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Bosch Security Systems | 2011-02
Praesideo 3.5 | Installation and User Instructions | 11 | Optional Software en | 486
62 Open Interface
62.1 Introduction
The Praesideo Open Interface is based on a Visual
Basic implementation and is based on the COM
technology (OLE automation subset), as described by
Microsoft.
It is preferred to use .NET to implement the Praesideo
Open Interface. .NET is the successor of COM, COM+
and DCOM and is comparable to these. Existing COM
interfaces can be used in a .NET environment. Many
programming languages recognize .NET, which makes
development of user interfaces by third parties easier.
At this moment, the Praesideo Open Interface is based
on COM to enable connections to existing systems that
are not built on .NET. Most current third party systems
support COM, but not yet .NET. However, in the future,
Bosch Security Systems will convert the COM interfaces
to .NET.
It may be convenient to develop third party applications
(e.g. PC call stations) in .NET already. These .NET
applications can communicate with the current COM
interface without any problems and will cause no
problems in the future when the interface is based on
.NET. If the application is developed in a COM
environment, it must be rewritten when the interface is
based on .NET.
The open interface connection (i.e. an Internet
connection) is regarded as an open connection that
requires extra safety precautions. For example, a
firewall to prevent unauthorized persons from (ab)using
the system. The system can also limit the access of TCP/
IP devices (see section 42.9).
Use of the open interface can lead to situations in which
the Praesideo system does not comply anymore to the
evacuation standards that have been verified by TÜV.
In that case, the TÜV certificate can be lapsed.
62.2 Scope
As mentioned before, the Open Interface manual
describes how to use the Praesideo Open Interface in
combination with Visual Basic. To understand this
manual, knowledge in the following fields in necessary:
• The Visual Basic 6.0 programming language and its
development environment.
• The principle of COM interfaces and OLE
automation.
• The Praesideo system and its installation.
The Open Interface Manual is intended for users, who
want to use the Praesideo Open Interface. It is not
possible to derive any rights from this manual regarding
the programming interface. Extensions and
improvements on the open interface can be
implemented when new versions of Praesideo are
introduced. Since this manual is intended for
programmers, it is only available in English.
Although the open interface DLLs contain the previous
versions of the open interface (for backward
compatibility), only the open interface version 3.4 is
described in this manual. The interfaces in the DLL are
identified using a name extension. The original version
does not have a name extension.
Note
The COM interface is not limited to Visual
Basic. It can also be used in other programming
languages that support COM. Visual Basic is
just used as an example here.
Note
A maximum of 5 TCP/IP devices, such as the
PC Call Server or Logging Server, with Open
Interface access can be used with a network
controller. The configuration web browser uses
a different port (port 80) for the connection and
is not part of this limitation.