Integrating the Latest Technologies into a Java Process Control MMI

The LHC/IAS (equipment control) Group is developing supervisory systems by means of industrial SCADA packages. For the past four years, we have provided Web remote access to the data coming from our supervisory and control systems. Combining our findings, an architecture and a strategy have been set-up for a generic Java interface which offers a remote and unique access to all kinds of control data. Using the object-oriented technology, the architecture dissociates the data access layer from the presentation one. Thus, the interface may be used to access different types of data. The data are stored in the interface together with a set of related information (acquisition date, unit, etc.). The graphical interface is based on components which may be stored independently and which can be accessed on demand. Attention has been given to easing the integration of commercial components. To help non-specialists in creating components, a graphical scripting language has been developed.