Microsoft releases WCF for .NET Core, .5, .6+ ... does AF SDK now have a path foward to .NET Core?

Hi Rick,

There is the update from developers on the feedback:

"With the introduction of CoreWCF 1.0, we are re-evaluating this request. Performance, backwards compatibility, security, and technological longevity are key features that we are researching.

Please continue to share your use cases with us, as well as any key capabilities that your use case requires."

We are also interested in an upgrade to a more recent technology. Are there any Updates on this Topic?

We are currently developing a 4.8 Application with only the PI AF SDK as Reason not to Develop a net Core Application. We would be open for a Discussion about our detailed Use-Cases!

A small bit of news for 2023 Oct 24. The feedback item was updated today with an Admin response.

"We have begun work to implement a .NET 8 version of the AF SDK. Please continue to share your use cases and requirements!"

Note that .NET 8 is not due for release until 2023 Nov 14. I wish there was clarity about what "begun work to implement" means. Where in the pipeline would this be? Is it on the drawing board to begin investigating, OR has it been developed with .NET 8 Release Candidate, and now AVEVA is patiently waiting for .NET 8 to be released to production?

Today is 2024 FEB 14 and I have posted the last known update on the feedback portal from 2024 JAN 12. We can hopefully expect to see a release in 2nd half of this year.

What follows now is SHEER CONJECTURE on my part. I heard they are doing major plumbing by switching out the sluggish WCF calls with high performance gRPC calls. One thing I keep thinking are the data references. I would think they would at the very least need to be recompiled to work with .NET 8. And if the data reference has a Editor, i.e. a Winform associated with it, that Winform too needs to be recompiled to .NET 8.

This harkens back to the old .NET 3.5 and early .NET 4.0 days when you had to register 2 different DLL versions to the PISystem.

Source: https://docs.aveva.com/bundle/af-sdk-getting-started/page/1011017.html

> "Therefore, you must install PI System Explorer on any computer on which an AF SDK application is run."

Hey Rick_Davin_3.0​, with your AF SDK experience are you able to help confirm for me whether the above PI System Explorer dependency is still true for applications using the SDK?

I'm hoping this dependency, if still the case, is no longer once they migrate the SDK to target .NET 8 and beyond.

In technicality, you never needed to have PSE installed. What you needed, that was provided via that installation, was the AF SDK DLL, plus its dependency DLLs.

As MainelyInnovations​ said, you NEVER needed PSE installed. You only need the AF Client installed. That will install the AF SDK, other DLL's, and most importantly, the standard data references. I agree with the viewpoint of former product manager Steve Kwan that PSE was not meant to be a Client Tool. Our shared viewpoint is that PSE is an Admin's Configuration Tool.

I have sent feedback to AVEVA regarding the link you shared stating my concerns that it is incorrect.

Meanwhile, I direct you to this link:

Install PI AF Client

Where you see that PSE is flagged as OPTIONAL. For regular clients within your company, only install the required AF SDK components. Skip all the optional ones. If the client PC is a server to which only PI Admins access, then by all means install the optional components.