Version 2.23 (2018-02-27)

Important notices

API changes - coming deprecation

CREATE_VIRTUAL_RESOURCE in the Resource API will be deprecated in a future release. Instead CREATE_RESOURCE shall be used with a metadata flag “isvirtual: true” set.

Technical documentation available online

All technical documentation for Managed IoT Cloud, including API specifications, Release notes and Getting Started Guides, are available online: https://docs.telenorconnexion.com/mic/

Features

Thing Type Resource Management

In this release we launch major enhancements of the Resource Management functionality (found in the Settings -> Thing Types menu). In summary, many aspects of the data model for a Thing Type can be controlled, and the configuration is refelcted throughout the MIC Platform and App Board.

Firstly we have added the possibility to add new resources from the list of resources view. In the resource details view (that is also displayed for newly added resources), most attribute fields can now be edited; resource name (only for newly created resources), label (mandatory field), unit, allow set (controls if resource updates can be sent to the Thing through the Cloud API, or not), and virtual (controls if resource data is sent to the Thing or stored in the cloud only).

We have also modified the behavior for configuring setting resources from widgets

  • Configuration of the available values to set has moved from the widget edit to the Resource Details edit in Thing Type Resource Management section
  • Widget edit now only contains the option “Enable set value” (Yes/No)

In addition we have moved virtual resource creation from widget edit to Resource Details edit in Thing Type Resources Management in order to have a consistent management of resources in MIC.

Finally we have added a more robust handling and management of Units (more info below). For a specific resource, you select the Unit from the list of available Units. The Unit need to exist in the Unit list to be able to add it.

To sum up Thing Type Resource Management, all the resource attributes are now is use in App Board, meaning that you can control how the resource shall be handled and displayed in the MIC Platform and App Board.

  • Label: Label is now used in App Board instead of resource name. Exceptions: Resource name is still used when creating formulas in “Custom Widget” and in “Rule edit”. For all existing resources, resource name have been copied into the label attribute.
  • Units: Units are now displayed next to the value in App Board if the resource is configured with the Units attribute. In a specific widget, you can override the Units by entering the desiered value for unit in widget edit (space means no unit). Existing units in widgets have been kept as overriding the default (global) units.
  • Setting of a resource: In Thing Type Resource Management you Allow set resource - if the resource shall be possible to set from the Cloud API (incl App Board). For a resource that is allowed to be set, a widget can be enabled to set the resource (configured in widget edit). For all existing resources, Allow set has been set to “Yes”.
  • Virtual: A virtual resource is not representing any “real” resource on a Thing, but exists only in the cloud platform. It is always allowed to be set. Existing virtual resources have been migrated to the new resources management functionality.

Unit Management

A new interface and API for managing units in MIC has been added. By enabling a stricter definition of unit metadata, typos can be avoided and data from different sources can be compared with greater confidence.

Units can only be defined by a root level user, ensuring a system-wide definition.

It is possible to override the global unit definition per widget, if required. This is done in widget edit.

Enhanced webhook mechanism targeting Salesforce integration

Webhooks can be used as a rule action to integrate with 3rd party systems. In the new release, the possibility to add authentication and custom headers to a webhook has been added.

This functionality is generic, and useful in many integrations scenarios. As an example it supports integration with Salesforce IoT Scale input streams.

De-grouping of resources in All Things Dashboard

In previous versions, resource data in the All Things Dashboard (e.g. All Things list) was grouped by resource name. This created ambiguity in certain situations, when two different thing types had the same naming for resources. Example: a resource “name” from one thing type might, or might not, contain comparable data as a “name” resource on a different thing type.

To avoid this, the grouping is now done on the combination of thing type and resource name.

There is one exception to this - resources reported on the TCXN payload convention (https://docs.telenorconnexion.com/mic/thing-api/conventions/) are still grouped across thing types.

Minor improvements and corrections

Numerous minor enhancements and bug fixes are delivered by the new release, including:

  • Minor documentation updates and bug fixes to the Cloud REST API.
  • After a period of inactivity in App Board, the error message “Not Found” was sometimes shown, forcing the user to re-login without any further explanation. This has now been improved and expired logins are handled in a more user friendly way.
  • Improved styling of lists in Firefox
  • Fixed issue with rule criteria summary in rules edit.