2. Defining the Device(s) and Tag(s)

The purpose of the sheet Tags is to define the device names as well as the tag names.

Note: The sequence of steps shown in this guide is a recommendation, as it felt the most natural for the author. But users are free to follow their own preferred sequence.

The name of a device is configured in the column labeled Device Name.

Important: Do not leave blank rows between entries or at the start. A blank row will be seen as the end of the configuration and the configurator will not process any entry past the blank row.

The configurator will verify the Device Name for invalid ASCII characters. To learn more about which ASCII characters are allowed, review the section Restrictions on ASCII characters allowed to be used. The configurator also validates the length of the string.

If an invalid character is found, a prompt is shown to the user.

Invalid characters are marked in red.

As spaces are not a visible character, they can't be marked in red, so the user can make use of the comment added to the cell as well.

To allow for the most efficient storage of the configuration as well as practicality when using a Device Name in a query, the maximum length of a Device Name can not exceed 50 characters.

If a Device Name is longer 50 characters, the user will be prompted.

Note: Names of Devices which exceed the 50 character limit, will by default be trimmed to 50 characters if no action is taken by the user.

Similar to the behavior users are familiar from Litmus Edge, which requires tag name uniqueness on a device level base, the configurator will check, if tag names have already be defined, if the same tag name exists more than once per device name.

The duplicate tag will have a "$_" added as prefix.

This allows the user to find the duplicate tag and correct it.

While a very common way of filling in spreadsheet style lists is to do it row by row, it has been observed that it can be beneficial to fill in all device names first, especially if more than one tag is to be defined per device.

This can be achieved through the use of copy & paste cell content as well as make use of the MS Excel autocomplete feature, where it does try to recognize what the user may want to enter as a repeat.

Making use of these fast forms of duplication, can make it very quick to fill in all the names for the devices as many time as it is needed.

Filling in the example below was done in less than 20 seconds.

If the user has defined the tag names first and if each device has the same tags, it is very easy to duplicate the device name to the respective tags.

For example a users defines the device of the first tag for this device.

Then they simply duplicate the device to all the other tags for this device.

In the picture below, the user has copied the value of row 3 shown by the interrupted green cell border. And then selected rows 5, 7 and 9 making use of Ctrl+left-click.

The user then simply pasted the value into the selected rows.

A second option is to make use of the MS Excel autocomplete feature, where it does try to recognize what the user may want to enter as a repeat.



The name of a tag is configured in the column labeled Tag Name.

Important: Do not leave blank rows between entries or at the start. A blank row will be seen as the end of the configuration and the configurator will not process any entry past the blank row.

The configurator will verify the Tag Name for invalid ASCII characters. To learn more about which ASCII characters are allowed, review the section Restrictions on ASCII characters allowed to be used. The configurator also validates the length of the string.

If an invalid character is found, a prompt is shown to the user.

Invalid characters are marked in red.

As spaces are not a visible character, they can't be marked in red, so the user can make use of the comment added to the cell as well.

To allow for the most efficient storage of the configuration as well as practicality when using a Tag Name in a query, the maximum length of a Level Name can not exceed 50 characters.

If a Tag Name is longer 50 characters, the user will be prompted.

Note: Names of Tags which exceed the 50 character limit, will by default be trimmed to 50 characters if no action is taken by the user.

Similar to the behavior users are familiar from Litmus Edge, which requires tag name uniqueness on a device level base, the configurator will check, if tag names have already be defined, if the same tag name exists more than once per device name.

The duplicate tag will have a "$_" added as prefix.

This allows the user to find the duplicate tag and correct it.

If the user has defined the device names first and if each device has the same tags, it is very easy to duplicate the values from the first device to other devices.

For example a users defines the tags for the first device.

Then they simply duplicate the tags to all the other devices.

In the picture below, the user has copied the value of row 3-6 shown by the interrupted green cell border. And then selected rows 7-10.

The user then simply pasted the value into the selected rows.

A second option is to make use of the MS Excel autocomplete feature, where it does try to recognize what the user may want to enter as a repeat.

While a very common way of filling in spreadsheet style lists is to do it row by row, it has been observed that it can be beneficial to fill in all device names first, especially if more than one tag is to be defined per device.

This can be achieved through the use of copy & paste cell content as well as make use of the MS Excel autocomplete feature, where it does try to recognize what the user may want to enter as a repeat.

Making use of these fast forms of duplication, can make it very quick to fill in all the names for the devices as many time as it is needed.

Filling in the example below was done in less than 20 seconds.



A tag configuration does require a Tag and the device. Therefore, if the user does not define a Tag and/or Device in the sheet Tags, the user will be prompted.

If a user wants to modify an existing Tag defined already on Litmus Production Record Database, they are able to modify this tag using the Configurator.

This is supported by the ability, to readback a tag configuration from Litmus Production Record Database into the configurator, and making them available in the respective sheets.

This does require, that an active connection between the Configurator and SQL Server exists and that the database LE_ProductionRecord is defined with the desired data model inside.

To read back a tag configuration, enter the Device Name and Tag Name into the cells labeled Device Name and Tag Name at the right side of the sheet.

Press the button Read Tag Configuration.

The user can be prompted multiple times to provide the SQL Authenticated Login user name and password.

The progress will be shown by a progress bar.

After retrieving the tag configuration, the values are written into the respective sheets.

Example for the sheet Tags after reading back a data model.

Example for the sheet Items after reading back a data model.

NOTE: Initial values can not be read back, as they are not part of the configuration of the tag itself but have been stored as actual values.