IoT & Connectivity Tips

In this blog I will be covering the initial setup of ThingWorx Android SDK with a sample app (supplied with the Android SDK) and set it up with a web based revision control system like Bitbucket's (free account plan). I'll also be covering quick information on how to enable the HTTPS connection for the ThingWorx server on Windows platform. This will allow for secured connection to the ThingWorx server from the Android application. Do note this is only a reference guide for setting it up with revision control system, you’re free to choose to setup the Android Studio without Bitbucket or with any other revision control system. It’ll be just fine to have a local Git/SVN/Perforce etc. to manage the code repository, setting Android Studio with Bitbucket is officially not supported. Pre-requisite: 1. Download and unzip the ThingWorx Android SDK from https://support.ptc.com 2. An account with Bitbucket is required 3. Download and install Android Studio Project Setup 1. Unzip the downloaded Android SDK on a local drive 2. Start the Android Studio > Import project > navigate to the sample applications location provided with the ThingWorx Android SDK e.g. Thingworx-Android-SDK-X.x.x\samples 3. Select one of the sample application e.g. androidShell, with ThingWorx Android SDK X.x.x there are 3 sample applications currently available when the Android SDK is downloaded: a. Android File Brwoser b. Android Shell c. Android Steam Thing 4. For this blog I'll be setting up the androidShell Android Application 5. Do note that all the sample projects are built using Gradle, so while importing if required select Gradle as the build system for the sample application 6. Once imported successfully in Android Studio you should be able to see the Android project and its file structure like so 7. We'll need an account with Bitbucket, create one if you don't have already 8. Logon to Bitbucket and create a team and new repository under that team 9. Navigate to the repository created in Bitbucket 10. Create a local GIT code repo if you don't already have one, and copy over all the contents from the Android SDK x.x.x.zip to that location 11. On your local machine open a command prompt and navigate to the drive where the local GIT's code repository resides, i.e. the folder where you unzipped the android SDK and execute the commands as mentioned: a. git remote add origin https://<accountName@bitbucket.org>/<teamName>/<projectName>.git b. git push -u origin master Note: This will add the contents of your local GIT repository to the empty code repository you’ve created under the team on Bitbucket. 12. You can also use SourceTree UI application on windows for creating, GIT and Mercury based code repository and connect it to your Bitbucket account 13. On successful commit following will be logged in the command prompt Enabling HTTPS on Tomcat and connecting to Android Application Securing Tomcat on Windows You can skip this section if you already have Tomcat running ThingWorx configured for HTTPS connection. 1. Execute the command in a command prompt C:\>"%JAVA_HOME%\bin\keytool" -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA -keystore C:\KeystoreTomcat\tomcat.keystore Note: Executing above step will require you to add additional information to the keystore like, Org name, full name location, etc. 2. Edit the <tomcatInstallation>\conf\server.xml file   <Connector   port="8443" protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol"               maxThreads="200" SSLEnabled="true" scheme="https" secure="true" keystoreFile="C:\KeystoreTomcat\tomcat.keystore" keystorePass="<giveYourPasswordHere>" clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="TLS">       <!-- <SSLHostConfig>             <Certificate certificateKeystoreFile="conf/localhost-rsa.jks"                         type="RSA" />         </SSLHostConfig>-->     </Connector> 3. Restart the tomcat service Note: For detailed information on securing the Tomcat on Windows refer to SSL/TLS Configuration How-TO . Note HTTPS setup is only for the Tomcat where ThingWorx is deployed and does not involve certificate setup on the Android Application side Finally,to test if the HTTPS setup was successful or not navigate to https://<serverName/IP>:8443/Thingworx in a web browser. Port 8443 is the default HTTPS port. Starting and connecting Android Application to ThingWorx Now that we have a working secured Tomcat and Android Studio setup with the sample Android Application, androidShell. Let's build and run the application using an emulated Android device in Android Studio 1. Navigate to https://localhost:8443/Thingworx > Import/Export > Import from file and import the Thing entity which will connect to the SampleThing when you’ll run the Android application, for e.g. I imported the Thingworx-Android-SDK-X.X.X\samples\android-shell\entity\Things_AndroidSampleThing.xml because I will be running the androidShell application 2. Attempting to run the Android application without the entity created in ThingWorx first, Thing will show as unbound in RemoteThing. 3. Create an AppKey in ThingWorx > Security > Application Keys with sufficient rights 4. Go to the Android Studio's toolbar and click on AVD Manager icon 5. This will open the Android Virtual Device Manager and lets you create a virtual Android device 6. You can of course use your own actual device to connect over USB and install and test the application on actual hardware 7. If you already have a Virtual or actual device connected to the system, click on Make Project icon in the toolbar 8. Once the Make finishes run the sample application, in my case androidShell application with the Run icon, like so 9. You may now be prompted with the options to select a device virtual or actual 10. Select as desired and click OK 11. This will now launch the application on the selected device, I have selected to launch on the virtual device which will start and emulated Android Device 12. When initiating/running the application for the first time you will be directed to the Settings screen allowing you to enter the connection URI and the Application Key to connect to the ThingWorx server 13. You have to follow one of the following two URI schemes while attempting to connect to a ThingWorx Server a. For HTTP connection use : ws://<machineIP/Name>:8080/Thingworx/WS b. For HTTPS connection use : wss://<machineIP/Name>:8443/Thingworx/WS Note: Ports may differ as these are the default ports, if you are running ThingWorx on different port enhance the URI accordingly 14. Since my ThingWorx is reachable on HTTPS connection i'll use the HTTPS connectino URI scheme and the application key that I have already created in the ThingWorx, which is bound to Administrator user 15. Once done press the back button on the screen to initiate the connection attempt 16. If all's set as it should be you will be able to see the Connected to Server option checked and the Property count for the Serial Number Property being updated every second For more detail on ThingWorx Android SDK refer to the ThingWorx Edge SDKs and WebScocket based Edge MicroServer (WS EMS) Help Center

