Solo Predictor Field Monitor

Introduction

Solo_Predictor includes the Solo_Predictor Field Monitor, a web-based interface for use as a real-time results monitor.

The interface can be accessed through a standard web browser application or a web-browser window embedded in a 3rd party application. Features include:

• A real-time updated display of results from applying a model to data.
• "Drill-down" functionality to view raw data, Q contributions (residuals), or Hotelling T^2 Contributions for any given sample.
• Alarm levels on predicted values exceeding high or low thresholds.
• Hover and Click-to-view numeric results for given data point(s).
• Optional user-access control with selectable user permission levels.
• Customizable Javascript and CSS-based interface.

The Field Monitor is accessible when Solo_Predictor has been configured to allow web-based connections and when the serverfolder is set (usually to the htpd folder in Solo_Predictor's main application folder.)

The default mode for the field monitor is to analyze continuous processes or operations and display the prediction results as a function of time. An example of this time-based display is shown below for a regression model (predicting "Y1"), shown as the dark-blue line, along with the Q and T^2 values (dimmed red and blue lines towards the bottom of the plot). Below the figure, the values and time stamps for the currently selected points are shown. By default, the most recent collected data is selected.

Initial Setup

Accessing the Field Monitor

With the serverfolder setting defined and the socket enabled, a browser can be pointed at Solo_Predictor by using the computer's IP address, plus a colon and the socket port. When accessing Solo_Predictor from the same computer with the default settings, this would be the loopback address and port 2211:

 http://127.0.0.1:2211

Specifying Models

Solo_Predictor will look for available models in a folder named C:/models (for Windows - contact helpdesk for Linux) Models should be stored in the standard .mat format with a single model per file.

When the page is first loaded, if no models have been copied into the models folder, the user will be advised:

Specifying Data

In order to make predictions and show results, Solo_Predictor must be given data to analyze. The typical operation mode of the Field Monitor is to show results as a function of time with real-time updating of the display.

To this end, there are various methods to load data and make it available to the Field Monitor for analysis:

• Wait-for-file, with no waitscript defined, will automatically make any imported data available to the web interface. Waitscripts can also make data available to the web interface by making use of the DataCache object.
• Third-party applications can access Solo_Predictor by Socket or ActiveX and "push" in data
• Solo_Predictor can make use of user timers to access databases or files periodically

The wait-for-file method is the easiest to use. Simply enable wait-for-file and do not specify a waitscript and the data will be made available to the Field Monitor for real-time analysis.

The maximum amount of data and maximum age of data to display is managed via the DataCache Object settings.

User Access Control

Solo_Predictor can be set to require any users to log into an account to access the web interface by setting the requirelogin configuration setting to "true" in the default.xml file. When enabled, the user will be prompted to provide a username and password before they can access the web interface.

Initially, there is one account with the username "admin" (no quotes) and the password "admin". When the admin account is initially accessed, the user will be required to change the password.

User Management

Users can be added, modified, and removed via the user management panel accessed from the user management button: Only Administrative users can access the user administration page.

The user administration page will be displayed on which existing users can be edited (a user may not delete their own account, nor disable their own Adminstrator flag.)

If a user has 3 failed login attempts, their account is "locked" and will not be permitted to log in without first clearing the lock. Only an administrator can clear the locked status on the account. This lock can be cleared from the user adminstration page.

Password Requirements

Users will usually be prompted to change their password on the initial login (unless the administrator specifically un-checks the password expiration checkbox when creating the account). The new password:

1. . Must not be the same as the previous password
2. . Must not contain the username within it
3. . Will be expired after 14 days (default setting) but can be expired by any administrator through the user administration page