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Hello readers,   This week @ Ask Kaya we thought we would give someone else the keyboard for a different point of view on the platform.  I’m Chris, a Product Manager here at PTC working on the ThingWorx platform.  Instead of telling you what is coming in our next release, or interviewing one of our awesome PTC experts, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the platform’s success and dream about where it could be.  After visiting with customers and partners at PTC Forum Europe this week, it looks like many of you share in our vision.  This is a bit of a fun post and by no means an exact look into ThingWorx 2019, but see what you think.   When I think about the next generation of ThingWorx, here is what I see: I see Mashups that generate themselves with suggested visualizations based on your input for style, user persona, and navigation I see Thing Models that populate, based on your use case, your equipment and your connectivity I see a self-learning platform with understanding of all industrial data sources, presenting options of integration to extend knowledge or informing you of correlations I see applications that automatically master individual pieces of equipment, small processes, and handfuls of KPIs and will command larger fleets, networks, and multi-site operations I see a platform without installation or setup, but is there when you need it I see test code and harnesses that are created based on what you build with our tools and tests that run automatically when things are changed I see developers being notified when things are changed by other developers, or when modules from PTC have new versions I see a central place to manage solutions, with push button access for administrators to deploy to sites I see upgrades happening seamlessly, confidently, with no penalty for failure and with the speed of iterative development I see a self-aware system that monitors and scales itself cost effectively   Readers, what do you see?  Sound off in the comments!   Chris
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This Expert Session will walk you through the Components involved in the ThingWorx Studio Augmented Reality Environment, a detailed Architecture, supported devices, and exploring the resources. The session shall provide great insight into the working and the technicalities involved in the ThingWorx Studio.   For full-sized viewing, click on the YouTube link in the player controls.   Visit the Online Success Guide to access our Expert Session videos at any time as well as additional information about ThingWorx training and services.
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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  
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Video Author:                     Asia Garrouj Original Post Date:            December 9, 2016 Applicable Releases:        ThingWorx Analytics 52.0 to 8.1   Description: This video walks you through how to upload data and shows the configuration settings.   Please Note: In this video, the shown configuration settings page is different for ThingWorx Analytics 8.1.  
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GOBOT Framework GOBOT is a framework written in Go programming language. Useful for connecting robotic components, variety of hardware & IoT devices.   Framework consists of Robots -> Virtual entity representing rover, drones, sensors etc. Adaptors -> Allows connectivity to the hardware e.g. connection to Arduino is done using Firmata Adaptor, defining how to talk to it Drivers -> Defines specific functionality to support on specific hardware devices e.g. buttons, sensors, etc. API -> Provides RESTful API to query Robot status There are additional core features of the framework that I recommend having a look esp. Events, Commands allowing Subscribing / Publishing events to the device for more refer to the doc There's already a long list of Platforms for which the drivers and adaptors are available. For this blog I will be working with Arduino + Garmin LidarLite v3. There are cheaper versions available for distance measurement, however if you are looking for high performance, high precision optical distance measurement sensor, then this is it. Pre-requisite Install Go see doc Install Gort Install Gobot Wire-up LidarLite Sensor with Arduino How to connect For our current setup I have Arduino connected to Ubuntu 16 over serial port, see here if you are looking for a different platform.   For ubuntu you just need following 3 commands to connect and upload the firmata as our Adaptor to prepare Arduino for connectivity   // Look for the connected serial devices $ gort scan serial // install avrdude to upload firmata to the Arduino $ gort arduino install // uploading the firmata to the serial port found via first scan command, mine was found at /dev/ttyACM0 $ gort arduino upload firmata /dev/ttyACM0 Reading Sensor data Since there is a available driver for the LidarLite, I will be using it in the following Go code below in a file called main.go which connects and reads the sensor data.   For connecting and reading the sensor data we need the driver, connection object & the task / work that the robot is supposed to perform. Adaptor firmataAdaptor := firmata.NewAdaptor("/dev/ttyACM0") // this the port on which for me Arduino is connecting Driver As previously mentioned that Gobot provides several drivers on of the them is LidarLite we will be using this like so   d := i2c.NewLIDARLiteDriver(firmataAdaptor) Work Now that we have the adaptor & the driver setup lets assign the work this robot needs to do, which is to read the distance work := func() { gobot.Every(1*time.Second, func() { dist, err := d.Distance() if err != nil { log.Fatalln("failed to get dist") } fmt.Println("Fetching the dist", dist, "cms") }) } Notice the Every function provided by gobot to define that we want to perform certain action as the time lapses, here we are gathering the distance.   Note: The distance returned by the lidarLite sensor is in CMs & the max range for the sensor is 40m Robot Now we create the robot representing our entity which in this case is simple, its just the sensor itself   lidarRobot := gobot.NewRobot("lidarBot", []gobot.Connection{firmataAdaptor}, []gobot.Device{d}, work)   This defines the vitual representation of the entity and the driver + the work this robot needs to do. Here's the complete code. Before running this pacakge make sure to build it as you likely will have to execute the runnable with sudo. To build simply navigate to the folder in the shell where the main.go exists and execute   $ go build   This will create runnable file with the package name execute the same with sudo if needed like so   $ sudo ./GarminLidarLite   And if everything done as required following ouput will appear with sensor readings printed out every second 2018/08/05 22:46:54 Initializing connections... 2018/08/05 22:46:54 Initializing connection Firmata-634725A2E59CBD50 ... 2018/08/05 22:46:54 Initializing devices... 