Asset Templates¶
Overview¶
Asset Templates provide a way to create more assets with the same asset configuration, either as a starting point or for applications where the assets are always the same.
Templates provide the following functionality:
- Creating new assets using a template
- Create new versions of the template
- Migrate existing assets to new versions or other templates
Asset Templates include:
Creating and Updating Asset Templates¶
Asset Templates use an existing Asset as the starter for the template. Creating an asset template is as easy as selecting the SAVE TEMPLATE button in the upper right corner of the Asset Configuration page for the Asset to be used as the starting reference.
You can create a template in the following ways:
- Create a template from an existing asset: This will create a copy of the original
- Create from scratch
- Create using a file: You can download an asset config file from any asset in the Asset Modify area.
If you return to asset configuration and make a change, you can update the template with a new version number. The same save button changes to include the version number. In the case below, Wind Turbine - 01 is a template at version 2. If you select the button SAVE TEMPLATE (V3), a new version 3 of the template will be saved.
Using Asset Templates¶
Create an Asset with a Template¶
- Select Templates from the left menu.
- Select the desired template.
- Select action (+) button, or the three dot menu and then "Create Asset From Template".
Device Filtering Requirements For Using a Template¶
Devices will be filtered based on a requirement that they must have at least one channel matching each data type of signal in the Asset Template
For example:
If an Asset Template requires 3 Pressure Signals, the list of devices available to use as a source for a new Asset will be limited based on having at least 1 pressure channel defined. Note that if the template also had a Temperature Signal, the filter would further limit the list of available devices that also have at least one Temperature channel.
Device Channel to Signal Data Flow Requirements¶
For the new Asset signals to receive data from the device channels, the channel IDs from the source device must be the same as the Template's original source device's channels. Note that this is not validated when creating the new asset using the template and a source device.
Example:
If the Asset Template's source device has a pressure channel reporting as id '001', any new assets created using this template, must have a device with the pressure channel reporting as id '001' to work.
Managing Asset Templates¶
For each template, you can view each version including
- Details - the signals included in the template
- Used By - list of the assets that use the template
- Date and time the version was created
- How many assets use that version
Dashboards in templates¶
The dashboards in the asset template version will be available and locked for all assets using that version of the template.
Assets created from a template with dashboards can also add/edit their own custom dashboards.
Metadata in templates¶
Metadata fields and optional values (metadata is a key/value pair) can be set in your asset template. These will apply to all assets using that version of the template.
| Meta Field | Value | How it applies to the assets |
|---|---|---|
| Specified | Specified | The assets using this template version will have both metadata field and value locked |
| Specified | Not Specified | The assets using this template version will have the metadata field, but the value can be edited per asset |
Assets created from a template with metadata fields can also add their own custom metadata fields and values.
Subsystems in templates¶
If the template version contains subsystems, the subsystems (name, tag color, icon, dashboard) will also be applied to all assets tied to that version of the template.
Assets created from a template with Subsystems can not add their own custom subsystems.