Data service issue: Custom Connector with multiple connections/collections

Hi,

I am trying to build a custom connector that has multiple connections each with several collections.

Each collection is a device with multiple data points. Several devices have the same data points definations (see meta data attached - copied as received from the connector in the IE Flow creator). I added the connector to the Dataservice. The connector shows as connected and healthy but all the variables are not available.

Basically if different collections have the same datapoint name (even if the ids are different) only the first one gets picked up and the variable name does not include the reference to the collection only the connection is reference see snapshot:

Any ideas why this might be happening? I would expect the variables to have the following name: App01/Dev01/Var1 , App01/Dev02/Var1

for the example above, I only have a single Var1 in the dataservice variables as App01/Var1

Hi saad_ahmad172,

Edit: I was wrong about what I wrote below, I found out that the way you did it should also work. I'll look into it again. Still, what I described below might serve as a workaround in the meantime. I'll keep you posted!

I checked your metadata and found that the structure is slightly off, which probably led to the behavior that you described:

You created several entries in the "dataPoints" arrays in the "connections" array, but what you need to do to create several data point collections within one connector is to create an entry directly in the "connections" - array for each of the data point groups. Here's a screenshot to show what I mean:

On the right you can see your metadata and on the left the corrections that I made. I'm also attaching the corrected version of the metadata for your reference.

I hope this helps you get it working!

Best,

Tobias

 Hi Tobias,

Thank you for the response - I agree, your suggested solution will work but unfortunately I need to have multiple collections within each connection. While the example shown has only one connection defined (App01) eventually it will have multiple connections. It'd be great if you can suggest a solution for the required application.

Thank you for your support,

Saad

AutoGen_8005207

Hi saad_ahmad172,

Edit: I was wrong about what I wrote below, I found out that the way you did it should also work. I'll look into it again. Still, what I described below might serve as a workaround in the meantime. I'll keep you posted!

I checked your metadata and found that the structure is slightly off, which probably led to the behavior that you described:

You created several entries in the "dataPoints" arrays in the "connections" array, but what you need to do to create several data point collections within one connector is to create an entry directly in the "connections" - array for each of the data point groups. Here's a screenshot to show what I mean:

On the right you can see your metadata and on the left the corrections that I made. I'm also attaching the corrected version of the metadata for your reference.

I hope this helps you get it working!

Best,

Tobias

Hi Saad,

Sorry for taking so long to reply. I took a closer look at this topic and unfortunately it seems that what you are describing is intended behavior:

In our General Payload Specification, it is stated that the name of a data point is "[only] unique within a connection". This means that, in a case like this, where there are several collections within a connection, the data point names would have to be unique...

My suggestion is to include the collection name of your data point in its name if that is something you can do in your app. What I can also offer you is that I can take this with me as a feature request, but in that case I can not guarantee if and when it will be implemented.

I wish you a nice weekend anyways!

Best,

Tobias

Hi,

Thank you very much for getting back to me on this. I think it would be a worthwhile feature to have but in the short term I will take your recommendation and add the connection name to the collection datapoints to keep them uniquie.

Regards,

Saad