Node definitions are specified using tables (See Table 1)

Table 1 – Type Definition Table

Attribute

Value

Attribute name

Attribute value. If it is an optional Attribute that is not set “--“ will be used.

References

NodeClass

BrowseName

DataType

TypeDefinition

ModellingRule

ReferenceType name

NodeClass of the TargetNode.

BrowseName of the target Node. If the Reference is to be instantiated by the server, then the value of the target Node’s BrowseName is “--“.

Attributes of the referenced Node, only applicable for Variables and Objects.

Referenced ModellingRule of the referenced Object.

Notes –

Notes referencing footnotes of the table content.

Attributes are defined by providing the Attribute name and a value, or a description of the value.

References are defined by providing the ReferenceType name, the BrowseName of the TargetNode and its NodeClass.

  • If the TargetNode is a component of the Node being defined in the table the Attributes of the composed Node are defined in the same row of the table.
  • The DataType is only specified for Variables; “[<number>]” indicates a single-dimensional array, for multi-dimensional arrays the expression is repeated for each dimension (e.g. [2][3] for a two-dimensional array). For all arrays the ArrayDimensions is set as identified by <number> values. If no <number> is set, the corresponding dimension is set to 0, indicating an unknown size. If no number is provided at all the ArrayDimensions can be omitted. If no brackets are provided, it identifies a scalar DataType and the ValueRank is set to the corresponding value (see OPC 10000-3). In addition, ArrayDimensions is set to null or is omitted. If it can be Any or ScalarOrOneDimension, the value is put into “{<value>}”, so either “{Any}” or “{ScalarOrOneDimension}” and the ValueRank is set to the corresponding value (see OPC 10000-3) and the ArrayDimensions is set to null or is omitted. In Table 2 examples are given.

Table 2 – Examples of DataTypes

Notation

DataType

ValueRank

ArrayDimensions

Description

Int32

Int32

-1

omitted or NULL

A scalar Int32

Int32[]

Int32

1

omitted or {0}

Single-dimensional array of Int32 with an unknown size

Int32[][]

Int32

2

omitted or {0,0}

Two-dimensional array of Int32 with unknown sizes for both dimensions

Int32[3][]

Int32

2

{3,0}

Two-dimensional array of Int32 with a size of 3 for the first dimension and an unknown size for the second dimension

Int32[5][3]

Int32

2

{5,3}

Two-dimensional array of Int32 with a size of 5 for the first dimension and a size of 3 for the second dimension

Int32{Any}

Int32

-2

omitted or NULL

An Int32 where it is unknown if it is scalar or array with any number of dimensions

Int32{ScalarOrOneDimension}

Int32

-3

omitted or NULL

An Int32 where it is either a single-dimensional array or a scalar

If the NodeId of a DataType is provided, the symbolic name of the Node representing the DataType shall be used.

Nodes of all other NodeClasses cannot be defined in the same table; therefore only the used ReferenceType, their NodeClass and their BrowseName are specified. A reference to another of this document points to their definition.

If no components are provided, the DataType, TypeDefinition and ModellingRule columns may be omitted and only a Comment column is introduced to point to the Node definition.

Components of Nodes can be complex, i.e. containing components by themselves. The TypeDefinition, NodeClass, DataType and ModellingRule can be derived from the type definitions, and the symbolic name can be created as defined in 3.3.2.1. Therefore those containing components are not explicitly specified; they are implicitly specified by the type definitions.