Citect SCADA allows you to edit and save .dbf files (tables) used in Citect SCADA by opening them in Microsoft® Office Excel®.
Microsoft Office Excel® 2007 does not allow you to save files in .dbf format though you may open and edit them using the File > Open command. In order to overcome this limitation Citect SCADA includes an Add-In for Microsoft Excel called ProjectDBFAddIn. When this Add-In is loaded into Excel, it allows you to browse, open, edit and save Citect SCADA .dbf files in the correct format.
The ProjectDBFAddIn is an optional component included in the installation of Citect SCADA and is accessed from the installer. If you did not select installation of the Add-In during installation, you can install it at a later time by navigating to the ProjectDBFAddIn folder of your Citect SCADA installation and running the setup.exe in that folder.
Note: The installation of the projectDBFAddIn will only be available if a version of Microsoft Excel is detected by the installer on the target computer.
Compatibility
This Add-In is specifically designed for use with Microsoft Excel 2007 or later, it is not compatible with Microsoft Excel 2003.
Note: Add-in supports Microsoft Excel 2013 (32 bit) only.
Integration with Microsoft Excel
When you open Microsoft Excel, an additional toolbar, or an additional tab, called project DBF Add-in is available depending on the version of Excel that you are using.
The fields and buttons on this toolbar allow you to choose:
However, you can also open .dbf files using the File > Open command.
Protected Tables
The installation of the Add-In incorporates a list of tables that by default are excluded from being opened using the Add-In interface. This list is in a file called ExcludedProjectTables.xml and can be found in the Add-In installation directory.
These tables are system tables that are maintained by Citect SCADA, and it is recommended that these files are not edited externally in Microsoft Excel. To minimize the likelihood of additional tables being edited with Microsoft Excel you can add their names to the ExcludedProjectTables file using a text editor. You can also view the default list of tables using a text editor, or an XML compliant browser.
Read Only Tables
Projects which are read only, or contain read only tables, are displayed in the list of tables when selected from the Add-In buttons. If you try to open a read-only table (.dbf file) an alert (sometimes referred to as a "warning") message is displayed advising that the table is read only. You can still open and edit a read only table but you will not be able to save it.
A table could be read-only for the following reasons:
If you attempt to save a read-only table an alert message is displayed advising that the table is read only.
See Also
Published June 2018