Can Kepware read XML input?

[Manav_Pampher]

We have machine data in XML format and need to feed that data to Kepware. Is there any way to do this?

[sam_kepware · Accepted solution]

Hi Manav, 

Thanks so much for your inquiry. You're a ThingWorx user, correct? The best support for XML file ingestion will be to use ThingWorx native file ingestion features and XML parsing capabilities.

Unfortunately, Kepware's only support for something like an XML file would cause the XML file to be locked for editing, which would prevent the file from being edited or managed until Kepware was proactively told to "unlock" the file. You would then also need to manually (through the Windows desktop environment) alter the Windows Data Source Name administration tool to update the tool to point to new XML files with potentially different parsing requirements. All told, Kepware has poor support for ingesting data from "flat files" and we should be considered a tool for "live message streams". If the XML file were provided over an industry standard protocol like MTConnect, it'd be handled beautifully with Kepware's MTConnect driver but an XML file within a file system is outside our area of focus for the Kepware product.

Please feel free to reply with more questions.

Thanks, 
Sam

[Manav_Pampher]

Thanks Sam. The XML file is actually generated by a CMM machine.

[sam_kepware]

Hi Manav, 

Thanks for the context. It doesn't change my feedback, but it's useful to know what type of system you're working with.

Thanks, 

Sam

[slangley]

Hi @Manav_Pampher.

If you have no further questions, please mark the response from @sam_kepware as the Accepted Solution for the benefit of others in the community.

Regards.

--Sharon