IoT Tips

  Create Your Application Guide UI Part 3    Step 5: Add Widgets to Mashup    At this point, you should have an understanding of how the Widgets in your Mashup relate to the data from devices you've connected via the ThingWorx platform.   Scenario   Now, let's try to imagine a real-world scenario. For this example, assume that you are in a company developing an IoT application utilizing ThingWorx Foundation.   Developer Role Responsibility Edge Developers Utilize the Edge MicroServer, Software Development Kits, or ThingWorx Kepware Server to connect devices and bring data into the platform. Backend Developers Created Things, Thing Templates, and Thing Shapes to store and manipulate the data within ThingWorx Foundation. Frontend Developer Tasked with taking the IoT data and creating an interface with which your users can interact to gain insight from the data. In this scenario, you are the Frontend Developer. The Thing you imported previously represents those Edge and Backend Developers’ work. The data is all there. Specifically, let's assume that this Data Model represents a factory inventory system. You want to quickly build a GUI that is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to display the current counts of various products in your warehouse, while also allowing you to manually edit those counts if you receive a report that an IoT scanner in the warehouse has malfunctioned. Since this is a real factory, inventory is constantly increasing and decreasing as manufactured parts are completed or shipping orders are fulfilled. In this lesson, we'll simulate these changes by a 10-second-timer which will increment the counts until a shipping order has been fulfilled (100 total parts), at which point the current inventory count for that part will be reset.   Create the Mashup   Follow the subsequent steps to create an MVP GUI for the example scenario: Click Browse > VISUALIZATION > Mashups > + New. Keep the default of Responsive (with NO Responsive Templates chosen), and click OK in the pop-up window. In the Name field, enter MBQSMashup.   If the Project field is not already set, search for and select PTCDefaultProject.  At the top, click Save. At the top, click Design. On the left, click the Left Arrow to slide-back the navigation pane, leaving more room for the Mashup Builder. At the topleft on the Layout tab, for Positioning, check the radio-button for Static.   Add Labels   Follow the subsequent steps to add Labels that clarify GUI sections of the application. Select the Widgets tab, then drag-and-drop three Label Widgets onto the central Canvas.   With the top Label Widget selected (by clicking on it), change the DisplayName to label-gears-count and hit the Tab key on your keyboard to lock in the modification. NOTE: You can find the DisplayName and all other Widget Properties in the bottom-left of the Mashup Builder. Changing the Widget DisplayNames to recognizable values is highly recommended, as it assists with your logic inspection in the bottom-center Connections window.        3. With the newly-named label-gears-count still selected, type Gears Count in the LabelText field and hit the Tab key.       4. Click on the middle Label; then, in the bottom-left Widget Properties panel, change the DisplayName to label-pistons-count and LabelText to Pistons Count.       5. Similarly, change the bottom Label's DisplayName to label-wheels-count and LabelText to Wheels Count.       6. Click Save.   Add TextBoxes   Follow the subsequent steps to display some information on the various part-counts in our inventory. Drag-and-drop three Text Field Widgets onto the central Canvas.   With the top Text Field Widget selected, change the DisplayName to textfield-gears-count and hit the Tab key.   Change the middle Text Field's DisplayName to textfield-pistons-count, and hit the Tab key. Change the bottom Text Field's DisplayName to textfield-wheels-count, and hit the Tab key. Click Save.   Add Checkboxes   We want to display that inventory counts have been manually set when something went wrong, rather than have someone assume that the information is current and coming from an IoT sensor. This also allows us to flag any sensors that are experiencing issues. Follow the subsequent steps to create checkboxes. Drag-and-drop three Checkbox Widgets onto the central Canvas.   With the top Checkbox Widget selected, change the DisplayName to checkbox-gears-manual and the Label property to Gears Manually Set. Change the middle Checkbox's DisplayName to checkbox-pistons-manual and Label to Pistons Manually Set. Change the bottom Checkbox's DisplayName to checkbox-wheels-manual and Label to Wheels Manually Set.   Click Save.   Add Buttons   After our manual count has been entered, we need to trigger storing it in the backend. We can do this with a Button Widget. In addition, it would be helpful to be able to update the changing counts in the Textboxes without having to reload the entire Mashup. Follow the subsequent steps to add Buttons. Drag-and-drop two Button Widgets onto the central Canvas.   With the top Button Widget selected, change the DisplayName to button-manual-set, the Label to Manually Set Counts, and click-and-drag the right-side of the Button to expand its size.   With the bottom Button Widget selected, change the DisplayName to button-manual-retrieve, the Label to Manually Retrieve Counts, and click-and-drag the right-side of the Button to expand its size.   Click Save.   Resize the Mashup   Follow the subsequent steps to enable the Mashup to fit on a smartphone screen. Click-and-drag your Widgets around the Mashup such that they look roughly like the pictures shown above. Click-and-drag the right-side of the Mashup, pulling it to the left to reduce the horizontal size. Click-and-drag the bottom of the Mashup, pulling it up to reduce the vertical size.   Click Save.         Click here to view Part 4 of this guide.   

Design and Implement Data Models to Enable Predictive Analytics Learning Path   Design and implement your data model, create logic, and operationalize an analytics model.   NOTE: Complete the following guides in sequential order. The estimated time to complete this learning path is 390 minutes.    Data Model Introduction  Design Your Data Model Part 1 Part 2 Part 3  Data Model Implementation Part 1 Part 2 Part 3  Create Custom Business Logic  Implement Services, Events, and Subscriptions Part 1 Part 2  Build a Predictive Analytics Model  Part 1 Part 2 Operationalize an Analytics Model  Part 1 Part 2  

Getting Started on the ThingWorx Platform Learning Path   Learn hands-on how ThingWorx simplifies the end-to-end process of implementing IoT solutions.   NOTE: Complete the following guides in sequential order. The estimated time to complete this learning path is 210 minutes.   Get Started with ThingWorx for IoT   Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Data Model Introduction Configure Permissions Part 1 Part 2 Build a Predictive Analytics Model  Part 1 Part 2

Get Started with ThingWorx for IoT Guide Part 1   Overview   This project will introduce you to the principles of ThingWorx Foundation by creating a working web application. Following the steps in this guide, you will create the building blocks of your first application for the Internet of Things (IoT). You will use ThingWorx Composer to create Thing Templates, which are then used to create Things that model the application domain. A simulator is imported to generate time-series data that is saved to a Value Stream. After modeling the application in ThingWorx Composer, you'll use Mashup Builder to create the web application Graphical User Interface (GUI). No coding is required in modeling the application, or in composing the web GUI that displays dynamically-generated data. NOTE: This guide’s content aligns with ThingWorx 9.3. The estimated time to complete ALL 5 parts of this guide is 30 minutes.      Step 1: Data Model   Model-based design with reusable building blocks makes your applications scalable and flexible. A ThingWorx application is built from Things, each based on a Thing Template that defines the common Properties (characteristics) and Services (behaviors) for a set of entities. Once a Thing Template is created, you can easily instantiate multiple Things without duplicating effort. In this tutorial, we will develop an application for a house including a thermostat, an electrical meter, and a sensor data simulator. We will demonstrate how to capture, store, and visualize data using the ThingWorx Foundation Server.   You will create Thing Shapes that model both a thermostat and an electric meter. You will then create a Thing Template that represents a house based on these shapes and other Properties.   Step 2: Create Thing Shapes Thing Shapes are components that contain Properties and Services. In Java programming terms, they are similar to an interface. In this section, you will build Thing Shapes for an electric meter and a thermostat. Meter Start on the Browse, folder icon tab of ThingWorx Composer. Under the Modeling section of the left-hand navigation panel hover over Thing Shapes, then click the + button.   Type MeterShape in the Name field. NOTE: Thing Shape names are case sensitive   If Project is not already set, choose PTCDefaultProject. Click Save. Add Properties Click Properties and Alerts tab at the top of your shape.   Click + Add. Enter the property name from the first row of the table below into the Name field of the Thing Shape Name Base Type Persistent? Logged? meterID STRING X   currentPower NUMBER   X costPerKWh NUMBER X X currentCost NUMBER     Select the Base Type from the drop-down menu that is listed in the table next to the Property name.   Check Persistent and/or Logged if there is an X in the table row of the Property. NOTE: When Persistent is selected, the property value will be retained when a Thing is restarted. Properties that are not persisted will be reset to the default during a restart. When Logged is selected, every property value change will be automatically logged to a specified Value Stream. Click ✓+ button. TIP: When adding multiple properties at once, click Done and Add after each, once you've entered a Name, selected a Base Type and any other criteria. If adding a single property, click Done. Repeat steps 2 through 6 for each of the properties in the rows of the table. Click the done ✓ Button. You'll see that these Properties have been created for the Meter Thing Shape.   Click Save. Thermostat This time we will use a shortcut to create a Thing Shape. In the top, left of the screen you will find +, click the new entity icon, then select Thing Shape from the list.   TIP: This is a shortcut you can use to create anything you can access from the Home tab in Composer. Type ThermostatShape in the Name field. If Project is not already set, choose PTCDefaultProject. Select the Properties and Alerts tab at the top. Click + Add and create the following properties following the same steps as before: Name Base Type Persistent? Logged? thermostatID STRING X   temperature NUMBER X X setTemperature NUMBER X X message STRING   X Click Save. You'll see that these Properties have been created for the Thermostat Thing Shape.       Step 3: Create Thing Template You can create reusable building blocks called Thing Templates in ThingWorx to maintain scalability and flexibility of your application development. With Thing Templates you define a set of similar objects by specifying the Properties (characteristics) and Services (behaviors) that are common for all the objects. In Java programming terms, a Thing Template is like an abstract class and can be created by extending other Thing Templates. Once a Thing Template is defined and saved in ThingWorx Foundation Server, you can replicate multiple Things to model a complete set without duplicating effort. In this step, you will create a Thing Template that defines properties for a building. This building Template could be used to create multiple Things that each represent a specific home, business, or other building structure. Start on the Browse, folder icon tab on the far left of ThingWorx Composer.   Under the Modeling section of the left-hand navigation panel, hover over Thing Templates and click the + button Type BuildingTemplate in the Name field. NOTE: Thing Template names are case sensitive If Project is not already set, click the + in the Project text box and select the PTCDefaultProject. In the Base Thing Template box, click + to choose GenericThing as the Template.   In the Implemented Shapes field, click the + to select the MeterShape Thing Shape.   Click Save. Add Properties In this step, you will specify the Properties that represent the characteristics of a building. Some Properties like the building location may never change (static), while other properties like power and temperature information may change every few seconds (dynamic). Select the Properties and Alerts tab under Thing Template: BuildingTemplate.   Click the Edit button if the Template is not already open for editing, then click + Add next to My Properties. Enter the property name in the Name field copied from a row of the table below, Select the Base Type of the property from the drop down menu. Check Persistent and/or Logged if there is an X in the table row of the Property. NOTE: When Persistent is selected, the property value will be retained during a system restart. Properties that are not persisted will be reset to the default during a system restart. When Logged is selected, every property value change will be automatically logged to a specified Value Stream. Click the ✓+ button. TIP: When adding multiple properties at once, click Check+ after each, once you've entered a Name, selected a Base Type and any other criteria. If adding a single property, click Check button. Repeat steps 3 through 6 for each of the properties in the rows of the table. Name Base Type Persistent Logged buildingID STRING x   building_lat_long LOCATION x   watts NUMBER x x After entering the final property, click the ✓ button. Click Save. You should see the following properties in your Composer.   In the next part of this introductory exercise, we will create a single Thing based on this Template to represent a house.

