IoT Tips

An introduction to installing the ThingWorx platform. Information on the environment, prerequisites, and configuration steps when installing ThingWorx. Includes walkthroughs of installing with H2 and PostgreSQL databases, an introduction and demonstration of the Linux installation script, solutions to common installation problems and more.     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.

In a recent post, I gave an overview of the types of Building Blocks that are available with the ThingWorx Platform. As a reminder, Building Blocks are a collection of entities packaged together for modular software development. They are intended to be reusable, repeatable, and scalable, and they are the fastest way to either build your own solution or customize a pre-made PTC solution, like ThingWorx Digital Performance Management. There are four types of Building Blocks we will talk about for the development of IIoT applications and solutions on the ThingWorx platform: Connectors, Domain Models, Business Logic, and UI. In this post, we are going to do a deep dive on Connectors, which improve application performance and the transfer of data from disparate devices and systems.   What does a Connector look like in ThingWorx? All ThingWorx Building Blocks follow the same naming convention of CompanyName.BuildingBlockName, so any PTC-created Connectors will appear as PTC.Connector. Connectors in ThingWorx are external integrations that can come in through an industrial system, like an MES that could be connected to with ThingWorx Kepware, or business system, like a CRM that could be connected to via ThingWorx Flow or REST APIs. It could also be a connection to an external database. These are your data connections, so their structure will be somewhat dependent upon your database and assets.   What does a Connector look like in use in a PTC Solution? If we use the example of Digital Performance Management (DPM), one of the connectors we use is a Database Manager(ptc.DBConnection.Manager). It pulls information from the database that is being used from the implementation of DPM. If you think of Building Blocks like bricks, Connectors are the foundation. In this case, the Database Manager sits at the bottom layer of bricks to connect the asset data to the next layer of bricks (Domain Models, which I will cover in the next post) and allows you to pull any information you need.   How can you use a Connector in your solutions? As mentioned above, a Connector is the foundation building block for most solutions. It is what aggregates and transfers your solution-related data into the ThingWorx platform for use. The Connectors we currently have available on the ThingWorx platform will “talk” to your database and the other building blocks you use in your solutions, so for your own solutions, a Connector will be the entry point of your data into your solution.   How can you adapt a Connector for your own solutions? Because all PTC building blocks are built with JavaScript in the ThingWorx Mashup Builder, you can leverage existing Connectors on the ThingWorx platform and extend these same Connectors for your unique use case or build your own. You can view the code we used to create Connectors, so if they don’t pull data into your solution the way you want it to flow, you can override the Connector’s functions with your own capabilities.   The ThingWorx PM team is here to listen to your thoughts and feedback, so tell us: What questions do you have about Connectors and how they can improve your experience building solutions in the ThingWorx platform? Or, if you are waiting for the full deep dive into Building Blocks, keep an eye out for our next post on Domain Models, where we will cover the next “layer up” of the types of Building Blocks for use in ThingWorx.   Stay Connected, Rachel  

