Chapter 3. Accessing Your DataHub Service
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Chapter 3. Accessing Your DataHub Service

Table of Contents
3.1. Connecting Test Data
3.2. Using Remote Config
3.3. Connecting Process Data
3.4. Activating Features

3.1. Connecting Test Data

The easiest way to test your Cogent DataHub service is with an Excel spreadsheet on your local machine.

This is done using Skkynet's Vine Add-in for Excel. Here's how:

  1. Download the Vine Add-in archive from here.

  2. Close Excel if it is open, double-click on the Vine Add-in archive and follow the instructions to install it. After the installation is complete, re-open Excel. It should have a Skkynet Vine option on the menu bar.

  3. Select the Skkynet Vine option to display the Configure Skkynet Vine button.

  4. Click the Configure Skkynet Vine button to display the Skkynet Vine configuration panel.

  5. Enter the information from the welcome email you received from Skkynet, including Host Name, User Name and Password. For Port use 443. Check the boxes Use WebSocket, Use SSL, and Accept invalid certificates.

  6. Click the Connect button.

    You should see a success message.

Now you are ready to send and receive data.

  1. With cell A1 active in the worksheet, select the Data Points tab, and in the Selected Point field, enter default:Test1.

    [Note]

    This is the name of a DataHub point. The word default identifies the data domain, the colon ( : ) is a separator, and the point name is Test1.

  2. From the Direction drop-down list, choose Write.

  3. Click the Add button. You will see the default domain appear in the Points list, and within it, the Test1 point.

  4. Enter a value in the A1 cell.

    This value gets sent to the DataHub instance running on Azure. To check that, we can configure another cell to read the data.

  5. Select cell A2 in the worksheet, and for the Selected Point field, enter default:Test1 again.

  6. This time choose Read from the Direction drop-down list.

  7. Click the Add button. That cell will read the value from the Cogent DataHub service, and display it.

    Try changing the value in A1, and you'll see the updates in A2.

  8. Here is one more example. Select cell A3, and once again use the default:Test1 point. But this time make it a Read before Write connection. This means it will first read from the Cogent DataHub service, and then write to it if you change the value. You can also add some labels to the cells.

    Notice that its value gets filled in automatically.

  9. If you change the value in cell A3, the read value in cell A2 changes. The value in A1 doesn't change because it is write-only.

    If you change the value in cell A1, both of the other two values change.

This is just one example for connecting a client to the Cogent DataHub service. For more information on Skkynet's Vine Add-in for Excel, please refer to the documentation.

Next we can take a look at the service itself, using the Remote Config application.

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Chapter 2. Creating the Azure Resource Home 3.2. Using Remote Config