Release Notes

Version 2.20 (2017-12-14)

Important notices

Changes to the APIs due to upgrade of Elasticsearch

As previously announced, since release 2.18 MIC has support for Elasticsearch versions 2.3 and 5.5. During an interim period intended to facilitate migration to Elasticsearch 5.5, the version used for each individual Customer account can be configured. The upgrade will impact the Observation API, Thing API and Event API since these APIs allow developers to query Elasticsearch directly, and there are differences in the Elasticsearch query syntax between the two versions. Depending on how these APIs are used, updated queries might be required in bespoke applications. If you are using the Elasticsearch query capability in the any of these APIs, you are kindly requested to contact Telenor Connexion for joint establishment of a migration plan.

Technical documentation available online

All technical documentation for Managed IoT Cloud, including API specifications, are available at https://docs.telenorconnexion.com/mic/

Features

Improved column selector for list configuration

The All Things thing list and Thing Type thing list can be configured in terms of what columns that should be displayed. The resource selector used to pick columns/resources has been updated with search functionality that allow the user to quickly find the a specific resource/column.

Improved back button behavior

In the thing dashboard, the “back arrow” icon (that mimicked the behavior of the browser’s back button) have been replaced with a fixed link to the relevant Thing Type. The browser’s back button can still be used to navigate to the previous page.

Minor improvements and corrections

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

• Fixed issues with widget resizing and rendering in Internet Explorer 11 and Firefox
• Improved speed and handling for large ingestion flows
• Improvements in App Board consistency, speed and rendering
• Improved tools for troubleshooting

Version 2.19 (2017-11-16)

Important notices

Changes to the APIs due to upgrade of Elasticsearch

As previously announced, since release 2.18 MIC has support for Elasticsearch versions 2.3 and 5.5. During an interim period intended to facilitate migration to Elasticsearch 5.5, the version used for each individual Customer account can be configured. The upgrade will impact the Observation API, Thing API and Event API since these APIs allow developers to query Elasticsearch directly, and there are differences in the Elasticsearch query syntax between the two versions. Depending on how these APIs are used, updated queries might be required in bespoke applications.

Technical documentation available online

All technical documentation for Managed IoT Cloud, including API specifications, are available at https://docs.telenorconnexion.com/mic/

Features

Improved pagination in App Board

The pagination of Thing lists has been improved. Each list’s state is saved, meaning that when navigating between different screens in MIC, the lists will automatically remember the previous page and sorting setting. The state is stored for each list separately and retained until the user logs out or apply a new filter for a specific list.

Improved validation of SMS messages

The validation of SMS text message has been improved. Since the details of the SMS text is created when a rule is triggered and can include data e.g. from the Thing (like the latest observation value), the validation takes place just before the message is sent. Any invalid characters are dropped, and if the message is longer than 160 characters, it is truncated to 160 characters including the text “.truncated”.

Minor improvements and corrections

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

• Harmonized buttons in rule edit. The “Add”-button (or “Update”-button depending on the mode of the dialogue) is now displayed in both the top and bottom of the form.
• Improved handling of timeout messages in App Board.
• Fixed issue with the whole Filter bar and Thing summary bar not being sensitive to expand/collapse.
• Fixed issue with default view mode selection.

Version 2.18 (2017-10-26)

Important notices

Changes to the APIs due to upgrade of Elasticsearch

As previously announced, release 2.18 has support for Elasticsearch versions 2.3 and 5.5. During an interim period intended to facilitate migration to Elasticsearch 5.5, the version used for each individual Customer account can be configured. The upgrade will impact the Observation API, Thing API and Event API since these APIs allow developers to query Elasticsearch directly, and there are differences in the Elasticsearch query syntax between the two versions. Depending on how these APIs are used, updated queries might be required in bespoke applications.

If you are using the Elasticsearch query capability in the any of these APIs, you are kindly requested to contact Telenorconnexion for joint establishment of a migration plan.

Technical documentation available online

All technical documentation for Managed IoT Cloud, including API specifications, are available at https://docs.telenorconnexion.com/mic/

Features

New Value Aggregation widget in Thing Type dashboard

A new widget type is available in the Thing Type dashboard. The new widget is called Value Aggregation, and it is used to display the sum/count/average of a specific resource for the collection of things of a specific type that match the current filter.

