Overview

The MTConnect Agent is the connection point for DataXchange. Some basic information on the Agents will be provided here in terms of how the Agent relates to DataXchange, however full details on MTConnect Agents can be found in the MTConnect specification documentation.

The MTConnect Agent will request information from the MTConnect Adapter based on what has been defined in the Agent's XML file.  The XML file will define Data Items such as EXECUTION, PROGRAM, or ALARM which provide information to each of the associated items.  In order for DataXchange to be able to acquire data, the appropriate Data Items must be defined in the Agent's XML configuration file.  The name of the XML file is defined in the agent.cfg file.

The agent.cfg file determines the name of the XML file and the TCP port that the Agent will utilize for communication with DataXchange, along with address and port information on how to communicate with the Adapter.  The port information for the Agent in the cfg file must match the port defined in DataXchange.

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