Data Model Implementation Guide Part 3   Step 7: Unique Components Thing Templates   All of the shared component groups have been created. The next stage is creating the unique component group of ThingTemplates. Each of the below sections will cover one ThingTemplate, how the final property configuration should look, and any other aspects that should be added. The breakdown for the unique component group ThingTemplates is as follows:   Robotic Arm Properties   The properties for the RoboticArm ThingTemplate are as follows: Name Base Type Aspects Data Change Type TimeSincePickup NUMBER, Min Value: 0 Persistent and Logged ALWAYS Axis1 String Persistent and Logged VALUE Axis2 String Persistent and Logged VALUE Axis3 String Persistent and Logged VALUE ClampPressure NUMBER, Min Value: 0 Persistent and Logged ALWAYS ClampStatus String Persistent and Logged ALWAYS   Your properties should match the below configurations.   Pneumatic Gate Properties   The properties for the PneumaticGate ThingTemplate are as follows: Name Base Type Aspects Data Change Type GateStatus String Persistent and Logged ALWAYS   Your properties should match the below configurations.   Conveyor Belt Properties   The properties for the ConveyorBelt ThingTemplate are as follows: Name Base Type Aspects Data Change Type BeltSpeed INTEGER, Min Value: 0 Persistent and Logged ALWAYS BeltTemp INTEGER, Min Value: 0 Persistent and Logged ALWAYS BeltRPM INTEGER, Min Value: 0 Persistent and Logged ALWAYS   Your properties should match the below configurations.   Quality Control Camera   Properties   The properties for the QualityControlCamera ThingTemplate are as follows: Name Base Type Aspects Data Change Type QualityReading INTEGER, Min Value: 0 Persistent and Logged ALWAYS QualitySettings String Persistent and Logged ALWAYS CurrentImage IMAGE Persistent and Logged ALWAYS   Your properties should match the below configurations.   Event   Create a new Event named BadQuality. Select AlertStatus as the Data Shape. Your Event should match the below configurations:     Step 8: Data Tables and Data Shapes   For the Data Model we created, an individual DataTable would be best utilized for each products, production orders, and maintenance requests. Utilizing DataTables will allow us to store and track all of these items within our application. In order to have DataTables, we will need DataShapes to create the schema that each DataTable will follow. This database creation aspect can be considered a part of the Data Model design or a part of the Database Design. Nevertheless, the question of whether to create DataTables is based on the question of needed real time information or needed static information. Products, production orders, and maintenance requests can be considered static data. Tracking the location of a moving truck can be considered a need for real time data. This scenario calls for using DataTables, but a real time application will often have places where Streams and ValueStreams are utilized (DataShapes will also be needed for Streams and ValueStreams). NOTE: The DataShapes (schemas) shown below are for a simplified example. There are different ways you can create your database setup based on your own needs and wants. DataTable Name DataShape Purpose MaintenanceRequestDataTable MaintenanceRequest Store information about all maintenanced requests created ProductDataTable ProductDataShape Store information about the product line ProductionOrderDataTable ProductionOrderDataShape Store all information about production orders that have been placed   Maintenance Requests DataShape   The maintenance requests DataShape needs to be trackable (unique) and contain helpful information to complete the request. The DataShape fields are as follows: Name Base Type Additional Info Primary Key ID String NONE YES Title String NONE NO Request String NONE NO CompletionDate DATETIME NONE NO   Unless you’ve decided to change things around, your DataShape fields should match the below configurations.   Products DataShape   The product DataShape needs to be trackable (unique) and contain information about the product. The DataShape fields are as follows: Name Base Type Additional Info Primary Key ProductId String NONE YES Product String NONE NO Description String NONE NO Cost NUMBER Minimum: 0 NO   Unless you’ve decided to change things around, your DataShape fields should match the below configurations.   Production Order DataShape   The production order DataShape needs to be trackable (unique), contain information that would allow the operator and manager to know where it is in production, and information to help make decisions. The DataShape fields are as follows: Name Base Type Additional Info Primary Key OrderId String NONE YES Product InfoTable: DataShape: ProductDataShape NONE NO ProductionStage String NONE NO OrderDate DATETIME NONE NO DueDate DATETIME NONE NO   Unless you’ve decided to change things around, your DataShape fields should match the below configurations.     Step 9: SystemConnections Implementation   We have created the ThingTemplates and ThingShapes that will be utilized within our Data Model for creating instances (Things). Before we finish the build out of our Data Model, let's create the Services that will be necessary for the MaintenanceSystem and ProductionOrderSystem Things.    This guide will not cover the JavaScript and business logic aspect of creating an application. When complete with the below sections, see the Summary page for how to create that level of definition.       Maintenance System   This is the system managed by the maintenance user and geared towards their needs.   Properties   The properties for the MaintenanceSystem Thing are as follows:     Name Base Type Aspects Data Change Type  MaintEngineerCredentials  PASSWORD  Persistent  VALUE    Your properties should match the below configurations.         Services    The Services for the MaintenanceSystem Thing are as follows:    Service Name  Parameters  Output Base Type Purpose   GetAllMaintenanceRequests  NONE  InfoTable: MaintenanceRequest  Get all of the maintenance requests filed for the maintenance user.  GetFilteredMaintenanceRequests  String: TitleFilter  InfoTable: MaintenanceRequest  Get a filtered version of all maintenance requests filed for the maintenance user.  UpdateMaintenanceRequests  String: RequestTitle  NOTHING  Update a maintenance request already in the system.    Use the same method for creating Services that were provided in earlier sections. Your Services list should match the below configurations.     Production Order System   This is the system utilized by the operator and product manager users and geared towards their needs.   Services   The Services for the ProductionOrderSystem Thing are as follows:      Service Name  Parameters Output Base Type   AssignProductionOrders String: Operator, String: ProductOrder  NOTHING   CreateProductionOrders  String: OrderNumber, String: Product, DATETIME: DueDate  NOTHING  DeleteProductionOrders  String: ProductOrder  NOTHING  GetFilteredProductionOrders  String: ProductOrder  InfoTable: ProductionOrder  GetProductionLineList  NONE  InfoTable: ProductDataShape  GetUnfilteredProductionOrders  NONE  InfoTable: ProductionOrder  MarkSelfOperator  NONE  BOOLEAN  UpdateProductionOrdersOP  String: ProductOrder, String: UpdatedInformation  NOTHING  UpdateProductionOrdersPM  String: ProductOrder, String: UpdatedInformation  NOTHING   Use the same method for creating Services that were provided in earlier sections. Your Services list should match the below configurations.       Challenge Yourself     Complete the implementation of the Data Model shown below by creating the Thing instances of the ThingTemplates we have created. When finish, add more to the Data Model. Some ideas are below.         Ideas for what can be added to this Data Model: #  Idea  1 Add users and permissions   2  Add Mashups to view maintenance requests, products, and production orders  3  Add business logic to the Data Model   Step 10: Next Steps     Congratulations! You've successfully completed the Data Model Implementation Guide. This guide has given you the basic tools to: Create Things, Thing Templates, and Thing Shapes Add Events and Subscriptions   The next guide in the Design and Implement Data Models to Enable Predictive Analytics learning path is Create Custom Business Logic.  

Build a Predictive Analytics Model Guide Part 2   Step 5: Profiles   The Profiles section of ThingWorx Analytics looks for combinations of data which are highly correlated with your desired goal. On the left, click ANALYTICS BUILDER > Profiles. Click New....The New Profile pop-up will open. NOTE: Notice the Text Data Only section which is new in ThingWorx 9.3.         3. In the Profile Name field, enter vibration_profile. 4. In the Dataset field, select vibration_dataset. 5. Leave the Goal field set to the default of low_grease. 6. Leave the Filter field set to the default of all_data. 7. Leave the Excluded Fields from Profile field set to the default of empty. 8. Click Submit. 9. After ~30 seconds, the Signal State will change to COMPLETED. The results will be displayed at the bottom.                 The results show several Profiles (combinations of data) that appear to be statistically significant. Only the first few Profiles, however, have a significant percentage of the total number of records. The later Profiles can largely be ignored. Of those first Profiles, both Frequency Bands from Sensor 1 and Sensor 2 appear. But in combination with the result from Signals (where Sensor 1 was always more important), this could possibly indicate that Sensor 1 is still the most important overall. In other words, since Sensor 1 is statistically significant both by itself and in combination (but Sensor 2 is only significant in combation with Sensor 1), then Sensor 2 may not be necessary.     Step 6: Create Model   Models are primarily used by Analytics Manager (which is beyond the scope of this guide), but they can still be used to measure the accuracy of predictions. When Models are calculated, they inherently withhold a certain amount of data. The prediction model is then run against the withheld data. This provides a form of "accuracy measure", which we'll use to determine whether Sensor 2 is necessary to the detection of a low grease condition by creating two different Models. The first Model (which you will create below) will contain all the data, while the second Model (in the next step) will exclude Sensor 2. On the left, click ANALYTICS BUILDER > Models.   Click New….The New Predictive Model pop-up will open.   3. In the Model Name field, enter vibration_model. 4. In the Dataset field, select vibration_dataset. 5. Leave the Goal field set to the default of low_grease. 6. Leave the Filter field set to the default of all_data.         7. Leave the Excluded Fields from Model section at its default of empty.       8. Click Submit. 9. After ~60 seconds, the Model Status will change to COMPLETED.   View Model   Now that the prediction model is COMPLETED, you can view the results. Select the model that was created in the previous step, i.e. vibration_model. Click View… to open the Model Information page.   Review the visualization of the validation results. Note that your results may differ slightly from the picture, as the automatically-withheld "test" portion of the dataset is randomly chosen. Click on the ? icon to the right of the chart for details on the information displayed.   The desired outcome is for the model to have a relatively high level of accuracy. The True Positive Rate shown on the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) chart are much higher than the False Positives. The curve is relatively high and to the left, which indicates a high accuracy level. You may also click on the Confusion Matrix tab in the top-left, which will show you the number of True Positive and True Negatives in comparison to False Positives and False Negatives.     Note that the number of correct predictions is much higher than the number of incorrect predictions.     As such, we now know that our Sensors have a relatively good chance at predicting an impending failure by detecting low grease conditions before they cause catastrophic engine failure.     Step 7: Refine Model   We will now try comparing this first Model that includes both Sensors to a simpler Model using only Sensor 1. We do this because we suspect that Sensor 2 may not be necessary to achieve our goal. On the left, click ANALYTICS BUILDER > Models.   Click New…. In the Model Name field, enter vibration_model_s1_only. In the Dataset field, select vibration_dataset. Leave the Goal field set to the default of low_grease. Leave the Filter field set to the default of all_data.   On the right beside Excluded Fields from Model, click the Excluded Fields button. The Fields To Be Excluded From Job pop-up will open. 8. Click s2_fb1 to select the first Sensor 2 Frequency Band. 9. Select the rest of the Frequency Bands through s2_fb5 to choose all of the Sensor 2 frequencies. 10. While all the s2 values are selected, click the green "right arrow", i.e. the > button in the middle. 11. At the bottom-left, click Save. The Fields To Be Excluded From Job pop-up will close.           12. Click Submit. 13. After ~60 seconds, the Model State will change to COMPLETED. 14. With vibration_model_s1_only selected, click View....   The ROC chart is comparable to the original model (including Sensor 2). Likewise, the Confusion Matrix (on the other tab) indicates a good ratio of correct predictions versus incorrect predictions.     NOTE: These Models may vary slightly from your own final scores, as what data is used for the prediction versus for evaluation is random. ThingWorx Analytics's Models have indicated that you are likely to receive roughly the same accuracy of predicting a low-grease condition whether you use one sensor or two! If we can get an accurate early-warning of the low grease condition with just one sensor, it then becomes a business decision as to whether the extra cost of Sensor 2 is necessary.   Step 8: Next Steps   Congratulations! You've successfully completed the Build a Predictive Analytics Model guide, and learned how to:   Load an IoT dataset Generate machine learning predictions Evaluate the analytics output to gain insight    This is the last guide in the Getting Started on the ThingWorx Platform learning path.   This is the last guide in the Monitor Factory Supplies and Consumables learning path.   The next guide in the Design and Implement Data Models to Enable Predictive Analytics learning path is Operationalize an Analytics Model.     Additional Resources   If you have questions, issues, or need additional information, refer to:   Resource Link Support Analytics Builder Help Center    