The long-awaited manufacturing solution,  ThingWorx Digital Performance Management (DPM), has arrived! Announced at PTC’s  Manufacturing Live event, DPM provides key use cases around overall equipment effectiveness and real-time performance monitoring, while delivering insights with analytics and automated bottleneck identification tools. DPM gives customers clear insight into where and what to fix to drive efficiencies. Composed of modular building blocks with a foundation on the ThingWorx platform, DPM is easily configurable and customizable for closed-loop problem solving that drives productivity.   Let’s take a deeper look into what DPM is and how you can implement it to ensure your investment in the ThingWorx platform and digital transformation delivers business impact.   Monitor in real-time with Production Dashboard The Production Dashboard allows for automated or manual data entry of reason codes with a simple interface for limited disruption. Rather than providing front-line workers with the typical, difficult to understand, percentage based KPIs, Production Dashboard standardizes all losses, so operators can proactively resolve issues during production. You can configure this dashboard to collect granular data and allow opportunities for continuous improvement in process tracking.     Focus with Bottleneck Analysis Bottleneck analysis automatically identifies bottlenecks across the manufacturing process. Identifying bottlenecks can help you prioritize the highest-impact opportunities in the business process. This saves you having to manually identify and analyze potential issues and frees you up to work on other projects.   Prioritize with Time Loss Waterfall and Analyze with Loss Reason Pareto Monitor and analyze performance with data visualizations that help you pinpoint root causes and suggest improvements. Bring together your siloed data into one system and create a standard for how performance is measured and reported.   Improve with Action Tracker Action Tracker allows you to create continuous improvement actions tied to real production losses, to ensure your actions are having positive impact and return.  Create a digital workspace for teams to collaborate and learn from each other. Plus, you can track the improvements delivered through each individual action, so you can drill down and create transparency of work being done.   Confirm value delivered with Scorecard (Available in Later Versions) With the Scorecard feature, you can leverage a standard scorecard for enterprise wide KPIs to summarize factory health and compare similar factory operations. Use the scorecard to create trending and reporting that can be filtered based on the audience you are presenting data to. The scorecard gives you a consistent view that measures performance across the network and drives visibility and accountability across your business.   How do you plan to leverage DPM or the building blocks that make it up? We’d love to hear your thoughts on the first manufacturing solution from PTC.   Stay connected, Rachel   

  ThingWorx 9.2 is here! Deploy an entire solution and all its dependencies in one click with Solution Central’s one-click deploy, garner deeper analytic insight with our new waterfall charts, and manage and authenticate users more seamlessly with an Azure Active Directory integration. Discover these features and more in my 9.2 preview post here!   Review our release notes here and be sure to upgrade to 9.2!   Stay connected, Kaya

Hi everyone,   We’re back! And we’ve got exciting news about Solution Central! As tempted as I am to share the news myself, I thought it only fitting to have Janie Pascoe, Product Manager of Solution Central, share the news with you. You may remember Janie from this post on ThingWorx's OPCUA functionality or this one on what it’s like to transition from a ThingWorx developer to a ThingWorx product manager. Janie, welcome back! The floor is yours.   Janie, PM of Solution Central: Thank you so much Kaija. I wanted to bring your readers up to speed on some of the latest and greatest in Solution Central. If you haven’t logged in to the Solution Central portal in a while, I highly recommend you do so because you will immediately be notified of what’s new in the application as you can see here due to our newly added what’s new popup blurb!     But in the spirit of giving you even more detail, let me tell you a bit more about what is new in Solution Central 3.0. This release is full of more intelligence than ever before! You can now not only deploy the solutions themselves from Solution Central but deploy all of a solution’s dependencies with the single click of a button. So, instead of having to deploy each dependency separately and in a specific order, Solution Central is now smart enough to understand the dependencies and deploy them for you. We have also added enhancements to our Solution Detail panel to make it even more intuitive and easy find what you’re looking for. And when it comes to clean up activities, we have you covered. Solution Central can now forget an instance when it’s no longer needed—no more questioning whether an instance is in active use or not.   Kaya: Thanks, Janie. Exciting stuff! Readers, you can learn all about these new features and more in our Release Notes and Help Center documentation. Be sure to try out the latest functionality!   Any questions, comments, or ideas for enhancements to Solution Central can be sent directly to jpascoe@ptc.com.   Stay on the lookout for our next release!   As always, stay connected, Kaya

Applicable Releases: ThingWorx Navigate 1.6.0 to 8.5.0   Description:   Covers Single Sign On concepts and main items to take into account when defining SSO architecture, with the following agenda: What is Single Sign on? What is PTC Strategy for Single Sign on? How does PingFederate fits in the existing SSO Federation? What products currently can be configured for SSO? Optional SSO in Navigate 1.6 What are the key diferences in SSO over the different Navigate versions? What are we doing internally to prepare for SSO? What resources are available for SSO discussions?         Related articles for further information Related Service: Configure SSO for Navigate

