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MAP IoT Entities – Introduction

MAP IoT Entities – an Introduction

MAP IoT Entities give you control on how to turn raw data from a sensor, device or …anything, into the analytics you want. Entities include Raw Items and Calc Items and both are contained in an Entity Template. This Entity Template is called as often as you want by importing configuration files. These config files include names and properties of the Entity and the properties for the Raw and Calc Items. On import, the Entity Template creates the Entity and the Raw and Calc Items and immediately starts processing any raw data that is available.

This is the first of several articles that we will write on how to use MAP IoT Entities to deliver your IoT application.

What are MAP IoT Entities?

Raw Items
A Raw Item contains the raw data that you upload into MAP. Raw data contains any Data Type that you want. If we don’t support the Data Type already (we support quite a range) then you can create your own Data Type – article on Data Types.

Calculated Items
A Calc Item contains the metrics that you want to create using your raw data. Rather than create all your analytics in one complex algorithm, our experience is that it it is easier, more flexible and quicker to create a number of seperate Calc Items that each do a specific part of the analytics.

A core module of MAP is the Invalidator. This continually monitors the calculation time of all Items in MAP and dynamically builds a dependency tree of all Items. By defining the type of invalidation relevant to your Calc Item, you control when and how frequently your Items are updated and re-calculated. The default mode is to invalidate on change of latest calculation time. So, if the latest calculation time of a Raw or Calc Item in the Dependency Tree changes then other Calc Items that are dependent on that Item will automatically recalculate.

What this means in practice is:

  • Step 1. New raw data is uploaded into a Raw Item in an Entity
  • Step 2. All Calc Items that depend on the Raw Item or any child Calc Item are also recalculated
  • Step 3. This all happens in seconds

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    Why use MAP IoT Entities – what are the benefits?

    The key reason is simplicity. They are easy to use, easy to set up and offer a lot of flexibility.

    MAP is an integrated stack so we do all the complicated plumbing required to deliver the calculated metrics you want. So, all a developer needs to consider is:

  • 1. How to upload raw data from their device to MAP (API call or file drop are the best)
  • 2. How to extract data from MAP for use in their application/dashboard/UI (API call is best)

    • That’s it – MAP takes care of everything else!

    What is MAP?

    MAP stands for the Meniscus Analytics Platform and is MAP is our IOT Analytics Platform for delivering solutions at scale and at speed. It is an Integrated Analytics Stack so you can develop your solutions quicker and easier.

    More information on MAP IoT
    More information on MAP