WinCC OA Sidepanel

✨ Features

📊 System Monitoring

Real-time monitoring of your WinCC OA system:

• System Status View - Check if your WinCC OA system is online or offline
• Project Information - View project name, version, and API endpoint
• Project Explorer - Quick access to main project and subprojects

🎮 Manager Control

Full control over WinCC OA managers:

• Manager List View - See all managers with their status (running/stopped)
• Start/Stop/Restart - Control individual managers via context menu
• Live Status Updates - Automatic polling for manager state changes
• PID and Options Display - See process IDs and manager options at a glance

⚡ Quick Actions

• Refresh CTRL Libraries - Reload libraries with one click
• System Control - Start, stop, or restart the entire WinCC OA system
• Right-click Context Menus - Quick access to all actions

🚀 Getting Started

Installation

1. Open VS Code
2. Go to Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X)
3. Search for "WinCC OA Sidepanel"
4. Click Install

Prerequisites

This extension requires the WinCC OA REST API to be running. The API provides manager control and system information endpoints.

Important: The REST API is available in a separate repository and must be started as a CTRL manager in your running WinCC OA project. Once the API manager is running, this extension can connect to it and provide full system monitoring and manager control capabilities.

Configuration

Configure the API endpoint and polling interval in VS Code settings:

⚙️ Settings

📋 Usage

System View

1. Click on the WinCC OA icon in the Activity Bar
2. Expand the System section to see:
   • System status (Online/Offline)
   • Project Information (name, version, API endpoint)
   • Projects (main project and subprojects)
3. Right-click on system status for Start/Stop/Restart actions

Console View

1. Click on the WinCC OA icon in the Activity Bar
2. Expand the Console section to see all managers
3. Right-click on any manager to:
   • Start the manager
   • Stop the manager
   • Restart the manager
4. Use the refresh button to reload CTRL libraries

🛠️ Requirements

• Visual Studio Code 1.80.0 or higher
• WinCC OA installation with REST API running
• Valid WinCC OA project
• WinCC OA REST API Manager - Must be started as a CTRL manager in your project (available in separate repository)

⚠️ Known Limitations

• Requires WinCC OA REST API Manager to be running (available in separate repository)
• API must be started as CTRL manager in your WinCC OA project before using this extension
• No automatic reconnection if API connection is lost (requires manual refresh)
• Limited error feedback when API is not reachable

📜 Disclaimer

WinCC OA and Siemens are trademarks of Siemens AG. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Siemens AG. This is a community-driven open source project created to enhance the development experience for WinCC OA developers.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Whether you want to:

• Report bugs or issues
• Suggest new features
• Improve documentation
• Submit code improvements

Please open an issue or submit a pull request on GitHub.

🔗 Links

• GitHub Repository
• Issue Tracker
• WinCC OA Documentation

📜 License

This project is basically licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

It might happens, that the partial repositories contains third party SW which are using other license models.

⚠️ Disclaimer

WinCC OA and Siemens are trademarks of Siemens AG. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Siemens AG. This is a community-driven open source project created to enhance the development experience for WinCC OA developers.

🎉 Thank You

Thank you for using WinCC OA tools package! We're excited to be part of your development journey. Happy Coding! 🚀

Quick Links

• 📦 VS Code Marketplace
• SIMATIC WinCC Open Architecture
• SIMATIC WinCC Open Architecture official documentation
• ETM Company