Binding KEPServer Tags to Thing Properties

[Ascherer17]

I've been researching how Industrial Connections work using Thingworx 8 and KEPServerEX.  I understand how KepServer tags can be added to Things in 2 ways:

• By selecting tags from the Industrial Connection Thing -> Discover and using the "Bind to New Entity" button
• By going to a Thing -> Properties -> "Manage Bindings" button -> Remote and selecting KepServer tags

I don't have Thingworx/KEPServer instances to try this myself yet, but I've seen these done in the Core documentation and a webcast.  Both of these methods either create New Things or New Thing Properties.

My question is whether or not you can bind KepServer tags to Thing Properties that have already been created?  Ex) Bind KepServer tags to Properties inherited from a Thing Template/Shape.

Best practice for modeling is to define Thing properties at the Thing Template level.  If we create all needed Properties before adding tags to a Thing, then we need to be able to bind tags to the already created Properties.

Thanks!

[stmarchessault]

Greetings,

Thank you for posting this question. Please see the discussion between Alex and Alton contained in this thread:

Industrial Things Toolsets

In particular, they discuss the use of the SetRemotePropertyBindings to bind a property from a newly created Thing (which has inherited the IndustrialThing ThingShape) with a remote property that represents a KEPServerEX tag.

Please let us know how it goes, especially if you run into any difficulty implementing the solution they describe.

Best regards,

Steven M

[Ascherer17 · Accepted solution]

Using demo versions of KEPServer and Thingworx 8, I was able to confirm my question.  I was wondering if I could create a Thing myself and bind KEPServer tags to properties on that Thing that I also created myself.  The tutorials I've seen all mention using the Discover section of the IndustrialConnection Thing instance to find tags and "Bind to New Entity". 

The conditions of binding tags to existing properties is that the Thing you bind the tags to must inherit from some version of the "Remote Thing" Thing Template, and it must implement the "IndustrialThingShape" Thing Shape.  Also, there is a property representing the Industrial Connection (the KEPServer Thing instance) that must be populated.

Once these conditions are met, you can go to "Manage Bindings" in a Thing's properties and drag tags to existing properties under the "Remote" section.