This blog addresses a few points that are related to scoring with ThingWorx Analytics. It, particularly, brings a clearer understanding of the concepts behind the values of the scores that are generated when performing a scoring job.   Scoring Outputs:   It is important to note that when training an analytics model, the method is to create a generalizable model from a relatively small training dataset.   By its nature, we expect the training process to see a limited subset and not an exhaustive list of all possible values for many constraints, especially for time and practicality.   As such, these generalized models will be expected to handle unseen data in the form of new combinations or values outside of previously observed ranges (more on this below).   One common way to see scores that exceed the observed ranges in training, under the assumption that the goals are continuous, is to use prescriptive scoring.   Prescriptive scoring attempts to find optimal values for a lever, meaning tunable, features in order to maximize or minimize score values. See the prescriptive scoring documentation and functionality for more information.   min/max constraints: these are constraints that are placed upon the inputs for training and expected inputs for scoring.   •          For training: If theses ranges were provided as part of the upload process, then training will raise exceptions regarding invalid data. However, if the ranges are not provided - they will be inferred from the data and, as such, training will not see values outside of observed ranges.   •          For scoring: Validation of the ranges will only be performed on the inputs - not the outputs. It is very important to note that the handling of these "constraints" is dependent upon the data type.   For categorical (e.g. colors) and ordinal data (e.g. shirt sizes), the constraints are strict and data that was not observed in training will raise exceptions during scoring.   However, for continuous values (e.g. temperature ranges) these constraints are more informational in nature. For predictive scoring, our code will accept records with values outside of those ranges.   The rule of thumb is that values slightly outside these ranges are acceptable and that as the values stray farther from the ranges, the accuracy of the model degrades very quickly.   For prescriptive scoring, these constraints are used to determine the acceptable ranges of values to try when determining the optimal values. Values outside of these constraints will NOT be tried.

Merging InfoTables can seem to be an overwhelming task in ThingWorx. What even IS an InfoTable?? The short answer is that an InfoTable is a specifically structured JSON object. Merging InfoTables is therefore as easy as incrementing through each, adding the columns of each to another table, and then populating the new table with data. For InfoTables with the same DataShapes, the built in "Union" service can be used. Find this snippet under the InfoTableResources section. There is also a snippet for incrementing through DataShape fields if the DataShape is known. For InfoTables which don't have the same DataShapes or for which the DataShape is not known, things get a bit trickier. Thankfully, some new KCS documentation provides example code to step you through merging any number of tables together. I hope this documentation is helpful!

As per ThingWorx Documentation: Updating Properties Automatically in a Mashup A mashup using the GetProperties service can be configured to use websockets and receive updates to properties automatically. When creating or editing a mashup, you can configure the GetProperties service so that the properties are automatically updated by selecting the Automatically update values when able checkbox in the service properties panel. So, the feature to update Properties Automatically in a Mashup is limited to GetProperties service only. Following are the steps to invoke our own custom Service automatically when a property change: 1. Find all the Properties in your Thing for which the DataChange should trigger the custom service. 2. In mashup; add value display widget (or some other widgets) for each property in Step1. 3. Bind the properties from GetProperties service to these widget. 4. Set visible property of these widgets to false so that they don't show up at the RunTime. 5. Now bind the ServiceInvokeCompleted event of GetProperties Service to your custom Service. 6. Save and view Mashup. Result: When any of the Property from Step1 is changed; Custom Service will be invoked in our Mashup.

This simple example creates an infotable of hierarchical data from an existing datashape that can be used in a tree or D3 Tree widget.  Attachments are provides that give a PDF document as well as the ThingWorx entities for the example.  If you were just interested in the service code, it is listed below: var params = {   infoTableName : "InfoTable",   dataShapeName : "TreeDataShape" }; // CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(infoTableName:STRING("InfoTable"), dataShapeName:STRING):INFOTABLE(TreeDataShape) var result = Resources["InfoTableFunctions"].CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(params); var NewRow = {}; NewRow.Parent = "No Parent"; NewRow.Child = "Enterprise"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Enterprise"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Enterprise"; NewRow.Child = "Site1"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Wilmington Plant"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site1"; NewRow.Child = "Site1.Line1"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Blow Molding"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site1.Line1"; NewRow.Child = "Site1.Line1.Asset1"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Preform Staging"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site1.Line1"; NewRow.Child = "Site1.Line1.Asset2"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Blow Molder"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site1.Line1"; NewRow.Child = "Site1.Line1.Asset3"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Bottle Unscrambler"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site1"; NewRow.Child = "Site1.Line2"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Filling"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site1.Line2"; NewRow.Child = "Site1.Line2.Asset1"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Rinser"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site1.Line2"; NewRow.Child = "Site1.Line2.Asset2"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Filler"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site1.Line2"; NewRow.Child = "Site1.Line2.Asset3"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Capper"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site1"; NewRow.Child = "Site1.Line3"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Packaging"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site1.Line3"; NewRow.Child = "Site1.Line3.Asset1"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Printer Labeler"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site1.Line3"; NewRow.Child = "Site1.Line3.Asset2"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Packer"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site1.Line3"; NewRow.Child = "Site1.Line3.Asset3"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Palletizing"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Enterprise"; NewRow.Child = "Site2"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Mobile Plant"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site2"; NewRow.Child = "Site2.Line1"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Blow Molding"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site2.Line1"; NewRow.Child = "Site2.Line1.Asset1"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Preform Staging"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site2.Line1"; NewRow.Child = "Site2.Line1.Asset2"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Blow Molder"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site2.Line1"; NewRow.Child = "Site2.Line1.Asset3"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Bottle Unscrambler"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site2"; NewRow.Child = "Site2.Line2"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Filling"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site2.Line2"; NewRow.Child = "Site2.Line2.Asset1"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Rinser"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site2.Line2"; NewRow.Child = "Site2.Line2.Asset2"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Filler"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site2.Line2"; NewRow.Child = "Site2.Line2.Asset3"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Capper"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site2"; NewRow.Child = "Site2.Line3"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Packaging"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site2.Line3"; NewRow.Child = "Site2.Line3.Asset1"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Printer Labeler"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site2.Line3"; NewRow.Child = "Site2.Line3.Asset2"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Packer"; result.AddRow(NewRow); NewRow.Parent = "Site2.Line3"; NewRow.Child = "Site2.Line3.Asset3"; NewRow.ChildDescription = "Palletizing"; result.AddRow(NewRow);

