# Display OPC UA Enumeration tag user-friendly values?

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/display-opc-ua-enumeration-tag-user-friendly-values/55374>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [January 25, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/display-opc-ua-enumeration-tag-user-friendly-values/55374 "2022-01-25T19:13:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Canice\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Canice\_Bowe](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Canice_Bowe)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/display-opc-ua-enumeration-tag-user-friendly-values/55374/1 "2022-01-25T19:13:24Z")

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Hello,

I am connecting to an OPC UA Server which has a _SystemStatus_ Enumeration tag ( EnumValueType). When I wire up the Value of a Label on the design surface to this tag, it is displaying the integer value, but I would like it to display the user friendly text.

When I connect to the same OPC UA server using UaExpert, I can see the text value of the SystemStatus node in brackets as shown below:

 ![UaFx SystemStatus](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/6/6/66ae86d02cde059b24dcfae680c5f0cdd27c9d37.png)

The SystemStatus node DataType is shown in the Attributes panel.

I’m just learning how to use Ignition, so I’m probably missing something obvious.  
I’m using version 8.1.13.

Thanks,  
Canice.

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**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2022, 7:16pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/display-opc-ua-enumeration-tag-user-friendly-values/55374/2 "2022-01-25T19:16:26Z")

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You’ll have to manually create an expression tag that uses the [lookup](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/lookup) or [switch](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/switch) function (or something else) to convert from integer to string value. Ignition’s tag system doesn’t know anything about OPC UA enums.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Canice\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Canice\_Bowe](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Canice_Bowe)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2022, 3:32pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/display-opc-ua-enumeration-tag-user-friendly-values/55374/3 "2022-01-26T15:32:25Z")

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Thanks Kevin for the answer.

On a similar note, does ignition know about custom OPC UA DataTypes? In some of the ignition university videos, I can see that there is a ‘Data Types’ folder in the Tag Browser, but I’m don’t see that when I connect to an OPC server (eg. the Ignition OPC UA Server).

 ![Ignition OPC UA Data Types](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/5/d/5d7a080cdd98752de09471634cacdbb7555f3f2d.png)

Regards,  
Canice.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2022, 4:02pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/display-opc-ua-enumeration-tag-user-friendly-values/55374/4 "2022-01-26T16:02:36Z")

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> [@Canice\_Bowe](#):
>
> does ignition know about custom OPC UA DataTypes?

It does, in that if the server has a DataType dictionary it will read it and be able to decode custom structures.

There's generally no reason to show the Types or Views folder in Ignition's OPC UA client, though, so by default the browse origin is the Objects folder. There is an advanced setting on the connection that lets you start the browse from the address space Root Node if needed.