Dynamically create, enable, and restart Things in a webservice

[TricoSupport]

I am trying to create a service that pulls a list of properties from a webservice to create multiple Things of the same type.  I am able to create multiple things in the webservice but cannot find a way to refer to the newly created things in the service so that I can enable and restart.

Here is the code I am trying to run:

///  Loops through a JSON object to extract properties for each thing

while (i < json_obj.devices.length)
{
var params = {
name: json_obj.devices[i].deviceId/* STRING */,
description: json_obj.devices[i].name /* STRING */,
thingTemplateName: 'XXXXXX' /* THINGTEMPLATENAME */
};

// no return
Resources["EntityServices"].CreateThing(params);
i++;

//

//Need to enable and restart newly created thing.  Not sure how to reference it 

}

[Rick-Stanley]

I can think of a couple of different ways:

1. Enable and restart the Things in the same loop where you created them.

2. Create another loop with the same loop parameters you used to create them and enable/restart in that loop.

3. Save the name of the newly created things in an array and pass that array to a function that enables/restarts them  

[TricoSupport]

I would like to do it in the loop.  Once I create them how do I call the service to enable and restart.  I'm not sure how to get the handle to the newly created thing.

[Rick-Stanley · Accepted solution]

The handle is the name you assigned the thing when you created it:

    var params = {

        name: "NewThingName",

        thingTemplateName: "GenericThing"

    };

    Resources["EntityServices"].CreateThing(params);

    Things["NewThingName"].Enable();

    Things["NewThingName"].Restart();

Here is some helpful info:

https://community.ptc.com/t5/ThingWorx-Code-Examples-Platform/Creating-a-Thing-in-Service-Script/td-p/533427