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IoT & Connectivity Tips

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  Question: What is the best way to use Git with ThingWorx? Disclaimer: Please note that, while the ThingWorx Git Backup Extension is a very useful tool, it is not a PTC product, nor is it supported by PTC.   After the release of ThingWorx 8.4 two weeks ago, are you looking for even more? Can’t get enough of ThingWorx? Good thing—because we’ve got you covered.   We have just released Version 2.0 of the ThingWorx Git Backup Extension! Reach out if you'd like to learn how to obtain access to it.    In the newest version, you’ll find: Major UX improvements and UI restyling. The extension now includes a new page called GitBackup.Main.Mashup, which offers access to all the functionality previously available in the Home Mashup (see below). GitBackup.Main.Mashup is now the single interface for all the GitBackupThings in the system; you’ll no longer need to go to Composer to manage them individually. New ThingWorx Git Backup Extension 2.0 Support for querying and selecting the Bitbucket repositories that you, as a user, have access to. An updated ExtensionExportExtension with bugfixes.   If you’re looking for guidance on how to configure Git with ThingWorx, check out one of my earlier posts that explains how you can use Git to achieve continuous integration with ThingWorx or view the updated Git Backup Extension User Guide attached (see the “Attachments” section to the right).   Shoutouts to Vladimir, Gabriel, Bogdan, Moritz and Pierre for making this available.   Let me know what you think of Version 2.0 in the comments below!   The open-source Git Backup Extension can be found here.    Stay connected, Kaya
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Question: Is there a Security log entry added when a user is refused access to Composer? Answer:The Security log is mainly for user login and authentication items; since this is not authentication per se, we don't log any messages there. The Application log should have log entries noting any errors. Question:  Do the gauges and graphs now behave more reactive without reloads of massive data. just easy show "realtime" data? Answer: The Custom Charts we have on the Market place should alleviate some of that - depending on how the data refresh is set up, that should redraw. The changes we have done on the layout side won't have any impacts there, unless the browser window is resized. Question:Will we offer a library of "Design themes"?  Answer:We are working on adding prebuilt themes for a future release. Question: Does the new Mashup builder store Mashups in the same way? Are these new Mashups taking into account a runtime separated from the platform? Answer: It should be the same - the runtime instance is still separated. Question:What about inheritance with themes? Answer: The support inheritance - if you have a Contained Mashup without a Theme set, they should be inheriting the parent's Theme. Question: Is it posible to duplicate an expression / validator? are there plans to include the event router there? Answer: We don't have duplication support in the current release . Yes, we have plans to add more 'non-visual' widgets to the list, that includes Event Router and Status Message. Question: Is it planned to generate the preview images dynamically based on mashup contents? Answer: We are looking into dynamic updates for images - it might get expensive to generate images based on the volume of data that is bound to the widgets, so we're exploring different ways to resolve this. Question: Will these new BETA widgets be forward compatible? Answer:Correct, and we are working on adding more widgets! The property definitions within them shouldn't undergo any changes (as in properties won't get removed). We're always looking to enhance these further, so they might get additional features/ properties. Question: Any guide available for custom widget development? Answer: We are working on adding development guides for Web Components, and working with the respective SDKs.
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Why? Reduce or eliminate hardware costs Get database portability across on-premise and cloud compatible virtualization High speed and minimum downtime Optimize performance Three deployment options: Single: best for apps requiring resource guarantee at database level Elastic pool: SAAS apps with multiple databases achieving better cost efficiency Managed instance: best for modernization at scale MS SQL Improvements: Ingest millions of data items/day with imrpoved MS SQL 150% improvement  ingestion throughput with MS SQL persistence provider Optimized indexing to achieve better peformance for the same compute at the same price ThingWorx with Microsoft database solution: Azure SQL logical server (single instance and elastic pool) v12 Azure SQL managed server v12 MS SQL sever 2016 Azure PostgreSQL 9.6 and 10 Q: What is the rate as compared to PostgreSQL? A: We are in process launching new sizing guide that will be out in a few weeks. MS SQL is around 15-22K writes per sec. Comparable to Postgres.
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In this video we show the setup for anomaly detection (ThingWatcher) in release 8.4. We also show how to create an anomaly alert.  
