Features

An AppBlocks application contains features that we have designed to help with creating your application. These features include:

• Device monitoring and management (Bluetooth Mobile App, Web Dashboard, DS Manager)
• Simplified hardware communications (GPIO, modbus, I2C, SPI)
• Device Configuration (Settings)
• Data Storage (Datatables)
• Device connectivity (MQTT, HTTP)

A device's features are configured at device boot.

Features can be enabled and disabled at the application level. These include services and configurations such as SNTP, MQTT, and WiFi.

Properties

Features are configured with properties. The values of these properties define the runtime behavior of the device. For example, the MQTT feature has a property called MQTT Server that defines the MQTT broker to connect to.

Linking Properties to Settings

Property values can be hard coded at the application level, or linked to settings. When linked to settings, the property value will be set to the value of the setting at runtime.

Refer to this tutorial for an example on linking settings.

Exposing Settings

To change the value of a setting at runtime, the setting must be exposed. Exposing a setting makes it available to be changed via the device's Web Dashboard, LUIS Mobile App, or DS Manager.

Refer to this tutorial for an example on linking settings.