📑Manage Your Account
This section contains some basic information about your profile and account settings, payment options, as well as guidelines on creating, sharing, and copying your data pods and swarms.
Last updated
This section contains some basic information about your profile and account settings, payment options, as well as guidelines on creating, sharing, and copying your data pods and swarms.
Last updated
To create an account for the Record Evolution platform, sign up here.
You can sign up with your GitHub or Google account or by entering your email address. On setting up your account, you will be asked to create a password.
Within the Record Evolution digital ecosystem, you access a data studio covering data extraction, analytics, and data visualization and an IoT development studio covering device management and app development.
After signup, you are redirected to your personal homepage on the Record Evolution platform.
Logging in, you enter your personalized homepage. From here, you access your personal user profile, a display of all data pods, devices, and apps created or accessed by you, as well as your user settings:
Your search and filter options
On the left-hand side of your personal homepage, right below your profile card, you acces the following buttons:
Explore: showing content accessible without signing up;
Data Studio: showing a list of all your data pods;
Devices: showing a list of all your device swarms;
App Studio: a quick access to the platform's cloud IDE;
Search: allowing you to locate public assets or users within the platform;
Documentation: taking you to the platform documentation page.
App Store: a quick access to the public IoT app store.
On the right-hand side, you have the following:
ADD DATA POD / ADD DEVICE SWARM / ADD IOT APP: allowing you to create a new data pod with or without a full set of demo data, a new swarm or a new IoT app;
All: giving you an overview of all data pods, device swarms or apps created by you and/or to which you have been invited to collaborate;
Shared Pods / Shared Swarms / Shared IoT Apps: all data pods, swarms or apps to which you have been granted access or in which you have been invited to collaborate;
My Pods / My Swarms / My Apps: a list of all data pods, swarms or apps created by you.
Switching between data pods, swarms, and apps
Click on Devices to get directly to the IoT development studio. This takes you to an environment where you create device swarms - compact IoT orchestration hubs for IoT device management.
Click on Data Studio to get directly to the data science studio. This takes you to an environment where you create data pods - lightweight data warehouses covering data extraction, data analytics, and visualization.
Click on App Studio to get to your application development environment.
Click on App Store to get to the list of all publicly available published IoT apps on the platform.
Click on data pods. On the right-hand side, you see a display of all data pods that have been created with your account, the data pods to which you have been invited to collaborate, and the public pods you are following:
Let's have a closer look at the data pods from this list. Each card provides information on the following:
the name of the data pod;
the name of the user owning the data pod;
a short publicly available description of the data pod;
the current state of the data pod (STOPPED if inactive, STARTING if currently being activated or RUNNING if currently active);
the type of user access allowed for this data pod - public or private (viewer, developer, owner or admin).
Click on Devices. On the right-hand side, you see all device swarms that have been created with your account, the device swarms to which you have been invited to collaborate, and the public device swarms you are following:
Each card provides information on the following:
the name of the device swarm;
the name of swarm owner;
a short publicly available description;
the type of user access for this swarm - public or private;
the number of users who have added the swarm to their Favorites list.
To change your account settings, go to the icon in the upper right-hand corner of your personal homepage.
Double-clicking on this icon displays the settings menu. From here, you can edit your settings, change your email and password, manage your payment options and invoices, or remove your account:
Click on each card to unfold and modify your settings.
You access and edit your profile information from the upper right-hand corner of your personal homepage on the Record Evolution platform.
In the profile & settings card, you can provide publicly available information such as your name, public website, GitHub or social media account, as well as a short description that will be visible to other users as part of your public profile card.
In the next collapsible panel, you change your email address. Click on Apply to confirm your changes. For security reasons, changing your password or email is only possible within 120 seconds after login with your current username and password.
If you have spent more than 120 seconds within your account and want to change your email, you need to log out first. The logout button is located at the bottom of the settings menu.
You can change your password in the third collapsible panel called Password:
Click on Apply to reconfirm your changes.
For security reasons, if you have spent more than 120 seconds within your account and you want to change your password, you need to log out first. The logout button is located at the bottom of the settings menu.
To delete your account, access the panel My Account and select Delete Account. You will need to confirm this action by entering your password.
Upon confirmation, the account will be permanently deleted, including all of your swarms, devices, data pods, data, workbook content, etc.
If you have contributed content to other data pods, swarms, or to the app store, this content will remain unaffected by this action.
If you wish to request deletion of your data in accordance with GDPR, refer to our Privacy Policy. If in doubt, do not hesitate to contact us in person.
To enter your payment details, access your profile settings. The payment card will look like this:
Click on Apply to save your changes. When you enter your billing details, the entity you enter will be the billed entity.
When providing services to a business in a country other than Germany, the reverse charge rule will be applied. The reverse charge rule shifts the responsibility for the recording of a VAT transaction from the vendor to the customer. This means that taxes are not included in our customers’ invoices. It is the customer’s responsibility to meet their local tax obligations.
Payments are processed using an external payment service provider. No credit card details are stored on our servers. For more information, refer to our Security Statement.
For additional details, please refer to our Terms and Conditions. The German version of our Terms and Conditions is the legally binding version.