Create Your Application Guide UI Part 2    Step 4: Bind Data to Widgets   Mashup Data Services allow you to access IoT data so you can push data to the platform's backend as well as pull data into the Mashup itself. In the table below, we describe some common Mashup Data Services that enable that functionality: Service Name Description GetProperties Pulls in a particular Thing's Properties, as well as the associated current values contained within those Properties. GetProperties has an option to automatically update the Mashup whenever a Property value changes. GetPropertyValues Pulls in a particular Thing's Properties and their associated current values. However, it does so in an All Data grouping, opening the possibility of assigning all Properties to the same Widget. This can be helpful with some Widgets, such as the List Widget. SetProperties Pushes a value from some Widget (Checkbox, TextBox, etc.) into the Property of a Thing. NOTE: Using a combination of a "Get" and "Set" Mashup Service establishes a bidirectional communication between the Mashup and the backend IoT data storage.   Import an Entity   In order to focus on the Mashup Builder in this lesson, we have created a Thing for you to download and import. This Thing has predefined Properties and associated Values which will simplify the demonstration of binding data to Widgets in subsequent steps. Download and unzip the attached MBQS_Entities.zip file. In the bottom-left, click the "up/down arrows" for Import/Export, then Import.   In the Import pop-up window, click Browse.   In the OS's pop-up, navigate-to, select, and open the MBQS_Entities.twx file you downloaded earlier.   Click Import.   Click Close.   Retrieve Data   You now have a Thing called MBQSThing from which you can retrieve data. To demonstrate this, we'll use the GetPropertyValues Service. At the top-right of Mashup Builder, click the Data tab.   Click the + symbol.   In the Add Data pop-up window's Entity filter field, type mbqs.   Select the MBQSThing.   In the Services Filter field, type getprop.   Click the right arrow to select GetPropertyValues. The GetPropertyValues Service for MBQSThing has now been added to the Selected Services section on the right side of the Add Data pop-up window. Check the box for Execute on Load under Selected Services. Checking this box causes the GetPropertyValues Service to execute as soon as the Mashup is loaded. 8. Click Done.        9. At the top, click Save. Note how the GetPropertyValues Service now appears in the top-right under the Data tab.   View Data Connections   In the top-left of the Mashup Builder, click the Explorer tab, select the Mashup itself, and you can see the connections between the Mashup and the Data sources.   Mashup Builder Section Description Data Previously empty, now has a reference to the GetPropertyValues Service of the MBQSThing. GetPropertyValues On the Data tab, click GetPropertyValues. The Connections window in the bottom-center will update. Bindings Shows the logical flow of the Mashup. In this instance, it shows how GetPropertyValues is called from the Event triggered by the Mashup being Loaded in a web browser. This means that all Properties of the MBQSThing will be available to the Mashup as soon as your UI is opened.   Bind Widget to Property   Follow the steps below to place a Widget in the Mashup and bind the Property named Gauge_Value (of MBQSThing) to it. On the left-side of the Mashup Builder, select the Widgets tab. In the Filter Widgets search box, type gauge. Drag-and-drop a Gauge Widget onto the central Canvas area.   On the right-side, expand GetPropertyValues > Returned Data > All Data. There is a clear left arrow pointing away from the Gauge_Value Property. This indicates that this Property is to be used to set the value on something else. If the arrow had been pointing towards the Gauge_Value Property, that would indicate that it was ready to accept an external value. The clear status of the arrow indicates that it has not yet been tied to anything.        5. Drag-and-drop MBQSThing > GetPropertyValues > Returned Data > All Data > Gauge_Value onto the Gauge Widget in the central Canvas area.          6. On the Select Binding Target pop-up, select Data.       7. At the top, click Save.       8. Click View Mashup. You must enable pop-ups in order to view the Mashup in a new tab.   In your new Mashup, notice that the Gauge has been set to the Gauge_Value default value of 25. In a real-world scenario, you would likely utilize an IoT sensor that would report back to the Thing storing the value. When the Mashup loads, that value would be set to the real-world sensor data value. In the next few steps, you will build a GUI using several different Widgets and Services.   Click here to view Part 3 of this guide.  

Configure Permissions Guide Part 1   Overview   This project will introduce you to permissions inside of the ThingWorx platform. Permissions are used to control usage during development, runtime, and experience. Following the steps in this guide, you will be able to create Users, User Groups, Application Keys, and Organizations and tie them together. We will teach you how to create functional permission schemes in the ThingWorx platform to create a secure application and development environment.   NOTE: This guide's content aligns with ThingWorx 9.3. The estimated time to complete ALL 2 parts of this guide is 30 minutes.    Step 1: Completed Example   Download and unzip the completed files attached to this tutorial: PermissionsEntities.zip.   In this tutorial, we walk 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.   Step 2: Common Terms   It is important to understand the terminology before creating Users, Groups, and Permissions: Term Definition Entity Generic name for any of the customizable building blocks inside the ThingWorx Platform User An Entity dedicated to identifying a person or device accessing the platform User Group An Entity that defines role-based permissions for Users in bulk Tags and Projects Mechanisms used to group Entities together by marking them as similar or related Composer The ThingWorx GUI tool for building your solution Resource A collection of Services which are not stateful (i.e. they do not have Properties, Events, etc.); they can be found in Composer under the System category Organization Hierarchical structures that allow you to assign visibility to Entities in the ThingWorx Model     Step 3: Users   Users represent an individual person or connected system. They contain information such as a username, email, and password (Standard Credentials) as well as peripheral information such as Name of the actual person/system/device it was created for. Users can be created, updated, and deleted just like every other Entity.   Create User   In the ThingWorx Composer, click the + New at the top of the screen. Select User in the dropdown. Name the User default_user and add a password. Set the Project field (ie, PTCDefaultProject) and click Save. User-Related Services   There are a few Services available through a resource called EntityServices, that allow you to interact with user entities programmatically.   Once a user has been created, you can interact with it through some built-in Services:     Default Users   There are two key users built into every instance of ThingWorx when initially created.   Administrator: When setting up your platform, you'll use the Administrator user first, because it is the user that will allow you to set up new users and assign them to Administrator or other roles.   NOTE: It is extremely important to reset the Administrator password after your first login. Leaving the default password could allow the system to be compromised in the future.   System User: The System User is created to allow service chaining on a given Thing when a user may not have direct permissions for every part of the chain. It exists so that access to given Services can be granted based on some previous logic instead of direct overarching permissions. For example: if the user is within the building, then trigger a Service, otherwise do not trigger the Service.     Step 4: User Groups   In many IoT solutions there will be a large scale of Users using the system. Because of this it doesn’t make sense to manually set the permissions of every User added to the system. This is why we created User Groups. User Groups provide a role-based approach to permissions and exist to give similar Users the same permissions across multiple Entities on the platform. User groups set permissions exactly the same way as Users do (see next section), but you can simply add a User to a User Group in order to set permissions at scale. For example: Creating a User group such as "Solution Architects" would allow you to do something like set all permissions for design time but limit permissions for run time. Similarly you could create a user group called "Solution Users" who have no design time permissions and specific run time permissions.   Create Group and Add Users   In the ThingWorx Composer, click the + New at the top of the screen. Select User Group in the dropdown. Name your group ExampleGroup. Set the Project field (ie, PTCDefaultProject) and click Save. Click Members to view current members in the group. Filter and select the user you want to add in the Available Members section. Click the arrow on their row or drag the User to the Members section. Click Save. NOTE: Individual user permissions will override group user permissions. In other words, if you initially add a user to a group so they inherit the permissions of the group, you will still be able to customize permissions for an individual user in that group as needed.   User Group Services   There are a few Services available through a resource called EntityServices, that allow you to interact with user group entities programmatically. Service Name Description CreateGroup Creates a new User Group DeleteGroup Deletes a user Group   Once a group has been created you can interact with it through built-in services to add or remove a User. Service Name Description AddMember Adds a User or User Group to this group AssignMembers Adds a list of Users or User Groups to this group DeleteMember Removes a User or User Group from the members of this group     Default User Groups   The platform has a few User Groups included in the platform by default. These are used to set up common roles that are often associated with using the platform and have built in permissions.   Click here to view Part 2 of this guide. 