Applicable Releases: ThingWorx Platform 7.0 to 8.5   Description:   Introduction to ThingWorx Extension Development, with the following topics: What is an Extension Why building an Extension Prerequisites Installing Eclipse plugin and features Creating entities with the plugin and including exported Entities in an Extension Project Upgrading or Updating and Existing extension in ThingWorx Building with Gradle and Ant       ThingWorx Extension Development Guide

Applicable Releases: ThingWorx Platform 7.0 to 8.4   Description:   Strategy and tools for Thingworx application backups Backup Terminology and concepts Drivers to define a backup strategy Tips for executing backup in a Thingworx instance: Tomcat, certificates, Configuration and file system data, application specific files, database     Neo4J database mentioned in the session is no longer supported For more information check Best Practices for ThingWorx Backup

  Hello, everyone!   With the release of ThingWorx 8.5, we’ve incorporated a lot of new functionality into our manufacturing and service apps. To cover a few, I’ve included the list below. We created a manufacturing common layer extension to bundle all the PTC-offered IoT apps (Operator Advisor, Asset Advisor, Production KPIs and Controls Advisor) into one extension to enable you to use them even more quickly. We added a UI to Operator Advisor to strengthen your development of work instructions. We introduced new shift and crew data models and user interfaces to standardize how to track workers’ shifts and crew availability. We also introduced Flexible KPIs to help you more rapidly develop apps to calculate common metrics. We enhanced the Operator Advisor MPMLink connector to allow users to access navigation criteria for filtering parameters based on required criteria with support for standard processes. We incorporated multiple context supports for assets—like different business units, separating maintenance views from production views or segmenting sites by location—to allow segmentation based on role and responsibility, showing the power of ThingWorx networks and permissions.   Today, I’d like to highlight one of these areas in particular: flexible KPI calculations.   I spoke with one of product managers, Ward (who you may recognize from this post) to learn more about what this new feature does and the value it brings the business. Here’s what he said:   Kaya: Why did we create flexible KPIs? What was the challenge users were facing that led us to create them? Ward: While there is an industry standard for KPIs such as OEE, availability, productivity and quality, many customers choose to customize the calculations slightly and use their own specific versions in their decision-making process or production monitoring.    Kaya: What do the flexible KPIs do? Can you provide an example? Ward: KPIs can now be customized by ThingTemplate; this allows users to calculate KPIs differently for different “classes” of things. Imagine you have a group of CNC machines and a group of pumps. You want to calculate the availability of each group, but the availability calculation for the CNC machines may differ slightly from the same availability calculations for pumps. With our new flexible KPIs, you’re able to customize the availability calculation to make slight tweaks or changes based on differences in machines or devices. So, you can calculate the availability for both your CNC machines and for your pumps using your customized availability calculations. You can also create your own KPIs to calculate metrics like safety incidents or waste.   Kaya: Let’s dive a little deeper there. If I want to create a quality station for my robot with custom KPIs, how exactly would I do that? Ward: Let’s consider OEE. We have an OEE ThingShape applied to our ISA95 physical ThingTemplate. This shape has services to perform the OEE calculation. You’re able to customize the service on this template, so you have the flexibility to change the way you perform OEE calculations. Now, let’s say you want to add a new KPI like mean time between repair (MTBR). To do so, you would create a MTBR ThingShape and add it to the ThingTemplates where you want OEE calculated. Then, you would update the KPI manager service GetKPINames to add your ThingShape to the list of KPIs to be executed each iteration. The SCO apps will then execute your MTBR service along with the other KPIs.   Kaya: What are their use cases? How does they improve the business? Ward: Customers can have their cells roll up OEE based on the worse performing asset and have their operations roll up on a different criterion.  If the customer wants to use a modified OEE on a machine that includes the size of the crew operating it, they can now do so on that one machine, on classes of machines or on all machines.   Kaya: Wow. You were certainly busy with 8.5 with all these new features. Can you tell me what you’re most excited about for 9.0? Ward: I’m most looking forward to High Availability. The ability to have multiple servers in an active-active mode allows me to do more processing in ThingWorx and provide a level of reliability to my customers. (Look out for info on this exciting new functionality in the future!)   Ready to get started using the flexible KPIs yourself? Check out the ThingWorx Apps Customization Guide! While you’re at it, be sure to also check out the other new features in 8.5 listed above!   Reach out with any questions and stay connected! Kaya

