to Simple Drivers.
Document Scope
This guide explains how to configure ClearSCADA to use the Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) protocol to communicate with third-party devices. It also describes the various DDE driver features that can be used for diagnosing DDE-related issues.
Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) is a commonly used communications protocol that enables data exchange between servers and clients, regardless of the product manufacturer.
ClearSCADA can use the DDE protocol to communicate with third-party devices, such as Siemens® S5 PLCs. The ClearSCADA DDE Driver provides a ClearSCADA system with the additional functionality required to communicate with devices using the DDE protocol.
The DDE documentation explains how to configure DDE-specific features and items within the ClearSCADA database (see Configuring DDE Devices in ClearSCADA). In order to configure such items successfully, you need to be familiar with DDE Components and Terminology.
NOTE: There are no driver-specific pick actions for database items on this particular driver. However, users with the required privileges can add custom pick actions to a database item by using the User Methods tab on the relevant configuration Form (see Using the User Methods Tab to Define Custom Actions in the ClearSCADA Guide to Core Configuration). See a system administrator for the documentation associated with such custom actions (also known as ‘methods’).