Hey all, I've come here with a simple question about a databasing format I've come across. It's exported from a siemens s7 system and is a live updated graph called "trending". The data is stored in a bunch of small (~100kb) files with the extension .s .. along with these is a related file with the extension .h which I assume is a header format or something.

the other files from this system I was successfully able to open as simple dBase files but these files i'm not having as much luck. I know they are the right files and that they are able to be opened - there are included tools for opening them with the installation of s7 that we have, the only problem is the data is hard to work with.

Anybody come across these kind of file before or have any clues what i could use to open it? Any help at all would be appreciated. Cheers

I would start by opening them with a hex editor, to see what you can determine of their structure.

That's a really good idea, ill give it a try.. not sure exactly what i'm looking for though; maybe look for strings or any kind of organisation i guess?

Also, is there a possibility the files are encrypted? would there be any indicators i should look out for, or any traditional kind of encryption done on this kind of data? it's continuous output from a pcu.

Hey guys - sorry to bring this old thread out again, but I'm back trying to crack this nut and could really use any ideas!

I've found out a bit more about the files I'm trying to read.. They record the analog outputs from plant machinery.. We're running a system called BRAUMAT which is a special step-7 product for breweries, this is just one of the archives it keeps. The files are organised by directory with 50 .s files per directory and they grow from here as more and more data is recorded. Each one has a .h file in the directory above which i assume is header information.

I've tried opening them in every application under the sun: opening in a text editor shows a few strings here and there, and opening in a hex editor showed some kind of pattern inside but it was hard to imagine how i could use it. So far the only program that can seem to make sense of them is the clunky "trending" program that came with it!

Please if anyone has any ideas how I can access this data's structure please let me know