  Hi everyone,   Today I’m here with a very exciting guest—Janie! Janie recently joined PTC after spending the last two years at a global professional services firm where she held many roles including that of a lead ThingWorx developer. While Janie did do some font-end development work and UI creation, the bulk of her time was spent on the backend writing services that enabled the application’s functionality. In this role, she not only wrote code herself, she also played a large part in the in-platform architectural decisions, determining the best way to utilize the platform in order to satisfy complex business requirements.   Throughout her last two years, she worked on various IIoT projects in the manufacturing industry developing a real-time asset health monitoring and OEE/production tracking application to monitor key metrics like downtime and output. For each customer engagement an assessment of IoT platforms was often undertaken in order to assess strengths and weaknesses based off-of the business requirements of the customer and while she spent time looking into a variety of platforms, ThingWorx always came out on top.   That said, her experience with ThingWorx showed her how much and how quickly that technology can can change the way a manufacturing company operates. She decided that instead of doing implementations of the technology, she wanted to have an impact on the technology itself and have a hand in the direction it goes and the way it continues to change the businesses we know today. This desire is what led her to product management and the role she currently holds at PTC today.   I recently sat down with Janie to hear how it has been moving from a developer on the platform to a PM for it to learn about her past ThingWorx experiences and how those will influence the work she does at PTC.     Here’s how our convo went.   Kaya: In your previous role as an IoT developer at another company, what made you choose ThingWorx over other IoT solution platforms? Janie: We chose ThingWorx over other IoT platforms due to its strong ability to connect such a wide variety of machines using ThingWorx Industrial Connectivity via Kepware, its industry-leading standing in the market and the fact that it did not require its users to have extensive development knowledge given its low-code environment, which enabled non-developers to be successful.   Kaya: Why do you think ThingWorx saved you time over other development platforms/products? Janie: There were three key ways the platform helped to save me time. First, I didn’t have to write code from scratch. For example, when needing to manipulate arrays or parse through uploaded csv files, there were pieces of code readily available for me to do so without having to know how to do it by myself. Second, due to the widgets ThingWorx already had available, I didn’t have to spend time making custom front-end UIs or widgets. And, thirdly, I saved a ton of time during the connectivity phase because connectivity to devices was supported OOTB through Kepware’s extensive suite of drivers available including some of the key ones we utilized such as Allen-Bradley Control Logix, Modbus, Siemens, and user configurable drivers.   Kaya: Along the lines of saving time, how would your experience with the platform have differed had you leveraged one of our manufacturing apps like Production KPIs? Janie: As I talked about previously, having access to a pre-built solution would have evidently saved a ton of development time and accelerated time to value. It also would have reduced the complexity of our completed app, which would have made it more scalable. While I understand the Manufacturing apps are not 100% ready-to-go out of the box but rather configurable stepping stones into a larger and mole holistic solution, if we could have had Production KPI’s as our development starting point, we would have had a more sound and already proven way of tackling Production and OEE tracking and could have added even more value on top of that.   Kaya: What were some of your favorite aspects about the platform? Janie: The code-snippets to get started were a big favorite, as were the OOTB widgets that allowed for quick visualization of important data. The OOTB industrial connectivity with seamless integration to ThingWorx was huge—we were able to connect multiple devices and stream information in real-time with little difficulty, which enabled us to derive even more value from the platform and really focus on becoming a fully smart and connected operation. Finally, the drag-and-drop UI was simple and intuitive.   Kaya: What do you think the top misconception is about IoT? Janie: I would say repeatability. Scaling an IoT solution across an enterprise is not as simple as it is often represented. I know we’re releasing a new functionality to help users more easily deploy their solutions, so I’m excited about that.   Kaya: So, now that you work as PM for the platform, what were a few things you wish you knew as a developer working on ThingWorx? Janie: Seeing everything we’re working on for the platform now is very exciting; I wish I could have been more aware of what’s on the roadmap so I knew what was coming as I was developing on the platform.   Kaya: On a similar note, now that you are working on the ThingWorx PM team, what items are you hoping to drive/change based on your experience? Janie: First, I’d like to drive stronger interaction with our system integrators (SIs) and partners by providing them insights into our roadmaps and allowing for them to provide feedback in a more seamless way. Next, I’d like to improve upon our essential platform developer capabilities, such as CI/CD, debugging, versioning, testing, etc. That said, Solution Central and PTC’s commitment to and integration with Microsoft products are very exciting roadmap features for me.   Kaya: I completely agree. Those are some great points. As I’m sure you’re aware, but our readers might not be aware of, we are working within the platform itself and a new feature, Solution Central, to provide more of that basic functionality so that, in addition to building blocks, low-code and a drag-and-drop UI, we can continue to help you accelerate your time to value.   Readers, I hope you enjoyed hearing from Janie! We’re excited to have her on the ThingWorx team and we look forward to making ThingWorx even stronger.   Let me know what you think in the comments below.   Stay connected, Kaya

