Properties

The PropertyType construct is used to define the attributes of a device. For example, a device named Light Bulb might have properties like PowerState, Brightness, and Color.

The following example shows how to create a PropertyType using GraphQL.

type imageProperty @propertyType(id:"urn:tdm:aws:property:image/imageUri",  
                                 dataType:"urn:tdm:aws:property:Uri") { ignore:void }

            

Note

The ignore:void name-value pair specifies an empty body payload.

PropertyType facets

The PropertyType construct is defined by property facets. There are two kinds of facets:

• Definition - These facets help create or define a PropertyType. Example definition facets include Name, DataType, Accuracy, and Uom. You can specify the Uom and Accuracy facets with instance values. For example, a PropertyType named Length that has a Uom facet can be assigned an instance value of 10 inches or 10 feet.

• Usage - These facets help customize a PropertyType within a specific scope. Example usage facets are calculated values like Condition and Expr.

TDM facets are case insensitive.

Definition facets

SemTypeId

Required, multivalued. A URN or URNs that represent a property's semantic type.

The semantic type hierarchical path asserts an "is-a" relationship contract between parents and children in the path. This relationship establishes semantic equivalence and doesn't imply structural equivalence. The subype is a semantically equivalent alternate of its parent type for the purpose of interoperability in an IoT workflow. For example, a brightness property expressed by a range of numbers between 1 and 100 is semantically equivalent to a brightness property expressed as an enum.

Example: urn:tdm:aws:property:length

DataType

Required. A value from the built-in enum DataType. See Built-in data types for the possible values for this facet.

You can also limit the range of an integer property type by using the minValue and maxValue attributes, as in the following example. The property type definition creates an on/off property that is represented as a 0 for off and 1 for on.

type OnOffInt @propertyType(id:'urn:tdm:aws:Property:OnOffInt', dataType:int8, minValue:0, maxValue:1) {
    ignore:void
}
                        

Description

Optional. A string that describes the property.

InstanceOf

A URN that specifies a complex property's type. This value is required whenever the property's DataType value is not one of the built-in primitive data types.

Uom

Optional. A value from the built-in enum under the semantic path at this URN: urn:tdm:aws:enum:uom. This value specifies the unit of measure associated with the property's value.

Example: urn:tdm:aws:uom:base/mass

Accuracy

Optional. A float32 value that describes the closeness of a measurement's value to the true value. This value can be expressed as either a +/- absolute value or a percentile value. TDM doesn't process this value.

IsAbstract

Optional. A Boolean value that specifies whether the PropertyType can be used in a concrete type. The default value is false. An abstract PropertyType is usually the root of a property hierarchy.

IsGlobalId

Optional. A Boolean that specifies whether the value of a property is unique across all instances of the type that contains the property. The default value is false. It applies only to non-nullable identifier properties. If the value is true, the instances of the type that contains the property can be used by reference. A DeviceCatalog is an example of the kind of type that would have this facet set to true.

MinLength, MaxLength

Optional. Number values that specify in bytes the minimum and maximum length of a string property. The default value of MinLength is 0. The default value of MaxLength is 4096. When both values are the same, the property has a fixed length.

MinValue, MaxValue

Optional. Number values that specify the minimum and maximum values of a numeric property. The numeric property can be of any type of int, uint, and float.

Usage facets

IsRequired

Optional. A Boolean value that specifies whether a property is required for every type that contains the property. The default value is false.

Default

Applicable only to properties for which the IsRequired facet has been set to true. A variant-typed facet that specifies the default value of a property.

Condition

Optional. A Boolean expression that evaluates other properties of the type that contains the property. If the expression evaluates to true, the property value is included. If the expression evaluates to false, the property is excluded (either null or default, as applicable). A PropertyType with this facet is read-only.

Expr

Optional. An expression that converts a standard property into a computed property. A PropertyType with this facet is read-only.

IsReadOnly

Optional. A Boolean facet that specifies whether the property is read-only. The default value is false.

Multiplicity

Optional. An enum facet that specifies the number of values that a property can have. The default value is Multiplicity.Multivalued. A value of Multiplicity.Singlevalued limits the number of values of a property to 1.