Introduction to File Collector

You can install the File Collector using the instructions in the Data Collector General. Optionally, you can use the silent install feature, which is also described in the Installing collector via command line.

If you encounter problems with opening the Historian Admin Client following the install of the File Collector, perform an upgrade of the Historian Server. On upgrading the File collector from 7.0 SP2\7.0 SP3\7.0 SP4 to 7.0 SP5 or later versions, you will notice the following:

The previous version of the collector will be in the stopped state and the new version of the collector will be in the running state. In the previous installs of Historian 7.0 (SP2\SP3\SP4), the file collector name was indicated using the destinationNode_Collector. But from SP5 onwards, the collector name is indicated as sourceNode_Collector.
The data collection will be stopped for the tags which were added earlier to the File Collector.

To overcome this:

you must change the collector to the newer version in Tag properties for all the tags which were added using the older version of the collector.
delete the older version of the collector from the Collectors tab in VB Admin.

Use the File Collector to import CSV and XML text files into Historian. Since the files can contain data, tags and tag properties, as well as messages, the File Collector is a very useful tool for bringing 3rd party data into Historian.

You can import files using ANSI encoding only.

The File Collector uses the ImportFiles folder for its operations, which can be found in the Historian program folder. The ImportFiles folder contains the following subdirectories:


Directory	Function
Error	If a CSV or XML file contains errors, the file collector will stop processing it and place the file in this folder.
Incoming	Files that are to be processed by the file collector are placed here.
Processed	Files that have been successfully imported by the file collector are placed here.
Working	Files are placed in this folder while the file collector is importing their contents.

Note: The ImportFiles folder is not created until you run the File Collector.

To import a file, place it in the Incoming folder. At the beginning of the next cycle (one of the parameters entered by the user through the Historian Administrator), the system initiates the file import operation, processes the data, stores the result in an archive, and moves the file from the Incoming folder to the Processed folder. During the processing operation, the file moves to the Working folder and the filename changes to YMDHMS-Data.csv or .xml file (for example, 010810103246-data.csv).

When processing is complete, the name changes back to YMDHMS-filename.csv or YMDHMS-file- name.xml, as appropriate (for example, 010810103246-tagtest3line.csv). If errors occur during processing, error messages are logged in the Filecollector_YMDHMS.log file (for example, FileCollector_01081214759.- log) within the LogFiles directory and the file moves to the Error directory.

When the number of days you specify in the Processed File Purge parameter have passed, the system deletes the imported file from the Processed folder. The Error directory is never cleared.

Note: NOTES

Since a File Collector is really an import function rather than a data collection operation, standard collector features such as compression, buffering, browsing, start/stop collection do not apply.
If you are adding tags using the File Collector, ensure that you specify the Collector Source Address and the Tag Source Address fields in the CSV file. If you do not, the Collector and Source Names are not added to the tags created by the File Collector.