    Raise your hand if you’re ready for seamless, rapid deployment of your ThingWorx applications with visibility into your various environments! It’s time to say goodbye to error-prone deployments with manual dependency tracking and hello to Solution Central!   Releasing this fall as part of 8.5, Solution Central is a brand-new cloud service coming to the ThingWorx platform to enable you to efficiently manage your ThingWorx applications across the enterprise.   With Solution Central, you’ll no longer be caught chasing missing dependencies (like ThingShapes, Mashups, templates or library extensions). Solution Central automatically identifies and packages up the dependencies required for your application. No more manual dependency madness!   Whether you’re managing many apps deployed to a few environments or a single app deployed to hundreds of environments, Solution Central allows you to accelerate your deployment through an intuitive UI or powerful APIs for automation.   Here’s how it works: Begin by creating your application in Composer with a project. Let Solution Central automatically package up all the artifacts and dependencies required for your application. Allow Solution Central to publish your solution package to the cloud. Deploy your application to your various environments (local servers, data centers, cloud systems) directly from Solution Central. It’s like your company has its own private app store. Here’s a sneak peek of the Solution Central UI! Keep an eye out for the release of ThingWorx 8.5 at the end of Sept 2019 and begin accelerating your app deployment! Check out the presentation and demo my fellow PM Chris Baldwin and I delivered at LiveWorx19—and be sure to attend LiveWorx20! To navigate to our session recording, search for “Introducing Solution Central: Your Gateway to Accelerated IIoT Value Across the Enterprise” here.   Sound interesting? Message me directly to discover how you can become part of the Solution Central Private Preview Program!   -Kaya  

Thingworx Analytics is offered through the User interface called Analytics Builder with some pre-configured functionality. However, should you want to create your own jobs and mashups, all features from Analytics Builder and some more are available through the Thingworx Services.  Running most functionality requires that you provide some data to run the Analytics Services. This is where the datasetRef parameter is required.        Data uploaded through Analytics Builder Any dataset uploaded through builder will require have a datasetUri as shown in the image above and format will be parquet (all small letters) datasetUri can be obtained from the list of datasets in builder Passing data as an in-body Dataset If data isn't uploaded through Analytics Builder, data can be supplied as an Infotable in the data parameter of the datasetRef. Metadata will also need to be supplied if a new dataset is being created (create Job of the AnalyticsServer_DataThing) If this data is being supplied for a scoring job, as long as the column names match up to what the model is expecting, TWX Analytics will inference them appropriately. The filter parameter is for parquet datasets already uploaded into TWXA and will take an ANSI SQL statement format to add conditions to reduce number of rows. Exclusions is an single column infotable list of the columns you wish to remove from the job you are trying to submit Example: If you want Profiles to only run on 5 out of 10 columns, you would give a list of 5 columns that you don't want to include in this exclusions infotable. Data may also be supplied as a csv file in the file repo in some cases, in which case you would give the dataseturi parameter the location of the file on the TWX File repo (of the format thingworx://UseCaseFileRepo/tempdata.csv) and the format which would be csv