  How to Display Data in Charts Guide Part 2   Step 4: Create Thing   In order for the Mashup to pull data into the display, you first need to create an Entity. In this example, we utilize a Thing with an Info Table Property, as well as a Time Series Property. We’ll use the DataShape we created in the last step to format the Info Table Property. Then, we'll assign the Info Table Property some default values to display in our non-time-series charts.We will change the values of the Time Series Property (which will record them to the Value Stream) for display in our time-series charts.   Info Table Property   From the Browse tab of ThingWorx Composer, click Modeling > Things, + New.   In the Name field, enter DDCThing. If Project is not set, search for and select PTCDefaultProject. In the Base Thing Template field, search for and select GenericThing. In the Value Stream field, search for and select DDCValueStream.   At the top, click Properties and Alerts.   Click + Add. In the Name field, enter InfoTableProperty. Select INFOTABLE from the Base Type drop-down. In the Data Shape field, search for and select DDCDataShape. Check the Persistent checkbox.   First Default Value   Check the box for Has Default Value. A new DDCDataShape button will appear under Has Default Value. 2. Click the new DDCDataShape button under Has Default Value. 3. Click + Add. 4. Enter the following values for each field: Field Value PrimaryKey 1 Label A - 25% Value 25 XAxis 1 Data 5 ASensor 5 BSensor 3 CSensor 1 XValue 1 YValue 5 BubbleValue 7     3. At the bottom-right of the pop-up, click the green Add button to apply the first Default Values.   Second Default Value   Click + Add. Enter the following values for each field: Field Value PrimaryKey 2 Label B - 35% Value 35 XAxis 2 Data 10 ASensor 10 BSensor 6 CSensor 2 XValue 2 YValue 10 BubbleValue 9   3. At the bottom-right of the pop-up, click the green Add button to apply the second Default Values.   Third Default Value   Click + Add. Enter the following values for each field: Field Value PrimaryKey 3 Label C - 40% Value 40 XAxis 3 Data 20 ASensor 15 BSensor 9 CSensor 3 XValue 3 YValue 20 BubbleValue 14     3. At the bottom-right of the pop-up, click the green Add button to apply the third Default Values. 4. At the bottom-right of the pop-up, click the green Save button to close the pop-up.   Time Series Property   At the top-right, click the "Check with a +" button for Done and Add. In the Name field, enter TimeSeriesProperty. Change the Base Type to NUMBER. Check the Persistent checkbox. Checking this box causes the last Value entered into the Property to persist through reboots of the system. Check the Logged box. Checking this box causes all changes to the Property to be logged if you have a Value Stream defined to record the changes. 6. At the top-right, click the "Check" button for Done.   7. At the top, click Save.   If the DDCThing's TimeSeriesProperty changes from this point onward, it will now be recorded in the DDCValueStream. Normally, any changes would come from an Edge IoT sensor of some type, but for the purposes of this guide, we will manually change the value repeatedly to simulate these types of changes.   Set 5   Under TimeSeriesProperty's Value column, click the "pencil" button for Set value of property.   In the slide-out at the top-right, enter 5.   At the top-right, click the "Check" button for Done.   Set 10   Under TimeSeriesProperty's Value column, click the "pencil" button for Set value of property. In the slide-out at the top-right, enter 10.   At the top-right, click the "Check" button for Done.   Set 15   Under TimeSeriesProperty's Value column, click the "pencil" button for Set value of property. In the slide-out at the top-right, enter 15.   At the top-right, click the "Check" button for Done. Set 20   Under TimeSeriesProperty's Value column, click the "pencil" button for Set value of property. In the slide-out at the top-right, enter 20.   At the top-right, click the "Check" button for Done. Set 25   Under TimeSeriesProperty's Value column, click the "pencil" button for Set value of property. In the slide-out at the top-right, enter 25.   At the top-right, click the "Check" button for Done. At the top, click Save.   Step 5: Create Mashup   Before we can bind the data to the various Chart Widgets, we first have to create a Mashup and add the charts to it. From the Browse tab of ThingWorx Composer, click Visualization > Mashups, + New.   Keep the default of Responsive, and click OK.   In the Name field, enter DDCMashup.   If Project is not set, search for and select PTCDefaultProject. At the top, click Save.   At the top, click Design.   Divide the Mashup   On the top-left under the Layout section, click two times on Add Left.   With the left-third selected in the central Canvas window, click Add Bottom.   With the middle-third selected in the central Canvas window, click Add Bottom. With the right-third selected in the central Canvas window, click Add Bottom.   At the top, click Save. Add the Charts   At the top-left, click on the Widgets tab.   Search for pie inside the Filter Widgets field in the top-left. Drag-and-drop a Pie Chart Widget onto the top-left section of the Canvas.   In the top-left, change Category to Legacy, and search for label chart inside the Filter Widgets field in the top-left. Drag-and-drop a Label Chart Widget onto the top-middle section of the Canvas. Note that, even the Label Chart is a Legacy Widget, it will still work. 6. Change Category back to Standard, and search for proportional inside the Filter Widgets field in the top-left. 7. Drag-and-drop a Proportional Chart Widget onto the top-right section of the Canvas. 8. Search for bubble inside the Filter Widgets field in the top-left. 9. Drag-and-drop a Bubble Chart Widget onto the bottom-left section of the Canvas. 10. Search for line inside the Filter Widgets field in the top-left. 11. Drag-and-drop a Line Chart Widget onto the bottom-middle section of the Canvas.   12. Search for event inside the Filter Widgets field in the top-left. 13. Drag-and-drop a Event Chart Widget onto the bottom-right section of the Canvas.   14. Click Save.   Click here to view Part 3 of this guide.   

How to Display Data in Charts Guide Part 1   Overview   This project will introduce various Chart Widgets. Following the steps in this guide, you will learn how to graphically represent multiple data points simultaneously. We will teach you how to utilize the Pie, Label, Proportional, Bubble, Time Series, and Event Charts. NOTE: This guide's content aligns with ThingWorx 9.3. The estimated time to complete ALL 3 parts of this guide is 60 minutes.    Step 1: Introduction   As an IoT application developer, there are times when you want to display multiple data points simultaneously. In this situation, it is often helpful to make use of one of the various Chart Widgets. This guide will discuss the following Chart Widget options: *Old widget = no web component replacement Pie – old widget Label (Legacy) Proportional – old widget Bubble – old widget Line – new web component Event – old widget Before you can display this information in your UI, you need to first configure the ThingWorx system to store those values. For the time-series charts (including both the Line and Event Charts), you need to store information in a time-series friendly manner. In this case, we’ll use a Value Stream to store Property value changes. We’ll use an Info Table (similar to a spreadsheet) to track the values for the non-time-series charts (Pie, Label, Proportional, and Bubble).   Step 2: Create Data Shape   Many data structures in ThingWorx require a Data Shape to format their values. This is true for a Stream, a Data Table, and an Info Table. We'll be using an Info Table in this example. NOTE: Any time you use an Info Table, you must first define a Data Shape. From the Browse tab of ThingWorx Composer, click Modeling > Data Shapes, + New.   In the Name field, enter DDCDataShape.   If Project is not already set, search for and select PTCDefaultProject.  At the top, click Field Definitions.   Click + Add. In the Name field, enter PrimaryKey. Change Base Type to INTEGER. Check the Is Primary Key box. The primary key is used to uniquely identify a row of data. DataShapes used for DataTable configuration must have a primary key. 9. Click the "Check with a +" button for Done and Add. 10. In the Name field, enter Label. 11. Leave Base Type as the default of STRING. 12. Click the "Check with a +" button for Done and Add. 13. Repeatedly add additional fields, each with a Base Type of NUMBER, until all of the following Field Definitions have been entered: Value XAxis Data ASensor BSensor CSensor XValue YValue BubbleValue Note that you'll want to click the "Check" button for Done after entering the last definition. 14. Click Save.    Step 3: Create Value Stream   An easy way to record changes to a Thing Property is via enabling the Logged functionality. However, without a place in which to log the changes, logging the Property does nothing. One way in which to create a storage location for Property changes is a Value Stream. On the ThingWorx Composer Browse tab, click Data Storage > Value Streams, + New.   In the Choose Template pop-up, select ValueStream and click OK.   In the name field, enter DDCValueStream.   If Project is not already set, search for and select PTCDefaultProject.  At the top, click Save.   Click here to view Part 2 of this guide. 

  Create Your Application Guide UI Part 5    Step 7: Test Your GUI   At this point in the lesson, your Mashup now contains: Graphics to represent data Data Logical connections between the graphical elements and the data   Run Application   Execute the following steps to test that your application works as expected. Click the View Mashup button at the top. You may have to disable your pop-up blocker to load the Mashup in a new browser tab.   2. Wait and observe the Mashup for at least 20 seconds, clicking the Manually Retrieve Counts button regularly. NOTE: The values in the Mashup will increase roughly every 10 seconds, after you press the button to manually retrieve them. This happens because the Thing you imported earlier is simulating data and the work already done by the Edge and Backend Developers in this scenario. In this simulation, different production lines are continually producing new inventory, and that information is being fed into ThingWorx Foundation. As the count for each production line reaches 100, the batch is shipped out, and the count resets to 0 for the next iteration. 3. Check the Gears Manually Set Checkbox, change the Gears Count Text Field to read 7, and click the Manually Set Counts button. After 10+ seconds have passed, click the Manually Retrieve Counts button again. NOTE: This simulates a situation where an IoT sensors in the inventory warehouse has failed. Maybe it's over or under-counting inventory. Maybe there's a network issue. Maybe the sensor has simply stopped working entirely. Regardless, the warehouse floor has contacted a user of your GUI, and asked them to manually set the inventory to the correct amount. Performing Step 4 is all that is required to do so. As long as the Gears Manually Set checkbox is active, the inventory does not increase on the 10 second timer. This is to prevent a malfunctioning sensor from providing incorrect data to your GUI. 4. Uncheck the Gears Manually Set Checkbox and click Manually Set Counts. NOTE: The Gears Count starts increasing again after 10 seconds have passed. Remember to click the Manually Retrieve Counts button to see this change. This represents the previously-malfunctioning IoT sensor having been repaired.   Spend some time interacting with your Mashup GUI to get a better sense of its functionality. For the purposes of this exercise, this is a Minimum Viable Product. After testing it and getting feedback from your users, you would likely make further enhancements.   Collect Feedback   When testing your GUI, it is a best practice to collect feedback from users regarding your design, so that you can improve the experience with your application. Example User Feedback Possible Resolution Manually Set Counts button is too easy to accidentally press. Implement a Confirmation pop-up. Manually Retrieve Counts button is not ideal, should automate Remove the manual button and implement auto-update functionality instead. Manually Set Checkboxes have confusing names. Change the text to read Disabled, indicating that the sensor-input is being ignored. User wants to use your GUI on their smartphone and on a desktop computer. Re-implement the GUI using a Responsive (rather than Static) Mashup, so that there isn’t as much dead space on larger-resolution screens. User wants a visual indication of each inventory line amount at which the pallet is shipped out. Instead of using TextBoxes to show the current inventory counts, you could implement them as Gauges, showing a minimum and maximum amount that is easy to see at-a-glance.   Now that we've gotten some feedback, let's implement one such change-request as an example.   Enhance your GUI   Set up GetProperties to automatically update whenever data changes instead of using a button to manually retrieve the data. Close your MVP Mashup browser-tab and return to the Mashup Builder. Click the button-manual-retrieve Widget to select it.   Hit your keyboard's Delete key.   Click Yes in the Remove the selected widgets? pop-up window.   Click the green </> button beside Things_MBQSThing in the top-right Data tab.   6. In the Services Filter field, type getprop. 7. Click the right-arrow beside GetProperties. Be sure to select GetProperties, not GetPropertyValues. 8. Check the Execute on Load checkbox. 9. Click Done. 10. In the Data tab on the top-right, expand the newly-added GetProperties Service. 11. Drag-and-drop Gears_Count onto textbox-gears-count. 12. On the Select Binding Target popup, click Text. 13. On the Confirm Binding Replace pop-up, click Yes. 14. Repeat steps 11-13 for Pistons_Count and Wheels_Count onto their respective TextBox Widgets. 15. Drag-and-drop Gears_Count_Manually_Set onto checkbox-gears-manual. 16. On the Select Binding Target popup, click State. 17. On the Confirm Binding Replace pop-up, click Yes. 18. Repeat steps 15-17 for Pistons_Count_Manually_Set and Wheels_Count_Manually_Set onto their respective Checkboxes. 19. Click the GetProperties Service to select it. 20. In the bottom-right Data Properties section, check the Automatically update values when able box. 21. Click Save. 22. Click View Mashup.   You have now enhanced your MVP Mashup based on user feedback. The Counts in each TextBox will automatically update whenever there is a change in the Property values, as requested. ThingWorx Foundation provides a platform that allows you to quickly create a GUI for your IoT application in an extremely flexible and agile manner. The options to continue to improve your GUI are entirely up to you.   Step 8: Next Steps   Congratulations! You've successfully completed the Create Your Application UI guide, and learned how to: Create new Mashups Choose a Static or Responsive layout Add Widgets to your Mashup Bind data Services to Widgets in your Mashup Create a functional GUI with applied usage of Widgets and Service   The next guide in the Customize UI and Display Options to Deploy Applications learning path is Basic Mashup Widgets.    Learn More   We recommend the following resources to continue your learning experience: Capability Guide Build Data Model Introduction   Additional Resources   If you have questions, issues, or need additional information, refer to: Resource Link Community Developer Community Forum Support Mashup Builder Support Help Center    