2018/08/05 22:46:54 Initializing device LIDARLite-5D4F0034ECE4D0EB ... 2018/08/05 22:46:54 Robot lidarBot initialized. 2018/08/05 22:46:54 Starting Robot lidarBot ... 2018/08/05 22:46:54 Starting connections... 2018/08/05 22:46:54 Starting connection Firmata-634725A2E59CBD50 on port /dev/ttyACM0... 2018/08/05 22:46:58 Starting devices... 2018/08/05 22:46:58 Starting device LIDARLite-5D4F0034ECE4D0EB... 2018/08/05 22:46:58 Starting work... Fetching the dist 166 cms Fetching the dist 165 cms Fetching the dist 165 cms Here's complete code for reference   package main import ( "fmt" "log" "time" "gobot.io/x/gobot" "gobot.io/x/gobot/drivers/i2c" "gobot.io/x/gobot/platforms/firmata" ) func main() { lidarLibTest() } // reading Garmin LidarLite data func lidarLibTest() { firmataAdaptor := firmata.NewAdaptor("/dev/ttyACM0") d := i2c.NewLIDARLiteDriver(firmataAdaptor) work := func() { gobot.Every(1*time.Second, func() { dist, err := d.Distance() if err != nil { log.Fatalln("failed to get dist") } fmt.Println("Fetching the dist", dist, "cms") }) } lidarRobot := gobot.NewRobot("lidarBot", []gobot.Connection{firmataAdaptor}, []gobot.Device{d}, work) lidarRobot.Start() }
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  Build authentications extensions quickly and add to the security of your application.   GUIDE CONCEPT   Extensions enable you to quickly and easily add new functionality to an IoT solution. Extensions can be service (function/method) libraries, connector templates, functional widgets, and more.   These pointers and steps will enable you to maintain focus on development of your own application and still utilize the power of ThingWorx for other purposes at the same time.   When to Utilize:   You have your own login from outside of ThingWorx but you want to leverage ThingWorx user management You are using an identity provider other than ThingWorx You need to support passing of credentials in headers/query string parameters which ThingWorx doesn’t support out-of-the-box   Concept   Whether you would like ThingWorx to handle the security for your application, have an application you want ThingWorx to pump data into, or would just like to utilize ThingWorx features in your own application, external authentication can be a great way to integrate your application with ThingWorx. This guide will focus in on how to create an authentication middle man between a system you have already developed (or are in the middle of creating) and connect it to the ThingWorx Platform. In a provided demo website, you will login (with the provided credentials) and validate your user profile and password with ThingWorx. This setup shows the simple integration between ThingWorx and an application you would like to connect to the ThingWorx Platform.   YOU'LL LEARN HOW TO   Install the Eclipse plugin and extension SDK Create authentication application Build and import an extension   NOTE: This guide's content aligns with ThingWorx 9.3. The estimated time to complete ALL parts of this guide is 60 minutes.        Step 1: Completed Example   Download the completed files for this tutorial: AuthenticationExtension.zip   This tutorial will guide you through security concepts within ThingWorx. Utilize this file to see a finished example and return to it as a reference if you become stuck creating your own fully flushed out application.   Keep in mind, this download uses the exact names for entities used in this tutorial. If you would like to import this example and also create entities on your own, change the names of the entities you create. The download contains three directories (Source, CompletedExtension, and Demo). See below for the information about each directory.     Directory Description Source The completed project and source code to be utilized as a comparison or ready to go pre-built extension. CompletedExtension A completed and built extension that is based on the steps utilized in the latter steps. The zip file in this directory can be imported directly. Demo A demo web page that shows easy integration of an external application and ThingWorx authentication.       Step 2: Understanding Authenticators   Authentication between ThingWorx and custom outside applications begins with Authenticators.  Authenticators are the component integration point that allows for custom authentication schemes to be added into the ThingWorx platform. Authenticators can be used to retrieve content, parameters, headers, etc from HTTP requests.   The retrieved data can be verified by the authenticator using its implemented/configured verification  algorithm(s). If that data is of a username/password credential type the authenticator can choose to pass validation of that data to the configured list of Directory Services. For example, the internal ThingWorx username/password store, or delegate to an external Active Directory set of username/passwords.   ThingWorx tries to authenticate in increasing order of priority. In example, starting with  ThingworxBasicAuthenticator, unless a custom authenticator is given higher priority than that, ThingWorx will continue trying enabled authenticators by priority until one succeeds.   If an authenticator has priority 1, it will be consulted first in the chain of authenticators. If the authenticator has a priority of 101, it will be consulted after the ThingworxBasicAuthenticator (with priority of 100) fails to authenticate the HTTP request. There are several built-in authenticators   Authenticator Priority Editable ThingworxBasicAuthenticator 100 No ThingworxMobileTokenAuthenticator 150 Yes ThingworxApplicationKeyAuthenticator 200 No ThingworxSSOAuthenticator 250 Yes ThingworxFormAuthenticator 300 No ThingworxMobileAuthorizationAuthenticator 350 Yes ThingworxHttpBasicAuthenticator 400 No   When all configured and enabled authenticators fail to validate the data provided by an HTTP request, an authentication failure response is sent back to the requesting client. Custom Authenticators can be given priority such that they fit into any part of this process.   For setting the priority follow the instructions below:   Navigate to and select Security > Authenticators.   Select the Authenticator you would like to edit (ie, ThingworxSSOAuthenticator). If you do not see a specific Authenticator you would like to VIEW ONLY, check the Show System Objects checkbox in your search filter.   Update the Priority field with a new value. Click Save.       Step 3: Download Plugin and SDK   The ThingWorx Extension SDK provides supported classes and APIs to build Java-based extensions. The APIs included in this SDK allow manipulation of ThingWorx platform objects to create Java based extensions that can extend the capability of the existing ThingWorx platform.   The Eclipse Plugin assists in working with the Extension SDK to create projects, entities, and samples.   Download the Eclipse Plugin. Download Extensions SDK. Make a note of the directory where the plugin and the extension SDK are stored. The path of the directory will be required in upcoming steps. Do not extract the zip files.     Click here to view Part 2 of this guide.