To view your invoice and budgeting history, go to the next collapsible panel Invoices and Budget in your profile card:
Here you can set up a monthly budgeting alert. This is how you get notifications every time you exceed a certain pre-defined budget amount or a percentage of the budget amount.
You also have a complete overview of your current billing status and a summary of your billing history.
The Record Evolution platform employs a usage-based pricing model offering a free tier.
The billable assets of the platform are the compute resources for the data pods and the app days for the swarms.
Free data pod
You can create a free data pod with the following parameters:
memory 1 GB;
storage 0.5 GB;
network 5 GB per month;
CPU of up to 0.5.
Your free data pod stays free.
If your free pod gets too small, you can switch to a paid plan and upscale without losing data.
Free swarm
Within a free swarm, you can:
connect an unlimited number of IoT devices;
invite an unlimited number of collaborators;
build an unlimited number of IoT apps;
use up to 150 app days for free.
Your free swarm stays free.
An app day is generated whenever one IoT app is executed on one device on one day. Example: Running 2 apps on 5 devices for a month would accrue 5x2x30=300 app days.
If you need more app days, you can switch to the paid version instantly while keeping your account and all your assets.
To modify the usage-based resorces for your data pod, you have to stop your pod first by clicking the Stop button.
Now click on your pod name to get to the overview panel. From here, go to Product.
The first collapsible panel displays the current status of your product. This includes the percentage of your storage that you have used up so far plus a breakdown of memory, CPU, and storage usage:
The second collapsible panel, Change Product, is where you modify your resource consumption settings.
You can opt for usage-based pricing, entering your own CPU, memory, storage and network values so that you only pay for what you use:
With the usage-based product settings, you can freely scale your infrastructure from fractions of one CPU core to dozens of cores in a few seconds. Many of the internal system parameters of the data pod are tied to the number of CPU cores and to the memory capacity you select.
Click on Change Product to confirm your changes. The modification will be effective immediately.
By clicking the button Request Enterprise Deal, you can also make an individual request. You are redirected to a contact form to request a deal specifically tailored to your case. The enterprise deal is subject to an individual agreement.
Parallel job executions and multi-user access to the data pod can be enhanced by increasing the pod’s available memory.
To create a new data pod, access your homepage and go to Data Pods. Now click on ADD DATA POD.
A pop-up window is displayed in a second step:
Select Install Demo Data to load your Pod with a set of demo data to help you get started.
It may take several seconds to set up your infrastructure. Once the pod is done loading, click on the data pod card to enter it.
To share your data pod with others or modify your privacy settings, go to Share in the overview panel.
The first collapsible panel Public/Private will be displayed as follows:
Here you have the option to make this a private Pod or enable others to copy your pod.
Leaving out the box Private Pod makes your data pod public by default.
Ticking off the box Private Pod makes the pod accessible to third parties only if they are explicitly invited by you.
Choosing to make this asset private unlocks two additional options:
If you select the option In Your Account, users with admin privileges will be able to copy the data pod into your account. The costs associated with the copied data pod will be charged to your account.
If you select the option In Their Account, any user can copy this data pod into their account. The costs of the copied data pod will be charged to their account.
Click on Apply to confirm your changes.
A public data pod is a pod that allows users to view its contents without explicit invitation.
If a data pod is set to public, you can find it by searching for it in the search bar at the top of the page or by obtaining a link to that specific data pod from elsewhere. The data pod vcard, as displayed on your homepage, reveals some basic information about its owner and contents.
The data pod owner or administrator assigns user privileges for each invited user and sets default privileges for public users.
These data pods are secured against external access. Unless you are an invited user of private data pods, you cannot see them anywhere within or outside the platform as they do not appear in search results and cannot be linked.
Third-party access to a private data pod is by invitation only.
Your data pod will be publicly visible if you do not mark it private here. If you choose to make your data pod public, you can adjust the level of third-party access to your pod in the section Pod Privileges.
The default privilege is admin.
To invite collaborators or assign user privileges, you first need to stop your pod. Use the orange button displayed in the upper left-hand area of your homepage. Now enter your pod, go to the Overview panel, and then go to Share.
Click on Invite Others and run a search for a specific user name:
Select the users you want to invite from the search results list below. Click on Invite to confirm.
You can only become a user of a private pod if the owner or administrator of the data pod invites you to their space and you accept the invitation.
If a data pod is public, you can find it by searching for it using the Search option on your homepage or by obtaining a link to that specific pod from elsewhere.
The data pod vcard as displayed on your homepage reveals some basic information about the pod. If the pod is public, you may enter.
The scope of the privileges you will have as a user depends on the default privileges that have been set by the data pod’s administrator. Currently, the default privilege is admin.
Visibility of private data pods
These data pods are completely private and secured against external access.
To access your pod settings, enter your data pod and go to the Overview panel. Now go to Settings. The Settings panel will be displayed as follows:
To save resources, especially in the context of usage-based plans, you can set up an autostop for your data pods.
The autostop function stops the data pod when the pod has had no user interaction for a given number of minutes.
