Place for information about telematics hub updates.

We supported special streaming protocol called nis . This protocol is used in Russia only, and although it is very stupidly designed - HTTP/SOAP based with just one message per HTTP request - it is quite popular on CIS space for inter-servers communications. Feel free to use it.

nis streaming protocol was updated to send values for Digital inputs, outputs and Analog inputs. The number of streamed Analog inputs is limited up to 8 for nis and wialon_retranslator streams.

[Changelog] flespi telematics hub

kial

We have removed deprecated fields "ident" and "phone" from the devices REST API. These fields was left for backward compatibility for a few months.
In addition, we have removed old stream subscriptions REST API methods also marked as deprecated a few months ago.
More details are placed in this article: https://flespi.com/blog/sync-up-with-changes-in-the-flespi-device-api

shal

Platform has changed the way it accumulating logs when operating under subaccounts hierarchy.

Say you have account root with subaccount sub and it branched another subaccount subsub. Tree looks like this: root<=sub<=subsub.

Now imagine that you have log message for the subsub account, for example device was connected.

Before the update: logs both in realtime (subscribing to flespi/logs/#) and in history mode (accessible via REST) where placed by the system into an account subsub and all its parents: sub and root.

Thus when operating with large volumes we have quite a big storage size of root top-account basically multiplied by the number of subbaccounts it has.

After the update: the log message will be stored exactly and only at the account where it was generated. E.g if you have device or channel that belong to some subaccount you can access log messages for this entity only from its account. This is applied to both REST and MQTT.

Toolbox was modified accordingly and now has account selector whenever you have some flespi accounts to switch between.

namo

We increased telemetry expiration time up to 370 days.

kial

We've added the "status" field for each device setting. It's indicating the source of the current setting value (if available) and the flespi platform intention to read the new current value or apply the pending setting value.
The full documentation is available here: https://flespi.io/docs/#/gw/!/devices

adsa

Platform update affects devices with ident collisions.
Collision occurs when two or more devices have the same ident, device type and share a common channel.
The device with the lowest identifier remains unlocked, other devices will be blocked using the "bad configuration" code.

adsa

adsa We have reverted update until some problems being solved.

adsa

adsa The problems were resolved and the update was installed.

kial

Next Monday, on October 14, we will install an update with the small change in our Telematics Gateway REST API.

Once installed, the devices creation method (POST, https://flespi.io/docs/#/gw/!/devices/post_devices ) will require the "device_type_id" and "configuration" fields to be specified. Also, the "configuration" object for all device types will require an "ident" field.
Please review your integrations and correct them to always include such fields when you're creating devices.

If you have any questions, please contact us in the chat embedded in the flespi.io panel or on forum.flespi.com

kial

kial
We have installed the described update to the telematics hub. To create a new device without binding to device type - please use { "device_type_id": 0, "configuration": {} } fields in your POST request.

shal

The behavior of REST API methods with max_count parameter specified has been changed for channels logs, devices logs and streams logs. Check information in the corresponding storage system changelog.

adsa

Some of our users had difficulties filling out the headers field for the HTTP stream. The inconvenience of the interface is caused by the scheme used for headers field: {"header-name": "header-value", ...}.

We decided to change the scheme to an array, in the form: [{"name": "header-name", "value": "header-value"}, ...]
This solution will allow you to add heades in the usual way.

Existing streams remain in their original form until november 4. After they will be automatically converted to a new format. Support for the old scheme in the REST API will continue until november 18.

shal

shal We decided to remove nis protocol from the streams at the moment, but upon request may re-enable it later.

And we implemented maxoptra streaming protocol for integration telematics data from flespi hub directly into Maxoptra Distribution Route Planning.

shal

We enabled JSON objects(and arrays) in device telemetry fields and enlarged allowed textual value size for the telemetry from 1KB to 4KB.

adsa

Method /platform/subaccounts/all/logs was added. Using it you can get your subaccount's logs in a single REST call. The most convinient way is to fill filter parameter to select what kind of logs do you need.
Use this request to fetch all deleted devices from all subaccounts:
https://flespi.io/platform/subaccounts/all/logs?data={"filter":"event_code=3,origin_type=11"}

shal

Devices and calculators received new property for controlling maximum storage threshold they can use.