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Excited to announce ThingWorx 8.1 is officially available in our Support Portal. Please find the release notes below. The following feature enhancements and bug fixes exist in ThingWorx 8.1.0: Enhancements Platform: • Metrics Reporting is enabled by default, which allows usage, performance, and diagnostics data to be sent to a PTC server daily. For more information about this setting, see Platform Subsystem. • You can add and configure Notifications in New Composer. For more information, see Adding Notifications. • License files are now instance specific.. • Security for application keys has been enhanced. The defualt expiration date has been changed to 24 hours if it is not explictly set. • Additional capability has been added to New Composer. • Improvements to anomaly detection accuracy have been added. As a result, data collection restart is no longer necessary after a long gap and the H2 database that installs with the Training Microservice is stored in memory, not as a persisted file. For more information, see Anomaly Detection. • You can now load configuration/project files from KEPServerEX instances Bug Fixes Platform • Fixed an issue where Tomcat failed to start when using SAP HANA. TW-22191 • Fixed an issue that was preventing ThingWorx from starting after the File Transfer Subsystem was disabled. TW-22177 • Fixed an issue where the change history of a Mashup was automatically updated even if no changes were made. TW-22114 • Fixed an issue that was preventing the ServiceInvokeCompleted event from working after performing an in-place upgrade. TW-21784 • Fixed an issue where alert notifications were not being sent to recipients after removing a recipient. TW-21585 • Fixed an issue where the Add button in the Services page did not display after creating a Data Table. TW-21518 • Fixed an issue with alert notifications for entities containing periods in the name. TW-21347 • Fixed an issue that was causing connected assets to display as disconnected in ThingWorx Utilities. UTL-4698 • Fixed an issue where data bind was lost after changing Read-Only settings to Read/Write in Composer. TW-23506 • Fixed an issue that was causing a MetricsReportingTask error after enabling ThingWorx Performance Advisor. TW-21141 • Fixed an issue with the ThingWorx authentication window when specifying the site while using FF and IE. TW-21271 Mashup Builder • Fixed an issue with the List widget that was causing incorrect tooltips to display. TW-24012 TW-23961 TW-23038 • Fixed an issue where Chrome was automatically retrying Remote Service calls when a timeout occurred. TW-23828 • Fixed an issue after restarting the ThingWorx web app where the Runtime or Composer’s index.html were missing. TW-23984 • Fixed an issue where closing a modal dialogue did not remove the disabled state from an element. TW-11217 • Fixed an issue when creating a popup with the Navigation widget. The tab sequence of the popup was dependent on the original mashup. TW-11151 • Fixed an issue with localized values of data columns when using the Data Filter widget. TW-11059 Extensions  • Fixed an issue where CSV parser extension import failed if the text file that was being imported did not include a new line character at the end of the last line of text. TW-21863 • Fixed an issue with the Advanced Grid widget where the Reset button was not localized. TW-21457 • Fixed an issue with the jQuery library used by the WebSocketTunnel_ExtensionPackage widget. Note If you are using the WebSocketTunnel_ ExtensionPackage, you will need to upgrade to version 3.0.2 if you are upgrading to ThingWorx 8.1.0. To upgrade the extension, go to the Web Sockets Tunnel Widget and Library page of the ThingWorx Marketplace. TW-24465 End of Life Information SQUEAL functionality has been discontinued in 8.1. System requirements: http://support.ptc.com/WCMS/files/173583/en/ThingWorx_Core_8.1_System_Requirements_1.0.pdf Installation guide: http://support.ptc.com/WCMS/files/173600/en/Installing_ThingWorx_8.1_1.0_.pdf ThingWorx 8.1 Cross Platform Highlights: Security ThingWorx 8.1 Cross Platform Highlights and Q&A: Licensing
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This Expert Session consists of the general overview for platform export and import. It discusses the available options for safely exporting and importing entities, data, and extensions. It also provides information on the use of exported entities during the system upgrading and/or moving from QA to production server.  It’s assumed that the audience is familiar with the Composer and its navigation.     For full-sized viewing, click on the YouTube link in the player controls.   Visit the Online Success Guide to access our Expert Session videos at any time as well as additional information about ThingWorx training and services.