If the ThingWorx 7.4 installation with MSSQL db doesn't start with a license error on the splash screen, despite taking the necessary steps for specifying the license path, the error might be misleading and the problem is actually lying in the database connection. Going to THingworxStorage/logs and opening ApplicationLog.log might reveal the following (or similar ) errors: 2017-04-13 10:26:17.993-0400 [L: INFO] [O: c.t.s.ThingWorxServer] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] Sending Post Start Notifications... 2017-04-13 10:26:17.999-0400 [L: ERROR] [O: c.t.p.m.MssqlModelExceptionTranslator] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] [message: Could not create a transaction for ThingworxPersistenceProvider] 2017-04-13 10:26:18.001-0400 [L: ERROR] [O: E.c.t.p.d.FileTransferDocumentModelProvider] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] [context: Could not create a transaction for ThingworxPersistenceProvider][message: Could not create a transaction for ThingworxPersistenceProvider] 2017-04-13 10:26:18.004-0400 [L: ERROR] [O: c.t.p.m.MssqlModelExceptionTranslator] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] [message: Could not create a transaction for ThingworxPersistenceProvider] 2017-04-13 10:26:18.005-0400 [L: ERROR] [O: c.t.s.s.f.FileTransferSubsystem] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] Error loading queued transfer jobs from persistence provider 2017-04-13 10:26:18.006-0400 [L: ERROR] [O: c.t.p.m.MssqlModelExceptionTranslator] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] [message: Could not create a transaction for ThingworxPersistenceProvider] 2017-04-13 10:26:18.006-0400 [L: ERROR] [O: E.c.t.p.d.FileTransferDocumentModelProvider] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] [context: Could not create a transaction for ThingworxPersistenceProvider][message: Could not create a transaction for ThingworxPersistenceProvider] 2017-04-13 10:26:18.007-0400 [L: ERROR] [O: c.t.p.m.MssqlModelExceptionTranslator] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] [message: Could not create a transaction for ThingworxPersistenceProvider] 2017-04-13 10:26:18.008-0400 [L: ERROR] [O: c.t.s.s.f.FileTransferSubsystem] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] Error loading queued transfer jobs from persistence provider 2017-04-13 10:26:18.008-0400 [L: INFO] [O: c.t.s.ThingWorxServer] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] Thingworx Server Application...ON A few things to check here. First, how the database was set up. The standard expected port if 1433, however, if you choose a different port - ensure that the port is available. If it isn't - update the port setting in SQL configuration manager. Another possible root cause -- the database scripts did not run properly upon the setup. Currently, there is an active Jira PSPT-3587 for resolving the script issue (NOTE, this thread to be updated once the Jira is fixed). There are two options here, either to run the sql files manually (found in the "install" folder of the downloadable), or edit the bat scripts manually. It's recommended to edit the script files instead because running the sql commands allows more room for a mistake. The following line in the bat scripts needs to be edited to have the ".\" removed: sqlcmd.exe -S %server%\%serverinstance%,%port% -U %adminusername% -v loginname=%loginname% -v database=%database% -v thingworxusername=%thingworxusername% -v schema=%schema%  -i .\thingworx-database-setup.sql Note, that the scripts need to be run from the same directory ("/install")

Disclaimer: example was provided by Hatcher Chad - chad@onfarmsystems.com   //   // For this example, we'll have an Math service   // which takes two numbers, and an operation.   // The result will be that operation performed on the two inputs.       //   // We either need an Application Key,   // or user credentials to perform the reads and writes.   // App keys are a little safer.   // In this demo, we'll store it on the Entity as a Property.   var appKey = me.appKey;       //   // The service name needs to be unique and not already in use.   var serviceName = "MyMath";       //   // What are the inputs to the service?   // We'll define them nicely here, but manipulate this object later.   var parameters = {   "op" : "STRING",   "x" : "NUMBER",   "y" : "NUMBER"   };       //   // What datatype does the service return?   // If it's an infotable,   // then you'll also have to specify the data shape   // as part of the resultType's aspect,   // but I won't demonstrate that here.   var output = "NUMBER";       //   // What is the actual service script?   // We'll define it here as an array of lines, and then join them together.   var serviceScript = [   "var result = (function() {",   " switch(op) {",   " case \"add\": return x + y;",   " case \"sub\": return x - y;",   " case \"mult\": return x * y;",   " case \"div\": return x / y;",   " default: return op in Math ? Math[op](x, y) : 0;",   " };",   "})();",   ].join("\n");       ////////       //   // Let's convert the friendly parameter definition   // into the structure that ThingWorx uses:   var parameterDefinitions = Object.keys(parameters).reduce(function(parameterDefinitions, parameterName, index) {   var parameterType = parameters[parameterName];   parameterDefinitions[parameterName] = {   "name": parameterName,   "aspects": {},   "description": "",   "baseType": parameterType,   "ordinal": index   };   return parameterDefinitions;   }, {});       //   // Now let's set up our service definition and implementation.   var definition = {   "isAllowOverride": false,   "isOpen": false,   "sourceType": "Unknown",   "parameterDefinitions": parameterDefinitions,   "name": serviceName,   "aspects": {   "isAsync": false   },   "isLocalOnly": false,   "description": "",   "isPrivate": false,   "sourceName": "",   "category": "",   "resultType": {   "name": "result",   "aspects": {},   "description": "",   "baseType": output,   "ordinal": 0   }   };       var implementation = {   "name": serviceName,   "description": "",   "handlerName": "Script",   "configurationTables": {   "Script": {   "isMultiRow": false,   "name": "Script",   "description": "Script",   "rows": [{   "code": serviceScript   }],   "ordinal": 0,   "dataShape": {   "fieldDefinitions": {   "code": {   "name": "code",   "aspects": {},   "description": "code",   "baseType": "STRING",   "ordinal": 0   }   }   }   }   }   };       ////////       //   // Here are the URLs we'll need in order to make updates.   // You can change the thing name ('ServiceModifier' here)   // to something else.   // If you use credentials instead of an app key,   // then you can remove the appKey parameter here,   // but you'll have to add the username and password   // to the two ContentLoaderFunctions calls.   var url = {   export : "http://127.0.0.1:8080/Thingworx/Things/ServiceModifier?Accept=application/json&appKey="+appKey,   import : "http://127.0.0.1:8080/Thingworx/Things/ServiceModifier?appKey="+appKey   };       //   // We can download the entity to modify as a JSON object.   // Older versions of ThingWorx might not support this.   var config = Resources.ContentLoaderFunctions.GetJSON({   url : url.export,   });       //   // We have to modify both the 'effectiveShape',   // as well as the 'thingShape'.   config.effectiveShape.serviceDefinitions[serviceName] = definition;   config.effectiveShape.serviceImplementations[serviceName] = implementation;       config.thingShape.serviceDefinitions[serviceName] = definition;   config.thingShape.serviceImplementations[serviceName] = implementation;       // Finally, we can push our updates back into ThingWorx.   Resources.ContentLoaderFunctions.PutText({   url : url.export,   content : JSON.stringify(config),   contentType : "application/json",   });       // The end.