Go to Settings to activate the autostop function:
After several seconds of inactivity, the data pod will stop and will, therefore, no longer consume CPU and memory resources. The storage resources will be retained.
You can restart the data pod manually at any time to continue working where you left off.
Within the context of this autostop function, activity encompasses all backend requests triggered by user interaction in a browser (e.g. executing queries in the browser). Active IoT imports, web imports, S3 poll rules or SFTP poll rules are not considered an activity and will not prevent the data pod from stopping. If you start the data pod again, these import types will resume their function immediately.
In the case of free data pods, the autostop function is set at a default period of 30 minutes and cannot be edited.
To create backups and restore your data pod from backup, go to Backup Restore & Copy, pick a new pod name to be created within your account, and hit Restore Copy:
You can copy a data pod. This copy will contain the same table of contents, procedures, and settings as the original pod. This does not entail an automatic transfer of the users’ privileges of the original pod, however.
Depending on the settings made by the pod’s owner, you can either create a pod into your account or the account of the original owner.
To copy a pod, you first need to stop the data pod. Go to Settings, click on Copy to expand, and enter the name of your new pod.
Note that a copied pod has the status of a separate, independent pod. All costs incurred by the usage of the copied data pod will be billed to the owner of this new pod.
You can rename your data pod in the next collapsible panel:
Renaming will break all existing links to the data pod. To rename, you need to stop your data pod first.
The last collapsible panel is where you can delete your data pod:
To perform this action, you need to stop your data pod first. Type in the data pod name and hit Destroy.
Note that this action is irreversible. All backups will be destroyed together with the original data pod.
To create a new swarm, go to your homepage and hit Devices. Click on ADD DEVICE SWARM right next to your profile card.
A pop-up window is displayed in a second step. Here you enter the name of your new swarm and add a short description to get started. Swarm settings such as access privileges and swarm-related information are added from Settings:
Once you have created your swarm, it will be displayed on your homepage immediately, as part of the list of all other swarms to which you are contributing.
Click on the swarm card to enter your swarm. Below is an example:
This is your basic device management environment where you add new IoT devices to your swarm, build device groups, install apps on devices, and have an overview of all your device locations.
Note that, at this stage, you have no connected devices and no device groups.
This is where you manage the settings of your entire swarm. As a creator of this swarm, you are automatically granted the full range of access privileges and can assign access privileges to other users.
In Swarm information, you can modify the name of your swarm and add a short swarm description that will be featured on your public swarm card, if you choose to make your swarm public. You can also retrieve the exact time of creation from here:
In the section Swarm Privileges, you can assign privileges to other users to collaborate on your swarm.
For more information, go to Privilege Structure.
You have the option to make this a private swarm to work in a completely walled-off environment or make it public to enable others to view your swarm.
A public swarm is a swarm that allows users to view its contents without explicit invitation.
If a swarm is public, you can find it by searching for it via the search bar on your homepage or by obtaining a link to that specific swarm from elsewhere. The swarm vcard, as displayed on your homepage, reveals some basic information about the swarm.
Public swarms come with read privileges by default. To perform any actions within that swarm, you need to obtain additional user privileges from the swarm owner or a swarm administrator who has been assigned grant privileges.
Select OPEN ACCESS to make your swarm public.
These swarms are completely private and secured against external access. Unless you are an invited user of private swarms, you cannot see them anywhere within or outside the platform as they do not appear in search results and cannot be linked.
As a rule of thumb, if you want to enter a swarm created by another user and view and/or modify its contents, you need to become a user of that swarm. You can become a user by invitation only. To enter a private swarm, you have to be assigned at least read privileges.
Remove the Public option to make this swarm private.
To start collaborating with others within your swarm, you need to share it. You can do so by inviting other users of the platform to your swarm. Only users with an active account can be collaborators on your swarm.
To invite collaborators, go to Settings and then to the Swarm Privileges panel. Click on Invite Users to run a search for a specific user name on the platform. Once you have found the user with whom you wish to collaborate, tick off the privileges you wish to grant to that user, and click Invite to confirm.
Once the user has been notified and has accepted the invitation, their name will appear on the list of Privileged Users below together with an overview of all the actions they can perform on that swarm. Now you are ready to collaborate within that particular swarm.
You can assign a variety of roles for the users with whom you want to share your swarm, choosing from update, create device, create group, grant privileges, and delete privileges. User privileges can be assigned on the level of each asset type: swarm, IoT device, device group, app.
You can only become a user of a swarm created by others if the owner or administrator of the swarm invites you to their space and you accept the invitation.
To modify the privileges of your own swarms and/or any of your swarm assets, go to your homepage displaying all of your swarms, select the swarm you need to modify, enter it, and click on the swarm settings button.
For more information on the privilege structure within your swarm, go to Assign User Privileges.
Now that you have set up your account and have created your first swarm and data pod, you are ready to go to the next sections.
For swarms, go to Manage Your Devices and Develop Your Applications. There, you will learn how to add devices to your swarm, use the app development environment, and add releases.
For data pods, go to the sections Data Sources and Raw Data Import. There, you will learn how to create connections to your data sources and import data into the platform.
If you have any questions or if you encounter any issues, our support team is here to help.