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The following script takes a parameter of a model name, a device serial number and a data item name, finds the asset location and uses that longitude to determine the current TimeZone.  It then converts the Timezone of the data item timestamp to an Eastern Standard Timezone timestamp. import groovy.xml.MarkupBuilder import com.axeda.drm.sdk.Context import java.util.TimeZone import com.axeda.drm.sdk.data.* import com.axeda.drm.sdk.device.* import com.axeda.common.sdk.jdbc.*; import net.sf.json.JSONObject import net.sf.json.JSONArray import com.axeda.drm.sdk.mobilelocation.MobileLocationFinder import com.axeda.drm.sdk.mobilelocation.MobileLocation import com.axeda.drm.sdk.mobilelocation.CurrentMobileLocationFinder def response try {     Context ctx = Context.getUserContext()     ModelFinder mfinder = new ModelFinder(ctx)     mfinder.setName(parameters.model_name)     Model m = mfinder.find()     DeviceFinder dfinder = new DeviceFinder(ctx)     dfinder.setModel(m);     dfinder.setSerialNumber(parameters.device)     Device d = dfinder.find()     CurrentMobileLocationFinder cmlFinder = new CurrentMobileLocationFinder(ctx);     cmlFinder.setDeviceId(d.id.getValue());     MobileLocation ml = cmlFinder.find();     def lng = -72.158203125     if (ml?.lng){         lng = ml?.lng     }     // set boundaries for timezones - longitudes     def est = setUSTimeZone(-157.95415000000003)     def tz = setUSTimeZone(lng)     CurrentDataFinder cdfinder = new CurrentDataFinder(ctx, d)     DataValue dvalue = cdfinder.find(parameters.data_item_name)     def adjtime = convertToNewTimeZone(dvalue.getTimestamp(),tz,est)     def results = JSONObject.fromObject(lat: ml?.lat, lng: ml?.lng, current: [name: dvalue.dataItem.name, time: adjtime.format("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm"), value: dvalue.asString()]).toString(2)     response = results } catch (Exception e) {     response = [                 message: "Error: " + e.message             ]     response =  JSONObject.fromObject(response).toString(2) } return ['Content-Type': 'application/json', 'Cache-Control':'no-cache', 'Content': response] def setUSTimeZone(lng){     TimeZone tz     // set boundaries for US timezones by longitude     if (lng <= -67.1484375 && lng > -85.517578125){         tz = TimeZone.getTimeZone("EST");     }     else if (lng <= -85.517578125 && lng > -96.591796875){         tz = TimeZone.getTimeZone("CST");     }     else if (lng <= -96.591796875 && lng > -113.90625){         tz = TimeZone.getTimeZone("MST");     }     else if (lng <= -113.90625){         tz = TimeZone.getTimeZone("PST");     }     logger.info(tz)     return tz } public Date convertToNewTimeZone(Date date, TimeZone oldTimeZone, TimeZone newTimeZone){     long oldDateinMilliSeconds=date.time - oldTimeZone.rawOffset     // oldtimeZone.rawOffset returns the difference(in milliSeconds) of time in that timezone with the time in GMT     // date.time returns the milliseconds of the date     Date dateInGMT=new Date(oldDateinMilliSeconds)     long convertedDateInMilliSeconds = dateInGMT.time + newTimeZone.rawOffset     Date convertedDate = new Date(convertedDateInMilliSeconds)     return convertedDate }
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Hi,   If you need to change the used hostname at installation of Thingworx Flow, some manual changes should be done without re-installing Flow. Basically, hostname for Flow should be changed in the nginx configuration and in Flow modules configuration; whenever you see the hostname used at Flow installation, change it with the new hostname.   Change the following configurations after renaming the ThingWorx Flow server in Windows OS : 1. Stop Flow, Nginx and ThingWorx Tomcat services 2. Update C:\Program Files\ <nginx>\conf\conf.d\vhost-flow.conf server_name : change hostname with new one      3. Update C:\Program Files (x86)\ <ThingWorxFlow>\modules\lookup\deploymentConfig.json ENDPOINT : change hostname with new one      4. Update <ThingWorxFlow>\modules\oauth\deploymentConfig.json UI_ENDPOINT : change hostname with new one ENDPOINT : change hostname with new one      5. Update <ThingWorxFlow>\modules\trigger\deploymentConfig.json DOMAIN : change hostname with new one TRIGGER_HOST : change hostname with new one 6. Update <ThingWorxFlow>\modules\ux\deploymentConfig.json api_endpoint : change hostname with new one view > oauth_server : change hostname with new one service_api_endpoint : change hostname with new one      If the ThingWorx Platform is installed on the Flow server : enterprise > built > host + prefix_url : change hostname with new one 7. If the ThingWorx Platform is not installed on the Flow server: Stop Thingworx Tomcat service Update <ThingworxPlatform>\platform-settings.json         PlatformSettingsConfig >  OrchestrationSettings > QueueHost : change flow hostname with new one 8. Restart the Thingworx, Flow and Nginx services   After these steps, Flow should be accessible with the new hostname: https://new_hostname:port/Thingworx/Composer/apps/flow/     Regards, Raluca Edu    
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This is a reference document on how to move existing or fresh install ThingworxStorage location. Note: As of Thingworx 7.0 the platform-settings.json file has changed and therefore the newest version needs to be used  to change the location of the folders. Please refer to this guide pg.45-46 to see the new .json file.http://support.ptc.com/WCMS/files/170230/en/Installing_ThingWorx_7.1.pdf  A sample json is attached at the bottom of this document. Here are the main bullet points that need to be kept in mind when performing a migration process: ThingworxPlatform directory has to be in the same partition as where the Tomcat is installed. I.e. if your tomcat is in /apps, the ThingworxPlatform should also be in /apps, not in root. Note: if ThingworxPlatform will be placed in a different partition than the tomcat, create a THINGWORX_PLATFORM_SETTINGS environmental variable that will point to the correct location. Refer to the Installation Guide for details. Before modifying the location of the platform-settings.json, stop tomcat. There is no need to undeploy the Thingworx app, but do rename the existing folders (as a way of copying/preserving data if any exists) “ThingworxStorage” to “ThingworxStorageCopy” and “ThingworxBackupStorage” to “ThingworxBackupStorageCopy”. If this is a fresh install, proceed to step 3.. Modify the platform-settings.json to have desired locations for the ThingworxStorage folders. Start the tomcat. New ThingworxStorage and ThingworxBackupStorage will be created in the new location. Note: if there is any data in the ThingworxStorage (see ThingworxStorageCopy and ThingworxBackupStorageCopy from step 2), stop the tomcat and place the contents of the original folders into the new ones or just replace the directories. For Postgresql  scenarios: Ensure postgresql database is running. If fresh install/no need to preserve data,  and in case of 401 error, clean the existing database via the script and run the two scripts to install and setup DB and Schema. Start tomcat and verify connection. If data does need to be preserved, then run the schema update script to update from 6.5 to 6.6. then to 7.0 and 7.1 respectively, depending on which version you are starting with. To change the location of where postgresql would write data, find the thingworxPostgresDBSetup.sh script open it to edit: tablespace_location="/ThingworxPostgresqlStorage" Then re-run the DBsetup and Schema setup while tomcat is stopped. For assistance in resolving any difficulties related to the migration process, please contact Thingworx Technical Support.