This parameter is a convenient way for controlling your flespi storage size. Now instead of guessing how much storage you will use in devices in a day/month/year you may just specify automatic messages rotation size and flespi will control it for you. Whenever any newly added message will overflow specified size older messages will be automatically discarded.

Same applies to analytics and intervals size used by assigned devices.

Read https://flespi.com/kb/how-to-manage-device-storage for more information about messages rotation.

shal

For streams to Azure IoT we have added special parameter replace_dots which is off by default. Once enabled in stream configuration all messages received by stream on Azure side will contain replaced dots to underscores in parameter names, e.g. "position.latitude" to "position_latitude" and so on. This is to enable special rules engine on Azure side which is impossible to use when original flespi parameter naming scheme is used (with dots).

shal

For security issues we decided to remove ident parameter from device telemetry. This way device telemetry can be securely exposed to external users via REST and MQTT. Together with recently installed changes to flespi ACL tokens it even possible to expose just the device telemetry excluding device settings or its configuration.

The update which removes ident parameter from device telemetry will be installed tomorrow in the morning.

shal

shal We have removed ident from telemetry.

shal

We have implemented special plugins framework that extends functionality of flespi telematics hub for special cases.

The very first case we have implemented is the possibility to forward telematics data from devices into Bulgarian tool roads system, effective from March 1st 2020 via tollbg.eu service. In order to use it you need to:

register at tollbg.eu service, receive authentication credentials that you will use for stream (if asked during registration for stream status webhook you may use this url: https://flespi.io/gw/hooks/toll_health);
register there plate number of vehicles you want to stream;
create flespi stream with type=tollbg:
activate tollbg plugin for the flespi device and fill per each device two required fields - pan number and license plate number, like on screenshot below:
subscribe stream to devices with activated tollbg plugin;

As now we have this special framework that allows us to define custom fields and plugins for various types of flespi entities we plan to add more and more plugins in the future - connect to various toll roads services, government regulations system for specific countries and create connectors to various aggregators and hubs that our users can use upon their desires. Please contact us in flespi chat if you have requirements for some specific projects.

adsa

The channel has a static IP address, but a static address is vulnerable to a DDoS attack.
The goal is to minimize the impact of a theoretical DDoS attack on an gateway IP.
Thus, we took the very first step to replace the static IP address of the channel with a personal DNS record.
The panel now displays the channel URI as a DNS record.
We recommend that you use a DNS record for all future connected devices and, if possible, reconfigure existing ones.

shal

adsa

As a part of our anti-DDoS preventive measures we are softly switching from IP-based channel specification to DNS-based. Each channel is assigned its unique DNS record in form {channel-id}.flespi.gw. Currently it is resolved as a CNAME type record to gw.flespi.io for EU region and ru-gw.flespi.io for RU region which by itself are A-type records to the underlying IP address which was recently a part of channel’s URI.

It means that except the visualization part currently there are no actual changes occurred in the endpoint where to connect your telematics devices. However we strongly recommend you to update the server address of your devices from IP-based format to the new DNS format as proposed by the channel uri property.

In case of any kind of DDoS attack we will immediately manipulate with these DNS records to reroute devices to different multiple IP addresses and save and secure the traffic from your devices. If you use the DNS address of your channel you will be safe. If you use an old fashioned IP address - the traffic from your devices may be blocked for some period of time.

Moreover later we will introduce more IP addresses for communication with devices and even may install and rotate channel listeners in different datacenters to improve reliability and performance. Please use the DNS name of your channel everywhere and together with flespi prepare for the future.

For all new channels created from this point of time, with ID higher then 18000 for RU region and 22000 for EU region we expect that the devices connect to DNS name and we may further change IP address it points to without additional notice. Please be aware.