This Javascript snippet creates a random value between those limits:   var dbl_Value = Math.floor(Math.random()*(max-min+1)+min);

Please open your ApplicationLog located in ThingworxStorage/logs and inspect for errors. Something like the following might be observed: **********LICENSING ERROR ANALYSIS 2017-03-31 16:29:19.591+0300 [L: ERROR] [O: ] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] C:\WINDOWS\Sun\Java\bin is listed as a java.library.path but it does not exist 2017-04-12 13:51:53.515+0200 [L: ERROR] [O: c.t.s.s.l.LicensingSubsystem] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] Failed to load FlxCore library. Ensure it's in PATH (Windows) or LD_LIBRARY_PATH(other platforms) or set with the VM arg, -Djava.library.path. Error message : com.flexnet.licensing.DllEntryPoint.entry([B) Typically, if the license file has been downloaded and placed correcrtly, according to the 7.4 installation guide, the error in the log will specify where the file was found. If the license path was specified per the installation guide in the tomcat java path, you may try to clear it from the Tomcat java settings and keep these parameters: -Dserver -Dd64 -XX:+UseNUMA -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 And then set up the license path in the environment variable path: Go to explorer, right click on "my computer" -> Properties -> Advanced settings -> Environment variables -> edit "PATH", add ; and then path to your tomcat extensions folder, “ ;<path to extensions folder of tomcat> “ or, for example ";C:\ptc\Thingworx\webapps\Thingworx\WEB-INF\extensions"

Usually we want to search out all User list in ThingWorx with Service GetEntityList   But it only shows limited information. In order to see more details like User Extension information etc., and in order to add more search conditions we could encapsulate it in a new created service. Below is an example code: input: emailAddress(String) output: INFOTABLE // Code start here // step 1 Get all user list var params = {            maxItems: undefined /* NUMBER */,           nameMask: undefined /* STRING */,           type: "User" /* STRING */,           tags: undefined /* TAGS */   };   var users = Resources["EntityServices"].GetEntityList(params);   // step 2 get all other properties for user list var params = {            infoTableName: "infotable" /* STRING */,            dataShapeName: "userPropertiesDS" /* DATASHAPENAME */   };   var infotable = Resources["InfoTableFunctions"].CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(params);   for (var v=0;v<users.length;v++){       var row = new Object();       row.EmailAddress= Users[users .name].emailAddress;            row.name = users .name;       row.fullName = Users[users .name].fullName;       infotable.AddRow(row);   // ...... // Add any other user properties you want to display } // step 3 filter the user list with search conditions // You could add as many parameters as you like var query = {   "filters": {     "type": "AND",     "filters": [       {         "fieldName": "EmailAddress",         "type": "EQ",         "value": emailAddress       },       {         "fieldName": "name",         "type": "EQ",         "value": "user1"       }     ]   } }; var params = {          t: infotable /* INFOTABLE */,          query: query /* QUERY */   }; // result: INFOTABLE var result = Resources["InfoTableFunctions"].Query(params);     Besides, to create a query is also a one step operation in Thingworx , you do not need to create it manually:

Let us consider that we have 2 properties Property1 and Property2 in Thing Thing1 which we want to update using UpdatePropertyValues service. In our service we will use a system defined DataShape NamedVTQ which has following field definitions: In Thing1 create a custom service like following: var params1 = {      infoTableName : "InfoTable",      dataShapeName : "NamedVTQ" }; // CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(infoTableName:STRING("InfoTable"), dataShapeName:STRING):INFOTABLE(NamedVTQ) var InputInfoTable = Resources["InfoTableFunctions"].CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(params1); var now = new Date(); // Thing1 entry object var newEntry = new Object(); newEntry.time = now; // DATETIME - isPrimaryKey = true newEntry.quality = undefined; // STRING newEntry.name = "Property1"; // STRING newEntry.value = "Value1"; // STRING InputInfoTable.AddRow(newEntry); newEntry.name = "Property2"; // STRING newEntry.value = "Value2"; // STRING InputInfoTable.AddRow(newEntry); var params2 = {      values: InputInfoTable /* INFOTABLE */ }; me.UpdatePropertyValues(params2);

This example is to achieve to update objects in Windchill thru extensions. It is really hard to find a resource for Windchill extension's services to take an advantage of them. So, I wrote a simple example to update objects in Windchill from Thingworx.   There are three data shapes needed to do this. One is "PTC.PLM.WindchillPartUfids" which has only "value" field (String) in it and another is "PTC.PLM.WindchillPartCheckedOutDS" which has a "ufid" field (String). Last one is "PTC.PLM.WindchillPartPropertyDS" which has a "ufid" field (String) and fields for "attributes". For an instance of the last data shape, there might be three fields as "ufid", "partPrice" and "quantity" to update parts. In this example, this data shape has two fields which are "ufid" and "almProjectId".   In this example, this needs two input parameters. One is ufid (String) and almProjectId (String). If you need to have multiple objects to update at once, you can use InfoTable type as an "ufid" input parameter instead of String type.   Note that this is an example code and need to handle exceptions if needed.     // To var params = {     infoTableName : "InfoTable",     dataShapeName : "PTC.PLM.WindchillPartUfids" };   // CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(infoTableName:STRING("InfoTable"), dataShapeName:STRING):INFOTABLE(PTC.PLM.WindchillPartUfids) var ufids = Resources["InfoTableFunctions"].CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(params);   // PTC.PLM.WindchillPartUfids entry object var newValue = new Object(); newValue.value = ufid; // STRING   ufids.AddRow(newValue);   // Check out var params = {     ufids: ufids /* INFOTABLE */,     comment: undefined /* STRING */,     dataShape: "PTC.PLM.WindchillPartCheckedOutDS" /* DATASHAPENAME */ };   // checkedOutObjs: INFOTABLE dataShape: "undefined" var checkedOutObjsFromService = me.CheckOut(params);   var params = {     infoTableName : "InfoTable",     dataShapeName : "PTC.PLM.WindchillPartUfids" };   // CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(infoTableName:STRING("InfoTable"), dataShapeName:STRING):INFOTABLE(PTC.PLM.WindchillPartUfids) var checkedOutObjs = Resources["InfoTableFunctions"].CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(params);   try {     var tableLength = checkedOutObjsFromService.rows.length;       for (var x = 0; x < tableLength; x++) {         var row = checkedOutObjsFromService.rows;               // PTC.PLM.WindchillPartUfids entry object         var checkedOutObj = new Object();         checkedOutObj.value = row.ufid.substring(0,row.ufid.lastIndexOf(":")); // STRING               //logger.warn("UFID : " + checkedOutObj.value);         checkedOutObjs.AddRow(checkedOutObj);           /* Update Objects in Windchill */         var params = {             infoTableName : "InfoTable",             dataShapeName : "PTC.PLM.WindchillPartPropertyDS"         };           // CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(infoTableName:STRING("InfoTable"), dataShapeName:STRING):INFOTABLE(PTC.ALM.WindchillPartPropertyDS)         var wcInfoTable = Resources["InfoTableFunctions"].CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(params);           // PTC.ALM.WindchillPartPropertyDS entry object         var newEntry = new Object();         newEntry.ufid = checkedOutObj.value; // STRING         newEntry.almProjectId = almProjectId; // STRING           wcInfoTable.AddRow(newEntry);           var params = {             objects: wcInfoTable /* INFOTABLE */,             modification: "REPLACE" /* STRING */,             dataShape: "PTC.PLM.WindchillPartCheckedOutDS" /* DATASHAPENAME */         };           // result: INFOTABLE dataShape: "undefined"         var result = me.Update(params);     }   } catch(err) {     logger.warn("ERROR Catched");     var params = {         ufids: ufids /* INFOTABLE */,         dataShape: "PTC.PLM.WindchillPartCheckedOutDS" /* DATASHAPENAME */     };       // result: INFOTABLE dataShape: "undefined"     var result = me.CancelCheckOut(params);  }   var params = {     ufids: checkedOutObjs /* INFOTABLE */,     comment: undefined /* STRING */,     dataShape: "PTC.PLM.WindchillPartCheckedOutDS" /* DATASHAPENAME */ };   // result: INFOTABLE dataShape: "undefined" var result = me.CheckIn(params);