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In this video we show a simple use case on how to setup a transformed property to collect statistical values  
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In this video we cover the installation of the platform analytics services which include: Descriptive services and property transform services.  
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ThingWorx 8.4 is here!   We know you’ve been patient, as we’ve released sneak peeks on Ask Kaya of various new or updated features, including: InfluxDB as New Time Series Data Persistence Provider Responsive Mashup Layout with New Layout Editor ThingPresence to Address Assets that Always Appear Offline Functions to Allow Expression & Validator Widgets to No Longer Crowd Canvases at Design Time Property Transforms to Do Statistical Transforms for Property Values No longer are you forced to sit idly as we give you glimpses of the new functionality without the ability to play with it. Now that it’s available, go run with the wind!   To discover even more features and details, check out the release notes.   ThingWorx 8.4 can be downloaded here.   Let us know what you think of the new release below!   - Kaya
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In this video we introduce the Descriptive Services and property transform services that are found on the platform analytics media  
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This video shows the steps to install ThingWorx Analytics Server 8.4 as well as the ThingWorx Analytics Extension.
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We are excited to announce ThingWorx 8.4 is now available for download!    Key functional highlights ThingWorx 8.4 covers the following areas of the product portfolio: ThingWorx Analytics and ThingWorx Foundation which includes Connection Server and Edge capabilities.   ThingWorx Foundation Next Generation Composer: File Repository Editor added for application file management New entity Config Table Editor to enable application configurability and customization Localization support fornew languages: Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Russian, Chinese/Taiwan, Chinese/Simplified Mashup Builder: Responsive Layout with new Layout Editor 13 new and updated widgets (beta) Theming Editor (beta) New Functions Editor New Personalized Workspace Platform: Added support for AzureSQL, a relational database-as-a-service (DBaaS) as the new persistence provider A PaaS database that is always running on the latest stable version of SQL Server Database Engine and  patched OS with 99.99% availability.   Added support for InfluxData, a leading time series storage platform as the new ThingWorx persistence provider Supports ingesting large amounts of IoT data and offers high availability with clustering setup New extension for Remote Access and Control Supports VNC, RDP desktop sharing for any remote device HTTP and SSH connectivity supported An optional microservice to offload the ThingWorx server by allowing query execution to occur in a separate process on the same or on a different physical machine. Installers for Postgres versions of ThingWorx running on Windows or RHEL AzureSQL InfluxDB Thing Presence feature introduced which indicates whether the connection of a thing is “normal” based on the expected behavior of the device. Remote Access Extension Query Microservice: Click and Go Installers for Windows and Linux (RHEL) Security: Major investments include updating 3rd party libraries, handling of data to address cross-site scripting (XSS)  issues and enhancements to the password policy, including a password blacklist. A significant number of security issues have been fixed in this release. It is recommended that customers upgrade as soon as possible to take advantage of these important improvements. Docker Support  Added Dockerfile as a distribution media for ThingWorx Foundation and Analytics Allows building Docker container image that unlocks the potential of Dev and Ops Note:  Legacy Composer has been removed and replaced with the New Composer.   Documentation: ThingWorx 8.4 Reference Documents ThingWorx Platform 8.4 Release Notes ThingWorx Platform Help Center ThingWorx Analytics Help Center ThingWorx Connection Services Help Center  
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Beginning with version 8.4.0 ThingWorx Analytics Manager is now able to delete Jobs by filter. Underneath video demonstrates this capability.   
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Beginning with version 8.4.0 ThingWorx Analytics Server can now automatically create metadata (Json file) based on the uploaded csv. file. Underneath video demonstrates the steps for automated metadata detection.
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Key Points -8.4 installers can be used to install on clean machines and cannot be used for upgrading from previous versions -The current rule for upgrading via installer is that one must start from a clean build using the installer. After our future upgradable installer release, if one wants to upgrade, they must start with a twx installer installed versions. -The Flow only Installer is for Enterprise version customers running 8.4 or previous versions of ThingWorx and want ot add the flow capability. Unified Installer Framework -Common tool set, common UX -Unified product install experience Individual Product Installers -allow one to start using ThingWorx platform and applications faster -installs all components with single button click Improved Download Experience -new portal/wizard/image repository Trial Installers ThingWorx based installers -Navigate installer released in October 2018, installs the base twx (navigate), nav configuration and licensing wizards ThingWorx Flow installer included in pre-release of ThingWorx 8.4 ThingWorx Installer -Full Installers - January-early February rollout SCO/SCP Apps   For more information on installer, please refer to our documentation.  
