IoT Tips

Hi,   I launched version 2.1.0 of the ThingWorx GitBackup Extension on Github, in the following repository: https://github.com/vrosu/thingworx-gitbackup-extension This release contains a few UI fixes and experimental support for proxy.   "The GitBackup extension is updated on a best-effort basis and accepts community fixes, that are best done through GitHub. Please report any troubles via GitHub's Issue system.   Important notice: As you might be aware, we have just launched ThingWorx 8.5 and with it a new solution called Solution Central, which is a brand-new cloud-based service to help you package, store, deploy, and manage your ThingWorx applications.   This service is supported by PTC and it contains features that seem to be similar to the GitBackup extension, but they are not. They are different type of tools: Git is a source versioning tool, while Solution Central is an artifact repository. When deploying applications between ThingWorx instances you should use Solution Central, while if you want to version your entities during development you can use the GitBackup extension"  

<p>We live in a connected world where we can (want!) to receive instant updates and notifications. ThingWorx leverages the power of Web 2.0 and its Always-On technology to deliver that, but our friendly SMS providers have also provided an easy and powerful way that can be used to deliver SMS notifications right to your phone. Email to Text!</p><div>Set up a 'notification' Thing using our MailServer Template, set up your outgoing e-mail server and you are now ready to invoke the 'SendMessage' service on a given event. All you need now is the email address of your SMS number, which you can find by following this link: <a href="http://sms411.net/how-to-send-email-to-a-phone/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:8.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">List of e-Mail to SMS  addresses</span></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p></div><p></p>

Remember that when you are calling an external URL to fetch data via an API call to another system that you must encode special characters specifically. For example the URL that you may type into a browser to test may look like this: https://someserver.somwhere.com:443/apicall?parameter1=test string&parameter2=test^number but when scripting that into a string variable you'll need to replace the space and the carrot with the proper encoded values (%20 and %5E) var params = { username : "me", password : "password", url : "https://someserver.somwhere.com:443/apicall?parameter1=test%20string&parameter2=test%5Enumber", ignoreSSLErrors : false, timeout : 60, headers : headers }; var result = Resources['ContentLoaderFunctions'].LoadXML(params); also note that in this instance we're making a secure connection therefore port 443 (typically the default) was explicitly specified...

Since the marketplace extension is no longer supported and the drivers may be outdated, you may build your own jdbc package/extension: Download the Extension Metadata file Here Download the appropriate JDBC driver Build the extension structure by creating the directory lib/common Place the JAR file in this directory location: lib/common/<JDBC driver jar file> Modify the name attribute of the ExtensionPackage entity in the metadata.xml file as needed Point the file attribute of the FileResource entity to the name of the JDBC JAR file The metadata also contains a ThingTemplate the name is set to MySqlServer, but can be modified as needed Select the lib folder and metadata.xml file and send to a zip archive Tip: The name of the zip archive should match the name given in the name attribute of the ExtensionPackage entity in the metadata.xml file Import the newly created extension as usual To the JDBC extension, simply create a new thing and assign it the new ThingTemplate that was imported with the JDBC extension Configuration Field Explanation: JDBC Driver Class Name ​Depends on the driver being used Refer to documentation JDBC Connection String ​Defines the information needed to establish a connection with the database Connection string examples can be found in the ThingWorx Help Center ConnectionValidationString ​A simple query that will work regardless of table names to be executed to verify return values from the database   Alternatively, you may download the jdbc connector creator from the marketplace here https://marketplace.thingworx.com/Items/jdbc-connector-extension Then you may just view the mashup and use it to package your jdbc jar into an extension (which can be later imported into ThingWorx).  

Disclaimer: Please note that, while the ThingWorx Git Backup Extension is a very useful tool, it is not a PTC product, nor is it supported by PTC.   Hi ThingWorx users,   Trying to manage your ThingWorx application artifacts in a CI process? Wondering who changed that line of code in your Thing Service? Trying to see what your Mashup looked like last release? Time to Git excited! Introducing the Git Backup Extension, an open-source tool available here to offer a stronger integration with the Git source repository. This Git feature can push or pull code and artifacts (like entities, data exports or extension dependencies) to your Git repository.   Here are some highlights of how this works within ThingWorx:   First, configure your Git repo to work with ThingWorx by creating a Git Backup Thing. Then, simply open your new Thing, navigate to the Configuration editor and enter information like your Git URL, your Git username and password, your repo and branch names, etc. See example below. Configuring your Git repoWith this configuration in place, you can now use the Home Mashup of this new Git thing to browse the repository and pull down contents to your local ThingWorx instance. For new projects, you can also push new entities to the repo as you work on your application.   As you and your team are working, you’ll want to see the differences of the files you are editing and working on collaboratively. The Git extension feature makes this easy. Just like you can see diffs clearly delineated for a file with your Git client, you can see the same with this Git integration in ThingWorx. Similar to the git status command, the Git ThingWorx extension will show you the list of files you have changed that are available to push, as well as their diffs. See an example below. Checking the Git status While working, if you want to switch branches or pull down a new project, you can check out a specific version and see all commits available on that branch (see below). Checking out a specific commit Want to learn more or try it for yourself? Find the open-source Git Backup Extension here and check out the Git Backup Extension User Guide for guidance.   Stay connected, Kaya   P.S. What do you think? Comment your thoughts below!

