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Metadata Connector for Seeq

The VirtualForge Metadata Connector builds and maintains a browsable asset hierarchy in Seeq from metadata you already hold — without copying any of your data.

Industrial time-series data in Seeq usually arrives organized by raw tag name: identifiers like TI-101_PV that are meaningful to the historian and opaque to everyone else. Plants are organized hierarchically — site, area, unit, equipment, measurement. This connector reads the asset metadata that describes that structure and builds it inside Seeq, wiring each position in the tree to the signal that already exists in your Seeq datasources.

What it provides

  • Your plant structure in Seeq — reads asset-hierarchy metadata from an external metadata source and creates the matching asset tree, at any depth.
  • No second copy of your data — each leaf is a Seeq formula item that references the original signal live. Formulas resolve at query time, so there is no ETL, no duplication, and nothing to drift.
  • Searchable context — metadata properties (equipment identifiers, process area codes, product classifications) are attached to the assets and items the connector creates, so they can be found and filtered across the tree, and traced back to the source system.
  • Near real-time updates — a full index rebuilds the tree on a schedule; an incremental index picks up changed metadata as often as every minute.
  • Clean multi-source organization — several metadata sources can feed one Seeq deployment, each grouped under its own named container root with no naming conflicts.
  • Works with Seeq's SQL connector, not against it — Seeq's SQL connector is the first and primary datasource whose signals this connector links to, and not the only one it can. A formula item can reference any signal that already exists in Seeq, whichever datasource put it there.
  • Built on Connectors ++ — the connector inherits VirtualForge's shared operational capabilities: a managed indexing lifecycle, health visibility inside Seeq, and defined licensing and support.

Example

Metadata says:
  "Temperature_123" belongs to  PlantA → Area1 → Tank5

The connector creates in Seeq:
  PlantA (Asset)
    └─ Area1 (Asset)
        └─ Tank5 (Asset)
            └─ Temperature (Formula → references "Temperature_123" live)

Where it fits

Seeq's own SQL connector is very good at serving time-series data out of a database. What it cannot do is build an asset tree — it can tell Seeq a signal exists, but not that the signal belongs to Tank 5, inside Area 1, at Plant A. That is the gap this connector fills, and it fills it for signals however they arrived.

Two independent sides, which is the thing worth understanding about this connector:

  WHERE THE METADATA COMES FROM              WHERE THE SIGNALS COME FROM
  one or more metadata sources               any Seeq datasource
    • ForgeVault          (today)              • Seeq SQL connector   ← first and primary
    • SAP Quality Mgmt    (available)          • any other datasource already in Seeq
    • further sources     (as built)
            │                                              │
            ▼                                              │
   Metadata Connector ──▶ asset tree + properties          │
                          + formula items ─────────────────┘
                            (reference the signals live)

Neither side is fixed to one product. The connector is built to read from many actual sources of metadata — ForgeVault is the one it ships with, SAP Quality Management is Available through an EEI engagement, and each further source is specified and built as engagement scope (see How It Works). On the data side, Seeq's SQL connector is the first and primary datasource whose signals get linked, but a formula item can reference a signal from any datasource Seeq already has.

Statuses on this page use the vocabulary defined in Products, and mean it literally.

Who it is for

Role What changes
Process engineers Browse the plant hierarchy instead of searching by exact tag name
IT / OT teams Maintain asset metadata in the system that already owns it; the connector keeps Seeq in step
Seeq administrators Deploy once — scheduled indexing, safe repeat runs, and cleanup are handled by the connector rather than by a script someone has to maintain

Learn more

  • How It Works — the approach, why a connector rather than a script, and what happens during an index run.
  • User Guide — installation, configuration, and common deployment scenarios.
  • Versions & Seeq Compatibility — how to read the connector's version number, and what it does and does not tell you about your Seeq environment.
  • Support — how to get help, and what Endeavor Engineering commits to.

Support & questions

This page is the support landing for the Metadata Connector.

  • Getting help — see Support, or contact your usual Endeavor Engineering contact. Include your Seeq and connector versions and a short description of what you observed.
  • Resources — the Endeavor Engineering resources hub has guides and contact details.

About Endeavor Engineering

Endeavor Engineering builds industrial data integration and analytics solutions on Seeq and the VirtualForge platform.