VBA is a powerful scripting tool that is fully integrated into iFIX to let you quickly and easily automate operator tasks and create automation solutions. VBA scripts can be as simple or complex as you need them to be, allowing you to add custom functionality and extend iFIX as needed to accommodate your automation strategy. Its powerful and easy-to-use development environment allows you to reuse existing Visual Basic code.
VBA replaces the scripting engine used in previous versions of FIX to provide a complete, integrated development environment that is familiar to millions of developers already using Visual Basic. It provides virtually unlimited power and extensibility for accessing other iFIX components and external objects and data. The GE implementation of VBA provides:
- Access to all exposed properties, methods, and events for iFIX objects
- Support for multiple data sources, including the iFIX process database, any OPC server, properties of other objects, and SQL databases
- ODBC support
- Support for ActiveX controls
- Script Authoring Wizards and iFIX commands to help you write scripts for common tasks
- Secure Containment™ for third-party ActiveX controls
The iFIX WorkSpace provides access to the Visual Basic Editor (VBE), a built-in editor and debugger that allows you to view, halt, suspend, and resume active scripts. In the VBE, you can write scripts for all iFIX objects, create VBA forms, access any available data source, display objects using the Object Browser, and debug your scripts. You can also use VBA to write scripts for toolbar buttons and write scripts for entries in the Scheduler.
iFIX exposes a global library of common global subroutines that can be easily changed in one place. It provides full support for thousands of commercially available objects and ActiveX controls.
This implementation of VBA includes a powerful find and replace feature, a high speed persistence feature that greatly reduces file retrieval time, and an enhanced cut and paste feature that copies all forms, modules, and scripts associated with a selected object. These enhancements significantly reduce development time and increase your system's overall performance. The unique architecture of iFIX has also allowed us to dramatically increase the speed and performance of VBA.
