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COM
COM - Microsoft Interface stands for Component Object Model, a specification for developing modular software components which can be used by each COM compatible application. COM components can be easily integrated in such applications and can even be removed from an application at run time. COM components can be programmed in various different programming languages although C++ is used mostly. The specifications OLE, ActiveX and DirectX are based on the COM technology.
Requirements for COM in WinCC OA

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- COM
  COM - Microsoft Interface stands for Component Object Model, a specification for developing modular software components which can be used by each COM compatible application. COM components can be easily integrated in such applications and can even be removed from an application at run time. COM components can be programmed in various different programming languages although C++ is used mostly. The specifications OLE, ActiveX and DirectX are based on the COM technology.
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  The Prometheus interface (also referred to as Prometheus client) serves as a bridge between WinCC OA and Prometheus. It facilitates the retrieval, processing, and exposure of data from the WinCC OA system to a Prometheus-compatible format. This allows Prometheus to monitor and alert based on the data fetched from the WinCC OA system.
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  In increasingly dynamic automation environments and the merging of IT with OT, the SIMATIC PLC Discovery can help with the connection of newly added S7/S7+ devices by showing you all the devices in the network
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  XML-RPC (Extensible Markup Language Remote Procedure Call) allows software on different operating systems to make procedure calls over the internet. XML-RPC uses HTTP for the transport and XML for the encoding. It sends the procedure call to a remote server through HTTP. The call is an XML document and it receives the response as XML.
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  The REST Reporting API is integrated into the Standard web server and can be activated via the config entry enabled in the [restReporting] section.
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- Dist-Management
  Configuring and maintaining a distributed system in WinCC OA requires a high amount of engineering effort due to a high number of settings and configuration steps that must be applied on several systems. The Dist-Management reduces the engineering effort and simplifies the necessary settings.
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  XMPP (formerly Jabber) is mostly used in chat (instant messaging) applications and allows near real time communication between two or more parties. It can, e.g., be used to push information from a WinCC_OA project server to one or more persons, even allowing the recipient to send a confirmation back to the server.
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Requirements for COM in WinCC OA

Windows operating system.
Correctly installed WinCC OA version.
Reference to WCCOACom 1.0 Type Library (located in <wincc_oa_path>/bin/WCCOAcom.dll). The "windows" folder will be created and WCCOAcom.dll will be registered automatically only if you select the Excel Report add-on in the WinCC OA setup.

The methods of the COM Manager are defined in the WinCC OA class library. The class library is located in the object library COMMANLib.

Refer to the COMMANLib (WCCOACom 1.0 Type Library) in the project to use the methods. For example, with the Visual Basic editor in Excel, the reference can be added via the menu item Extras > References.

Note: Also dyn_dyn arrays (2 Dim arrays) (int/float/string) are supported for COM methods, for example,

 dyn_dyn_float data;
for(int i = 1; i <= 20; i++)
  for(int j = 1; j <= 20; j++)
    data[i][j] = FunctionSin(i*0.314);
CWGraph3D.Plot3DSimpleSurface(data);

There are no special requirements regarding the central memory and fixed disk storage for the system.

Note:

The COM Manager is not a console application (this means that the manager cannot be added to the console like the other managers - see manager administration).

The methods of the class library WCCOACom 1.0 Type Library must be used for the manager (see the methods of the COM manager - ComManager Object, ProjAdmin-Object and ProjAdminAuto Object).