Configuration import/export

Exchanging configurations can be a very important step during the engineering phase of a project, especially if a Pub/Sub configuration needs to be exchanged between different devices and/or vendors. OPC UA Pub/Sub includes a standardized, file-based format to exchange configurations known as the “UA-Binary import/export” or simply “Configuration import/export”.. The workflow is usually as follows:

• Set up your publishers on device A.
• Export the configuration file.
• Import the configuration file on the other device(s) to set up a corresponding subscriber.

A configuration dialog on the OPC UA RT device in TwinCAT XAE allows to access this import/export functionality.

Changes to the configuration Please note that every change to the configuration also requires to create a new configuration file.

Export

When exporting a configuration file, a dialog is opened that allows to select the destination that the file should be saved to. You can then take the created file and share it with the corresponding party.

Import

When importing a configuration file, a dialog is opened that allows to select the publishers/subscribers that should be imported from the file. The default behavior is that a publisher is imported as a subscriber and vice versa.

MQTT connection settings When importing a configuration file that contains MQTT connection settings, the connection details are imported as follows: If the MQTT connection settings are the same for all configuration items, the settings are imported and added on the OPC UA RT Device. If the MQTT connection settings are different on some configuration items, the settings are imported on the publisher/subscriber nodes.

Configuration viewer

The same settings area also includes a so-called “configuration viewer”, which allows to preview the contents of the binary Pub/Sub configuration file.