Tag Archives: winccunified

Embed Grafana in WinCC Unified

In this scenario we will host Grafana over the IIS from WinCC Unified. So that it comes from the same origin and that we do not come over a CORS (Cross-Origin Request Blocked) problem.

What is needed to allow Grafana to be embedded in another application is to set allow_embedding = true in the Grafana configuration file.

To host Grafana over the IIS the following settings must be made:

Add a URL Rewrite to your IIS configuration file. Change “desktop-khlb071” to your computer where Grafana is running on. Restart the Webpage with the IIS Manager.

The IIS configuration file can be found here: (C:\Program Files\Siemens\Automation\WinCCUnified\SimaticUA\web.config)

                <rule name="grafana" enabled="true" stopProcessing="false">
                    <match url="grafana(/)?(.*)" ignoreCase="true" />
                    <action type="Rewrite" url="http://desktop-khlb071:3000/{R:0}" appendQueryString="true" logRewrittenUrl="false" />
                </rule>      

Change the following configuration of Grafana (defaults.ini). Change the domain to your computer name where Grafana is running on. It must be the same name what you use in the IIS configuration file!

# The public facing domain name used to access grafana from a browser
domain = desktop-khlb071

# Redirect to correct domain if host header does not match domain
# Prevents DNS rebinding attacks
enforce_domain = false

# The full public facing url
root_url = %(protocol)s://%(domain)s:%(http_port)s/grafana

# Serve Grafana from subpath specified in `root_url` setting. By default it is set to `false` for compatibility reasons.
serve_from_sub_path = true

# set to true if you want to allow browsers to render Grafana in a <frame>, <iframe>, <embed> or <object>. default is false.
allow_embedding = true

MQTT for Gaming?

MQTT for Multiplayer Games? I am not a Game-Developer and I do not know how they create multiplayer internet games. But I know that MQTT can be used for that. Why?

# IoT turns to IoP

MQTT is used for connecting devices. Think about using MQTT for connecting players. “Internet of Things” (IoT) will turn to „Internet of Players“ (IoP).

# A Player is like a Device?

In a multiplayer game, each player is like a device. When they join the game, it’s like they’re saying “Hello, I’m here!” to everyone else – this is known as a “birth message” in MQTT terms.

# Sharing Information Seamlessly

As players move around in the game, they keep sending updates like their location, healthy state, collected goodies, …. MQTT acts like a messenger, picking up this information and delivering it to everyone else playing. 

# Handling Player Exits

What if a player leaves the game intentionally or unintentionally? MQTT has a smart feature called “last will message.” It’s like a goodbye note that tells other players someone has left the game. This way, everyone stays in the loop.

# Central Management 

A central game management connected to the central MQTT broker, written in any kind of language, could be used to observe and control the game and all the players.

# Why MQTT?

1. **Real-Time Updates**: It’s fast and perfect for real-time games.

2. **Reliable**: Even if a player’s connection is shaky, MQTT makes sure messages get through.

3. **Efficient**: It doesn’t eat up much data, so players won’t lag.

4. **Simple**: It’s not complicated to set up and to use.

# Conclusion

Using MQTT in multiplayer games is like having a super-efficient mailman who ensures everyone knows what’s happening as it happens.

For Unity there is a „Unity for MQTT“ and a “GraphQL for Unity Pro” asset. Easy to use and usable with all the main build targets, including WebGL!

See the game demo I made with MQTT.. I also integrated data from WinCC Unified in the demo, with the GraphQL for Unity Pro Asset.

You can try it out: https://server.rocworks.at/unity/game/ (could be already removed when you try to access it)

3D charts with Unity3D and WinCC Unified

With WinCC Unified V19 we got the feature to read history values of logged tags with GraphQL 👍 I have now added this functionality to the GraphQL for Unity Pro Asset 🤝 

🎥 With that done it is now also very easy to read the history of logged tags in Unity3D. See the video, there we read and visualize the history values of a tag when the application starts. And then the 3D chart gets updated with real-time values coming from a GraphQL tag subscription. 

ℹ️ The GraphQL for Unity Pro Asset has a WinCC Unified interface on top of GraphQL to make the access to WinCC Unified data in Unity even more easier, you do not need to implement the GraphQL queries by your own. 

👉 You can try the demo in the browser! This is possible because the asset als supports WebGL builds and because GraphQL is transported over HTTP&Websockets. Here it is. But it might happen that this link will not work anymore when you read this post.

Note: Use the PWA WebGL Template so that the application adjusts to the size of your browser window. Or adjust the settings in the generated index.html page:

<canvas id="unity-canvas" width=auto height=auto tabindex="-1" style="width: 100%; height: 100%; background: #231F20"></canvas>

💡 Get a copy of WinCC Unified, connect your machines to it and build your Unity3D application with the data from WinCC Unified! 

Example code how to read the last 100 values of a tag.

Connection.LoggedTagValues("PV-Vogler-PC::HMI_Tag_1:LoggingTag_1",
   endTime: DateTime.Now,
   maxNumberOfValues: 100
).ContinueWith((task) => {
   Debug.Log(task.Result.Count); 
}