Web Content

Plant SCADA allows you to natively incorporate web-based content into your runtime system by adding a Web Content object to a page in Graphics Builder (see Add a Web Content Object).

Each instance of a Web Content object has a URL property that allows you to specify the content that is displayed when the host graphics page is launched. If required, you can update the URL at runtime using the Cicode function DspWebContentSetURL.

Note: Before you implement the Web Content control as part of your runtime system, you should carefully consider the security implications of the content that will be accessible. If you are using an internet-based website or application, you will be externally exposing your SCADA system and network.

When open at runtime, the Web Content browser operates in the same way as a typical web browser. However, the following functionality is not supported:

• Links that launch a popup window or a new tab will open the destination in the current browser window.

• Drag-and-drop file uploads will not work.

• Upload links will not work (including drag-and-drop uploads).

• The keyboard shortcuts presented on the page context menu (for Forward, Back, Refresh and Print) will not work.

• Javascript functions that open prompt or confirm dialogs (window.alert, window.prompt and window.confirm) will not work.

• Dialogs that prompt a user to confirm if they want to leave a page (specifically those generated by the Javascript window.onbeforeunload event handler) will not appear. Navigation will proceed immediately.

User-specific data (such as cookies, storage, and browsing history) is stored by a Web Content control in the following locations:

• User data folder

  When the first instance of a Web Content control is displayed, user data will be stored in the profile folder for the current Windows user (for example, C:\Users\<Windows User Name>). The following subfolder is used:

  \AppData\Local\AVEVA Plant SCADA\WebContent\EBWebView

  Note: If a second (or subsequent) instance of the Plant SCADA runtime client is launched on a computer by the same user, the process ID (PID) of the client process will be included in the path used by additional Web Content instances. For example:
  AppData\Local\AVEVA Plant SCADA\WebContent.<PID>\EBWebView
  When this occurs, all browser instances will run in In Private mode. No profile folders are created, and user-specific data is not stored. The PID folder is deleted when the client process exits.

• Profile folders

  Profile folders are added to the user data folder as subfolders (only for the first instance of a runtime client). These represent the users that have logged into Plant SCADA when the Web Content control is running. For example:

  \WV2Profile_<UserID>

  where <UserID> is a number that is mapped to the name of a display client user.

  If no one is currently logged in to Plant SCADA, <UserID> will be zero (0).

The current browser session will be closed when you navigate away from a graphics page that hosts a web content object.

If you want to automatically clear the browsing data associated with a Web Content user when they log out, you can use the parameter [Security]ClearWebContentBrowsingData.

Note: You need to consider which users will be logging in to the runtime system and if they need their Web Content user data protected. For more information, see Secure Web Content User Data.

You can use the INI parameter [Debug]EnableWebContentDevTools to provide access to development tools and debugging functionality for a Web Content browser.

See Also

Graphics Objects

Graphics Object Types