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ThingWorx 8.5 Architecture Deployment Guide The ThingWorx 8.5 Architecture Deployment Guide has recently been updated with a few bug fixes and semantic corrections. Note that older guides are still available as well. Look forward to the 9.0 Deployment Guide coming soon.   Happy developing!
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This video begins Module 1: ThingWorx Analytics Overview of the ThingWorx Analytics Training videos. It covers some of the functionality of the ThingWorx platform, as well as ThingWorx Analytics capabilities.
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    Step 3: Modify YourEdgeThingTemplate.lua   Now that the task rate has been decreased to 1000ms (one second), we can create a series of Thing Properties.   In Windows, navigate to C:\CDEMO_EMS\etc\custom\templates.   In your prefered text-editor, open YourEdgeThingTemplate.lua.   We now want to add several lines of Lua code to define some Properties for EdgeThing. You’ll do some with some references that are pre-built into the EMS, primarily the properties structure.   Working with the engine R&D team, their plan is to place two vibration sensors on the proptype engine. In addition, each vibration sensor will have five frequency bands. As such, we’ll need ten Properties to represent the vibration readings.   In addition, we also want a Property that will record whether or not the engine is currently experiencing the low grease condition. This will be entered via manual-inspection at the same time that the frequency readings are recorded.   Perform the following to implement the ten vibration frequency bands and the low grease condition.   Below the module line of YourEdgeThingTemplate.lua, add the following line to create a low_grease Property: properties.low_grease={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} Below that, add the following lines to create the five frequency bands for the first vibration sensor: properties.s1_fb1={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s1_fb2={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s1_fb3={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s1_fb4={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s1_fb5={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} Below that, add the following lines to create the five frequency bands for the second vibration sensor: properties.s2_fb1={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s2_fb2={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s2_fb3={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s2_fb4={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s2_fb5={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} Your code should now look like the picture below.   The code above adds each new Property to the properties structure, and the name of the Property will be what follows after the “.”, i.e. low_grease, s1_fb1, s1_fb2, etc.   In addition, the baseType defines the type of each Property, in this case, all Numbers.   The pushType of ALWAYS means that there are no restrictions on sending new Property values up to Foundation, and the value of 0 indicates the default value to which each Property will initially be set.   Generate Property Values   Now that we have the Properties defined, we want to add code which will give us different values.   To do so, we’ll define a queryHardware function, and tie the calling of it to the task rate which we had set earlier. This queryHardware function will use random numbers to simulate code that would gather actual data.    Add the following Lua code to define a GetSystemProperties function. Note that this calls a separate queryHardware function which we split out to also be called by the tasks timer. serviceDefinitions.GetSystemProperties( output { baseType="BOOLEAN", description="" }, description { "updates properties" } ) services.GetSystemProperties = function(me, headers, query, data) queryHardware() return 200, true end Add the following Lua code to define queryHardware. Note that Lua’s random number generation requires a new seed on each calling, and the randomseed function is using the built-in os.time function (plus some additional noise created by turning that time into a string and back). function queryHardware() math.randomseed( tonumber(tostring(os.time()):reverse():sub(1,6)) ) local temp = math.random(10) if temp < 6 then properties.low_grease.value=0 properties.s1_fb1.value=161+math.random() properties.s1_fb2.value=180+math.random() properties.s1_fb3.value=190+math.random() properties.s1_fb4.value=176+math.random() properties.s1_fb5.value=193+math.random() properties.s2_fb1.value=130+math.random() properties.s2_fb2.value=200+math.random() properties.s2_fb3.value=195+math.random() properties.s2_fb4.value=165+math.random() properties.s2_fb5.value=190+math.random() else properties.low_grease.value=1 properties.s1_fb1.value=90+math.random() properties.s1_fb2.value=170+math.random() properties.s1_fb3.value=170+math.random() properties.s1_fb4.value=95+math.random() properties.s1_fb5.value=190+math.random() properties.s2_fb1.value=165+math.random() properties.s2_fb2.value=195+math.random() properties.s2_fb3.value=190+math.random() properties.s2_fb4.value=140+math.random() properties.s2_fb5.value=190+math.random() end end Finally, we want to tie the calling of queryHardware to the tasks timer by adding the following code: tasks.refreshProperties = function(me) queryHardware() end   We now have code in our EMS template that not only defines the low grease condition and the five frequency bands of our two vibration sensors, but also generates some values in the ranges that R&D have typically seen in both good grease amount and bad grease amount conditions.   