User Localization vs. Browser Localization Localization in ThingWorx is mainly based on Localization Tables and tokens which are used as a placeholder for the actual word / phrase in a particular language. There's a blog at https://community.thingworx.com/community/developers/blog/2016/08/15/managing-and-using-localization-in-thingworx which is explaining in-application localization in detail. Language preferences are however only considered by the user's settings. For the organization login pages at http://<server>/Thingworx/FormLogin/<organizationName> there's no defined user yet. As the user has not logged in yet, ThingWorx will have no user preferences to identify the need for a specific language. Instead the browser language is used. The login / password-reset page is constructed at runtime via .jsp templates. Via JavaScript the browser language is detected and language specific configuration files are considered. When such a configuration file is present, its tokens will be used to replace the data-i18n placeholders in the .jsp files. Customizing the login related localizations The localization files are stored in <Tomcat>\webapps\Thingworx\Common\locales\ For each language there's a subfolder - by default this is "en" for English. The language and therefore folder to be used will be determined by the user's browser settings. Whatever is top in the language list will be considered first. If a folder, e.g. for German (de), French (fr) or Spanish (es) exists, ThingWorx will use this for localization. In the folder, there's the translation-login.json file. It holds all the tokens required for the login relevant translations / localizations. The FormLogin.jsp holds e.g. the token [placeholder]tw.login.labels.name This is a placeholder (which means text to be overwritten in a textfield in case the textfield is empty). The actual localization can be found in the translation-login.json going down the json object structure to "tw" > "login" > "labels" > "name" which results as Name in the English translation. tw.login.labels.password-title would result in the following String: Password must be at least 5 characters Creating custom languages To create a custom language besides English, copy the en folder and rename it to the correct language short name, from Afar (aa) to Zulu (zu). A list of Language Code References can be found at https://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_language_codes.asp After copying the folder, open the translation-login.json and alter the resulting Strings into the correct language variant. As soon as the correct translation-login.json is created, it will be considered for localization. No need to restart Tomcat.

Hello! I have just written a tutorial on how to set up Lua to be run from the command line. As many already know, there is no good way to debug Lua scripts as they are used in package deployment in Software Content Manager, and building such a debugger is a vast and difficult undertaking. As an alternative, running small portions of code in the command line to ensure they will work as expected is one way to verify the validity of the Lua syntax prior to attempting a deployment. Here are the steps to set up Lua as a command line tool:   Grab the GCC compiler called TDM-GCC Run the exe file and follow the install instructions Remember the install directory for this, as the attached install script will need to be configured in a later step Default location in the install file is "C:\Program Files\TDM-GCC\" Note: leaving the "Add to PATH" selected will allow you to compile C code on the command line as well by typing "gcc" (this is not required for this set-up) Download the Lua source code ​This comes as a ".tar.gz" file, which can be tricky to extract in Windows Download 7zip for freeware which can unzip this type of archive Extract the Lua source code and navigate to the top level directory which should just contain one folder named like "lua-x.x.x" where the x's refer to the version Download and extract the attached zip file containing the build file Copy the "build.cmd" file from this to the top level directory of the Lua source code Modify the configuration as needed: Version number default is 5.3.4 (parameter is called lua_version) GCC install path default is "C:\Program Files\TDM-GCC\bin" (parameter is called lua_build_dir) Double click the "build.cmd" file A console window will appear with installation details If you see the following, then it worked successfully: The "lua\" directory will be created in the same folder as the "build.cmd" file Copy the "lua\" directory to "C:\Program Files\" Open "Computer" > "System Properties" > "Advanced system settings" Click "Environment Variables" > "New..." Call the variable "LUA" and make the value "C:\Program Files\lua\bin" Find the "Path" variable and click "Edit..." At the end of what is already there (do NOT delete anything that is already there), add "%LUA%" (make sure there is a ";" between the previous path and this entry) Click "Ok" Open a new command prompt (has to be new to load the new path) and type "lua" to see if it works Example syntax test from Lua command line:   I hope this is helpful to people! Let me know if you have any questions!