As a basis for the calculation, the latest reported observation for each thing that matches the current filter is used.

The aggregation widget is only available for resources that have the data type number.

New widgets Time Series Aggregation and Table Aggregation in Thing Type dashboard

In addition to the aggregation widgets for the latest reported data, aggregation widgets for historical data are also introduced in 2.18. The Aggregated versions of the Time series and Table widgets will look at all data that matches the current filter and period, and calculate the count/average/sum for the relevant numerical resource and collection of things at certain points in time and display the values either as a graph or a table.

Phone number/SMS enabled as an alternative for account verification at signup

In previous releases the user signup process have required verification using a valid email address. In 2.18, SMS (using a valid mobile phone number) has been added as an alternative verification method. The parameter that controls if email or SMS should be used for a specific customer instance is changed by Telenor Connexion on request. Email verification is used by default.

Added category to events generated by the rule engine

For events generated by the rule engine, a category label can now be added. The category of an event can be used e.g. control how the event should be interpreted by a third party system or code. Please note that the category of an event need to be set using the Rule API.

Removed possibility for read only users to acknowledge events

Starting with version 2.18, read only users will no longer be able to acknowledge events.

Removed the possibility for read only users to download certificates.

Starting with version 2.18, read only users will no longer be able to download Thing certificates.

Added API endpoint to set resource

In addition to the Thing API, that have always had this capability, the Cloud API (more specifically the Thing Management API) can now be used to set the value of resource(s).

Create things dialogue now include option to create 1 thing efficiently

The create things dialogue now includes an option to create 1 thing. If this option is used, the dialogue will allow the user to fill in all the fields available for the thing directly in the create dialogue.

The traditional batch mode variant of the dialogue (where only the number of things and the domain is filled in) is available as well.

Minor improvements and corrections

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

• Improved security logging.
• Fixed issue resulting in that, under certain circumstances, a user retained privileges after his/her domain was changed.
• Improved performance of filter functions in the App Board.

Version 2.17 (2017-10-05)

Important notices

Changes to the Observation API due to upgrade of Elasticsearch

A future release (2.18, tentatively planned 26/10) will deliver an upgrade of Elasticsearch from version 2.3 to 5.5. This will impact the Observation API, Thing API and Event API since these APIs allow developers to query Elasticsearch directly, and there are differences in the Elasticsearch query syntax between the two versions. Depending on how the above APIs are used for a specific application, updated queries might be required.

To facilitate migration activities, the two versions of Elastisearch will be available in production in parallel during an interim period. During this period, the active version can be selected for each stack individually.

If you are using the Elasticsearch query capability in the any of the APIs, you are kindly requested to contact Telenorconnexion for joint establishment of a migration plan.

Technical documentation available online

All technical documentation for Managed IoT Cloud, including API specifications, are available at https://docs.telenorconnexion.com/mic/

Features

New gauge aggregation widget in Thing Type dashboard

A new widget type is available in the Thing Type dashboard. The new widget is called Gauge Aggregation, and is used to visualize the sum/count/average of a specific resource for the collection of things of a specific type that match the current filter.

As a basis for the calculation, the latest reported data for each thing that matches the current filter is used. The aggregation widget is only available for resources that have the data type number.

Send SMS rule action

A new rule action that allow rules to send SMS’s has been added. The SMS rule action is configured by adding the SMS action to a rule, enter the telephone number(s) of the recipient(s) and define the text that should be sent as an SMS. The same syntax that is used for events and emails can be used for the SMS text, to include system data such as the thing and resource value for which the rule was triggered. The text can be maximum 160 characters. If the text is longer, it will be truncated at 148 characters and an ending text “…truncated” will be added to the SMS.

Please note that the SMS action is visible only if the Telenor Connexion SMSC service has been configured for your account. Please contact your Telenor Connexion representative if you would like SMS to be enabled for your MIC account.

Track historical position of thing in the Thing dashboards map widget

A new configuration parameter “Show historical trace” has been added to the map widget available in the thing dashboard.