The final Lua code of the YourEdgeThingTemplate.lua file should look like the following:   require "shapes.swupdate" module ("templates.YourEdgeThingTemplate", thingworx.template.extend) properties.low_grease={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s1_fb1={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s1_fb2={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s1_fb3={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s1_fb4={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s1_fb5={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s2_fb1={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s2_fb2={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s2_fb3={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s2_fb4={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} properties.s2_fb5={baseType="NUMBER", pushType="ALWAYS", value=0} serviceDefinitions.GetSystemProperties( output { baseType="BOOLEAN", description="" }, description { "updates properties" } ) services.GetSystemProperties = function(me, headers, query, data) queryHardware() return 200, true end function queryHardware() math.randomseed( tonumber(tostring(os.time()):reverse():sub(1,6)) ) local temp = math.random(10) if temp < 6 then properties.low_grease.value=0 properties.s1_fb1.value=161+math.random() properties.s1_fb2.value=180+math.random() properties.s1_fb3.value=190+math.random() properties.s1_fb4.value=176+math.random() properties.s1_fb5.value=193+math.random() properties.s2_fb1.value=130+math.random() properties.s2_fb2.value=200+math.random() properties.s2_fb3.value=195+math.random() properties.s2_fb4.value=165+math.random() properties.s2_fb5.value=190+math.random() else properties.low_grease.value=1 properties.s1_fb1.value=90+math.random() properties.s1_fb2.value=170+math.random() properties.s1_fb3.value=170+math.random() properties.s1_fb4.value=95+math.random() properties.s1_fb5.value=190+math.random() properties.s2_fb1.value=165+math.random() properties.s2_fb2.value=195+math.random() properties.s2_fb3.value=190+math.random() properties.s2_fb4.value=140+math.random() properties.s2_fb5.value=190+math.random() end end tasks.refreshProperties = function(me) queryHardware() end       Step 4: Modify EdgeThing   Now that our EMS has been updated with Properties, as well as code to generate values for those Properties, we want to re-connect the EMS to Foundation and update the EdgeThing.   Note once again that EdgeThing was previously created in the Use the Edge MicroServer (EMS) to Connect to ThingWorx guide.   Restart the wsemse.exe program by returning to its PowerShell window and executing the following command: .\wsems.exe   Restart the luaScriptResource.exe program by returning to its separate PowerShell window and executing the following command: .\luaScriptResource.exe   Return to ThingWorx Foundation's EdgeThing. Note that EdgeThing is connected.   On the Properties and Alerts tab, click Manage Bindings.   At the bottom-left of the Manage Bindings pop-up, click + Add all properties.   At the bottom-right of the pop-up, click Done.   At the top, click Save.   Near the top, click Refresh repeatedly. Note that the Property values consistently change.          Click here to view Part 3 of this guide.
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Previous blogs Widget Extensions Introduction Widget Extensions Click Event This blog we will take a quick look at making a new Date Picker Widget I'm not going to worry about styles just the basics of getting the widget defined and able to place in the Composer canvas. As in previous blogs we have to decide on a name, we will use DatePicker Because we don't want to write all of the logic that has been written many times will use a jquery datepicker https://jqueryui.com/datepicker/ which has a lot options. The simple syntax is $(#myDate).datepicker() which will do most of the work. The $ is the jquery reference an the  #myDate is the id where the datapicker will render and the datepicker is the function worker. Before we get into the renderHtml I realize I need to quickly talk about the widgetProperties function in the ide.js. This where we set what properties can be defined and whether they are dynamic. For example the thought it useful to have a Title , Date and some simple css style configurable options. Inside the widgetProprties we have properties section (json) and the basic  pattern is PropertyName baseType defaultValue isBindingTarget Setting the isBindTarget to true allows for dynamic setting in the composer. Below is the complete definition for the widgetProperties Next we set up the design time (ide)  renderhtml And finally we define the  runtime renderHtml which looks like this Deploy it and you have a basic Data Picker. There is more work to do on this to provide better styling but  its a start!
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  Expedite your application development with new ThingWorx features.   GUIDE CONCEPT   This project will introduce you to a variety of features designed to expedite the IoT application development workflow. In particular, there are several features that make the creation of custom Services quicker and easier when writing and testing your code.   Following the steps in this guide, you will learn how to access features that will help you throughout your software development lifecycle: development, execution, and testing.   We will teach you how to became a faster and more efficient IoT application developer.     YOU'LL LEARN HOW TO   Use Snippets to generate code Execute and test Services Save Service test cases to facilitate QA process Utilize the code auto-completion feature Test code at design time with Lint warnings and errors   NOTE: This guide's content aligns with ThingWorx 9.3. The estimated time to complete ALL parts of this guide is 30 minutes.        Step 1: Completed Example   Download and extract the completed files for this tutorial attached to this article: ToolsTipsTricks.zip file.   The file provided to you contains a completed example of the Entities covered in this guide. Utilize this file to see a finished example and return to it as a reference if you become stuck during this guide and need some extra help or clarification.   Keep in mind, this download uses the exact names for Entities used in this tutorial. If you would like to import this example and also create Entities on your own, change the names of the Entities you create.       Step 2: Templates and Using Code Snippets    Expedite your application development process by utilizing code Snippets provided in ThingWorx. The JavaScript code snippets will give you insight into best practices for performing common development tasks.   