Rules

This page describes the basic principle and functionality of rules

Rules allow applying business logic to incoming data in order to trigger actions or alarm notifications.

Common use cases

• Trigger alarms based on defined conditions/thresholds and inform users via different channels (i.e. Mail, SMS, Microsoft Teams, Slack)

• Trigger or configure devices via Downlink based on a rule condition

• Trigger REST API calls to external systems based on some condition using Webhooks

Main features

• Real-time alerting: Trigger an alert if an important event in the physical world happens

• Data-management: Only store or forward data based on certain business logic

• Device commands: send downlinks from the cloud to IoT devices based on business logic

• Rule timer: Run rule every x hour or x minute

Rules consist of three components: Input, Logic, and Action. Rule inputs define which devices provide the data to be used, the rule logic defines the condition to be applied to the data and the rule actions define which action is triggered if the condition is met.

The sections can be freely linked to each other by using the dots. Clicking on them reveals the possible destination. After the assignment, a blue line will indicate which blocks are linked to each other.

The input section is used to define one or more inputs that will trigger the logic. Inputs are devices that have sent a data sample to akenza which in turn triggers the logic block.

Additionally, a tag can be selected as rule input, which will trigger the Rule Logic for all devices which have the respective tag assigned.

The Comparison Rule Logic allows comparing device data to either a constant value, a past value (last sample) of the same device, or a past value from another device. Based on the result of the comparison a rule action is triggered. By adding one or several data sources and conditions, a rule logic can be easily extended. A Custom Logic Block allows defining a script in Javascript that is evaluated upon the rule trigger. Custom Logic Blocks are managed on the organization level.

The action section is used to define the action which is taken after the condition in the logic section is evaluated to true. Once the rule is saved, the actions can be re-used in other rules.

Rule setup

Rules which are deactivated will not be triggered upon new data.