OPC UA Same Node Name issues - NodeID

[RVallieu]

I've been testing a lot lately with the NI OPC UA Toolkit.

I've done some successful projects using OPC UA in LabVIEW and find it works well for Tag, Message, and even Streaming data between distributed systems.

What I have found recently with testing compatibility with 3rd party OPC UA solutions, and actually the OPC Foundation Example OPC UA Server is that LabVIEW OPC UA seems to be unable to meet the criteria/capability outlined in the OPC UA Specification for allowing "Nodes" with the same NAME, but are differentiated with a NodeID. NodeID can be of various types...

This hasn't been a limiter for me yet - as I have been using the NI OPC UA Server instance and not wanted to use tags with the same names under the same folders, BUT when I use the NI OPC UA Client Browse on the OPC UA Foundation Example Server it is UNABLE to distinguish the difference between Nodes that have the same string name, but different NodeID qualifiers.  See the attached Image generated using Prosys OPC UA Client.

I have had no issues connecting the Prosys OPC UA Client to my LabVIEW created OPC UA Server and read/writing tags on either side and seeing the correct data for all the data types supported in LabVIEW.  Of course the same is not true of the non-supported data types (of which there are MANY).

The issue is thus one of OPC UA compatibility with 3rd party devices that might be running more complex Server implementations.

Is NI planning to expand the capability of the OPC UA Node Creation on the Server Side to allow for NodeID to be assigned and then also allowing the Browse to find nodes of the same names under the same Folder and then determine which NodeID and Name to utilize to specifiy the Reads and Writes?

Thank you,

Ryan

[Jacobson-ni]

As a curiosity, what happens if you try to read an item from a UA server which does not have a unique node path?

I know this limitation has been discussed before and when I get in tomorrow I'll point a_clucker to this thread. He, or someone on his team, might be able to give a better response than I can. I do think that this is a good idea though so maybe you should make an Idea Exchange post for it.

[RVallieu]

Thanks, I will check and see what happens when I point to one of the replicated items and report back.

Ryan

[RVallieu]

All of those CycleComplete folders were created as read only - so I can not write to them, and I don't have access to the Server side to change the values.

When I point to a tag within one of the CycleComplete folders that has a datatype that is mapped to LabVIEW OPC UA I am able to read "a" tag value, but I have no idea which one of them in the tree it is in the list and I can't manipulate it since I don't have access to the Server.  Shoot.