How do I launch an external application with DeltaV Live?

What are the steps for launching an external program from a button click on a graphic in DeltaV Live?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

  • There is a second in Graphic Studio Help under "Button: Configurable Properties.  Scroll down to find section on "Open Applications". 

    The easiest way to explain this is to point you a Contextual Display faceplate and have a look at the buttons that launch PHV or Control Studio.  AI_FP for example for PHV:

    In the Click action, Open Application is used.  If the program is a DeltaV application, this option is set true and you pick from a predefined list.  If this is a different program, like a browser, or Excel, select Fals and the dialog becomes

    The application path should be defined as a PrivateString standard.  

    There are some predefined Standards under Standards/Emerson/Applications By using the Standard, you can manage the path of the application in one place, in case you might have reason to change it on different systems 

    You can then add the additional arguments for the command, such as the name of an existing file, or a URL to use in explorer, or other things.  

    Andre Dicaire

  • In reply to Andre Dicaire:

    Very helpful! Thanks. But i did notice that it will be opening exe files only. I was thinking of Excel with its path. You know those export buttons on Alarms, Events, etc? Operators do not normally have access to Windows Desktop. Is there a way to open the exported files automatically then?
  • In reply to Minerva Martin:

    To confirm, Excel is not working for me either. I don't know why, yet. Will see what I can find.

    Andre Dicaire

  • In reply to Andre Dicaire:

    You will need to "escape" characters that are in the arguments being passed, so for example if path is c:\folder\file.xls...try using c:\\folder\\file.xls. You may have other special chars that you would need to escape as well.
  • In reply to Matt Stoner:

    Thanks Matt.  I was reviewing on of my interactions and saw that.

    As for Excel, it is an exe program, but I had to define it to its install location.  So the Application Standard defined as a PrivatString was set to:

    Note this may be slightly different on your system depending on versions of Excel and such.

    The Command Argument was then defined as follows:

    As Matt indicated, the "\" backslashes are doubled "\\".

    The above will open the Historyresults.CSV file in Excel which provided this:

    (don't examine the content as this is not actually history data, but a CIOC deinition.)

    Andre Dicaire

  • In reply to Andre Dicaire:

    Hello, I represent SyTech-an Emerson Alliance Partner. Using Excel in a DeltaV application can be a challenge. Have you taken a look at our product XLReporter (www.sytech.com) which provides all the workbook features into an application that does not rely on Excel. Just a thought