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Euromap 63 Driver -Injection molding machines are generally unconnected -First out of the box connectivity in this market: was quickly followed by a Softing Euromap 63 driver -Provides personas across the enterprise visibility into IMM production -File based protocol -KEPServerEX access to a shared folder is required: read/write/edit/delete permissions are necessary can be a mapped drive -Timing is not well defined in specification: -File locking race conditions are possible -Driver designed to minimize issues -Manufacturers have implemented specification in different ways Testing has indicated significant variances Driver has relaxed parsing rules Allows for vendor inconsistency Fanuc Focas Ethernet Driver Fanuc Focas Ethernet: -Driver to connect to Fanuc CNC Controllers -Fanuc controls ~80% of the CNC market (Siemens, Mazak, Okuma, Haas and Hedenhain control remainder) -ThingWorx has connectivity to all except Heidenhain -Prior to 8.4, ThingWorx could access summary information: Machine status Alarm status -K737 Library support -K738 Library was recently discontinued With 8.4, ThingWorx has access to 100s of parameters - cnc_rdparam provides access to additional NC data such as: Axis position information Spindle speed Etc Parameter access is model specific -Users must read controller model manual to indentify which parameters are available -Addressing scheme is numeric cnc_rdparam.0 - cnc_rdparam.37267 SCM in C SDK Enables custom connectivity applications with SCM: -Content update -Configuration updates -Firmware upgrade Developers can now build SCM directly into their applications Security features built in: -Digital signing -Script whitelist .NET SDK and Reboot support coming soon   When EMS does not need to be installed for SCM, does this mean that any custom Agent can be developed now to push software updates remotely to the devices/machines? -It means that any application can be built using the C-SDK in order to push software updates   For more information: Reference documents can be found here 8.4 Release notes
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In this post, I will use an instance of InfluxDB and Chronograf. See this post for installing both using Docker. InfluxDB - Time Series Databases   InfluxDB is a time series database. It allows users to work with and organize time series data. The advantage of such a database system is that it comes with built-in functionality to easily aggregate and operate on data based on time intervals. Other types of databases can do this as well - but time series databases are heavily optimized for this kind of data structures which will show in storage space and performance.   Data is stored in the database with its timestamp, its value and one or more tags.   Time Temperature Humidity Location 2019-01-24T00:00:00 23 42 Home 2019-01-24T00:01:00 22 43 Home 2019-01-24T00:02:00 21 44 Home 2019-01-24T00:03:00 23 45 Home 2019-01-24T00:04:00 24 42 Home 2019-01-24T00:05:00 25 43 Home 2019-01-24T00:06:00 23 44 Home   Values can be aggregated by intervalls, i.e. "give me the temperatur values within the last hour and take the average for 5 minutes". This would result in (60 / 5) = 12 results with a value that represents the average temperature within this 5 minute interval.   Example: Temperature Data averaged by 4 minutes   Time Temperature 2019-01-24T00:00:00 (23 + 22 + 21+ 23) / 4 = 22,25 2019-01-24T00:04:00 (24 + 25 + 23) / 3 = 24   To find out more about InfluxDB see also https://www.influxdata.com/time-series-database/ and https://www.influxdata.com/time-series-platform/   InfluxDB in ThingWorx   The new ThingWorx 8.4 release comes with an option to setup InfluxDB as additional Persistence Provider. Meta Data like Entity Definitons will still be stored in PostgreSQL. Streams, Value Streams and Data Tables however can be stored in InfluxDB.   The InfluxDB Persistence Provider setup is delivered with the PostgreSQL installation package for ThingWorx. Currently ThingWorx does not allow any aggregation of data with its built-in InfluxDB capabilities.   Prepare InfluxDB   InfluxDB will need a user and a database. Connect via Chronograf - the graphical UI to administer InfluxDB and create a new user via   InfluxDB Admin > Users Default username = twadmin Default password = password Permissions = ALL   Create a new database via   InfluxDB Admin > Databases Default database name = thingworx   Configure ThingWorx   Create a new Persistence Provider for InfluxDB in ThingWorx - but don't mark it as active yet!     Switch to the Configuration and change the username / password, database and hostname to match your installation.     Save the configuration, switch back to the General tab and mark the InfluxDB Persistence Provider as Active.   Save again and a "successful" message will be shown. If the save action failed, the connection settings are not correct - check for the correct ports and for any typos.   