Asset

Forms can be used to display one of more topic values. For example, the topic asset.hvac.bosch.pressure can be displayed as a gauge and asset.hvac.bosch.thermostat can be displayed as a slider so that users can control the value with a graphical user interface instead of typing a value. Forms are a convenient interface for managing asset information. They can include static information such as a name or serial number, dynamic information obtained from IoT sensors such as temperature, controls such as sliders and switches to set values and documents such as photos and PDFs.

Object

All topics that belong to the same parent topic can be displayed in a form. The example below shows a form for the main topic asset.hvac.bosch with subtopics such as asset.hvav.bosch.photo and asset.hvac.bosch.temperature. To show topics in a form you select the item Objects from the navigation menu instead of Topics. In the search bar you can enter a keyword like bosch and all topics that includes this string are loaded from the server and collapsed under a single item. To open the form click on the item. The system will search for a form that has a name of any of the sub topics, in this case the form with name hvac or HVAC.

The form has two pages. The first page shows two gauges to display pressure and temperature. These actual values can be obtained by making a real time connection to the device using an importers. The first page also includes a slider to set the thermostat. When moving the slider a command is sent to the actual device to increase or decrease the temperature. The second page shows additional information such as a PDF document and instructions in case of a low pressure warning.

Definition

The form below shows how gauges are defined. A gauge has two or more ranges with a color. For example, a green color means that the value in in the normal range. You can optionally specify a decimal formatting pattern and a unit. The second page has a control for showing a document and markup text.

HVAC

Reference
|4

Name
|4

Serial
|4

Photo

Display

Pressure
[0|2:white,2|3:green,3|4:red 0.0 Bar]

Temperature
[0|15:blue,15|18:yellow,19|21:green,22|27:red 0.0 C]

Thermostat
[15|25 C]

-->

Purchased
[YY-MM-DD]
|6


Warranty
[YY-MM-DD]
|6

Invoice
[document]

Instructions
[markdown]

Edit data

By default the fields on the form are read-only. To make changes select edit from the detail menu or click on the edit icon. All fields are now editable and extra controls such as for setting the date or selecting a document are visible. The text of the markdown field can be edited.

Edit form

To add or remove fiels to the form select the item Form from the detail dropdown menu. This opens the form editor and you can add, delete or change fields. If you add a new field like Maintenence a new topic asset.hvac.bosch.maintenance is created when you save the form, edit the object and enter a date. Since each field is stored as a seperate topic in the database you can quickly extend the amount of information you want to store about a type of object without having to add fields to a database such as in traditional asset management systems.