Getting Started
As a collaborative IoT development studio, the Record Evolution platform differentiates between a variety of levels of operation, starting from an individual IoT device and individual IoT apps.
Last updated
As a collaborative IoT development studio, the Record Evolution platform differentiates between a variety of levels of operation, starting from an individual IoT device and individual IoT apps.
Last updated
Below are some basic definitions to help you navigate through the platform ecosystem:
A swarm is your basic, compact, fully autonomous IoT development environment on the Record Evolution platform. A swarm consists of a set of IoT devices, the applications to be used on these devices, all device and app settings, as well as the privilege structure specific to the assets of that swarm.
Each user can create multiple swarms. These swarms remain fully independent from one another. Different swarms owned by the same user can have different numbers of IoT devices, different device groups, and completely different apps. Assets such as apps and IoT devices cannot be shared across swarms, nor can user privileges be transferred from swarm to swarm.
This is an individual connected device powered by container technology and running on a Linux operating system. You add and manage IoT devices from within your swarm. Once you have established a connection between the IoT device and the platform, you can assign the IoT device to device groups, program apps directly on the IoT device and deploy these apps over the air.
The IoT device level gives you an overview of the device location/coordinates, device ID, point in time when the connection to the IoT device was created, device groups to which the IoT device is assigned, and an overview of the corresponding architecture. Each IoT device has a device panel from where you access and monitor the apps and the development containers running on the IoT device.
IoT devices within a group function like a swarm - they operate on the logic assigned to the device group.
This is the level where IoT devices become part of larger structures. Applying basic tagging, you assign different IoT devices to user-generated device groups. IoT devices can belong to just one or to more than one device groups. Publishing apps, releases, updates, and privilege assignments then takes place at the device group level, affecting all IoT devices within a group.
On the device group level, you view, monitor, and change the status of existing apps running on all IoT devices belonging to that group. You install, deploy, and update new apps on the level of the device group. From here you also monitor the connectivity history of individual devices within the group, assign user privileges, or perform maintenance tasks on the device group level.
Within the platform ecosystem, an app is an application that is under development, together with its entire update history.
You create apps in the integrated development environment using any programming language. Once an app is created, you get an app settings panel where you access basic app information such as name, date of creation, custom app description, and app version. From here, you publish your app intended for deployment, unpublish, or destroy. You also get an overview of your app logs and releases. User privileges on the app level can be assigned from this panel.
This is an app that is ready for use in production or is already deployed. A release constitutes a snapshot of an app at a specific point in time, as prepared for use in production or as deployed.
Pick your favorite programming language and get some basic understanding of Docker to create apps for your swarm. Also, you need at least one Docker-capable device to run your app on (hint: you can simply use a Raspberry Pi).
Quick start:
Click on Add Swarm and name your first swarm;
Within your swarm, click on NEW DEVICE to connect a device to the platform;
Click on App Studio and then click on CREATE APP to enter your autonomous IoT development environment
Click on Apps to get to the open-access applications in the IoT app store and install some of them on your devices.
If ready to get started, go to the next sections to find out how to add devices to your swarm, use the app development environment, and add releases.
Any questions at this stage? Our support team is here to help.
