Dahua Plugin
Introduction
Witness supports integration with many different types of external systems through the use of plugins. These are stand-alone software libraries which are dynamically loaded by the Management Server and have the ability to pass data and events to and from the external system. This page covers the process of setting up the Dahua plugin which enables integration with generic events, e.g. alarms and devices to provide the operator with comprehensive incident management.
Witness Requirements
DSS Professional v8.6 or later
The Witness installation needs to be licensed to use the Dahua Plugin and the required number of cameras
The Dahua Plugin needs to be installed
At least one camera must be configured to generate alarms or bookmarks
Configuring the Dahua Plugin in Witness
To configure the Dahua plugin:
The Dahua Plugin will appear as a node under the Integration Configurations folder within the Configuration Tree.
Selecting the Dahua Plugin will display the following screen in the Configuration Control:
You can enable the plugin and update the fields:
Plugin Enabled: Select to enable the Dahua Plugin.
Name: The unique name of the plugin.
Use Https: This will enable Https for end-to-end communications security between Witness and Dahua if selected. If disabled then Http will be used.
Server Address: The Dahua server IP address.
Server Port: The Port for the server connection, which will automatically be populated in Witness based on whether Http or Https is configured.
Generate Alarms: Select to enable alarms in the Dahua Client.
Generate Bookmarks: Select to enable bookmarks to be created in the recorded video when an alarm is triggered in the Dahua Client.
Alarm Priority: Select the desired alarm priority.
Camera: The name of the camera configured in Witness.
Dahua Device Code: The device code in Dahua for the camera. Please refer to:Dahua Plugin | Device Mapping within the Dahua Client.
Device Mapping within the Dahua Client
The other option that requires configuration is the device mapping. The Device Code needs to be entered manually in Witness and this must match the Device ID within Dahua.
Device Mapping within Witness
The next step is to map the devices within Witness. The mapping configuration is required to map each of the devices configured in Witness to the corresponding devices in Dahua. This process ensures that Witness creates bookmarks for the correct device in response to an alarm or bookmark in Witness. To do this:
Select Edit on the plugin configuration:
Click the + icon to add a device to be mapped:
Click the camera drop down list:
Select the appropriate camera and add the Dahua Device Code which is the Device ID in Dahua:
Select Save when complete.
The camera will be configured. Repeat the process to add more cameras if required.
Dahua Event Configuration
A generic event for every Alarm Rule and device Bookmark Start and Bookmark End needs to be configured.
Event Name: Enter the event name.
Select Event: This will define the event.
Next, specify how this event should be configured. In the example below an Alarm Rule is configured. Alarm rules use the Alarm Rule Name and additionally the rule config User Id.
The following example shows how a Device Bookmark is configured.
Bookmarks use the Device Code and BookmarkStart or BookmarkEnd
Each device will need two generic events configured; one for BookmarkStart and another for BookmarkEnd.
Once a generic event has been configured an Event Action must be configured within the normal event config to map the generic event to one or more actions that your would like to trigger within the system.
To do this:
Choose the event you want to use for your action:
Configure various attributes and linked actions:
The possible linked actions are shown here:
Notify user with a notification popup:
Lastly, the IP Address of the Witness Management Server needs to be added to the Generic Event Allowlist within Security Config: