Creating a custom tag group

Use the tagdictionary palette to create a custom tag group in a tag dictionary. This procedure describes how to edit an existing tag dictionary, add a custom tag group and configure it with tags.

  • Existing tag dictionary

  • The tagdictionary palette is open.

Once a tag group is applied to an object, it implies all of the individual tags in its tag list, as well as implying a marker tag that bears the name of the tag group. This allows you to easily define a NEQL search for the marker tag for that tag group rather than define a search by concatenating each of the tags in the tag group’s tag list.

Note that a recommended best practice for naming tag groups is to use a name that reflects its intended usage. For example, the Haystack outsideAirTempSensor tag group is typically applied to points representing outside air temperature.

Additionally, for tags that you add to a tag group a best practice is to use only “fully qualified” tag names. This means, add tags from a tag dictionary’s existing tag definitions and include the namespace of the source tag dictionary in the added tag’s name. This ensures that the tags will resolve correctly for NEQL queries.

  1. Expand the TagDictionaryService node, double-click the tag dictionary you intend to edit to open the Property Sheet view.
  2. From the palette, drag a TagGroup component onto the dictionary’s Tag Group Definitions property and in the resulting popup, enter a name for this tag group (see recommended best practices above) and click OK.
  3. Expand your new tag group and proceed with the following steps:
    1. Drag any previously defined tag one at a time from any tag dictionary’s tag definitions to the TagList sub-property in the new tag group.
    2. In the Name popup, edit the tag name to prepend its source dictionary’s namespace (ex.: change site to hs:site, as shown).


    3. Click OK.
    4. Repeat the steps a–c until you are finished adding tags to this tag group.

On completion, the new custom tag group is immediately available for use. Changes made in this procedure are automatically saved to the tag dictionary (selected in step 1).

When applying the new tag group to an object, the multiple tags included in the group are implied at once on the object, as well as a marker tag bearing the name of that tag group.