Installing the Collector Toolkit with Historian

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About Installation

This topic covers installing the Collector Toolkit with Historian in Windows. To use the Collector Toolkit in Linux, see Installing and Configuring the Collector Toolkit for Linux.

Before you install the Collector Toolkit, verify that Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 is already installed on your computer. The Collector Toolkit is one of the standard installation options from the Proficy Historian install. User developed Collectors built with the Collector Toolkit will require a client license in the same manner as other API programs. Run the install on the computer on which you want to develop your collector and select the Collector Toolkit option at the prompt. Refer to the Getting Started with Historian guide for the complete installation procedure

Creating the Custom Collector Using the Wizard

You can create a custom collector using the Visual Studio wizard or the sample application available as part of the installation. If you want to create a collector using the wizard, follow the below procedure.

The toolkit, by default, gets saved in the same installation folder as Historian in the Program files folder of your computer. For example, C:\Program Files\Proficy\Proficy Historian\CollectorToolkit\CollectorToolkit. The example here indicates that Historian is installed in C drive. If Historian is installed in D drive, the location changes accordingly.

  1. Navigate to the folder where the toolkit utility is saved. For example, C:\Program Files\Proficy\Proficy Historian\CollectorToolkit\CollectorToolkit in the case of a 32-bit collector and C:\Program Files\Proficy\Historian\x86\CollectorToolkit in case of a 64-bit collector.
  2. Double-click the CollectorToolkit.sln file. A Microsoft Visual Studio window opens in Administrator mode.
  3. Right-click the project in the Solution Explorer pane and click one of the following: Build Solution or Rebuild Solution.

    An output window appears indicating whether the Build or Rebuild has been successful.

    • If you see the message, Build succeeded or Rebuild All succeeded, it indicates that the wizard has been activated. If the wizard is successful, the CollectorToolkit.ico and CollectorToolkit.vsz files appear in the wizardsfolder in Visual Studio.
    • The location of the files varies depending on the operating system. For example, if it is on Windows 7, the location is C:\Users\UserName\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Wizards. For Windows XP, the location is C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\MyDocuments\Visual Studio 2010\Wizards.
  4. Proceed to create a custom collector.