In the following scenario (for redhat in this case), running the dbsetup script results in the error: ./thingworxPostgresDBSetup.sh psql:./thingworx-database-setup.sql:1: ERROR:  syntax error at or near ":" LINE 1: CREATE TABLESPACE :"tablespace" OWNER :"username" location :... ^ psql:./thingworx-database-setup.sql:3: ERROR:  syntax error at or near ":" LINE 1: GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON TABLESPACE :"tablespace" to :"userna... ^ psql:./thingworx-database-setup.sql:5: ERROR:  syntax error at or near ":" LINE 1: GRANT CREATE ON TABLESPACE :"tablespace" to public; ^ psql:./thingworx-database-setup.sql:14: ERROR:  syntax error at or near ":" LINE 1: CREATE DATABASE :"database" WITH ^ psql:./thingworx-database-setup.sql:16: ERROR:  syntax error at or near ":" LINE 1: GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE :"database" to :"username"; Given that the installed components match the requirements guide (tomcat 8, Postgresql 9.4.5+ for Thingworx 7.x), run the following command: Run this directly from bin directory of postgres deployment – psql -q -h localhost -U twadmin -p 5432 -v database=thingworx -v tablespace=thingworx -v tablespace_location=/app/navigate/ThingworxPostgresqlStorage -v username=twadmin That must get into command line interface. From there  run the following with full qualified path to the sql file on disk (replace FULLPATH with the path to sql file ) \i ./FULLPATH/thingworx-database-setup.sql If you are experiencing the above-mentioned syntax error, then likely the output will be: psql: FATAL:  database "twadmin" does not exist. Then from postgres bin directory, run the following: ./psql postgres \set Then the second command; \q psql -q -h localhost -U twadmin -p 5432 -v database=thingworx -v tablespace=thingworx -v tablespace_location=/app/navigate/ThingworxPostgresqlStorage -v username=twadmin \set   We see the following outputs: ./psql postgres Password: psql.bin (9.4.11) Type "help" for help. postgres=# \set AUTOCOMMIT = 'on' PROMPT1 = '%/%R%# ' PROMPT2 = '%/%R%# ' PROMPT3 = '>> ' VERBOSITY = 'default' VERSION = 'PostgreSQL 9.4.11 on x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (GCC) 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-55), 64-bit' DBNAME = 'postgres' USER = 'postgres' PORT = '5432' ENCODING = 'UTF8' postgres=# \q -bash-4.1$ psql -q -h localhost -U twadmin -p 5432 -v database=thingworx -v tablespace=thingworx -v tablespace_location=/ThingworxPostgresqlStorage -v username=twadmin Password for user twadmin: twadmin=# \set AUTOCOMMIT = 'on' QUIET = 'on' PROMPT1 = '%/%R%# ' PROMPT2 = '%/%R%# ' PROMPT3 = '>> ' VERBOSITY = 'default' VERSION = 'PostgreSQL 8.4.20 on x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC gcc (GCC) 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-17), 64-bit' database = 'thingworx' tablespace = 'thingworx' tablespace_location = '/ThingworxPostgresqlStorage' username = 'twadmin' DBNAME = 'twadmin' USER = 'twadmin' HOST = 'localhost' PORT = '5432' ENCODING = 'UTF8' Note, even though Postgresql 9.4.5 has been installed by the system administrator, there are still traces of Postgresql 8.4.20 present in the system that cause the syntax error issue (possibly as part of  the default OS packaging). Removing the 8.4.20 rpms will resolve the problem.

Sampling Strategy​ This Blog Post will cover the 4 sampling Strategies that are available in ThingWorx Analytics.  It will tell you how the sampling strategy runs behind the scenes, when you may want to use that strategy, and will give you the pros and cons of each strategy. SAMPLE_WITH_REPLACEMENT This strategy is not often used by professionals but still may be useful in certain circumstances.  When you sample with replacement, the value that you randomly selected is then returned to the sample pool.  So there is a chance that you can have the same record multiple times in your sample. Example Let’s say you have a hat that contain 3 cards with different people’s names on them. John Sarah Tom Let’s say you make 2 random selections. The first selection you pull out the name Tom. When you sample with replacement, you would put the name Tom back into the hat and then randomly select a card again.  For your second selection, it is possible to get another name like Sarah, or the same one you selected, Tom. Pros May find improved models in smaller datasets with low row counts Cons The Accuracy of the model may be artificially inflated due to duplicates in the sample SAMPLE_WITHOUT_REPLACEMENT This is the default setting in ThingWorx Analytics and the most commonly used sampling strategy by professionals.  The way this strategy works is after the value is randomly selected from the sample pool, it is not returned.  This ensures that all the values that are selected for the sample, are unique. Example Let’s say you have a hat that contain 3 cards with different people’s names on them. John Sarah Tom Let’s say you make 2 random selections. The first selection you pull out the name Tom. When you sample without replacement, you would randomly select a card from the hat again without adding the card Tom.  For your second selection, you could only get the Sarah or John card. Pros This is the sampling strategy that is most commonly used It will deliver the best results in most cases Cons May not be the best choice if the desired goal is underrepresented in the dataset UPSAMPLE_AND_SAMPLE_WITHOUT_REPLACEMENT This is useful when the desired goal is underrepresented in the dataset.  The features that represent the desired outcome of the goal are copied multiple times so they represent a larger share of the total dataset. Example Let’s say you are trying to discover if a patient is at risk for developing a rare condition, like chronic kidney failure, that affects around .5% of the US population.  In this case, the most accurate model that would be generated would say that no one will get this condition, and according to the numbers, it would be right 99.5% of the time.  But in reality, this is not helpful at all to the use case since you want to know if the patient is at risk of developing the condition. To avoid this from happening, copies are made of the records where the patient did develop the condition so it represents a larger share of the dataset.  Doing this will give ThingWorx Analytics more examples to help it generate a more accurate model. Pros Patterns from the original dataset remain intact Cons Longer training time DOWNSAMPLE_AND_SAMPLE_WITHOUT_REPLACEMENT This is also useful when the desired goal is underrepresented in the dataset. In downsample and sample without replacement, some features that do not represent the desired goal outcome are removed. This is done to increase the desired features percentage of the dataset. Example Let’s continue using the medical example from above.  Instead of creating copies of the desired records, undesired record are removed from the dataset.  This causes the records where patients did develop the condition to occupy a larger percentage of the dataset. Pros Shorter training time Cons Patterns from the original dataset may be lost