Follow the steps below to create a Service that will: Check a list of Things Find Things with a temperature over an input parameter threshold, and Return the captured list of Things   Create a Thing Template   Utilizing a Thing Template expedites your development process because the Things inherit properties from the Template. In the steps below, it can relate to a real-world scenario where Things might represent parts that belong to an assembly line.   In the top left of the Home screen of Composer, click the + button.       In the dropdown list, click Thing Template.       For the Name field, enter LinePartTemplate. Select GenericThing as the Thing Template and select a Project (ie, PTCDefaultProject).       Click Properties and Alerts. Create a number Property named PartTemperature. Create a string Property named PartName.     Click Save. Now that you've saved the Template, you can create Things that inherit the properties PartTemperature and PartName. Create a couple new Things with LinePartTemplate as the Thing Template. For testing purposes, set a different value for the PartTemperature Property of each Thing. NOTE: When you run the Service later, you'll be able to see the different Things with values - some within a temperature threshold based on the conditions we set.   Using Service Call Setup   Code Snippets help shorten time to develop Services, but you are also provided with a way to call Services from an entity plus the default input parameters needed to make the call.   In the top left of the Home screen of Composer, click the + button.       In the dropdown list, click Thing.       For the Name field, enter LineCheckSystem. Select GenericThing as the Thing Template and select a Project (ie, PTCDefaultProject).     Switch to the Services tab. Create a Service called ListHotLineParts. Switch to the Me/Entities tab.   Select the Other entity radio option. Enter LinePartTemplate into the search field and select it when it pops up.   Expand the Services section.  Enter GetImplementingThingsWithData into the search field and select the arrow next to it.   You should now see a Snippet of JavaScript inserted into the Service code window. The GetImplementingThingsWithData Service is used to get all the Things with a specific Thing Template as it's base template. The return of this call will provide you with an InfoTable of all the Things you created on your own in the last section. Refer to LineTemplateThing1 in the completed download for an example.     Using Code Snippets   Lets's update the Snippet inserted in the last section.   Update the variable name from result to partsList. Switch to the Snippets tab of the Service. In the search bar, enter/filter Infotable for loop. Expand the Info Table section and click the arrow next to Infotable for loop.   All places where yourInfotableHere is located, replace it with the name of your list, partsList.   Click Done. Click Save.   At this point, you have created a loop that will iterate through the set of Things created with LinePartTemplate set as the Thing Template.   Since the JavaScript snippets were provided and all you had to do was update the variable names, now you must retrieve the input from the user on what the temperature threshold will be. This will be handled in the next section.     Build Return Value List   You can set the threshold to what is considered a "Hot" part in two different ways. Use a static value in order to keep things standardized OR create an input variable to make things more flexible. In the steps below, we are adding an input variable to finish off our Service.   Go to the Inputs tab of the Service. Add an input parameter called TemperatureThreshold that is a Number. Keep the other settings clear. Go to the Outputs tab, select INFOTABLE in the dropdown.  In the Data Shape search field, use the + New Data Shape sign to create a new DataShape. An example is shown below. I’ve named this Data Shape LinePartDataShape. Switch to the Snippets tab of the Service. In the JavaScript code, put your cursor on a new line before the for loop (ie, line 1). In the search bar, filter for Create Infotable from datashape and select it in the Infotable section by clicking the arrow next to it. Select the newly created LinePartDataShape DataShape when a popup appears and click Insert Code Snippet. You will see the newly inserted snippet that creates an Info Table from our new Data Shape.   Add a check inside of the for loop for the PartTemperature of the current item in the list of parts. if(row.PartTemperature > TemperatureThreshold){ } Move the cursor inside of the condition we just added. In the search bar, filter and select Create infotable entry from datashape in the Info Table section by clicking the arrow next to it. Select the newly created LinePartDataShape Data Shape when a popup appears and click Insert Code Snippet. You will see the newly inserted snippet that creates an entry for the Info Table. Update the inserted code snippet to assign the new entry values to that of a row in the Info Table. After updating the with code below, ensure to keep your cursor inside the conditional on a new line. var newEntry = new Object(); newEntry.PartName = row.PartName; // STRING newEntry.PartTemperature = row.PartTemperature; // NUMBER Your entire code thus far should match the following: var params = { infoTableName : "InfoTable", dataShapeName : "LinePartDataShape" }; // CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(infoTableName:STRING("InfoTable"), dataShapeName:STRING):INFOTABLE(LinePartDataShape) var result = Resources["InfoTableFunctions"].CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(params); // result: INFOTABLE dataShape: "RootEntityList" var partsList = ThingTemplates["LinePartTemplate"].GetImplementingThingsWithData(); var tableLength = partsList.rows.length; for (var x=0; x < tableLength; x++) { var row = partsList.rows[x]; if(row.PartTemperature > TemperatureThreshold){ var newEntry = new Object(); newEntry.PartName = row.PartName; // STRING [Primary Key] newEntry.PartTemperature = row.PartTemperature; // NUMBER } } In the search bar, filter and select AddRow by clicking the blue arrow next to it. Update the inserted code snippet to add the newEntry object to the result Info Table created earlier. result.AddRow(newEntry); Save your work. You now have a fully-functional Service that you were able to create faster because of code snippets and pre-loaded Services. See the below to confirm your code matches up after removing some commented lines. Click here to view Part 2 of this guide.