Creating Entities & Testing   Streams, Value Streams and Data Tables can now be created using the new InfluxDB Persistence Provider.   To test with a Value Stream   Create a new Thing with some NUMBER properties, e.g. 'a', 'b' and 'c' as properties - ensure they are marked as logged as well Name = InfluxValueStreamThing Create a new ValueStream based and change its Persistance Provider to the InfluxDB created above Name = InfluxValueStream Save both Entities Setting values for the properties will now automatically create the entries in InfluxDB - including the Entity name "InfluxValueStreamThing" Running the QueryPropertyHistory service on the Thing will return the results as an InfoTable In Chronograf this will display like this:   ThingWorx 8.4 will be released end of January 2019. Be sure to check out and test the new Persistence Provider features!
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Installing an Open Source Time Series Platform For testing InfluxDB and its graphical user interface, Chronograf I'm using Docker images for easy deployment. For this post I assume you have worked with Docker before.   In this setup, InfluxDB and Chronograf will share an internal docker network to exchange data.   InfluxDB can be accessed e.g. by ThingWorx via its exposed port 8086. Chronograf can be accessed to administrative purposes via its port 8888. The following commands can be used to create a InfluxDB environment.   Pull images   sudo docker pull influxdb:latest sudo docker pull chronograf:latest   Create a virtual network   sudo docker network create influxdb   Start the containers   sudo docker run -d --name=influxdb -p 8086:8086 --net=influxdb --restart=always influxdb sudo docker run -d --name=chronograf -p 8888:8888 --net=influxdb --restart=always chronograf --influxdb-url=http://influxdb:8086     InfluxDB should now be reachable and will also restart automatically when Docker (or the Operating System) are restarted.
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Style theming is a Beta feature that allows you to customize the look of your mashups and widgets.   A style theme is a set of styling properties for elements such as text, colors, and lines that you can apply to a mashup. You can manage styles for multiple mashups more easily by using style themes. Style theme apply on a mashup level, unlike style definitions, which apply on a widget level. When you apply a style theme to a mashup, all embedded widgets and mashups will derive styling properties from the style theme for the top level mashup. You can perform the following tasks:   • Create and modify style themes. • Apply a style theme to one or more mashups. • Reuse a style theme by using Import/Export. • Define custom CSS for a style theme. CSS rules are applied to all mashups that use the style theme.   Style theme support is limited to the following types widgets: • New widgets — You can only apply a style theme to these widgets. • Hybrid widgets — You can use style definitions or a style theme to style these widgets.   NOTE: You can enable or disable style themes for hybrid widgets by using the (BETA) UseThemeForHybrids property in the mashup properties panel. However, you cannot use style definitions with web component widgets.   To read more about Base Theme, Creating, and Modifying Style Themes, refer to our ThingWorx Help Center.
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With ThingWorx 8.4, Mashup Builder has been enhanced to allow users to be more productive and efficient in their application building experience. • Drag and drop targets have been improved in Mashup Builder.  • The Mashup Builder workspace can be customized: the panels in Mashup Builder are able to be docked, moved, and configured. • Configure Mashup Parameters ◦ In Mashup parameter configuration, you can control if you want to show To-Do tasks in the To-Do tab for parameters in contained mashups. ◦ A new base type of JSON is available in Mashup parameters that allows you to add JSON to your contained mashup. ◦ In Mashup parameter configuration, when you have a base type of INFOTABLE, you no longer need to select a data shape. A new entity type named Mashup Templates allows application developers to start creating a mashup from a template that includes layout, content, and service binding configuration. In this preview release, five default templates based on Flexbox are included. In addition to the delivered templates, you can add your own templates.   Responsive layout: Creating a truly responsive layout that is easy to use and modifiable in Design time (like adding containers at will). New responsive layouts are Flexbox-based containers that adjust to any screen size on any type of device. Note: You cannot upgrade existing mashups to beta responsive layouts. You will need to rebuild existing mashups.   For more information and release notes, click here.
