Bitmask Functionality in AVEVA PI OPC UA Adapter

During the migration from the PI OPC DA Interface to the AVEVA PI OPC UA Adapter, we noticed that the ability to apply bitmasks to incoming values is no longer supported. This functionality is critical in many existing implementations, especially when it comes to extracting individual status bits from an integer value for further processing.

Unfortunately, this loss of functionality is not mentioned in the provided considerations. As a result, existing logic may no longer work as expected after the migration. To replicate the same functionality within the PI System, workarounds must now be implemented in the Asset Framework (AF), often requiring additional expressions and the creation of multiple new tags. This not only increases configuration effort but also leads to higher tag counts, which can have licensing and performance implications.

We would like to strongly emphasize that bitmask support in the AVEVA PI OPC UA Adapter is a critical feature for many operational use cases and should be reinstated. At the very least, the removal of this functionality should be clearly documented and communicated upfront during the planning and migration phases so that appropriate mitigation strategies can be developed in time.