Losant’s latest platform update introduces a feature that helps users make their workflows more performant, less error-prone and easier to test.

The release also allows for a range of new edge compute use cases, as well as having some template library updates demonstrating these use cases. Application experience developers get a tool to help them test their work against various users and contexts.

The release provides detailed, per-node workflow debug timing, which makes it easier for Losant developers to identify third-party services that are taking especially long to process such as external APIs accessed using an HTTP node, run performance tests comparing two methods of reaching the same output, and view at a glance how long certain branches of a workflow are taking to execute compared with other branches.

Also included in the release is an edge workflow node that allows for making updates to the edge agent’s configuration options in real time: the Agent Config: Set Node.

Allowing for on-the-fly configuration updates exposes a number of use cases for the edge agent, such as dynamic device configuration from the cloud without needing physical access to the hardware. Two of these use cases are demonstrated in the form of new library templates.

With the release, developers building out application experiences now have a tool for testing their pages and layouts: an in-app live preview. The tool allows for testing along two separate vectors:

• In-progress changes can be previewed against recent render log messages to make on-the-fly adjustments to a markup, which makes it easier to correct mistakes without saving the view and reloading the experience URL in a separate tab multiple times.
• Pages and layouts can be rendered against custom context objects, which allows for seeing how a markup responds to different experience users, anonymous users, or users with different experience group associations.

To access the tool, users visit a layout or a custom page’s content tab and open the code editor in full-screen mode. This will provide not only a full-screen code editor for easier updates, but also a tabbed layout for previewing the rendered markup against a sample context object. That context can then be adjusted from the same interface to see how the view responds to changes in this object.

The release comes with a number of smaller feature improvements, including that the instance manager now allows for the configuration of automatic, periodic usage reports within the user interface. This allows enterprises and resellers a means of tracking the resource and payload counts of their customers without having to generate reports manually.

There have been improvements to how peripheral device updates reach edge compute devices. First, bulk updates will no longer cause edge compute devices to be disconnected from the broker when they exceed normal throttling limits. Also, to limit the bandwidth being consumed by edge compute devices, it is possible to opt out of those updates if they are not needed on the device.

The edge HTTP request trigger now supports some basic routing logic, so the trigger will only fire when the request matches a given path and HTTP method. This user-requested feature makes it easier to build workflows that use local HTTP communications, removing the need for numerous conditional nodes or switch nodes to route the request.

Losant is continuing to grow its template library with new entries designed to demonstrate best practices, shorten time to market and improve end-user experience.

Since its last product release, Losant has published a number of new entries to its template library:

• Data explorer experience page: This much-requested template provides an interface similar to the in-platform data explorer for application experiences. The template allows experience users to view state data for a given device across multiple attributes and within specific time ranges.
• Edge files to application files: To upload images, logs or other files from an edge compute device to application files, this template demonstrates how the edge agent can request upload credentials from the cloud, execute the upload from the device itself, and then remove the file from the device on success.
• Edge agent configuration web page: With the release of the Agent Config: Set Node, it is possible to change agent configuration settings on the fly. By running a web server on the edge agent, this template can present a local web page that not only shows the current configuration options, but also allows users to change those options easily, with the new settings taking effect immediately.
• Edge agent auto registration: The Agent Config: Set Node, combined with on-disk edge workflows, allows for a more robust process for automatically registering devices in the Losant application as hardware is being provisioned. This template demonstrates the full process, and includes a workflow that can ship with hardware to enable this for users.