Welcome to WinCC Unified Open Pipe
WinCC Unified Open Pipe is an Openness concept based on pipe technology to connect a customer application to WinCC Unified RT.
Compared to Openness RT (ODK), WinCC Unified Open Pipe offers a limited number of functions. However, the connection code can be written in any programming language that supports pipe technology. Even batch access to the pipe is possible.
The main aim of WinCC Unified Open Pipe is to make it possible for you to connect an existing application to WinCC Unified RT with little workload and independent of the programming language. The available commands let you communicate with WinCC Unified RT using tags and alarms.
Pipe technology
The pipe is a data stream with buffer between two processes that works according to the FIFO principle (First In First Out). One process is provided by WinCC Unified RT (OpennessManager). It creates the pipe and processes the requests of the customer application. The second process is the customer application. It connects to the pipe by using its name, sends requests and receives responses.
Name of the pipe:
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Under Windows: "\\.\pipe\HmiRuntime"
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Under Linux: "/tmp/HmiRuntime"
As soon as the pipe is open, single-line commands can be sent; they must end in a line break ("\n" or "\r\n"). Responses are returned using the same pipe instance.
Basic syntax and expert syntax
Two types of syntax are available for WinCC Unified Open Pipe:
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Basic syntax
You use the basic syntax when you are working with basic batch files (e.g. in a CMD.exe or batch).
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Expert syntax
You use the expert syntax when you are working with scripts or programming languages that have a JSON parser, e.g. Python, Node.js or Powershell.
Samples
You will find the following file on the installation medium: "Support\Openness\Siemens.Unified.Openness_SDK_<version number>.zip"
Extract the file locally to any directory on your computer. You will then find examples of the use of WinCC Unified Open Pipe in the subfolder "OpenPipe\Samples".