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Does WSEMS use SSL pinning? Yes, it does. To explain the process a bit more, the ssl pinning is the act of verifying a server certificate by comparing it to the exact certificate that is expected. We “install” a certificate on the EMS (copying the cert to the ems device, and specifying the cert in config.json), EMS will then check all incoming certs against the cert in config.json, looking for an exact match and verifying the certificate chain. Should it be expected that the client, WSEMS.exe, installs the client certificate in order to validate the server certificate using SSL pinning? This does not happen automatically, the cert must be downloaded and manually added to the device. The config must also be manually updated. If so, how we issue the client cert for WSEMS.exe? Does it need to be issued the same way as the server certificate? If talking about pinning, one could use either the server cert directly, or the root cert (recommended). The root cert is the public cert of the signing authority, e.g. if the server uses a verisign issued cert, one can verify the authenticity of the signer by having the verisign public cert. If talking about client certs (2 way auth, client verifies server, server verifies client) then the process is a little different. What happens when the client certificate expires? Do all the devices go offline when the client certificate expires? The device won’t connect with a failure to authorize. Once the server cert expires, the server cert needs to be updated everywhere. This is the advantage to using something like the verisign public cert (root cert) as the installed cert on the client. The root certs usually last longer than the issued certs, but they will have to replaced eventually when they expire. When using Entrust certificates, obtained at https://www.entrust.com/get-support/ssl-certificate-support/root-certificate-downloads/ , how do we know that the certifactes are fed to the WSEMS configuration incorrectly? With the wrong configuration, WSEMS would error out rejecting the Entrust certificate: Non-fips Error code 20: Invalid certificate Fips: Error code 19:  self signed certificate in certificate chain How to properly install Entrust certificate to be accessed by EMS? Public certificate needs to be downloaded and put in a directory that is accessible to the EMS. The path to be added to the cert chain field of the configuration. Even if its trusted it will always need to be installed on the EMS. If a certificate is self-signed, meaning it's non-trusted by default, OpenSSL would throw errors and compain. To solve this, it needs to be installed as a trusted server. If it's signed by a non-trusted CA, that CA's certificate needs to be installed as well. Once the certificates are obtained this if the block of the configuration we are interested in: "certificates":    {                   "validate":          true, //Not validated model is not recommended                       "allow_self_signed":  false, //Self signed model is not recommended, yet theoretically better than non-validated                       "cert_chain":      " " } //recommended, trusted - also the only way to work with a FIPS enabled EMS May use the SSL test tool (for example,https://www.ssllabs.com )to find all chains. For Entrust, both Entrust L1k and G2 need to be downloaded: Because cert_chain is an array type of field, the format to install the certificates paths, would be: "cert_chain": ["path1"], ["path2"] "cert_chain": ["C:\\ThingworxLocation\\MicroServerLocation\\locationofcertificates\\entrust_l1k.pem","C:\\ThingworxLocation\\MicroServerLocation\\locationofcertificates\\entrust_g2_ca.pem"]
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Use Rockwell Automation's Connected Components Workbench to connect an Allen-Bradley PLC for use with the ThingWorx Platform. This Learning Path will guide you through installation of Rockwell Automation and ThingWorx applications, connecting ThingWorx to the Allen-Bradley PLC, and how to configure, monitor, and control the PLC from ThingWorx.   NOTE: Complete the following guides in sequential order. The estimated time to complete this learning path is 240 minutes.   This learning path assumes that ThingWorx has already been installed   1, Install Rockwell Connected Components Workbench 2. Install ThingWorx Kepware Server 3. Connect to an Allen-Bradley PLC 4. Create An Application Key 5. Model an Allen-Bradley PLC 6. Visualize an Allen-Bradley PLC  Part 1 Part 2
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New Generation Composer is available from ThingWorx 7.4 and later. Each subsequent release of ThingWorx will contain additional New Composer features/functionalities. This video is focused on the layout change and new features implemented from ThingWorx 7.4.     How to enable the new Composer? 1. In the top right-hand corner, click on the User Menu and select the Preferences option                Figure 1 2. Click the check box for Turn on New Composer Features. 3. Click Done. A New Composer link is added to the menu bar at the top of the Composer window.     Figure 2   4. Click the New Composer link to open a new tab for the New Composer view   Figure 3   What's the layout change in New Composer?     Three areas layout   Figure 4     Menu bar on the left (Area 1) Set Project Context to set default project name for new entities Two views: Recent and Browse Recent view will quickly locate the recent access entities Browse is almost the same to the old menu navigation bar Could be sizable or hidden, and the main idea here is to increase screen real-estate to allow bigger view/edit area Main area for listing and feeding entities in the middle (Area 2) It provides you a wider area to edit entities (author services, mashup builder, etc.) An extra area on the right for preview, properties/events editing, etc. (Area 3) It gave you an easier and handy way to get a glance of an entity’s basic information   Layout change in an entity’s editing page When you create a new Thing, you will find all the facets (general information, properties, services, events, subscriptions) of the Thing are listed in a dropdown list Figure 5       By doing so it will save more area for the feeding   Properties and Alerts Properties and Alerts are now listed separately (in two different Tabs) Figure 6 Figure 7  Properties and Alert are now edited on the right area of the page (See Figure 4 Area 3 Services and Subscription A bigger editor area Events Events are edited on right area of the page (See Figure 4 Area 3)   What's the main function/features change in New Composer   Industrial Connections The Industrial Connections entity allows you to connect with and configure industrial things in ThingWorx. With the “Discover” feature, you could easily bind the Industrial device’s (e.g., Kepware) Tags to a ThingWorx Entity Figure 8 From ThingWorx 8.0.0, Anomaly Alert type is supported An anomaly alert is only useful if you have configured Anomaly Detection to monitor a stream of data Anomaly metrics settings are allowed to be configured in the Alert edit page Figure 9 Subscriptions You could now manually remove a subscription permanently from the system in New Composer which is impossible in old Composer Services New Composer provided assistant scripting tools like static code analysis, String search or replace, etc Figure 10   How could I switch back to the Old Composer when editing an entity? It is so easy! As long as you have opened an ThingWorx Entity, you will notice there is a button “Edit in Composer”; it will lead you back to the old Composer, and all the editing that have been saved will be logged in the old Composer.     Video demonstration for the New Composer is also available now. Feel free to review from: New Composer Video
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Follow these steps to restart the ThingWorx Server, then to verify that all install services are running: 1. Open the ThingWorx Server Properties configuration application. To locate this application in Windows Server edition operating systems, search for "Configure PTC Servelet Engine"; or the application can be launched from the Windows Explorer. The default install directory is: <ThingWorx install path>\ThingWorxManufacturingApps\PTC_Servlet_Engine\bin\thingworxServerw.exe 2. Use the controls in the General tab to Stop and then Start this service. 3. Now open the Windows Services console (services.msc) and verify these four services are installed and running:      a. ThingWatcherResult      b. ThingWatcherTraining      c. Thingworx Server      d. ThingworxPostqresql_Service-PostgreSQL_Server9.4
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