Export to IBM Watson (Deprecated)

Overview

The IBM Watson™ IoT Platform is a service offered by IBM Cloud. As an IBM Cloud service, Watson IoT Platform can be integrated with other services that are hosted on IBM Cloud. You could register and connect their device, be it a sensor, or a gateway, to Watson IoT Platform and start sending data securely up to the cloud using the open, lightweight MQTT messaging protocol. The following example will describe how you could register your gateway deployed with Edge Xpert to IBM Watson IoT Platform and then configure an Application Configurable Service to export EdgeX events to IBM Watson IoT Platform via MQTT protocol.

Prerequisite

1. An IBM Cloud account
2. A Watson IoT platform service
3. Register your device to IBM Watson IoT Platform
4. Understand Edge Xpert Application Service
5. Launch Edge Xpert core services

Sample Configuration

The following code defines the pipeline function XpertMQTTExport:

[Writable.Pipeline.Functions.XpertMQTTExport]
  [Writable.Pipeline.Functions.XpertMQTTExport.Parameters]
  ExportMode = "IBMWatson"
  BrokerAddress = "tcps://{org_id}.messaging.internetofthings.ibmcloud.com:8883"
  Topic = "iot-2/evt/{event_id}/fmt/{formatstring}"
  ClientID = "d:{org_id}:{device_type}:{device_id}"
  SecretPath = "watson"
  Qos = "0"
  Retain = "false"
  AutoReconnect = "true"
  SkipVerify = "false"
  PersistOnError = "false"

The following table describes the configuration parameters used to define the pipeline function XpertMQTTExport:

tcps://{org_id}.messaging.internetofthings.ibmcloud.com:8883

iot-2/evt/_eventid/fmt/_formatstring

Configure an Application service to export events to Watson IoT Platform

1. By end of step 3 in Prerequisite, you shall expect to obtain Organization ID,Device type, Device ID, Authentication method, and Authentication token as shown below: Keep a note on these information, as customers will need these information to authenticate with Watson IoT Platform.

2. Edge Xpert provides a proprietary built-in function XpertMQTTExport to send the events to IBM Watson IoT Platform via MQTT, and a sample configuration is provided with Edge Xpert CLI utility. Once you completes the installation of Edge Xpert CLI utility, the sample configuration is available at /usr/share/edgexpert/examples/app-configurable/ibmwatson-mqtt-export/configuration-insecure.toml. Copy and save the sample configuration file as a separate file, e.g. ibmwatson-mqtt-export.toml, and then revise this configuration per the Organization ID, Device type, Device ID, Authentication method, and Authentication token as obtained from the step 3 of Prerequisite.
   For example, if you have device credentials: Organization ID: 3wrbbc, Device Type: edgex, Device ID: test01, Authentication Method: use-token-auth, Authentication Token: K*&WB2!9nvY*NG-kzF, user shall revise XpertMQTTExport with following parameters: (More configuration details will be described in the next section.)

   [Writable.Pipeline.Functions.XpertMQTTExport]
     [Writable.Pipeline.Functions.XpertMQTTExport.Parameters]
     ExportMode = "IBMWatson"
     BrokerAddress = "tcps://3wrbbc.messaging.internetofthings.ibmcloud.com:8883"
     Topic = "iot-2/evt/mesaage123/fmt/JSON"
     ClientID = "d:3wrbbc:edgex:test01"
     SecretPath = "watson"
     Qos = "0"
     Retain = "false"
     AutoReconnect = "true"
     SkipVerify = "false"
     PersistOnError = "false"
   

   
   

   If you would like to launch the application service under secure mode, you have to add username, and password into secret store. Please refer to EdgeX Foundry Storing Secrets for details about adding secrets into secret store. If you would like to launch the application service under insecure mode, you should revise Writable.InsecureSecrets.watson configuration as shown below:

   [Writable.InsecureSecrets.watson]
     path = 'watson'
     [Writable.InsecureSecrets.watson.Secrets]
         username = 'use-token-auth'
         password = 'K*&WB2!9nvY*NG-kzF'
         cacert = ''
         clientcert = ''
         clientkey = ''
   

3. Once configuration is ready, launch an application service with the following commands:

   # Under secure mode
   $ edgexpert up --secret app-service --path=<path your confgiuration file>
   
   # Under insecure mode
   $ edgexpert up app-service --path=<path your confgiuration file>
   

4. Now, an application service is up and ready to export events to IBM Watson IoT Platform. To simulate the device sending readings from southbound, we could start up virtual device service:

   # Under secure mode
   $ edgexpert up --secret device-virtual
   
   # Under insecure mode
   $ edgexpert up device-virtual
   

5. To monitor those events being published to IBM Watson IoT Platform, customers could go to their Watson IoT Platform dashboard, select Devices > >Recent Events