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This post adds to my previous post: Deploying H2 Docker versions quickly   In addition to configuring the basic Docker Images and Containers, it's also possible to deploy them with a TLS / SSL certificate and access the instances via HTTPS protocol.   For this a valid certificate is required inside a .jks keystore. I'm using a self-signed certificate, but commercial ones are even better! The certificate must be in the name of the machine which runs Docker and which is accessed by the users via browser. In my case this is "mne-docker". The password for the keystore and the private key must be the same - this is a Tomcat limitation. In my case it's super secret and "Password123456".   I have the following directory structure on my Operating System   /home/ts/docker/ certificates mne-docker.jks twx.8.2.x.h2 Dockerfile settings platform-settings.json <license_file> storage Thingworx.war   The Recipe File   In the Recipe File I make sure that I create a new Connector on port 8443, removing the old one on port 8080. I do this by just replacing via the sed command - also introducing options for content compression. I'm only replacing the first line of the xml node as it holds all the information I need to change.   Changes to the original version I posted are in green   FROM tomcat:latest MAINTAINER mneumann@ptc.com LABEL version = "8.2.0" LABEL database = "H2" RUN mkdir -p /cert RUN mkdir -p /ThingworxPlatform RUN mkdir -p /ThingworxStorage RUN mkdir -p /ThingworxBackupStorage ENV LANG=C.UTF-8 ENV JAVA_OPTS="-server -d64 -Djava.awt.headless=true -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -Duser.timezone=GMT -XX:+UseNUMA -XX:+UseG1GC -Djava.library.path=/usr/local/tomcat/webapps/Thingworx/WEB-INF/extensions RUN sed -i 's/<Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP\/1.1"/<Connector port="8443" protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol" maxThreads="150" SSLEnabled="true" scheme="https" secure="true" clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="TLS" enableLookups="false" keystoreFile="\/cert\/mne-docker.jks" keystorePass="Password123456" ciphers="TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256, TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256, TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA" compression="on" compressableMimeType="text\/html,text\/xml,text\/plain,text\/css,text\/javascript,application\/javascript,application\/json"/g' /usr/local/tomcat/conf/server.xml COPY Thingworx.war /usr/local/tomcat/webapps VOLUME ["/ThingworxPlatform", "/ThingworxStorage", "/cert"] EXPOSE 8443   Note that I also map the /cert directory to the outside, so all of my Containers can access the same certificate. I will access it read-only.   Deploying     sudo docker build -t twx.8.2.x.h2 . sudo docker run -d --name=twx.8.2.x.h2 -p 88:8443 -v /home/ts/docker/twx.8.2.x.h2/storage:/ThingworxStorage -v /home/ts/docker/twx.8.2.x.h2/settings:/ThingworxPlatform -v /home/ts/docker/certificates:/cert:ro twx.8.2.x.h2   Mapping to the 8443 port ensures to only allow HTTPS connections. The :ro in the directory mapping ensures read-only access.   What next   Go ahead! Only secure stuff is kind of secure 😉 For more information on how to import the certificate into a the Windows Certificate Manager so browsers recognize it, see also the Trusting the Root CA chapter in Trust & Encryption - Hands On
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ThingWorx offers Docker based installations utilizing existing PostgreSQL databases. In newer releases ThingWorx Docker installers also offer using other databases.   Personally I'm using a certain method of deployment where I can just easily exchange some files, create new images and have a H2 based environment running for some quick tests.   As H2 is a built-in database, I will not dive into setting up the platform-settings.json for other connectivity. However other databases can be connected to by adjusting the platform-settings.json. This might also require an internal Docker Network structure which I will not elaborate on here.   Note: the following procedure is not fully supported as it's not using the deployment methods provided by the installers!   Create the Directory Structure   My Directory structure looks the following (expanded for the 8.2.x branch):   /home/ts/docker/ twx.8.0.x.h2 twx.8.1.x.h2 twx.8.2.x.h2 Dockerfile settings platform-settings.json <license_file> storage Thingworx.war twx.8.3.x.h2   I have a directory for every version I want to test with.   