If “no” is selected for this parameter, the latest reported position of the thing will be visualized in the map – corresponding to the functionality for this widget before this release.

If “yes” is selected, the widget will display the historical positions reported by the thing, interconnected by a line, on the map. With this setting, the data for the widget will not be updated in real time.

Please note that the number of data points simultaneously displayed in a map is limited to 100. If the current filter returns more observations, a label indicating that only the 100 latest values are displayed will be shown in the map.

Review of the status field in Thing filter

The status field in the Thing filter contains a number of predefined status flags. In this release, new status flags has been added and some of the old statuses has been renamed for clarity.

The new set of status flags and their definitions are covered in the following list.

• Offline - The thing have reported state and tcxn.connection_status = 0
• Offline (connectivity available) - The thing have reported state and tcxn.connection_status = 1. This status is used when the modem is connected but the thing/sensor itself is not connected. Previously this status was called “Cloud Online”.
• Online - The thing have reported state and tcxn.connection_status = 2
• Not yet connected - This means that the thing have never sent any data to MIC, its state is undefined.
• Unknown connection status - This means that the thing have reported state but the resource tcxn.connection_status has not been reported.
• All – includes all statuses above.

Thing markers in geographical filter map

The map that is used to define a geographical filter in the thing filter and in rules will now display thing markers to indicate the current position for relevant things. This gives the user context that is often helpful when defining a geographical filter.

Improved navigation in App Board

The App Board’s usage of the browser history has been reworked, and navigation using the browser’s back-button is now more user friendly.

Added API to create virtual resources

Virtual resources have existed since version 2.1, but they have only been possible to add through App Board.

Now we have added API support for creating virtual resources as part of the Resource API.

Added Events API to manage Events

In this release we add the Event API that is used to find and manage Events, both Rule Engine Events and Lifecycle Events.

We have also added type of Event. Type is Rule for Rule Engine Events and for Lifecycle Events the name of the Lifecycle Event is used (e.g. THING.CREATE).

Combining the Event API with Rule Engine and virtual resources brings a lot of powers to customers and partners. E.g .it can be used to create support for a trip in a fleet management solution. The start and stop of a trip are 2 events set by a rule and including data and timestamps to be able to fetch all reported positions (lat,lng) between start and stop and then visualizing the trip on a map, calculating the distance, average speed, duration, etc.

API support for specifying pre-defined Device IDs at thing creation

The Thing Management API has been extended to include the attribute “externalId”, which is optional and intended to be used for a unique ID of the device.

An example use case is to specify the pre-defined Device EUI for a LoRa device at Thing creating.

Added possibility to automatically create a user-specific domain at signup

This feature makes it possible to automatically create a sandbox domain for the user at signup and place the user in that domain.

Every user domain will be created as a subdomain to a main domain specified.

Added provisioning and protocol support for non-MQTT devices

We have created an adapter architecture to support non-MQTT devices. The architecture support plug-in adapters for almost any device protocol.

In this release we have added support for TCP-based protocols in general and implemented a specific TCP-based device protocol.

This is an additional feature, available on request.

Minor improvements and corrections

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

• Reduced size of App Board web page, giving faster loading of the application
• Review of permission model for Thing Update API
• Improved documentation of user sign up and authentication

Version 2.16 (2017-09-13)

Features

Improved Configurable Things lists

In this release we have added Last heard from (called LAST HEARD) as an available column option for the Things lists.

We have in addition made available virtual resources as column options.

Finally the order of the default columns are overlooked.

Default items (in order):

• THING NAME
• DOMAIN
• (TYPE - only shown in All Things List)
• LAST HEARD
• CREATED
• STATUS

Additional selectable information:

• THING ID
• DESCRIPTION

Support for Thing defined ID:s

We add support for Thing defined ID:s, which can be used in addition to the MIC Thing ID to identify a Thing, e.g. an ID set by the Thing HW/FW or by a 3rd party system.

Thing Management API is used to set the Thing defined ID (attribute called externalId).

Minor improvements and corrections

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

• Improved validation of domains to ensure a domain tree is never deeper than 6 levels below root (7 levels in total)
• We now prevent deleting a domain if it has associated Thing Types
• Removing a user’s phone number is now possible