Create Your Application Guide UI Part 1    Overview   This project will introduce the ThingWorx Mashup Builder. Following the steps in this guide, you will learn how to use this tool to create a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for your IoT Application. We will teach you how to rapidly create and update a Mashup, which is a custom visualization built to display data from devices according to your application's business and technical requirements. NOTE: This guide's content aligns with ThingWorx 9.3. The estimated time to complete ALL 5 parts of this guide is 30 minutes.    Step 1: Create New Mashup   The Mashup Builder is a drag-and-drop environment with a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) interface. With the Mashup Builder you can quickly and easily create a visualization of your IoT data. In this step, we'll explain various options to customize your application GUI. Click Browse > VISUALIZATION > Mashups.   Click + New. You are now on the New Mashup pop-up window.           Layout Options When creating your UI, you must choose whether you want a Responsive, Static, or Responsive (Advanced) Mashup, depending on the resolutions of the displays you want your application users to utilize when running your application. Mashup Layout Description When to Use Responsive Expands to the resolution of the display in an even more dynamic manner than the Responsive (Legacy) option. Previously-labeled as Responsive (Advanced), this is now the default option with modifications to the Mashup Builder interface versus previous versions. For instance, divisions such as a header or footer are available with the Template options at the bottom of the pop-up. Static (Legacy) Sized to the dimensions that you define. Static Mashups are appropriate when your users have a standard device on which they’ll be utilizing your application, such as a smartphone or tablet. When displayed in a lower resolution you will see scroll bars, in a higher resolution there will be unused space around the Mashup. Responsive (Legacy) Expands to the resolution of the display without leaving any unused space around the Mashup. Responsive Mashups should be utilized when you anticipate that users will interface with your application through various-sized screens. Responsive Mashups should always be tested at various resolutions to ensure optimum display of your IoT data.   Keep the default of Responsive (with NO Responsive Templates chosen), and click OK in the pop-up window. In the Name field, enter appui_mashup.   If the Project is not already set, search for and select PTCDefaultProject.  At the top, click Save.   At the top, click Design. This is the Mashup Builder user interface we will use for the remainder of this guide.              6. On the left, click the "left arrow" Collapse icon to cause the Composer Navigation to slide-out, revealing more room for the Mashup Builder interface.         Step 2: Mashup Builder Sections Now that you've launched the Mashup Builder, you'll need an understanding of the layout and configuration options.     NOTE: Section 1 in the top-left has a drop-down arrow you can click to reveal additional sections if your screen resolution is too small to show all of Widgets, Layout, and Explorer. There is also the Mashups tab in Section 1, but it is not covered in this guide.   Mashup Builder Section Description 1a Widgets Widgets provides a list of every graphical element within the platform. There are a wide variety of selections, from grids to graphs to text boxes to buttons. There is also a Filter Widgets field where you can enter the name of a particular Widget to sort the list. 1b Layout Layout is used to divide your Mashup into logical sub-sections. 1c Explorer Explorer allows you to reach any individual element of a Mashup. This can be helpful when multiple Widgets are overload on top of each other in the central Canvas window, making it difficult to click on them individually. 2 Canvas This is an area into which you can drag-and-drop Widgets to your desired location to build your application UI. You can also drag-and-drop data onto the Widgets in the Canvas. 3a Data Data is fundamental to any Mashup that wants to display ThingWorx IoT data, as it allows you to bind backend-data to particular Widgets. 3b Session Session provides access to Session Parameters, which are similar to global variables that may be used across multiple Mashups, such as cookies or security information for a logged-in User. 3c User User provides access to the User Extensions. User Extensions are the Properties of the logged-in User and can be used on the Client side and/or the Server side. 4a Properties Properties displays the Properties for the selected Mashup or Widget. These Properties allow you to perform a variety of modifications to Widgets, such as setting its exact position. 4b Style Properties Style Properties are a sub-set of Properties dealing with items such as changing color. 5a Bindings As data connections are made to various Widgets, the Bindings window will show these links in an easy-to-understand 'arrow' format. For instance, if a button press causes a Thing’s Service to be called, then you’ll see a connection from the Button Widget’s *Clicked* Event over to the Thing’s Service. 5b Reminders Reminders points out issues with your Mashup, such as unbound but required Properties, which often must be fixed before the Mashup can be saved. 6a Data Properties Data Properties displays properties of the selected data element. This can be helpful, for instance, when you want something to be triggered only when something else has completed. In that scenario, you’d look for the ServiceInvokeCompleted Event in this bottom-right area. 6b Functions Functions provides the ability to write custom business logic within the Mashup itself.   Step 3: Introducing Widgets   The primary way in which you'll create the GUI for your IoT application is with Widgets. Widgets are self-contained graphical elements that you can drag-and-drop onto the central Canvas area. Once placed on the Canvas, you can: Modify Widget layout Resize Widgets Bind Data to Widgets Combining several Widgets together will allow you to quickly and easily create a functional GUI for your IoT application. Widget Name Widget Example Picture Description Button   The Button Widget triggers an Event when it is clicked. Typically, this Event will be used to trigger a Service to either push or pull data from the platform’s backend. Checkbox   The Checkbox Widget provides a simple box which can be either set or not-set. You primarily use a Checkbox when you’re setting or displaying Boolean data. Gauge   The Gauge Widget provides a more “graphically interesting” way to display a numerical value. You can set the minimum and maximum values which a Gauge displays, or style a Gauge so that different areas are different colors. Label   The Label Widget displays a non-user-interactable string within your Mashup. You can use this to create headings or descriptions for parts of your Mashup. Text Field   The Text Field Widget is a small, one-line area into which you can either accept an input string from the User or display a string from the platform’s backend. Combining a few of the basic Widgets described above allows you to create a Mashup for your IoT application. However, without data being supplied to these Widgets from the platform's backend, they're just pretty graphics. In the next section, we will introduce a few of the Mashup Services that enable bidirectional data flow between your GUI and device data.   Click here to view Part 2 of this guide.     

  Basic Mashup Widgets Guide Part 3   Step 5: Gauge   A Gauge is best for displaying a quickly readable approximate value. Select the Widgets tab in the uppper panel of the left dock, then enter gauge inside the Filter field in the top left. Drag-and-drop the Gauge widget onto the bottom-center container. We will now bind the Slider to the Gauge. Click the Slider Widget in the top-right Container. Click the drop-down arrow on the left side of the Slider widget. Click and drag the Value property listed in the Slider drop-down onto the Gauge widget.   Click the # Data property that is available from the Select Binding Target pop-up.   Click Save to save your Mashup. Click View Mashup then adjust the slider to the left to see the changing value shown on the widget. Many properties are available that give control over how the Gauge widget will be displayed. Many properties can be changed both statically when designing the mashup, and dynamically in response to changes in property values.   Bindable Name Type Default Direction Description Data Number None Input Value displayed by gauge indicator MinValue Number 0 Input Value used for lowest gauge display MaxValue Number 100 Input Value used for highest gauge display Legend String None Input Text Shown under Gauge ToolTipField String None Input Text shown when mouse hovers over gauge Visible Boolean True Input Widget is visible if set to true   Static Name Type Default Description DisplayName String None Name used for widget in user-facing interactions Description String None Description used for widget in user-facing interactions MinorTicks Number 4 Number of minor ticks per interval TickLength Number 8 Tick mark length MinorTickLength Number 4 Minor tick length ValueDisplayMode None/Top/Bottom/Inside None Location on gauge where numeric value is shown. LabelDigits Number 3 Number of digits for label display LabelDecimals Number 0 Number of decimals for label display ValueDigits Number 3 Number of digits for value display ValueDecimals Number 0 Number of decimals for value display LegendDisplayMode None/Top/Bottom None Location on gauge where Legend is displayed ReferenceAngle Number 225 Angle that controls the gauge orientation (degrees) Aperture Number 270 Angle that controls the gauge size (degrees) NeedleDiameter Number 10 Diameter of the gauge needle (pixels) CenterDiameter Number 20 Diameter of the gauge center (pixels) GaugeBorder Number 20 Width of the outside gauge border (pixels)     Step 6: Grid Advanced   A Grid Advanced widget is used to display data to a mashup user in a table Select the Widgets tab in the uppper panel of the left dock, then enter grid inside the Filter field in the top-left. Drag-and-drop the Grid Advanced widget onto the top-left container on your Mashup that already has the Button Widget. Add Data Source   Before you can customize the Grid display, you must first bind an Infotable to the Grid's Data property. In this example we will use the QueryImplementingThingsWithData Service to bind a group of Things created with the same Template. We have created a file with sample entities for this exercise. Download the attached demoTractors.xml. Click Import/Export in the lower left of Composer, then select Import   Click From File in the drop down, then Browse. Browse to the demoTractors.xml file and click Open. Click Import, then Close after entities are successfully imported. Click the green + button in the Data tab on the right side of the Mashup Builder window. In the Select Entity panel click Thing Templates from the drop down.   Scroll through the available Thing Templates and select the Connected Tractors Template that was imported. Enter query into the filter text box then click the arrow to the right of QueryImplementingThingsWithData. Click the Execute on Load check box, this option will execute the QueryImplementingThingsWithData Service when the Mashup is loaded.   Click Done. Click the arrow icon to expand QueryImplementingThingsWithDate, and Returned Data. Click and drag All Data onto the Grid widget.   Click Data in the Select Binding Target pop-up.   NOTE: The Grid widget now shows Property names in the column headers.  15. Click the drop down in the upper left of the Grid widget, then click Configure Grid Columns to show the Configure Grid Columns pop-up. 16. Uncheck the check box next to the property names in the left-hand panel that you don't want shown in the Grid. NOTE: You can drag and drop the property names to change the display order. You can customize Column names and formatting by making changes in this window. 17. Click Done when you are satisfied with the column formatting options. 18. Click Save to save your Mashup. 19. Click View Mashup.         In addition to properties that give control over how a Grid widget will be displayed, the scroll position of a Grid can be read in the CurrentScrollTop property and can be set with the ScrollTop property.   Bindable Name Type Default Direction Description Data Infotable None Input The data that is displayed in the Grid EditedTable Infotable None Output The data that is in the Grid after a user edit CurrentScrollTop Number 0 Output How far down (in pixels from the top of the full data list) the Grid is currently scrolled ScrollTop Number 0 Input How far down (in pixels from the top of the full data list) the Grid will be scrolled. Visible boolean true Input Widget is visible if set to true   Static Name Type Default Description DisplayName String None Name used for widget in user facing interactions Description String None Description used for widget in user facing interactions RowFormat StateDefinition None Specify a State Formatter to control display of the data in each grid row AlignHeader Boolean False When enabled, align column headers with their data MultiSelect Boolean False allow multiple items to be selected IsEditable Boolean False Allow grid value editing in Configure Grid Columns pop-up AutoSelectFirstRow Boolean False Automatically select the first row upon initial loading of data. CellTextWrapping Boolean False Enable or disable text wrapping within the grid cells. TabSequence Number 0 Tab sequence index   Widget Events Name Description DoubleClicked Fired when user double clicks on the grid   Step 7: Next Steps   Congratulations on completing the guide!   The next guide in the Customize UI and Display Options to Deploy Applications learning path is Define Your UI Style.    If you have questions, issues, or need additional information, refer to: Resource Link Experience ThingWorx Application Development Reference Community Developer Community Forum Support Button Widget Help Center Support Slider Widget Help Center Support Gauge Widget Help Center Support Advanced Grids (Themable) Help Center    

