Auto-Start Queries for the InTouch Alarm Utilities:

Auto-Start Queries for the InTouch Alarm Utilities:

With the most recent releases of InTouch, some of the alarming functionality has been transformed into Utilities that are outside of the normal InTouch configuration. These changes have been made to continue to provide additional functionality and the ability to connect to multiple Alarm Providers with the same alarm logger/printer Alarm Client. The ability to connect to multiple providers allows for a central point for maintaining a multi-node site.

There are two main alarm utilities that connect to the Alarm Providers: Alarm Printer and the Alarm DB Logger-Manager.

Auto-Start the Alarm Printer Query:

The Alarm Printer utility provides a centralized utility to printout distributed alarm information across multiple nodes in a separate, standalone utility. With the Alarm Printer utility, you can print alarm status changes on an event-by-event basis using a dedicated line printer.

Option 1 – Modify the Alarm Printer shortcut to automatically start:

This procedure will make a copy of the existing link to the Alarm Printer utility and modify the copy to include a switch to have the query automatically start when the utility runs.

1. Click on the Start menu and expand Programs\Wonderware\InTouch group (All Programs in Windows XP). Right-click on the Alarm Printer link and select Copy. This will place a copy of the link on the Clipboard.

2. Minimize any applications to show the desktop. Right-click on the desktop and select Paste. This will place a copy of the shortcut on the desktop.

3. Right-Click on the new shortcut and select Properties. Select the Shortcut tab to display the Target link.

4. Modify the Target link by appending the following to the existing link:

-q "C:\Program Files\Wonderware\InTouch\test.alc"

5. The final Target link should look like this:

6. Select the General tab and modify the shortcut name to Alarm Printer Auto Start and click the OK button to save the changes.

7. Place this shortcut in the Windows Startup group. The utility will start when the computer starts up and begin querying the alarms.

Option 2 – Create .BAT file to include in the Startup Group:

This procedure will create a batch file that uses the Command Prompt start command. For a syntax reference, enter start /? at a command Prompt.

1. Open the Notepad utility and enter the following line:

start "Starting Alarm Printer..."

"C:\Program Files\Wonderware\InTouch\almprt.exe" -q

"C:\Program Files\Wonderware\InTouch\test.alc"

NOTE: The entire text should be on a single line.

NOTE: The path information to the almprt.exe and the .alc file may be different. The paths shown in the example are defaults.

2. Save this file on your desktop as Autostart AlarmPrinter.BAT. After saving the file, you can double-click the file to verify that the utility starts up and the query is active.

3. Place this file or a shortcut to this file in the Windows Startup group. The utility should start when the computer starts up.

Auto-Start the Alarm DB Logger Query:

The InTouch Distributed Alarm system includes the Alarm DB Logger utility that logs alarms and events to a Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) database.

Create a shortcut to WWALMLOGGER automatically start logging alarms:

This procedure will make shortcut the alarm logging component that will begin the storage of alarms and events into the alarm logger database.

1. Right-click on the desktop and select New\Shortcut. Click the Browse button and point to the wwalmlogger.exe file that is located in the InTouch installation folder. The shortcut location should be similar to the following:

2. Click the Next button and enter a name for the shortcut and click Finish.

3. Place this shortcut in the Windows Startup group. The utility will start in the background when the computer starts up and begin querying and logging the alarms to the database.