One of topics that are usually of interest when entering the ThingWorx world is integration with third-party systems. Disclaimer: the following guide is intended to be rather comprehensive and guide you in achieving the best integration with your desired system ( !=quick and dirty ). For example, from my experience, customers many times ask: -how can I connect to my hardware device -how can I connect to this device cloud so I can get data from it? -how can I connect to my ERP? With some luck, I hope that at the end of this article I will provide a generic workflow that will help you on achieving the best integration solution for your use-case. We need to write down some requirements (they are not in order; depending on the usecase might not be worth to be answered): 0. What is the usecase (detailed description) ?.      This is by far one of the most important aspects of any software development project.      Please document your usecase with all possible future uses.      For example:           - I want to send information from sensors to the ThingWorx Server, and I want to do TCP Tunnelling to the device and/or Remote Desktop. Or maybe only sending information from sensors and nothing else. Do I need in the future Software Updates or not?           - I want to read the Customer information from my CRM AND also update that information (read/write). 1. Write down system specification for the hardware or software system.           -Available RAM for user apps           -Available Disk Space for User Apps           -Does it have a TCP IP Stack?           -Operating System           -Installed runtimes (Java/.NET - which versions?) 2. Can I access the system or device directly from the ThingWorx Server?      This means answering the question: is my system directly accessible from my server? Or is there a firewall which stops incoming connections?      Another question to answer, is: can I modify my firewall to allow incoming connections? 3. What protocol is my device or system capable of supporting for data transfer?      Example: I have a device which is capable of outputting information through TCP only.                     I have a device who can only do HTTP callbacks to a HTTP server.                     I have Microsoft SQL, to which I can connect through ADO.NET or JDBC.                     I have a third party service billing provider who supports interfacing via HTTP Webservices (SOAP or REST).                     I have a device supporting CoAP.      Typically all third party software systems support communication via Webservices. 4. Can I configure and/or deploy new software to my device or system?      We need to have this question answered, because on some cases it might make more sense to write some logic on the system or device.      For example if I want to access data from an SQL server and my usecase might require some processing for which that SQL server is better suited to do, it might be much more efficient to have that logic stored as a Stored Procedure there and I just call it from ThingWorx.       Or in the case of Windchill, it might make more sense to write an InfoEngine task to do my functionality than writing that on the ThingWorx side.      Possible example answers:                     -My device is already deployed in the field and I can not modify the configuration at all.                     -My device is a new product, so I can put whatever software I want on it.                     -I only have read access to my software system, so I must do all processing externally. If you wrote down all of those it is time to determine what are the integration options for us. The typical workflow that I follow is the next one: I look for any Out-Of-The-Box supported protocol (determined at step 3) and then implement the needed functionality in the language that is best suited for my usecase (Javascript usually). The list of protocols that the platform supports is listed in different places: -PTC Help Center Link -ThingWorx Marketplace - https://marketplace.thingworx.com/items The key point is that the list is alive and updated by both our partners and us. Usually the preferred way to write logic is by using the Javascript services. It makes it incredibly fast to write down your business logic without having the need to recompile. The elements from the ThingWorx ecosystems that we can use are the following: -the ThingWorx server itself (it has built in support for calling external Webservices) -ThingWorx Extensions. They are Java written pieces of code that can help you achieve your usecase. To be used whenever your ThingWorx server OOTB functionality (or Marketplace Extensions) does not allow you to develop your usecase. There is no actual need to write an Extension if somebody else already developed that for you and published in the ThingWorx Marketplace https://marketplace.thingworx.com/items      A link for understanding Extension is the following: How to rapidly develop ThingWorx IIoT Extensions -ThingWorx Integration Connectors -ThingWorx Edge Micro Server: https://developer.thingworx.com/ems -ThingWorx Edge SDKs: https://developer.thingworx.com/sdks Examples: -I have an third party Server which allows me to send SMS and Voice messages through it via its Rest API.      Answer: best here is to use the OOTB Webservices support from ThingWorx, which exposes the HTTP verbs, like GET, POST, PUT, via the ContentLoaderFunctions -I have a device which has a TCP stack that is capable only to do HTTP calls.      Answer: I can point that device to do calls against the REST API of ThingWorx, in order to update data directly there. -I have a fleet of 300.000 devices which are sending their data to an MQTT server.      Answer: In this case I can use the MQTT Extension that is offered by ThingWorx -I have an external SQL server that does not accept inbound connections (behind a firewall) but I must get data from it. Network will however allow outbound connections      Answer: use the ADO.NET Edge Client that must be installed in a location accessible to that server. The ADO.NET Edge Client will connect to the Server and then to the ThingWorx platform allowing use of SQL statements directly from within the platform. -I have a device who only accepts TCP connections and I want to read data from it. It sends data only after receiving a command through TCP.      Answer: Use the TCP Extension available in the ThingWorx Marketplace. It is built specifically for this usecase -I have a device which has lots of RAM and Disk Space and I must send data from it, while allowing software updates in the future.      Answer: depending on your preferred coding language you can use either the ThingWorx Edge Microserver (for which you must write code in LUA) or write an implementation in one of the ThingWorx Edge SDKs. A key point here is to understand that the coding effort is identical in theory, and is only limited by the experience you have and the functionality that may be available easier in Java, vs LUA, vs C, vs. Net. I appreciate feedback to this article in the hope of being able to continuously improve it.