Install ThingWorx Kepware Server Guide    Overview   This guide will walk you through the steps to install ThingWorx Kepware Server. NOTE: This guide's content aligns with ThingWorx 9.3. The estimated time to complete this guide is 30 minutes.    Step 1: Learning Path Overview   This guide is the first on the Connect and Monitor Industrial Plant Equipment Learning Path, and it explains how to get up and running with ThingWorx Kepware Server. If you want to learn to install ThingWorx Kepware Server, this guide will be useful to you, and it can be used independently from the full Learning Path. In the next guide on the Learning Path, we will create an Application Key which is used to secure the connection between Kepware Server and ThingWorx Foundation. Later in the Learning Path, we will send information from ThingWorx Kepware Server into ThingWorx Foundation. In other guides in this Learning Path, we will use Foundation's Mashup Builder to construct a website dashboard that displays information from ThingWorx Kepware Server. We hope you enjoy this Learning Path.   Step 2: Install ThingWorx Kepware Server   ThingWorx Kepware Server includes over 150 factory-automation protocols. ThingWorx Kepware Server communicates between industrial assets and ThingWorx Foundation, providing streamlined, real-time access to OT and IT data — whether that data is sourced from on-premise web servers, off-premise cloud applications, or at the edge. This step will download and install ThingWorx Kepware Server. Download the ThingWorx Kepware Server executable installer. Select your Language and click OK 3. On the "Welcome" screen, click Next.        4. the End-User License Agreement and click Next.   5. Set the destination folder for the installation and click Next.   6. Set the Application Data Folder location and click Next. Note that it is recommended NOT to change this path. 7. Select whether you'd like a Shortcut to be created and click Next. 8. On the "Vertical Suite Selection" screen, keep the default of Typical and click Next. 9. On the "Select Features" screen, keep the defaults and click Next. 10. The "External Dependencies" screen simply lists everything that will be installed; click Next. 11. On the "Default Application Settings" screen, leave the default of Allow client applications to request data through Dynamic Tag addressing and click Next. 12. On the “User Manager Credentials” screen, set a unique strong password for the Administrator account and click Next. Note that skipping setting a password can leave your system less secure and is not recommended in a production environment. 13. Click install to begin the installation. 14. Click finish to exit the installer.     Step 3: Open ThingWorx Kepware Server   Now that ThingWorx Kepware Server is installed, you will need to open it. In the bottom-right Windows Taskbar, click Show hidden icons. 2. Double-click on the ThingWorx Kepware Server icon. 3. ThingWorx Kepware Server is now installed. 4. For additional information on ThingWorx Kepware Server, click Server Help on the Menu Bar.   Step 4: Next Steps   Congratulations! You've successfully completed the Install ThingWorx Kepware Server guide. In this guide, you learned how to:   Download, install, and open ThingWorx Kepware Server   The next guide in the Connect and Monitor Industrial Plant Equipment learning path is Connect Kepware Server to ThingWorx Foundation.    The next guide in the Using an Allen-Bradley PLC with ThingWorx learning path is Connect to an Allen-Bradley PLC. . 

Create Custom Business Logic    Overview   This project will introduce you to creating your first ThingWorx Business Rules Engine.   Following the steps in this guide, you will know how to create your business rules engine and have an idea of how you might want to develop your own. We will teach you how to use your data model with Services, Events, and Subscriptions to establish a rules engine within the ThingWorx platform.   NOTE: This guide's content aligns with ThingWorx 9.3. The estimated time to complete this guide is 60 minutes.    Step 1: Completed Example   Download the attached, completed files for this tutorial: BusinessLogicEntities.xml.   The BusinessLogicEntities.xml file contains a completed example of a Business Rules Engine. 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: Rules Engine Introduction   Before implementing a business rule engine from scratch, there are a number of questions that should first be answered. There are times in which a business rule engine is necessary, and times when the work can be down all within regular application coding.   When to Create a Rules Engine: When there are logic changes that will often occur within the application. This can be decisions on how to do billing based on the state or how machines in factories should operate based on a release. When business analysts are directly involved in the development or utilization of the application. In general, these roles are often non-technical, but being involved with the application directly will mean the need for a way to make changes. When a problem is highly complex and no obvious algorithm can be created for the solution. This often covered scenarios in which an algorithm might not be the best option, but a set of conditions will suffice.   Advantages of a Rules Engine The key reward is having an outlet to express solutions to difficult problems than can be easily verifiable. A consolidated knowledge base for how a part of a system works and a possible source of documentation. This source of information provides people with varying levels of technical skill to all have insight into a business model.   Business Logic with ThingWorx Core Platform: A centralized location for development, data management, versioning, tagging, and utilization of third party applications. The ability to create the rules engine within the ThingWorx platform and outside of ThingWorx platform. Being that the rules engine can be created outside of the ThingWorx platform, third party rules engines can be used. The ThingWorx platform provides customizable security and provided services that can decrease the time in development.     Step 3: Establish Rules   In order to design a business rules engine and establish rules before starting the development phase, you must capture requirements and designate rule characteristics.   Capture Requirements The first step to building a business rules engine is to understand the needs of the system and capture the rules necessary for success.   Brainstorm and discuss the conditions that will be covered within the rules engine Construct a precise list Identify exact rules and tie them to specific business requirements.   Each business rule and set of conditions within the business rule will need to be independent of other business rules. When there are several scenarios involved, it is best to create multiple rules – one handling each. When business rules are related to similar scenarios, the best methodology is to group the rules into categories.   Category Description Decision Rules Set of conditions regarding business choices Validation Rules Set of conditions regarding data verifications Generation Rules Set of conditions used for data object creation in the system Calculation Rules Set of conditions that handle data input utilized for computing values or assessments   Designate Rule Characteristics Characteristics for the rules include, but are not limited to: Naming conventions/identifiers Rule grouping Rule definition/description Priority Actions that take place in each rule.   After this is completed, you will be ready to tie business requirements to business rules, and those directly to creating your business rules engine within the platform.   Rules Translation to ThingWorx There are different methods for how the one to one connections can be made between rules and ThingWorx. The simplified method below shows one way that all of this can be done within the ThingWorx platform:   Characteristic  ThingWorx Aspect Rule name/identifier Service Name Ruleset  Thing/ThingTemplate Rule definition  Service Implementation Rule conditions Service Implementation Rule actions Service Implementation Data management DataTables/Streams   Much of the rule implementation is handled by ThingWorx Services using JavaScript. This allows for direct access to data, other provided Services, and a central location for all information pertaining to a set of rules. The design provided above also allows for easier testing and security management.   Step 4: Scenario Business Rule Engine    An important aspect to think about before implementing your business rules engine, is how the Service implementation will flow.   Will you have a singular entry path for the entire rules engine? Or will you have several entries based on what is being requested of it? Will you have create only Services to handle each path? Or will you create Events and Subscriptions (Triggers and Listeners) in addition to Services to split the workload?   Based on how you answer those questions, dictates how you will need to break up your implementation. The business rules for the delivery truck scenario are below. Think about how you would break down this implementation.   High Level Flow 1 Customer makes an order with a Company (Merchant). 1.A Customer to Merchant order information is created. 2 The Merchant creates an order with our delivery company, PTCDelivers. 2.A Merchant order information is populated. 2.B Merchant sets delivery speed requested. 2.C Merchant sets customer information for the delivery. 3 The package is added to a vehicle owned by PTCDelivers. 4 The vehicle makes the delivery to the merchant's customer.   Lower Level: Vehicles 1 Package is loaded onto vehicle 1.i Based on the speed selected, add to a truck or plane. 1.ii Ground speed option is a truck. 1.iii Air and Expedited speed options are based on planes usage and trucks when needed. 2 Delivery system handles the deliveries of packages 3 Delivery system finds the best vehicle option for delivery 4 An airplane or truck can be fitted with a limited number of packages.   Lower Level: Delivery 1 Delivery speed is set by the customer and passed on to PTCDelivers. 2 Delivery pricing is set based on a simple formula of (Speed Multiplier * Weight) + $1 (Flat Fee). 2.i Ground arrives in 7 days. The ground speed multiplier is $2. 2.ii Air arrives in 4 days. The air speed multiplier is $8. 2.iii Expedited arrives in 1 day. The expedited speed multiplier is $16. 3 Deliveries can be prioritized based on a number of outside variables. 4 Deliveries can be prioritized based on a number of outside variables. 5 Bulk rate pricing can be implemented.   How would you implement this logic and add in your own business logic for added profits? Logic such as finding the appropriate vehicle to make a delivery can be handled by regular Services. Bulk rates, prioritizing merchants and packages, delivery pricing, and how orders are handled would fall under Business Logic. The MerchantThingTemplate Thing contains a DataChange Subscription for it's list of orders. This Subscription triggers an Event in the PTCDelivers Thing.   The PTCDelivers Thing contains an Event for new orders coming in and a Subscription for adding orders and merchants to their respective DataTables. This Subscription can be seen as the entry point for this scenario. Nevertheless, you can create a follow-up Service to handle your business logic. We have created the PTCDeliversBusinessLogic to house your business rules engine.   Step 5: Scenario Data Model Breakdown   This guide will not go into detail of the data model of the application, but here is a high level view of the roles played within the application.   Thing Shapes ClientThingShape Shape used to represent the various types of clients the business faces (merchants/customers). VehicleThingShape Shape used to represent different forms of transportation throughout the system.   Templates PlaneThingTemplate Template used to construct all representations of a delivery plane. TruckThingTemplate Template used to construct all representations of a delivery truck. MerchantThingTemplate Template used to construct all representations of a merchant where goods are purchased from. CustomerThingTemplate Template used to construct all representations of a customer who purchases goods.   Things/Systems PTCDeliversBusinessLogic This Thing will hold a majority of the business rule implementation and convenience services. PTCDelivers A Thing that will provide helper functions in the application.   DataShapes PackageDeliveryDataShape DataShape used with the package delivery event. Will provide necessary information about deliveries. PackageDataShape DataShape used for processing a package. OrderDataShape DataShape used for processing customer orders. MerchantOrderDataShape DataShape used for processing merchant orders. MerchantDataShape DataShape used for tracking merchants.   DataTables OrdersDatabase DataTable used to store all orders made with customers. MerchantDatabase DataTable used to store all information for merchants.     Step 6: Next Steps   Congratulations! You've successfully completed the Create Custom Business Logic guide, and learned how to: Create business logic for IoT with resources provided in the ThingWorx platform Utilize the ThingWorx Edge SDK platforms with a pre-established business rule engine   We hope you found this guide useful.    The next guide in the Design and Implement Data Models to Enable Predictive Analytics learning path is Implement Services, Events, and Subscriptions.     

