Where to locate kitControl components

As with simple control points, you can copy kitControl components to any folder or component in the station. This includes placing kitControl components under any device Points extension (container), or under any Points extension subfolder.

There are two competing best practice philosophies about locating your control logic:

• Philosophy A maintains that only proxy points belong under a device’s Points container. You can add extensions (control, history, and alarm), as needed, to proxy points. However, other components (kitControl components, simple control points, schedules) should be located under a central folder—not under the station’s Driver architecture—but instead in subfolders under a main Logic folder (by convention) created in the root of the station’s Config container.

  This philosophy requires many internal links between proxy points and kitControl components. It often makes following control logic harder, because you do not see most links except as knobs. In addition, it makes applications much less portable in that you cannot copy an entire application by selecting a single device container.

• Philosophy B maintains that kitControl components and schedules belong under each device’s Points container (either directly, or in subfolders). This allows you to create local links between device proxy points and other components. Copying an entire application requires copying a single device container.

The original intention of Philosophy A was to establish a logic convention to simplify universal support of different application types. However, Philosophy B offers easier portability of each application, allowing easy replication and reuse at a device level. In general, use of Philosophy B is more common. In other words, it is preferable to locate kitControl components where they are needed.