In each directory there's the Dockerfile - the recipe file I'm using. There's also the version specific Thingworx.war file as well as two directories: settings and storage which I will map to the ThingWorx directories inside the image later.   The Recipe File   FROM tomcat:latest MAINTAINER me@somewhere.com LABEL version = "8.2.0" LABEL database = "H2"  RUN mkdir -p /ThingworxPlatform RUN mkdir -p /ThingworxStorage RUN mkdir -p /ThingworxBackupStorage ENV LANG=C.UTF-8 ENV JAVA_OPTS="-server -d64 -Djava.awt.headless=true -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -Duser.timezone=GMT -XX:+UseNUMA -XX:+UseG1GC -Djava.library.path=/usr/local/tomcat/webapps/Thingworx/WEB-INF/extensions COPY Thingworx.war /usr/local/tomcat/webapps VOLUME ["/ThingworxPlatform", "/ThingworxStorage"] EXPOSE 8080   I change the version label to keep track of the versions for each recipe.   Deploying   Build the Docker Image by navigating to the directory where the recipe file is based in   sudo docker build -t twx.8.2.x.h2 .   Create a Docker Container and start it   sudo docker run -d --name=twx.8.2.x.h2 -p 82:8080 -v /home/ts/docker/twx.8.2.x.h2/storage:/ThingworxStorage -v /home/ts/docker/twx.8.2.x.h2/settings:/ThingworxPlatform twx.8.2.x.h2   I change the name of the Image and the Container as well as the external port to distinguish all the different versions. The -v option maps the paths in my Operating System to the paths in the Docker Container, so I can browse the ThingworxStorage and ThingworxPlatform folder without connecting inside the Container. That's quite handy to check the logs, or place the license file.   Starting and Stopping   I can fire up and shut down Containers I need with the following commands:   sudo docker start twx.8.2.x.h2 sudo docker stop twx.8.2.x.h2   What next   That's just my basic setup. Usually I copy & paste a working directory for deploying another version and adjust what needs to be changed. You could use this as a basis for quick and easy deployment where even additional features could be added, i.e. HTTPS configuration or auto-deploying certain ThingWorx Extensions via a REST API call.   To ensure starting with a clean Image, for building new Images I delete the contents of the storage folder and only leave the platform-settings.json in the settings folder (I copy the license later after generating it with my new Device ID).
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  There are times when the raw sensor readings are not directly useful for monitoring conditions on a machine. The raw data may need to be transformed before it can provide value within your monitoring applications. For example, instead of monitoring individual pressure readings reported each second, you may only be concerned with the maximum pressure reading each minute. Or, maybe you want to monitor the median value of the electrical current pulled by a machine every five seconds to smooth out the noise of raw sub-second sensor readings. Or, maybe you want to monitor if the average hourly temperature of a machine exceeds a control limit in 2 of the past 3 hours.   Let’s take the example of monitoring the max pressure of a valve reading over the past 45 seconds for your performance dashboard. How do you do it? Today, you might add a new property (e.g. “MaxPressure”) to your valve Thing. Then, you might add a subscription that triggers when the Pressure property value changes, and then call a service FindMax() to return the maximum pressure for that time interval. Lastly, you might write that maximum result value to the new property MaxPressure to store it and visualize it in the dashboard. Admittedly, not the worst process, but also not the most efficient.   Coming in 8.4, we will now offer Property Transforms, which enable you to automatically execute common statistical calculations—like min, max, average, median, mode and standard deviation, as well as SPC calculations—directly within a property itself. These transforms are configurable to run at certain intervals of time or points collected and can also be used with our alerting subsystem to drive behavior and user action where necessary. There is no longer a need to create an elaborate subscription-based logic flow just to do simple calculations!  This is just another way that ThingWorx 8.4 offers a more productive environment for IoT developers than ever before.   Ready to see it in action? Check out this video below by our product manager Mark!   (view in My Videos)   Comment your thoughts below!   Stay connected, Kaya
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