This post will cover the challenges I've had while going through the setup of .NET SDK based ADO Service for SQL Server DB Connection. I'll be starting from the scratch on setting up the service for this to present full picture on the setup. Pre-requisite 1. Download and install Microsoft SQL Server Express or Enterprise edition, for testing I worked with Express edition : https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-editions-express 2. Once installed, it's imperative that the TCP/IP Protocol is enabled in the SQL Server Configuration Manager for the SQL Server 3. Download ThingWorx Edge ADO Service from PTC Software download page What is ThingWorx ADO Service? An ActiveX Data Object service allowing connection to a Microsoft database source e.g. MS SQL Server, MS Excel or MS .NET application to the ThingWorx platform. It is based on the ThingWorx .NET SDK. Installing ADO Service Let me begin by saying this is just a summary, in a crude way of course, of ThingWorx Edge ADO Service Configuration Guide. So when in doubt it's strongly recommended to go through the guide,also provided together with the downloaded package. I'll be using the ThingWorx ADO Service v5.6.1, most recent release, for the purpose of this blog. Depending if you are on x86 or x64 Windows navigate to the C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET for accessing the InstallUtil.exe You'll find the above specified file under following two locations, use the one that applies to your use case. i) For x64 : C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319 ii) For x86 : C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319 1. Copy over the desired InstallUtil.exe to the location where you have unzipped the ADO Service package, the one downloaded above. e.g. I've put mine at C:\Software\ThingWorxSoftware\ADOService\ 2. Start a command prompt (Windows Start Menu > Command Prompt) and execute the InstallUtil.exe ThingWorxADOService.exe 3. This should create a service and some additional info in the \\ADOService folder in the form of InstallUtil.InstallLog 4. Check the log for confirmation, you should see something similar Running a transacted installation. ...     .... The Commit phase completed successfully. The transacted install has completed. ​​5. In Windows Explorer navigate to the folder containing all the unzipped files, and edit the AdoThing.config 6. For this blog I've security disabled, though obviously in production you'd definitely want to enable it 7. Configure the ConnectionSettings as per your requirement (refer to the guide for more detail on settings), below I'm noting the settings that will require configuration in its most minimum form (I've also attached my complete AdoThing.config file for reference) "rows": [       {         "Address": "localhost",         "Port": 8080,         "Resource": "/Thingworx/WS",         "IsSecure": false,         "ThingName": "AdoThing",         "AppKey": "f7e230ac-3ce9-4d91-8560-ad035b09fc70",         "AllowSelfSignedCertificates": false,         "DisableCertValidation": true,           "DisableEncryption": true       }     ] 8. Configure the connection string for the SQL Server in following section, in the same file opened above     "rows": [       {         "ConnectionType": "OleDb",         "ConnectionString": "Provider=SQLNCLI11;Server=localhosts\\SQLEXPRESS;Database=TWXDB;Uid=sa;Pwd=login123;",         "AlwaysConnected": true,         "QueryEnabled": true,         "CommandEnabled": true,         "CommandTimeout": 60       }     ] 9. Just to highlight what's what in ConnectionString above: "ConnectionString": "Provider=SQLNCLI11;Server=<Machine/ClientName>\\SQLServerInstanceName;Database=<databaseName>;Uid=<userName>;Pwd=<password>;" 10. To get correct connection string syntax for different source refer to the ConnectionStrings.com 11. Save the file 12. Navigate to the windows services by opening Windows Start > Run > services.msc 13. Check for the service ThingWorx .NET ADO Client as you'll have to start it if it's set to Manual, like so in my case Following message will be logged on successful connection  in the DotNETSDK -X-X-X.log : [Critical] twWs_Connect: Websocket connected! At the end of the blog I'll share some of the errors that I came across while working on this and how to go about addressing them. Creating and connecting to Remote Database Thing Now, let's navigate to the ThingWorx Composer and create a Thing with RemoteDatabase Template to consume the resource created above in the form of ADO Service. I've named my thing as AdoThing while creating it in ThingWorx Composer, which matches with the ThingName used in the AdoThing.json file. If everything went through as needed you should see the isConnected = true in the AdoThing's Properties section. Since, this is a Database thing I can now go about creating all the required services concerning the Create, Update, Delete (CRUD) operations, just like for any database for created using the RDBMS Connector. Handling errors while setting up the ADO Service Here are some of the errors that I encountered while setting up the ADO service for this blog: Error 1: com.thingworx.ado.AdoThing Cannot connect to database. : System.Data.OleDb.OleDbException: Login timeout expired Note: Logged in DotNetSDK-X-X-X.log Cause & Resolution: - Service is not able to successfully reach or authenticate against the SQL Server Express DB instance - Ensure that the TCP/IP is enabled for the Protocols for the SQL Express, as I have shared in the screenshot above - Make sure that the username / password used for authenticating with the database is correctly provided while configuring the settings for the OLEDB section in    AdoThing.config Error 2: com.thingworx.ado.AdoThing GetTables OleDbException error : System.Data.OleDb.OleDbException Note: Logged in Application.log from ThingWorx platform Cause & Resolution - This exception is thrown when user attempts to check for the available tables, while creating the service in the ThingWorx Composer - Resolution to this is similar to that mentioned above for Error 1 Error 3: [U: SYSTEM] [O: com.thingworx.ado.AdoThing] OleDbException [code = -2147217865, message = Invalid object name 'TWXDB.DemoTable'.] executing SQL query Note: Logged in Application.log from ThingWorx platform while testing/executing the SQL service created in the ThingWorx Composer Cause & Resolution - The error is due to the usage of DB name in front of the table name, it's not required since the DB name is already selected in the connection String Error 4: [O: com.thingworx.Configuration] Could not read configuration file. : Newtonsoft.Json.JsonReaderException: Bad JSON escape sequence: \S. Path 'Settings.rows[0].ConnectionString', line 656, position 71. Note: Logged in DotNetSDK-X-X-X.log Cause & Resolution - This is caused due to the "ConnectionString": "Provider=SQLNCLI11;Server=<machineNameOrIP>\SQLEXPRESS;Database=TWXDB;Uid=sa;Pwd=login123;", - Json requires this to be escaped thus switching to "ConnectionString": "Provider=SQLNCLI11;Server=<machineNameOrIP>\\SQLEXPRESS;Database=TWXDB;Uid=sa;Pwd=login123;", resolved the issue - Among many other, https://jsonformatter.curiousconcept.com/​ is quite helpful in weeding out the issues from the JSON syntax Error 4: [O: com.thingworx.ado.AdoClient] Error while initializing new AdoThing, or opening connection to Platform. : System.AccessViolationException: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.     at com.thingworx.communications.client.TwApiWrapper.twApi_Connect(UInt32 timeout, Int32 retries)     at com.thingworx.communications.client.TwApiWrapper.Connect(UInt32 timeout, Int16 retries)     at com.thingworx.communications.client.BaseClient.start()     at com.thingworx.ado.AdoClient.run() Note: Logged in DotNetSDK-X-X-X.log Cause & Resolution - This error is observed when using FIPS version of the  ADO Service, esp. when downloaded from the ThingWorx Marketplace - Make sure to recheck the SSL configuration - When not using SSL check that the x64 and x86 directories only contain twApi.dll as by default FIPS version contain two additional dlls i.e. libeay32.dll & ssleay32.dll in both x64 & x86 directories

This video is the 2nd part, of a series of two videos, walking you through the configuration of Analysis Event which is applied for Real-Time Scoring. This part 2 video will walk you through the configuration of Analysis Event for Real-Time Scoring, and validate that a predictions job has been executed based on new input data.   Updated Link for access to this video:  Analytics Manger 7.4: Configure Analysis Event & Real Time Scoring Part 2 of 2

This video walks you through the use of Analysis Replay to execute analysis events on historic data. This video applies to ThingWorx Analytics 7.4 to 8.1   Updated Link for access to this video:  Analytics Manager : Using Analysis Replay

This video is the 1st part of a series of two videos walking you through the configuration of Analysis Event which is applied for Real-Time Scoring. This 1st video demonstrate how to create a Template and Thing which allows the prediction model to score in real-time. Note that this video is just for demo purposes, customers who have ThingWorx, they of course already have their properties set-up. They just need to configure Analysis Event which is demonstrated in the part 2 video.   Updated Link for access to this video:  Analytics Manger 7.4: Create a Template & Thing for Real-Time Scoring Part 1 of 2