  Energy. Innovation. Passion. That’s how I would describe LiveWorx19 in three words.   From beginning to end, LiveWorx truly was a one-of-a-kind digital transformation event. Whether it was the top-notch demos, the delicious lunch from food trucks, or the unique integration of our products with our partners’ technologies, everywhere I turned, inspiration and excitement were booming.   Here are my top three highlights:   1. Delivering a breakout session Chris Baldwin and I shared exciting new functionality that we’re releasing in ThingWorx to simplify and accelerate deployment of applications across your enterprise. We introduced Solution Central, a new portal in the cloud for application management and deployment (more info to come in a future post, but in the meantime, reach out with any questions).   2. Assisting with Xtropolis, our Demo Floor Speaking directly with you and hearing how you’re using ThingWorx to transform industries like medical devices, beer brewing or furniture manufacturing was pretty impressive. It was also quite rewarding and inspiring to hear your clever questions about your unique IoT use cases while being surrounded by folks performing service on a giant John Deere tractor, attendees having virtual rides on a Polaris vehicle and a team of brewers using ThingWorx and Vuforia to brew some tasty Trillium beer.   3. Participating in Usability Tests Thank you to everyone who participated in the UX Lab. Hearing your direct feedback in usability tests on what you like and what you want to see changed or added to the product helps make it feel like you are right there with us designing ThingWorx—because, well, you are. We take the feedback you share at LiveWorx right back to the office and begin iterating. So, quick shoutout to everyone who participated—thanks for your feedback.     If you weren’t able to attend LiveWorx, check out our CEO, Jim Heppelmann, deliver the opening keynote above and hear him discuss how PTC is interweaving AR, IoT, generative design, PLM and AI to create a digital thread that transforms industrial enterprises across the globe.     After hearing about our overall strategy, you’re looking for more details on our product roadmap, watch the above roadmap session delivered by our EVP of Products, Kathleen Mitford.   One of the most rewarding parts of the show for me was meeting some of you—ThingWorx developers and Ask Kaya readers—in person!   Stay connected, Kaya   P.S. If you want to hear what others thought of LiveWorx, check out what Forbes, Automation World or Diginomica had to say.   P.P.S. If you had as much fun as I did or you’re looking to attend for the first time, tickets for LiveWorx 2020 are already available—check them out here!

  We are counting down the days for you—developers, technologists, futurists—to witness the unparalleled power of PTC’s technology. Hosted by PTC, LiveWorx is the world’s leading digital transformation event to equip you with the knowledge, power and tools you need to begin or accelerate your company’s digital transformation.   I’m excited to share that I will be presenting a breakout session on June 11 th , at 1:15pm EST, around a brand-new functionality we’re offering to improve your ability to manage and deploy your ThingWorx applications.   Want to learn more? Attend LiveWorx 2019 or learn about our livestream options. However you choose to attend, it’s an event that I’m pretty amped for and I can’t wait for you to be, too.   Hope to see you there—it’d be great to meet you in person!   Stay connected, Kaya  