Hi, ThingWorx users! We’re excited to share that we have partnered with InfluxData to make time series analysis in ThingWorx even easier. InfluxDB is a database by InfluxData that is “built specifically for metrics and events that empower developers to build next-generation IIoT, analytics and monitoring applications.”   Why InfluxData?  Today, application developers expect robust querying capabilities, fast response time, easy ways of aggregating and pivoting on data and leveraging results for reporting and visualization. IT and devops administrators also expect cost-effective storage and easy ways of aging data through archiving and the ability to keep large amounts of historical data to satisfy analysis requirements.   That’s why we’ve partnered with InfluxData to make it easier for developers to store, analyze and act on IIoT data in real-time. With InfluxData, developers can build connected IIoT applications more quickly while still incorporating the following capabilities: monitoring real-time alerting predictive maintenance streaming data anomaly and event detection visual and report-based analysis   We considered a few technologies for the purpose of improving ThingWorx time series analysis. Here are a few reasons we chose InfluxData: high compression of data ~45x ability to handle millions of writes per second* ability to read around thousands of rows in milliseconds* supports the standard time series functions of sampling, interpolation, time bucketing, aggregation, selector, transformation, predictor, etc.  * Query and write times will vary based on an individual ThingWorx application’s implementation with Influx. For example, as the number of concurrent reads increases, the query speed decreases. With the upcoming 8.4 release, the ThingWorx Sizing Guide will be updated to reflect representative performance for ThingWorx developers.   In addition to improved query capability, ThingWorx time series with Influx can now use less memory and CPU, giving your platform servers a bit of a break.   To start strategizing on how InfluxData can help you in your ThingWorx journey, here is a sneak preview of what it will look like:   New Features The new ThingWorx Influx Persistence Provider will make query services like ValueStream Thing QueryPropertyHistory, Stream Thing QueryStreamData and QueryStreamEntries even better. Simply create a new instance of the persistence provider, configure it to use your InfluxDB instance, create a new value stream (or stream) from the new persistence provider, and you’ll be writing, reading and analyzing your time series data like never before.   We’re also introducing a new enhancement to improve InfoTable support with time series data, including providing the ability to use a driver property. The driver property can be specified with the QueryPropertyHistoryWithDriverProperty service for time alignment and filling backward/forward in your stream queries.   Let’s walk through a driver property example where you have the properties of temperature, speed and battery level. Timestamp Temperature Speed Battery Level 1480589076592000000 80.003 5012 79 1480589077537000000 80.010 5011 79 1480589077550000000 80.010 5009 79 1480589077562000000 80.030 5011 78   Let’s say temperature is the key driver for your analysis. In other words, you are not concerned if speed or battery level changes—you only care about when temperature changes. We can specify temperature to be the driver property for that particular time and only return stream values for temperature, speed and battery level when temperature changes. If speed or battery level changes (but temperature does not change), the rows associated with those changes would not be included in the results set because neither speed nor battery level is a driver property. See chart below.  Timestamp Temperature (driver) Speed Battery Level 1480589076592000000 80.003 5012 79 1480589077537000000 80.010 5011 79 1480589077562000000 80.030 5011 78  Note that only three of the four rows are returned above because one entry in the original table did not have a change in temperature.    Stay Tuned Look out for these time series improvements and InfluxData integration in our upcoming 8.4 release. I’ll be sure to keep you updated on additional new features coming in our next release (like Orchestration and Mashup Builder 2.0), so check back shortly or subscribe to this Community so we can stay in touch. As always, if you have any questions, just ask Kaya!   Stay connected, Kaya

This video go through the steps required to use the Creo Insight extension: - Download and install the required extension - Set required config.pro options - Create provider in Analytics Manager - Publish sensor from Creo - Create analysis Event in Analysis Manager - Retrieve sensor values from ThingWorx in Creo     See also: - https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS277514  for a  written version of those steps. - Creo Help Center