MQTT Extension publish and subscribe settings

[jbester]

Good day,

I am working with the MQTT extension and have a few questions. 

Regarding subscribing to topics:

In other MQTT client and broker tools it is possible to subscribe to a topic using wildcards like '+' and '#' and in the document for support case CS246701(https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS246701) they do discuss this functionality: 

But it does not seem to work if I add it as a mapping topic e.g. /Thingworx/+/Thing1/Property1  instead of /Thingworx/Dev/Thing1/Property1.

Is there a way to get this functionality to work in Thingworx?

Regarding publishing topics:

As part of the Java library being used by the extension (mqttv3.jar (MQTT client library)) there is functionality built in by default called "isRetained" I believe. This stores the last message published on a topic on the broker. I can't find the functionality to enable the retain function when a topic is published.

Is there a way to enable this functionality in Thingworx?

Thank you,

Johan Bester

[visla]

Hello Johan!

Regarding subscribing to topics:

I have found the following KCS Article mentioning that the feature is not available and an enhancement was reported to R&D:

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS271034

If you could confirm the feature explained in the above article is exactly what you would like to have, I would be glad to create a Case on your behalf and link it to the enhancement request in order to let our R&D know that you are interested in that feature.

Regarding publishing topics:

You have created Case 14099591 and I will assist you in the context of mentioned Case.

Best Regards,

Vanessa

[jbester]

Hi @visla,

Thank you for the response. The subscribing to topics using wildcards + and # is what I am looking for regarding the subscribing to topics. It is partially covered in the attached case link (only the '+' wildcard is referred to). If you can assist with escalating the functionality with the R&D team (I believe it was already suggested but I am not sure the details of the enhancement requests), I would appreciate it.

[visla]

Hello Johan!

No problem, I have created Case 14099692 on your behalf and I will assist you further in the context of that Case.

Best Regards,

Vanessa

[visla]

To close this community thread:

(@Johan: would you mind marking this response as solution in order to close the community thread? Thanks!)

Regarding subscribing to topics:

Feature is not available and an enhancement was reported to R&D:

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS271034

Regarding publishing topics with Retain option:

Feature is not available and an enhancement was reported to R&D:

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS247880

Implementing these two features is unfortunately not in scope at the moment and Product Management has been involved for future prioritization.

As an aside note, another option to use the MQTT protocol is to use the ThingWorx Protocol Adapter Toolkit:

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS280184

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS280188

Johan has confirmed that he is using a third-party tool to workaround the lack of these key features in his usecase.

Thanks for your collaboration work on this, Johan, and hopefully we might get good news from PM soon!

Best Regards,

Vanessa

[jbester]

Thank you for everyone's support on the case.

Unfortunately, in contrast to marketing material from PTC, Thingworx does not support MQTT communication.

There are workarounds with third-party software that provides some of the core functionality of MQTT, but Thingworx on its own does not support MQTT.

In accordance with community best practise, I am closing this thread and will update the post again at such time that PTC has prioritised supporting one of the primary IoT communication protocols: MQTT.

Kind regards,

Johan Bester

[jbester · Accepted solution]

Thank you for everyone's support on the case.

Unfortunately, in contrast to marketing material from PTC, Thingworx does not support MQTT communication.

There are workarounds with third-party software that provides some of the core functionality of MQTT, but Thingworx on its own does not support MQTT.

In accordance with community best practise, I am closing this thread and will update the post again at such time that PTC has prioritised supporting one of the primary IoT communication protocols: MQTT.

Kind regards,

Johan Bester