  Helloooooo ThingWorx users,   Ever wanted to see the coolest technology in action? Ever wished you could surround yourself with awesome ThingWorx developers? Maybe you’ve even wished you could meet the ThingWorx product management team!   If that’s the case, you’re in luck! Join me for LiveWorx 2019 from June 10 – 13 in Boston this summer to discover how you can make digital transformation a reality for your organization. See what all the hype’s about here!   I’ll be presenting a rockin’ session on some exciting new functionality coming in ThingWorx to help with enterprise-wide app deployment. See me present with Chris Baldwin on Tues, June 11, @ 1:15pm in our session titled Introducing Solution Central: Your Gateway to Accelerated IIoT Value Across the Enterprise!   For a sneak peek of what’s to come at LiveWorx, here are seven sensational sessions our developers can’t miss! (Note: Dates and times are subject to change.) It's Electric: HowCaterpillar Develops Compelling IIoT Apps That Resonate With Customers & Dealers Mon, June 10, @ 4:30 (45 min) ThingWorx and Microsoft Azure from A to Z Tues, June 11, @ 4:00pm (45 min) It’s All About The Apps: Introducing ThingWorxMashupBuilder 2.0 and More! Wed, June 12, @ 9:00am (45 min) Connecting Asset Advisor to Azure Wed, June 12, @ 3:00pm (45 min) ThingWorx for Scalability with InfluxDB and Beyond! Wed, June 12, @ 3:00pm (45 min) From Pilot to Production: Tips & Tricks for Vuforia Studio Thurs, June 13, @ 12:00pm (45 min)   Hope to see you all there and meet you in person!   Stay connected, Kaya

  Today on Ask Kaya, I have a riddle.   I was effective and trendy, but now I can be annoying. I sometimes tend to look out of place and I get in others’ space. I look easy to learn, but few have truly mastered my intricacies. Am I the floss dance?   No, I’m not the floss dance. I’m the expression and validator widgets.   It’s time to say goodbye to those pesky widgets that were super useful but super annoying. Yep, those widgets that littered your design canvas but were “Invisible at Runtime.”     I’m talking about expressions, validators, status messages and event routers. In our next release, expression and validator widgets will no longer appear on the canvas at build time.   You may remember from the previous post titled “Ask the Expert: What are the top three features in ThingWorx 8.4 that I might not know about?” In the post, we discussed the concept of Data Helpers, now known as “Functions.”   What do Functions do? Functions give you the ability add custom logic and bindings to improve UI application functionality. Before we describe how to configure them, let’s first explain what they are.   An expression widget runs any expression you give it. That piece of logic might be something like result = a +  b. While an expression can run any type of logic—not just numbers—you must specify the output base type to be the same as the input base type.    Expressions can also be used to run a different service based on an event. For example, a user may write an expression to run a service if a value changes. They may not care about the value itself but rather just want to know that the value changed.   A validator widget is similar to an expression widget; the key difference is that a validator only outputs a Boolean. When their result is true, you bind to one service, when false, another. Unlike an expression widget, the validator widget does not have to have matching input and output datatypes because the output datatype will always be Boolean.   The input for a validator can be anything. You can create a scenario in which a validator widget outputs a status message that reads “the value is within the acceptable range” when the validator returns true or “the value is outside of the acceptable range” when the validator returns false.   Ready for the extra good stuff? We’re introducing a new editor for you to create, add and configure expressions and validators.   How can I use Functions? Let’s walk through an example using the following these steps.   Create a new Mashup. You’ll see a new tab called “Functions,” which, on default, appears in the bottom right panel.                 Click the “+” arrow in the top right of the “Functions” panel. Choose “expression.” Use the new Functions editor to write your expression. In this example, we’ll say that result = a + b; New Functions Editor  We’ll then set the default values for a and b to be 2 and 3, respectively, to output a result of 5.     Expressions are just as powerful as they were before, but they no longer take up space on your mashup during design time, and they can now be configured in our brand new editor! (To spread the joy even more, the same holds true for validator widgets.)   Reach out with any questions or thoughts below!   Stay connected and keep floss dancing, Kaya