Get Started with ThingWorx for IoT Guide Part 2   Step 4: Create Thing   A Thing is used to digitally represent a specific component of your application in ThingWorx. In Java programming terms, a Thing is similar to an instance of a class. In this step, you will create a Thing that represents an individual house using the Thing Template we created in the previous step. Using a Thing Template allows you to increase development velocity by creating multiple Things without re-entering the same information each time. Start on the Browse, folder icon tab on the far left of ThingWorx Composer. Under the Modeling tab, hover over Things then click the + button. Type MyHouse in the Name field. NOTE: This name, with matching capitalization, is required for the data simulator which will be imported in a later step. 4. If Project is not already set, click the + in the Project text box and select the PTCDefaultProject. 5. In the Base Thing Template text box, click the + and select the recently created BuildingTemplate. 6. In the Implemented Shapes text box, click the + and select the recently created ThermostatShape. 7. Click Save.     Step 5: Store Data in Value Stream   Now that you have created the MyHouse Thing to model your application in ThingWorx, you need to create a storage entity to record changing property values. This guide shows ways to store data in ThingWorx Foundation. This exercise uses a Value Stream which is a quick and easy way to save time-series data.   Create Value Stream   Start on the Browse, folder icon tab on the far left of ThingWorx Composer. Under the Data Storage section of the left-hand navigation panel, hover over Value Streams and click the + button. Select the ValueStream template option, then click OK. Enter Foundation_Quickstart_ValueStream in the Name field. If Project is not already set, click the + in the Project text box and select the PTCDefaultProject.   Click Save.   Update Thing Template   Navigate to the BuildingTemplate Thing Template. TIP: You can use the Search box at the top if the tab is closed.       2. Confirm you are on the General Information tab.       3. Click Edit button if it is visible, then, in the Value Stream text entry box, click the + and select Foundation_Quickstart_ValueStream               4. Click Save     Step 6: Create Custom Service   The ThingWorx Foundation server provides the ability to create and execute custom Services written in Javascript. Expedite your development with sample code snippets, code-completion, and linting in the Services editor for Things, Thing Templates, and Thing Shapes. In this section, you will create a custom Service in the Electric Meter Thing Shape that will calculate the current hourly cost of electricity based on both the simulated live data, and the electricity rate saved in your model. You will create a JavaScript that multiplies the current meter reading by the cost per hour and stores it in a property that tracks the current cost. Click Thing Shapes under the Modeling tab on the left navigation pane; then click on MeterShape in the list. Click Services tab, then click + Add and select Local (Javascript). Type calculateCost into the Name field. Click Me/Entities to open the tab. Click Properties. NOTE: There are a number of properties including costPerKWh, currentCost and currentPower. These come from the Thing Shape you defined earlier in this tutorial. 6. Click the arrow next to the currentCost property. This will add the Javascript code to the script box for accessing the currentCost property. 7. Reproduce the code below by typing in the script box or clicking on the other required properties under the Me tab:           me.currentCost = me.costPerKWh * me.currentPower;           8. Click Done. 9. Click Save. NOTE: There is a new ThingWorx 9.3 feature that allows users to easily Execute tests for ‘Services’ right from where they are defined so users can quickly test solution code.    Click here to view Part 3 of this guide. 

Data Model Introduction    Overview   This project will introduce the ThingWorx Foundation Data Model. Following the steps in this guide, you will consider data interactions based on user needs and requirements, as well as application modularity, reusability, and future updates. We will teach you how to think about a properly constructed foundation that will allow your application to be scalable, flexible, and more secure. NOTE: This guide's content aligns with ThingWorx 9.3. The estimated time to complete this guide is 30 minutes.    Step 1: Benefits   A Data Model creates a uniform representation of all items that interact with one another. There are multiple benefits to such an approach, and the ability to break up items and reuse components is considered a best practice. ThingWorx has adopted this model at a high level to represent individual components of an IoT solution. Feature Benefit Flexibility Once a model has been created, it is simple to update, modify, or remove components without needing to rework the system or retest existing components. Scalability It’s easy to clone and modify devices that are either identical or similar when changing from a Proof of Concept or Pilot Program to a Scaled Business Model. Interoperability Seamlessly plug into other applications. Collaboration A Data Model allows pre-defined links between components, meaning that various parts can be defined when designing the model so that multiple people can work on those individual parts without compromising the interoperability of the components. Seamless platform A Data Model allows for seamless integration with other systems. A properly-formed model will make it easier to create high-value IoT capabilities such as analytics, augmented/virtual reality, industrial connectivity, etc.   Step 2: Entities   Entities   Building an IoT solution in Foundation begins with defining your Data Model, the collection of Entities that represent your connected devices, business processes, and your application. Entities are the highest-level objects created and maintained in Foundation, as explained below.     Thing Shape   Thing Shapes provide a set of characteristics represented as Properties, Services, Events, and Subscriptions that are shared across a group of physical assets. A Thing Shape is best used for composition to describe relationships between objects in your model. They promote reuse of contained Properties and business logic that can be inherited by one or more Thing Templates. In Foundation, the model allows a Thing Template to implement one or more Thing Shapes, which is similar to a class definition in C++ that has multiple inheritance. When you make a change to the Thing Shape, the change is propagated to the Thing Templates and Things that implement that Thing Shape; so, maintaining the model is quick and easy.   Thing Template   Thing Templates provide base functionality with Properties, Services, Events, and Subscriptions that Thing instances use in their execution. Every Thing is created from a Thing Template. A Thing Template can extend another Thing Template. When you release a new version of a product, you simply add the additional characteristics of the version without having to redefine the entire model. This model configuration provides multiple levels of generalization of an asset. A Thing Template can derive one or more additional characteristics by implementing Thing Shapes. When you make a change to the Thing Template, the change is propagated to the Things that implement that Thing Template; so again, maintaining the model is quick and easy. A Thing Template can be used to classify the kind of a Thing or asset class or as a specific product model with unique capabilities. If you have two product models and their interaction with the solution is the same (same Properties, Services, and Events), you could model them as one Thing Template. Classifying Thing Templates is useful for aggregating Things into collections, which are useful in Mashups. You may want separate Thing Templates for indexing, searching, and future evolutions of the products   Thing   Things are representations of physical devices, assets, products, systems, people, or processes that have Properties and business logic. All Things are based on Thing Templates (inheritance) and can implement one or more Thing Shapes (composition). A Thing can have its own Properties, Services, Events, and Subscriptions and can inherit other Properties, Services, Events, and Subscriptions from its Thing Template and Thing Shape(s). How you model the interconnected Things, Thing Templates, and Thing Shapes is key to making your solution easy to develop and maintain in the future as the physical assets change. End users will interface with Things for information in applications and for reading/writing data.   Best Practice: Create a Thing Template to describe a Thing, then create an instance of that Thing Template as a Thing. This practice leverages inheritance in your model and reduces the amount of time you spend maintaining and updating your model.   Step 3: Inheritance Model   Defining Things, Thing Templates, and Thing Shapes in your Data Model allows your application to handle both simple and complex scenarios. Entity Function Thing Shapes Assemble individual components. Thing Templates Combine those components into fully functional objects. Thing Unique representation of a set of identical components defined by the Thing Template.       In this example, there is a Parent/Child model between two related Thing Templates. NOTE: Things and Thing Templates may only inherit ONE Thing Template. Both Things and Thing Templates may inherit any number of Thing Shapes. Thing Templates employ a linear-relationship, while Thing Shapes employ a modular-relationship. Any Thing or Thing Template may have any number of sub-components (i.e. Thing Shapes), but each Thing or Thing Template is just one description of one object as a whole. How you decide to compartmentalize your Data Model into Thing Shapes and Thing Templates to create the actual Things that you’ll be using is a custom design that will be specific to each implementation.   Step 4: Scenario   The ThingWorx Data Model provides a way for you to describe your connected devices and match the complexity of a real-world scenario. Things, Thing Templates, and Thing Shapes are building blocks that define your data model.     You can define the components of Things, Thing Templates, and Thing Shapes, including Properties, Services, Events, and Subscriptions. Component Definition Properties Each Property has a name, description, and a data type (Base Type). Depending on the base type, additional fields may be enabled. A simple scalar type, like a number or string, adds basic fields like default value. More complex base types have more options. Properties can be static (i.e. Model Number) or dynamic (i.e. Temperature). Services A Service is a method/function defined by a block of code that performs logic specifying actions a Thing can take. There are several implementation methods, or handlers (for example: Script, SQLQuery, and SQL command), for services depending on the template you use. The specific implementation of a user-defined Service is done via a server-side script. The Service can then be invoked through a URL, a REST client capable application, or by another Service in ThingWorx. When you create a new service, you can define input properties and an output. You can define individual runtime permissions for each Service. Events Events are triggers that define changes of state (example: device is on, temperature is above/below threshold) of an asset or system and often require an action to correct or respond to a change. Business logic and actions in a ThingWorx application are driven by Events. Subscriptions Action associated with an Event, primary method to set up intelligence in ThingWorx model which enable you to optimize/automate. Subscriptions use Javascript code to define what you want your application to do when the Event occurs.   NOTE: Anything inherited by a Thing Template or Thing will inherit the associated Components.     This diagram shows what a specific Inheritance Model might look like for a connected Tractor. There is one master Template at the top. In this case, it’s a collection of similar types of tractors. The parent Template inherits a few Shapes - an Engine and a Deck that have been used in previous designs. Importing them as Shapes allows us to reuse previous design work and expedite the development process. One of the child Templates incorporates another Shape, this time in the form of a GPS tracking device. Then, at the bottom, there are the specific tractors with individual serial numbers that will report their connected data back to an IoT Application.   Step 5: Next Steps   Congratulations! You've successfully completed the Data Model Introduction, and learned about: The function of a data model for your IoT application Data model components, including Thing, Thing, Shape and Thing Template How ThingWorx components correspond to connected devices Please comment on this post so we can improve this guide in future ThingWorx version iterations.   This guide is part of 2 learning paths: The next guide in the Getting Started on the ThingWorx Platform learning path is Configure Permissions.  The next guide in the Design and Implement Data Models to Enable Predictive Analytics learning path is Design Your Data Model.      

