Associating comments with tags in a managed historian system

A computer-implemented method of automatically associating comments with tags in a managed historian of a distributed historian system, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a worker role instance from a user computing device, a comment describing a value of a process tag at a time within a time range selected via the user computing device, wherein the worker role instance executes on a historian processor communicatively coupled to the user computing device via a communications network, wherein the process tag represents an attribute of a continuous process, wherein the value of the process tag is variable over the time range, the tag comprising information indicating a location security that dictates a location users accessing the comment must have;
• associating, by the worker role instance, the received comment with the process tag at the selected time;
• storing, by the worker role instance, the received comment in a flexible data structure of a database communicatively coupled to the historian processor;
• providing, by the worker role instance, the comment in association with the tag at the selected time in response to a display request for the tag from the user computing device;
• and
• sharing access, over the communications network, to the comment with at least a second user computing device based on the location security of the process tag associated with the comment, such that the stored comment is editable by the user computing device and the at least second user computing device based on at least the process tag, the second user computing device being proximate to the location that satisfies the location security.

A system, comprising:

• a first user computing device;
• a second user computing device;
• one or more data collectors within a continuous process;
• a database storage account, the database storage account storing a plurality of tags, wherein each tag represents an attribute of the continuous process, and wherein each tag has a value that is variable over a time range;
• and
• a distributed historian system communicatively coupled, via a communications network, to the first user computing device, the second user computing device, the one or more data collectors, and the database storage account, the distributed historian system including a worker role instance configured to:
• receive, from the first user computing device, a comment describing the value of at least one tag of the plurality of tags at a particular time within the time range of the tag, the tag comprising information indicating a location security that dictates a location users accessing the comment must have, wherein the tag is displayed on the first user computing device during the receiving,
• associate the received comment with the tag at the particular time,
• store the received comment in a flexible data structure in the database storage account,
• share, based on the location security, access to the stored comment with the second user computing device based on a location security of the process tag associated with the comment, such that the stored comment is editable by the first user computing device and the at least second user computing device based at least on the process tag, the second user computing device being proximate to the location that satisfies the location security, and
• provide the shared comment in association with the tag at the particular time in response to a display request for the tag from the second user computing device.