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

  Meet Anthony. Anthony came to PTC from a large industrial company as a user of Axeda, a leading device connectivity company that PTC acquired in 2014. With a background in aerospace engineering and experience in a variety of industries including life safety, healthcare, nuclear power, and oil and gas, Anthony has been working to create new value around innovation for customers transitioning to ThingWorx. When he’s not working on IIoT, he’s playing music on Cape Cod, photographing Hawaiian landscapes or bringing awesome inflatable chairs into the office.    You may recall from last week's post that Thing Presence is one of the top three features in 8.4 that you might not know about. This week, I spoke with Anthony for a deeper dive on Thing Presence. Check out how it went.   Kaya: What was the challenge users were facing that led us to create Thing Presence? Anthony: Axeda customers transitioning to ThingWorx were struggling with the connectivity use case and kept asking, ‘why is my asset always offline?’ When we evaluated it, we discovered that it was tied to the difference between AlwaysOn and Axeda eMessage protocol architectures. IsConnected will always report false for polling and duty cycle devices.   The use case of Thing Presence is to know that the asset is reporting into the network and is ready to provide information (push) or be accessed to retrieve information or do a remote desktop support (pull). This use case is relevant for any asset in ThingWorx that uses duty cycle.   In ThingWorx 8.4 (coming in early 2019), the new IsReporting state will inform the user when a polling device is communicating on a regular basis. If it is, then IsReporting will be true. The IsReporting state resolves the discrepancy wherein devices that are on duty cycle appear disconnected due to the IsConnected state reporting false.  New "IsReporting" state improves visibility of an asset's communication state Kaya: How exactly does Thing Presence work? Anthony: You can think of it in terms of having teenagers. You tell them they need to check in with you on a regular basis through text message. If a text is missed, all of a sudden you take action.   Now, imagine the teenager is a device. If a device was supposed to check in every five minutes and it misses one poll, I want to flag that as a problem. The challenge with that from a service perspective is that sometimes your service personnel will go out and work on a device and may need to take it offline for a bit of time; we need to factor that in. We certainly don’t want to deploy someone or try to fix something when a service technician is already there.   You might decide, ‘my average service visit is an hour, so, if I miss a couple of pings, I’m okay; but, if I’m offline for more than an hour, then I’d like to know about it because I’d like to take action.’ Thing Presence allows you to define that window.   Kaya: You’ve mentioned ‘duty cycle’ and ‘polling cycle.’ Can you explain these terms? Anthony: Duty cycle and polling cycle are the same thing. It means that a device has a time for which it is expected to check in, and, provided that it checks in within that timeframe, all is good with the connection.   Connected services rely on a connection. As soon as the connection is broken, I no longer have the ability to service the asset.   Kaya: Given everything we’ve discussed, where do you see Thing Presence headed? Anthony: The next piece of the equation for us is to provide information on the health of the connection. When you look at servicing a remote asset, you need to a) know that it is communicating, and b) know that the connection is healthy before you try anything. I wouldn’t want to try a software update if I am losing connection with my asset on a regular basis.   What do we mean by health? We mean: is the device checking in when it should be? If it’s not, is there a pattern to that connection, and are those patterns tied to applications? For example, is it only on during working hours? Does it turn off during holidays? If the device is in a school, does it turn off during summer maintenance work? This allows us to garner insights on how and when the equipment is being used, not just operating status. At the end of the day, does this mean I can apply analytics and AI tools to it? Absolutely. Is it the first place I would apply it? Probably not.   Kaya: In your mind, what is the next big thing coming in ThingWorx that you’re particularly excited about? Anthony: Mashup 2.0 and Asset Advisor 8.4. (Double mic drop.)   Kaya: That’s awesome. My last question is related to you. Can you tell me what your favorite aspect is about working at PTC? Anthony: The chaos. Very often it’s chaos that breeds innovation. What I mean by that is that, if you try to create something because you sit down and you say, ‘I am going to innovate,’ very often that is a failure because the majority of the time it’s the influence of a deadline, a customer need or an application at hand that makes the environment trying and sometimes hectic. But, it is in these challenging environments where you can be the most creative and innovative as an engineer.