Using WWW technology in a control system

The World Wide Web (WWW) technology, based on the hyper-text principles and highly focused on the man-machine interface, is an easy and intuitive way of accessing data. By integrating Web and distributed control system technologies, operators and specialists may supervise a process without having to install any specific software and without bothering about the type of computer to use. Nearly any computer, loaded with a little piece of world-wide available software, may have access to the status variables, archive files and documentation of the controlled process. The enhanced inter-active features of the new Java technology make this scenario even more appealing. The paper describes a WWW-based control system: the Beamline Access Control System (BACS) of ELETTRA, a third generation synchrotron radiation facility.