IoT & Connectivity Tips

Key Functional Highlights Add connectivity to National Instruments TestStand Make it easier to edit the apps Easier to find mashups and things in Composer Support for Asset sub-types Open up the tag picker to allow adding any connection types through Composer General App Improvements Enhance tag picker to improve speed of configuration Make it easier to add additional properties to assets Make app configuration more intuitive by centralizing the configuration Controls Advisor Merge the Server and Connection status fields Asset Advisor Performance improvement when displaying pages Add support for CFS/ServiceMax integration Added trial support for Service     Compatibility ThingWorx 8.2.x KEPServerEX 6.2 and later KEPServerEX V6.1 and older as well as different OPC Servers (with Kepware OPC aggregator) National Instruments TestStand 2016 SP1 and later Support upgrade from 8.0.1 and later     Documentation What’s New in T

The KEPServerEX ThingWorx Native Interface was originally released with KEPServerEX v5.21 to enable connectivity with v6.6 of the ThingWorx Platform. Compatibility with the ThingWorx NextGen Composer (v7.4) was implemented with the release of KEPServerEX v6.1, while still allowing support of older ThingWorx composer versions through the Native Interface "Legacy mode" setting.   When connecting with ThingWorx v7.4 and newer, an Industrial Gateway thing template is configured in the NextGen Composer. The instructions for connecting KEPServerEX v6.1 (and newer) with ThingWorx v7.4 (and newer) can be found in the ThingWorx Help Center here:   KEPServerEX / ThingWorx Industrial Connectivity Connection Example (Expand ThingWorx Model Definition and Composer > Industrial Connections > Industrial Connections Example)     When connecting with versions of ThingWorx that are older than v7.4-- or if the older version of ThingWorx Composer will be used-- it will necessary

Video Author:                    Christophe Morfin Original Post Date:            June 9, 2017 Applicable Releases:        ThingWorx Analytics 8.0   Description: In this video we go through the steps to install ThingWorx Analytics Server 8.0.    

Connectors allow clients to establish a connection to Tomcat via the HTTP / HTTPS protocol. Tomcat allows for configuring multiple connectors so that users or devices can either connect via HTTP or HTTPS.   Usually users like you and me access websites by just typing the URL in the browser's address bar, e.g. "www.google.com". By default browsers assume that the connection should be established with the HTTP protocol. For HTTPS connections, the protocol has to be specified explictily, e.g. "https://www.google.com"   However - Google automatically forwards HTTP connections automatically as a HTTPS connection, so that all connections are using certificates and are via a secure channel and you will end up on "https://www.google.com" anyway.   To configure ThingWorx to only allow secure connections there are two options...   1) Remove HTTP access   If HTTP access is removed, users can no longer connect to the 80 or 8080 port. ThingWorx will only be accessible on po

I imagine a lot of people that face this problem might be using Session Parameters, but there is a secret lost Ninja art that allows you to do it with Mashup parameters which is much more contextual and direct.The key is to have Mashup parameters with the same name.End ResultStarting out I am on my main mashup, you can see the Tree Data in the Grid belowClicking on the next node now shows the new mashup and the TO field inside. That To value was passed in using a mashup parameterClicking the next node, you can see it is actually a different mashup, but I am still passing the TO valueHow is it done:Here is my mashup with the Tree and Contained mashup, you can see the bindings are in place already, but how did I do it, since the Contained Mashup is empty?First create the new mashups with a mashup parameter named the SAME in this case EntityNameHere is Mashup2 and you can see the Mashup parameter with the same name EntityName bound to one of the Value DisplaysNow how do I bind from my mai

ThingWorx Manufacturing Tips & Tricks Webinar is a weekly opportunity to hear PTC Subject Matter Experts present on various topics related to the manufacturing space and applications.   Agenda for this week's recorded session - - Manufacturing Apps Overview - Christine Bahmer - Insight CM Integration - Aron Semle - 3rd Party Systems Integration - Varathan Ranganathan - Q&A  

ThingWorx Manufacturing Tips & Tricks Webinar is a weekly opportunity to hear PTC Subject Matter Experts present on various topics related to the manufacturing space and applications.   Agenda for this week's recorded session - - Manufacturing Apps Overview - Christine Bahmer - Installing the demo Factory - Varathan Ranganathan - Installing the custom Plant Layout App - Varathan Ranganathan - Q&A  

ThingWorx Manufacturing Tips & Tricks Webinar is a weekly opportunity to hear PTC Subject Matter Experts present on various topics related to the manufacturing space and applications.   Agenda for this week's recorded session - - Manufacturing Apps Overview - Christine Bahmer - PTC Sigma Tile IoT Starter Kit, Presented by Serge Romano    

ThingWorx Manufacturing Tips & Tricks Webinar is a weekly opportunity to hear PTC Subject Matter Experts present on various topics related to the manufacturing space and applications.   Agenda for this week's recorded session - - Overview & Application Demo - Aron Semle - Architecture Overview - Varathan Ranganathan - Q&A  

ThingWorx Manufacturing Tips & Tricks Webinar is a weekly opportunity to hear PTC Subject Matter Experts present on various topics related to the manufacturing space and applications.   Agenda for this week's recorded session - - Overview and demo of the MFG Apps - Aron Semle, Solution Manager - Licensing Options - Serge Romano, VP Manufacturing -Installation Options and configuration of the apps - Varathan Ranganathan, SME - Q&A  

