This paper discusses the design and implementation of a J2EE-based system for the visualization of production data using mobile personal wireless devices such as PDAs, cellular phones and portable computers. The design considers criteria such as interoperability, portability, scalability, performance, reliability, security, use of legacy systems and maintainability. The system includes the
... [Show full abstract] following elements: i) an XML-based format for the description of a production data display, ii) a display generation application, iii) a specialized graphical display tool, iv) an interface for accessing real-time data, and v) a display design and management application. The XML-based format for the description of a production data display is called SDDML (Simple Display Definition Markup Language). SDDML documents are generated by the Display Generation Application (DGA) which is based on Java Servlets and Enterprise JavaBeans. These documents may be transformed using XSL depending on the client nature. If the client is a WAP enabled phone they are transformed into WML, and if the client is an ordinary Web browser they are transformed into HTML. The specialized graphical display tool (SDDML Browser) takes a SDDML document generated by the DGA and displays it on a PDA or portable computer equipped with a Java Virtual Machine. The real-time data shown in displays is obtained through a standard interface called Real Time Data Source (RTDS). RTDS implementations provide decoupled access to constantly updated data identified with tags in real-time databases (e.g. PLC and SCADA systems). The Display Design and Management Application (DDMA) permits the creation and management of graphical displays. This application has server-side components responsible for the storage and retrieval of the display data in and from a relational database. The system satisfies the aforementioned criteria and holds promise to be effective in the automation of Oil and Gas and other continuous process industries.
