How to remove Remote Things

Also note when creating entities via service it is important to include proper error handling in the script.  See the following article....

https://support.ptc.com/appserver/cs/view/solution.jsp?n=CS198580&lang=en_US

Hi Quang-Dung,

You can't have Ghost and Real Thing with the same name on the same system, or it's a Ghost or it's a real Thing.

If you are asking how to know if a Thing it's a Ghost or a Real Thing, I think there isn't an answer to this.

If you want to prevent to create an already existing thing, try to check first for it's existence.

Don't try to do Try/Catch/Delete to an unconsistent system, first restart your system, then do it on the correct way.

Carles.

Hi Quang-Dung,

In regards to ghost entities, I would also like to share a script with you with which you can detect all ghost things in your system. It doesn't help you delete them, but you could run it in a subscription to get notified when you have any ghost entities and then immediately restart the server. The service receives as an input parameter your server name (HostURL) and an AppKey name (not the actual appKey value). It basically compares the Things in the spot light search (database) with the Things in the REST API (in memory). If there is a difference, it will print that out as an infotable (which will be the result of your service).

In my case the DataShape for the resulting Infotable is one specific to my project, but you can change it to include just the thingName.

Let me know if this helps or if you have any questions.

try { var params = {

    searchExpression: "*" /* STRING */,

    types: {"items":["Thing"]}

    /* JSON */,

    withPermissions: true /* BOOLEAN */,

    aspects: {"isSystemObject":false}

    /* JSON */,

    searchDescriptions: true /* BOOLEAN */,

    sortBy: "lastModifiedDate" /* STRING */,

    isAscending: false /* BOOLEAN */,

};

// result: INFOTABLE dataShape: SpotlightSearch

/* controllers in spotlight search may contain entities

   that have been created only in memory

*/

var spotlightSearchItems = Resources["SearchFunctions"].SpotlightSearch(params);

/* the infotable below will contain ONLY things

   that are also in the ThingWorx database

*/

// result: INFOTABLE dataShape: RootEntityList

// result: STRING

var KeyID = ApplicationKeys[AppKey].GetKeyID();

var params = {

  proxyScheme: undefined /* STRING */,

  headers: undefined /* JSON */,

  ignoreSSLErrors: undefined /* BOOLEAN */,

  useNTLM: undefined /* BOOLEAN */,

  workstation: undefined /* STRING */,

  useProxy: undefined /* BOOLEAN */,

  withCookies: undefined /* BOOLEAN */,

  proxyHost: undefined /* STRING */,

  url: HostURL + "/Thingworx/Things?appKey=" + KeyID/* STRING */,

  timeout: undefined /* NUMBER */,

  proxyPort: undefined /* INTEGER */,

  password: undefined /* STRING */,

  domain: undefined /* STRING */,

  username: undefined /* STRING */

};

// result: JSON

//var controllers = Resources["ContentLoaderFunctions"].LoadJSON(params);

var entities = Resources["ContentLoaderFunctions"].LoadJSON(params);

var params = {

  infoTableName : "InfoTable",

  dataShapeName : "ControllersDisplayShape"

};

// CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(infoTableName:STRING("InfoTable"), dataShapeName:STRING):INFOTABLE(ControllersDisplayShape)

var thingsInfotable = Resources["InfoTableFunctions"].CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(params);

for (var i = 0; i <  entities.rows.length; i++) {

     if (entities.rows.isSystemObject == false)

     thingsInfotable.AddRow({

         ControllerName:entities.rows.name,

         ControllerDisplayName:entities.rows.description

     });

}

var ghostsCount = thingsInfotable.getRowCount()- spotlightSearchItems.getRowCount();

logger.info("Number of ghosts is " + ghostsCount); 

// If the ghost count is zero, the result will just be an empty infotable

var params = {

    infoTableName : "InfoTable",

    dataShapeName : "ControllersDisplayShape"

};

// CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(infoTableName:STRING("InfoTable"), dataShapeName:STRING):INFOTABLE(DisplayNameDataShape)

var result = Resources["InfoTableFunctions"].CreateInfoTableFromDataShape(params);

// if the ghostCount is higher than 0, we want to check which is(are) the actual ghost controller(s)

if (ghostsCount > 0) {

    for (var i = 0; i < thingsInfotable.getRowCount(); i++) {

        for (var j = 0 ; j < spotlightSearchItems.getRowCount(); j++) {

            if (thingsInfotable.rows.ControllerName == spotlightSearchItems.rows.name) {

                //we discard from the spotlight search every controller which we already found in the DB

                //to reduce our search time

                thingsInfotable.RemoveRow(i);

                i--;

                break;

            }

        }

    }

    // the remaining infotable will contain only the ghosts

  var result = thingsInfotable;

}

    } catch (err) {

        logger.error ("Encountered error " + err + " at line " + err.lineNumber) ;

    }