Why we need improve ThingWorx Query Performance?ThingWorx is good at injesting data from systems and devices and persisting data in Value Stream.When users build mashups/services which pull anything more than small amounts of data back, or have many users making queries at the same time, they encounter slow performance and/or server failure.Let's take a typical example which may happen among many of our end users:User A is currently gathering data from their edge devices and placing them in a Value Stream. About 80 properties are sharing the same Value Stream and they are estimating roughly 10 million rows a month of data into the platform.Their application requires querying large sections of this data and displaying aggregate info to certain mashups. A ton of work has been done to optimize these queries to make them as efficient as possible. However, querying with results larger than a few thousand rows causes RAM usage to spike so high, that the JVM runs out of heap space and brings

ThingWorx 8.2 System RequirementsThingWorx 8.2 HelpcenterThe following feature enhancements and bug fixes exist in ThingWorx 8.2.0:Due to security updates, a minimum version of Apache Tomcat 8.0.47 or 8.5.23 should be used with ThingWorx.EnhancementsPlatform• Included information about opting out of metrics reporting. For more information, see the ThingWorx Metrics Reporting Services Configuration section in the Platform Subsystem help topic.• The Script Log Error has been added to improve error logging for scripts.• Added support to allow mashups to be rendered using jQuery 3.x runtime.• Query service optimization. This includes improved performance for the QueryPropertyHistory and QueryPropertyNamedHistory services. Previously, a database call was made for every logged property. With this improvement, one database call is made for all logged properties, resulting in the following improvements:▪ A ~20% decrease in memory usage for the QueryPropertyHistory and QueryNamedPropertyHistory

With the release of ThingWorx 8.1.3, we’ve made a few changes to our licensing model in order to simplify the process.  If you are using any version of ThingWorx 8.1 or later, all that is required to license the platform is a device ID, which is a unique identifier that is requested during the licensing process.  The ID is generated upon deployment of the platform.For those working with ThingWorx 8.1.3 and later, it is possible for the platform to automatically obtain a license from PTC should the server be able to communicate successfully with our license portal.  If the connection is blocked for any reason, or you are using a version of 8.1 prior to 8.1.3, a manual approach is also available via the PTC website.For customers who have already licensed any previous release version of ThingWorx 8.1, there is no need to re-request a license as your current license is compatible with subsequent releases of the platform (e.g. 8.1.3, 8.2.0, 9.0.0, etc.).  You will only n

What is Meltdown and Spectre?Windows KB PageBlog on Altaro containing  some performance tests with pre/post-patch machines https://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/meltdown-spectre-hyperv-performance/For any further information about PTC’s reaction to the Meltdown&Spectre, please reference this link:  https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS277711

There's a reason why many "Hello World" tutorials begin with writing to the logging tool.  Developers live in the console, inserting breakpoints and watching variables while debugging.  Especially with interconnected, complex systems, logging becomes crucial to saving developer hours and shipping on time.What this tutorial coversThis tutorial introduces the three principal methods of monitoring the status of assets and the output of operations on an Axeda instance.Audit LogsCustom Object LogReportsThe Audit LogYou can filter the Audit Log by date range or by category.A list of the Audit Categories is available in the Help documentation at http://<<yourhost>>.axeda.com/help/en/audit_log_categories_for_filtering...You can write to the Audit Log from an Expression Rule or from a Custom Object.Writing to the Audit Log from an Expression RuleUse the Audit Action to write to the Audit Log:Audit("data-management", "The temperature " + DataItem.temp.value + "was reported

Video Author:                     Asia Garrouj Original Post Date:            March 31, 2017 Applicable Releases:        ThingWorx Analytics 7.4 to 8.1   Description: This video is the second part of a two part video series walking thru the configuration of Analysis Event which is applied for Real-Time Scoring.  This second video will walk you thru the configuration of Analysis Event for Real Time Scoring and validating that a predictions job has been executed based on new input data.    

Video Author:                     Stefan Taka Original Post Date:            July 14, 2017 Applicable Releases:        ThingWorx 7.4   Description: This video will provide you with a brief introduction to the New Composer Interface, which has been made available in the 7.4 and later releases of the ThingWorx Platform.  For complete details on what functionality is available within this next generation composer interface, and to also see what lies ahead on our road map, please refer to the following post in the Community.   NG Composer feature availability  

Video Author:                     Durgesh Patel Original Post Date:            June 12, 2017 Applicable Releases:        ThingWorx   Description: In this video we review the different features available in Grid Advanced Extension version 2.0.  

Video Author:                     Polina Osipvoa Original Post Date:            June 10, 2016 Applicable Releases:        ThingWorx   Description: This is a video tutorial on creating a Media Entity, and importing and displaying an image.      

Video Author:                     Polina Osipova Original Post Date:            June 10, 2016   Description: This is a video tutorial on configuring properties for a Thing, and using "Manage Bindings" to bind properties to a Thing.      

Video Author:                     Polina Osipova Original Post Date:            June 10, 2016   Description: This is a video tutorial on adding State Formatting in a Mashup using State Definitions.      

Original Post Date:     June 6, 2016 Description: This is a video tutorial on creating a Value Stream, adding the Value Stream to a Remote Thing, adding, binding and querying the (remote) properties.      

Original Post Date:            June 6, 2016   Description: This is a video tutorial on creating a Stream, adding a Data Shape with properties, and writing values to the Stream.    

Video Author:                      Stefan Taka Original Post Date:            June 6, 2016   Description: In part 2 of the ThingWorx REST API tutorial, we will demonstrate various common uses of the ThingWorx REST API.      

Video Author:                     Stefan Taka Original Post Date:            June 6, 2016   Description: In part 1 of the ThingWorx REST API tutorial, we will introduce you to the ThingWorx API structure, and also demonstrate how the API can be invoked.    Blog post with text examples found here:  REST API Overview and Examples