Tool to list all PI Tags and AF Attributes mapped to any display

This functionality was available in the PI ProcessBook support tool, and would be equally useful in Vision.

Knowing where tags/AF attributes are used throughout PI is a very important feature that would be widely utilized by PI users. As your PI system grows, it takes inordinate amounts of time to go through each analytic, Vision display, etc. to determine where certain tags/attributes are used. Knowing the impacts of changing tags/attributes would be greatly helpful Along the same lines, it would be extremely helpful to know which tag/attribute is causing an error in Vision when it displays an error in the box located at the top right of the page as well as being able to export a list of all tags/attributes used in Vision displays.

1. What specific problem are you trying to solve with this enhancement ? : a main use case, is to be able to evaluate the impact of a change regarding the AF Tree, elements or attributes or regarding PI points on all existing displays in PI-Vision. Regarding contextual displays based on templates, the same need exists about change regarding AF templates content.

2. How would you like this feature to work? : a solution would be to generate a global reporting in the form of a table (could be something like a CSV format) of all displays and their related exploited AF templates, elements, attributes or related PI-Points (when directly linked in the display).

3. Who will benefit the most from this enhancement ? The team that has to administer PI AF DB content and to manage its changes, the team that have to update existing Displays in case of changes.

It would be greatly appreciated if you could implement this feature in the next release. This functionality was available in our previous visualizer. It was useful to have a list of tags with their descriptions on very busy screens, as it saved time searching for the position of the tags in the process

We achieve this via a pre-configured PowerBI report, that queries the PIFD database. Easy to trim the query with PowerBI tools and navigate through to the recalcitrant point/s. Won't necessarily work with Collections or Asset Comparison Tables, but will find the elements/attributes for which it was saved. Works very well and has been a tremendous assistance when identifying DEV displays to productionise via the PI Vision Display Utility.

Knowing where tags are used is a key feture, so this feature should be embedded in the product.

It would be very intersting to be able to access these information using a REST API

Entering this on behalf of a customer:

• What specific problem are you trying to solve with this enhancement?

  • There is a lack of ability to determine source of data points on a vision screen in bulk (ie which screens utilize pi tag references, which screens utilize AF references and in regards to AF references which data server and database are being used). When looking to remove databases or rename items there is not an easy way to determine impact and make proper notifications. The ease of use of creating visions screens coupled with poor vision security functionality allowed for a proliferation of screen configurations. As cleanup is attempted this summary information would be vital to remove and update legacy screens.

• How would you like this feature to work?

  • A tool similar to the vision screen access report but showing screen (ID, link), number of pi tag references (including pi tag server) and AF attributes (including AF server and database).

• Who will benefit the most from this enhancement?

  • PI administrators and support teams trying to manage user interactions and trust in the tools.

As a PI admin, it would be very helpful to be able to know where or if a tag/attribute is used. On more than one occasion, we ran into circumstances where we needed to modify or delete an obsolete tag/attribute but were unsure where or if that tag/attribute was used within the PI system.

When PI Vision displays errors in the box located at tht top right of the page (left of the username) it should include the attribute or PI Tag name that is causing the error.

I would also like to see this idea expanded beyond PI Vision to a "where used" query that identifies all of the AF analyses where an attribute is used.

Trying to support end-users, it would be nice to be able to tell them how to navigate a menu structure (via the hyperlinked PI Vision pages) to get to a particular display. Same thing with being able to see a particular tag within PI Vision, a cross-reference would be handy. On both PI System Explorer and PI Vision it is good to know when a tag is obsoleted so analyses or pages can be updated as needed. I've been able to do this using SQL against the PI Vision database, getting the tag list from DisplayDataSources, scraping hyperlinks out of StandardDisplays and pulling ParentID's from the BrowseElements table to get what I need from PI Vision. Using PI Builder, I can get all the information I need from the AssetFramework, but not everyone is able to do that digging and put the information into a comprehensive dataset. A utility for easily exporting this information to Excel or something like it would be more supportable from an end-user standpoint. Also, if I lose access to the database or the structure changes, my work might not function or would at least need to be updated; a tool built into the interface and supported by Aveva would be much more sustainable. A taglist for the AssetFramework environment similar to the one in PI Vision would be nice. I even saw a comment about pulling objects from the PI Vision pages, that is something I've been unable to scrape together so far.

In the area of change management: it would be useful to be able to find all the displays where a particular PI Tag or AF attribute is being used, so that the impact of retiring or changing data streams could be assessed and managed.

The ability to export tags from a Vision Display to excel is of great value. I export tags from PB to use to create an AF DB/Elements I would expect to do the same in Vision, a tag list or AF Element list.

This tool was a great troubleshooting tool in Processbook. If the same button or function can be available in Vision it would help not only users but also support analysts.

Day to day management of displays is part of a practical domain in which theorical developpers see less value sometimes, I can understand.

To be able to identify rapidly where a TAG or AF object has been used in PI Vision displays is a crucial task that need a lot of effort when no tools exist.

I also understand we could build a query like the one suggested on last August 18.

Or course there is a balance between the effort needed to a new fonctionnality and the benefits it provides to customers, I see the point which was expressed for a similar demand here [https://pisystem.feedback.aveva.com/ideas/PIVISION-I-1191] where it was decided "...to decline this item in favor of other high priority work the product needs."

To be able to cross reference tags should have been thought in the basic design phase of the new PI Vision product, not to be "begged for" in customer support.

My 2 cents.

I viewed the list of suggested enhancements. There are several requests for similar functionality. They often refer to the same "help me find" concept but from different tools. If you add up the votes from each of these separate ideas, they total several thousand. Please address this "where used" concern from multiple tools, PI System Explorer, PI Vision and PI SMT.

As PI Systems grow larger, searching each analysis, PI Vision display, etc. to identify where an attribute is used is not productive. I searched AVEVA documents for a solution to this. I see questions and requests going back to 2019. I would expect that after four years, OSI/AVEVA would have addressed this. When we change the name of an AF attribute, all analyses that reference that attribute reference the new name. So there must be an existing way to identify the analysis in which each attribute is currently used. Please provide logic where we can right click on an attribute and identify all of the analyses where the attribute is used. Another useful feature would be to right click on an analysis and identify all of the attributes used in the analysis. When improving our analyses, we need to know if an attribute is used in an analysis prior to deleting the attribute.

We need this for being able to determine all the tags on our PI Vision screens so that if we are deleting a tag(s) we can ensure all PI Vision screens are updated.

Also add the ability to list out all PI Vision hyperlink references as well!