  Use the Collection Widget to organize visual elements of your application.   GUIDE CONCEPT   This project will introduce the Collection Widget.   Following the steps in this guide, you will learn to display different values from a single dataset in real-time.   We will teach you how to utilize the Collection Widget to generate a series of repeated Mashups for every row of data in a table.     YOU'LL LEARN HOW TO   Create a Datashape to define columns of a table Create a Thing with an Infotable Property Create a base Mashup to display data Utilize a Collection Widget to display data from multiple rows of a table   NOTE: This guide's content aligns with ThingWorx 9.3. The estimated time to complete ALL 3 parts of this guide is 60 minutes.      Step 1: Create a Datashape    Create a Datashape   The Collection Widget uses a Service to dynamically define visual content.   The data must be in a tabular format (for example: Data Table, Info Table, or external Database-connection) in order for the Collection Widget to access it.   In this part of the lesson, we'll create a Data Shape to define the columns of the table.   In a subsequent step, we'll create an Info Table Property within a Thing in order to store the information.   In the ThingWorx Composer Browse tab, click Modeling > Data Shapes, + New              2.  In the Name field, enter cwht_datashape.                      3. If Project is not already set, search for and select PTCDefaultProject.         4. At the top, click Field Definitions          First Definition:          1. Click + Add to open the New Field Definition slide-out.          2. In the Name field, enter first_number.          3. Change the Base Type to NUMBER.          4. Check the Is Primary Key box. All Datashapes must have a single Primary Key, and the first Field is as acceptable as any other for our purposes here.                5. At the top-right, click the "Check with a +" button for Done and Add.   Second Definition:   In the Name field, enter second_number.       2. Change the Base Type to NUMBER.               3. At the top-right, click the "Check with a +" button for Done and Add.     Third Definition:   In the Name field, enter third_number.         2. Change the Base Type to NUMBER.               3. At the top-right, click the "Check" button for Done         4. At the top, click Save.                   Step 2: Create a Thing   Create a Thing   In the previous step, we created a Data Shape to define the Info Table Property columns.   Now, we will create a Thing, add an Info Table Property, format the Info Table Property with the Data Shape, and set some default values.   On the ThingWorx Composer Browse tab, click Modeling > Things, + New.           2. In the Name field, enter cwht_thing.         3. If Project is not already set, search for and select PTCDefaultProject.         4. Select GenericThing in the Base Thing Template field       Add InfoTable Property         1. At the top, click Properties and Alerts.        2. Click the + Add button to open the New Property slide-out.        3. In the Name field, enter infotable_property.        4. Change the Base Type to INFOTABLE.        5. In the Data Shape field, select cwht_datashape.        6. Check the Persistent checkbox.       First Default   Check the Has Default Value checkbox. A cwht_datashape icon will appear underneath.            2. Under Has Default Value, click the cwht_datashape button to open the pop-up menu which  sets the default values               3. Click the + Add icon.         4. Enter values in each number field, such as 1, 2, and 3.              5. At the bottom-right, click the green Add button.     Second Default   Click the + Add icon.         2. Enter values in each number field, such as 10, 20, and 30            3. At the bottom-right, click the green Add button       Third Default   Click the + Add icon.       2. Enter values in each number field, such as 100, 200, and 300            3. At the bottom-right, click the greenAddbutton           4.  At the bottom-right, click Save to close the pop-up menu               5. At the top-right, click the "Check" button for Done.       6. At the top, click Save          Click here to view Part 2 of this guide.

  Leverage the REST API to create Things, modify Properties, execute Services and more.   GUIDE CONCEPT   This project will introduce you to the REST API utilized by the ThingWorx platform.   Following the steps in this guide, you will be able to connect to the ThingWorx platform and make REST calls to call Services, update Properties, and perform a number of actions for your IoT applications.   We will teach you how to use the ThingWorx REST API to create a more robust application. With the REST API you can leverage the full power of the ThingWorx Foundation server with simple HTTP requests. The REST API can easily be explored using a command line tool such as curl, a browser plugin like Postman, or any preferred programming language.   YOU'LL LEARN HOW TO   Create new Things on a ThingWorx Foundation Server Add Properties to Things Access Property values Execute custom Services   NOTE: The estimated time to complete ALL 4  parts of this guide is 30 minutes.      Step 1: REST API Design   Almost every Entity and Service of ThingWorx can be accessed through the REST API. This step will review some points that are common to all ThingWorx REST API calls.   REST API Syntax   The endpoint URLs used by the REST API follow the consistent pattern shown in the diagram below.   The following table describes the individual pieces of the URL for the REST API calls.   Term Description Optional/Required? http method GET, PUT, DELETE, POST required scheme http, https required host server IP address where ThingWorx is running required port port on which the Web Server is listening for requests (default is 80) optional entity collection One of the built-in entity collection types proprietary to ThingWorx required entity name that identifies a specific characteristic required characteristic collection Names such as Property Definition, Properties VTQ, ThingName, and Service Definition optional characteristic name of the Service or Property on which to execute optional accept header format of HTTP content being requested; must be application/json or text/xml or text/html optional content type header format of HTTP content being provided; must be application/json, text/csv or text/html required content   optional query parameters   optional   Requests   The ThingWorx REST API uses HTTP request verbs in ways common to many REST APIs:   GET to retrieve information POST for both creating a new entity and executing a service DELETE to remove a Thing or Property PUT to change the value of an existing entity When a REST API request requires parameters to be sent, the Content-Type header must be set to match the format of the request body.   Discovering and using Services requires using a dedicated URL. To list available Services and see their definitions, issue a GET to   ``` <server_ip:port>/Thingworx/Things/<name of thing>/ServiceDefinitions ``` In order to execute a listed Service issue a POST to   ``` <server_ip:port>/Thingworx/Things/<name of thing>/Services/<service name> ```   NOTE: The Content-Type header of a POST that executes a Service must always be set to application/json or text/xmleven if the service does not take any parameters and no content is being sent.   Responses   The following tables describe the valid Accept and Content-Type header values when making a REST API calls.   Accept Headers   If the request sends either an invalid Accept header, or no Accept header is supplied, the default response will be in text/html format.   Value Syntax JSON application/json XML text/xml HTML text/html (or omit Accept header) CSV text/csv   Content Type Headers   A Content-Type header indicating the format of data sent to ThingWorx, is required. Some POST requests require a content type header even when no data is being sent.   Value Syntax JSON application/json XML text/xml     Step 2: REST Client   In order to make calls to any REST API you need a client software. A web browser can be used to make some GET calls, but you must install extensions to modify headers or to make POST or PUT calls.   Client software options include:   cURL is a venerable command line tool and library that is a Swiss Army Knife of dealing with web requests. And like an old Swiss Army Knife you can make it work but you might wind up hurting yourself.   Httpie is a modern command line tool with easy to use, intuitive options. Server responses are shown in color with easy to read formatting. The examples will be given as HTTPie commands.   NOTE: The following steps in this guide use Httpie as the client software.     Step 3: Create Application Key   In this Quickstart, you will use ThingWorx Composer to generate an Application Key. A device must be authenticated to send data to, or recieve data from ThingWorx. One of the most common authentication methods used with ThingWorx is by using a security token called an Application Key or appKey. These tokens are associated with a particular user and have the same permissions as that user.   Create an Application Key   On the Home screen of Composer click + New. In the dropdown list, click Applications Key.   Give your Application Key a name (ie, MyAppKey). Set the User Name Reference to a User you created. Update the Expiration Date field, otherwise it will default to 1 day. Click Save.   A Key ID has been generated and can be used to make secure connections.   BEST PRACTICE: We recommend you create separate keys for every connected device, User or system. This allows better security in case of situations where you may need to revoke access from one of them.     Step 4: Create New Thing   A Thing is a basic building block used to model applications in the ThingWorx Foundation Server. All Things are based on a Thing Template, either a built-in system template or a custom Template that was previously created. With the REST API, you can create, modify, list, and delete Things. After a Thing has been created by using an API call, it must be enabled and restarted with additional API calls before it can be used.   Required Parameters   AppKey created by your ThingWorx server A name for the new Thing The name of a valid ThingTemplate that will be used to create the new Thing Request   An HTTP POST request to ThingWorx is assembled from 3 components: a URL A POST body Authentication credentials A request to ThingWorx can be made only after these 3 components are properly configured.         1.  Construct the URL.   Create a new Thing by making an HTTP POST to the endpoint.   <server_ip:port>/Thingworx/Resources/EntityServices/Services/CreateThing NOTE: The server_ip is the ip address of your ThingWorx Core server.        2. Required POST body parameters.   Send the name of the Thing and the name of the ThingTemplate that will define the new thing in the body of the POST as a JSON object. For example, the JSON object below will create a new Thing named SomeTestThing using the system template GenericThing. { "name": "SomeTestThing", "thingTemplateName": "GenericThing" }   TIP: When creating Things that will be used with the REST API, use the GenericThing ThingTemplate or a ThingTemplate based GenericThing. A RemoteThing should only be used with devices that make an AlwaysOn™ connection to a ThingWorx server using the Edge MicroServer or one of the AlwaysOn™ SDKs.        3. Authenticate the Request.   All API requests to the ThingWorx server must be authenticated either with a username and password or with an appKey. For this example we will authenticate by passing the appKey as a URL query string parameter. The parameter appKey is recognized by the ThingWorx server as an authentication credential in requests, it can be passed either as a URL query string parameter. .../CreateThing?appKey=64b87... , or as request header appKey: 64b87... Refer to Step 13: Authentication Tags for an overview of different authentication methods. Response   A successful call to the CreateThing service does not return any content in the body of the response, only an HTTP 200 is returned.   Examples HTTPie example:   http -v http://52.201.57.6/Thingworx/Resources/EntityServices/Services/CreateThing appKey==64b879ae-2455-4d8d-b840-5f5541a799ae name=SomeTestThing thingTemplateName=GenericThing   The Content-Type header does not appear in the sample HTTPie call because HTTPie sets the Accept and Content-type request headers to application/json by default.   WARNING for other HTTP clients: Most HTTP clients do not set a Content-Type header by default, without this header set the server will return an error message. The POST request to the CreateThing endpoint has a JSON body so the header must be set to match the format of the request body.   cURL example   curl -v -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST -d '{"name": "SomeTestThing","thingTemplateName": "GenericThing"}' http://52.201.57.6/Thingworx/Resources/EntityServices/Services/CreateThing?appKey=d0a68eff-2cb4-4327-81ea-7e71e26bb645 Note: cURL explicitly sets the Content-Type header to application/json.     Validate   The Thing you just created is now available in the ThingWorx Composer, however before anything else can be done with your new Thing through the REST API it must be enabled and started. Follow these steps to validate that the new Thing has been created and enabled.   From the home page of Composer, click Things, select the name of the Thing you just created, then click General Information.   NOTE: You will see the Active checkbox is not checked indicating this Thing is not Enabled.       2. Execute EnableThing Service.   To enable your newly created Thing, make an HTTP POST to the endpoint below. Substitute <name of Thing> with the actual name of the Thing you created. No body is required in the POST, however, the Content-Type header of a POST that executes a Service must always be set to application/json or text/xml even if the service does not take any parameters and no content is being sent. No body is returned upon success, only an HTTP 200 response code. <server_ip:port>/Thingworx/Things/<name of Thing>/Services/EnableThing HTTPie example   http -v -j POST http://52.201.57.6/Thingworx/Things/SomeTestThing/Services/EnableThing appKey==64b879ae-2455-4d8d-b840-5f5541a799ae         3.  Confirm new Thing is Enabled.   To update the General Information section of your new Thing and confirm the Active checkbox is now checked, refresh the page with the browser or close and re-open your Thing.         4. Restart your Thing.   After a Thing is created and whenever any changes are made to its structure, the Thing has to be restarted. Start you new Thing by making a HTTP POST to the endpoint below. Substitute <name of Thing> with the actual name of the Thing you created. No body is required in the POST, however, the Content-Type header of a POST that executes a Service must always be set to application/json or text/xml even if the service does not take any parameters and no content is being sent. No body is returned upon success, only an HTTP 200 response code. <server_ip:port>/Thingworx/Things/<name of Thing>/Services/RestartThing HTTPie example:   http -v -j POST http://52.201.57.6/Thingworx/Things/SomeTestThing/Services/RestartThing appKey==64b879ae-2455-4d8d-b840-5f5541a799ae     Click here to view Part 2 of this guide

Original Post Date:            June 6, 2016   Description: This is a video tutorial on creating a Stream, adding a Data Shape with properties, and writing values to the Stream.