Yes, security is one of the key design criteria in the Toolkit. You have to programmatically login to the Toolkit just as you do with Empower. If your user name and password is authenticated then you have the privilege to create additional Toolkit objects. If your login fails, you have no access rights to any data or functionality through the Toolkit.
It depends on what task(s) you are trying to accomplish with the Toolkit. It’s possible that your application would not require Empower to be running. Empower software would however need to be installed on the workstation that your Toolkit application is running on. The Toolkit provides you, the
developer, with a choice of how your application will interact with Empower. You can launch you application from within the Empower windows via a menu command, or you can run pieces of the Empower
application on demand, such as the Project window, or the Quickset window.
This is a very broad-based question, but here are a few examples that can be accomplished using the Toolkit objects in Empower:
– Search for channels or results in any Empower Project based on user defined criteria (similar to the way View Filters work)
– Retrieve any result and peak information fields
– Update custom fields at the peak, result, and sample level
– Create your own Sample Set Methods ( Professional Edition only)
– Run sample sets or single injections on an instrument, including monitoring the instrument status in real time ( Pro Edition only)
– Obtain chromatographic raw data for 2D and 3D channels including PDA and MS spectral data
– Interact with the Empower Processing Server during the integration, calibration, and quantitation process in real time ( Pro Edition only)
– Launch any Empower application such as Project window, Review, Compare, Quickset, Configuration Manager, and Report Publisher
– Create you own custom menus in Empower that allow users to launch your custom Toolkit programs
Yes, Waters offers technical support if you have specific questions on the Toolkit objects or you need clarification on something in our on-line documentation. This support is offered to you as part of your Empower Software Support Plan through the Waters Connections group. Waters does NOT offer support on general programming questions or implementation questions that relate to your application. Interacting with the Toolkit servers is identical to any server that is based on COM Automation. Microsoft offers a variety of fee based support options if you require assistance with programming using one of their development tools.
There are many reasons why this is not a good choice, even though at first glance it may appear to be the obvious choice. Using SQL to directly interact with the Empower database is expressly prohibited by Waters Corporation for the following reasons. There are licensing issues, architectural barriers,
performance and data integrity concerns, and most importantly validation issues when using SQL to directly access the Empower database. The Toolkit provides a highly tested, robust and reliable way to interact with Empower that does NOT place the structural integrity of Empower at risk. Our customers have told us that validation, reliability, and structural integrity of their data are absolute requirements for their laboratories. The Toolkit is designed to embrace these principles. It is for these reasons that we do not support direct SQL queries to the Empower database.
There are many excellent development tools on the market today that can be used to create Toolkit applications. Any language that supports ActiveX or Automation can be used. Specifically, the language needs to be an Automation controller. If you plan on using the ActiveX Processsing Control that comes
with the Toolkit Professional Edition, then the development tool must also be an ActiveX control container. A very popular choice is Microsoft Visual Studio.
No, only Millenium versions 2.00 to 2.15 use dynamic data exchange under 16-bit Windows. Microsoft COM (Component Object Model) is a state of the art technology, and as such is in wide use throughout the 32-bit Windows platform. Today thousands of commercial applications and development tools support COM Automation and we believe that using COM Automation for the Empower Toolkit will provide you with the most flexible and simplest way to create third party software that interacts with Empower.
The Toolkit is based on Microsoft COM Automation, formerly referred to as OLE Automation. The Empower Toolkit is a set of COM Automation servers that provide a rich hierarchy of programmable objects that allow access to information stored in Empower’s database. Chromatograms, results, peaks, and raw data can all be retrieved via the Toolkit. Custom fields can be set or modified. Sample Set Methods can be created and ran on a chromatographic system if you like. Additionally, the Professional Edition of
the Toolkit includes an ActiveX control that interacts with the Empower Processing Server. This allows you to programmatically exchange information during batch processing of chromatograms or results!
The Toolkit provides a seamless and automated way to programmatically exchange information with the Empower application and its integrated OracleÒ database. The Toolkit has been validated to the ISO 9001 TickIT certification and works with the entire family of Empower products, from Workstation to full Client/Server.