🌐 **Seamless Connection at Scale!**

[youri.regnaud]

When we think of connecting similar equipment, it’s like fitting puzzle pieces together . The fewer modifications we make to our tools in the acquisition chain, right from the equipment to the Tulip platform, the smoother the process becomes.

Here’s a close look with an example:
Imagine you’ve got equipment that communicates using the MQTT protocol . The beauty of this? Most of these equipment types have the same payload format! And the machine’s name? It’s sneakily embedded in the MQTT topic’s structure .

For this deep dive, I’m hopping onto the FlowForge platform and using Node-RED . It helps me latch onto those MQTT messages and morph them into the format that Tulip loves (specifically, the /attributes/report endpoint).

But wait, there’s a tiny hiccup ! Tulip expects us to feed it the MachineId and AttributeId identifiers. Since attributes don’t change much, let’s zoom into MachinesId.

Here’s how the magic happens in NodeRed:

1. Right off the bat, or whenever we wish, we summon the API (/machines) to grab those machine names and unique IDs .
2. With a sprinkle of JSONata magic, we reshape this data . The result? A nifty mapping of MachineName to MachineId, safely stored as a context variable.
3. Every time our machines chirp with an MQTT message , a JS script hunts down the MachineId using the machine’s name.
4. A function then takes this MQTT message and crafts it into the JSON format Tulip eagerly waits for .
5. Finally, I employ the HTTP request node to dispatch several attribute values simultaneously .

The cherry on top ? When a new machine enters the scene, all I do is introduce it to Tulip, link it to the Tulip API, and voila! No more fiddling in the NodeRed flow or with the machine’s connection.

An Insight:
This entire journey showcases the might of the MQTT protocol when scaling up. But it also shines a light on the tiny hurdles of transitioning from MQTT to REST. If only Tulip and MQTT could speak the same language, scaling would be a breeze .

For the curious minds, in this scenario, I’m working with the ProGlove Mark Display equipment, which we’re gearing up to roll out big time .

I’m all ears for your feedback and insights! Let’s make this even better together

[mellerbeck]

yes, native MQTT please !