Creating a New Manager
The standard Device Manager is capable of handling most device management display and modification tasks. However, you may have specific device management needs that require custom UI components and interfaces. To meet this need, you can extend or replace the device manager with a bespoke UI of your own.
To extend the Ioto Device Manager, you can rebuild the device manager app included with the Ioto agent source code and then upload the new manager image to the Builder.
Copying the Manager
The Ioto agent download distribution includes several management applications that can be used with Ioto. One of these is the Manager app. This is located under the ./apps/manager directory. In its pristine state, the manager app is used by EmbedThis to build the default "Device Manager" provided via the Builder. However, you can copy the manager app and then extensively modify to suit your needs.
To get started, copy the entire apps/manager directory to a new directory:
You can extend the manager by adding or removing additional user interface components. You can modify views or add new VueJS views. Using the display.json5 display definition file, you can bind your UI views into the application at the required URL routes.
Rebuilding Your Manager
To rebuild your manager with your custom extensions, select your app via the make command line.
The build will create:
- The Ioto agent with required services for cloud-based management
- Your manager application
The built application will be located under the apps/manager/ui/dist directory and will contain the individual application files and a manager.zip ZIP file that is ready for uploading via the Builder to the Ioto cloud service for hosting the UI.
Deploying
To deploy your manager application, login to the Builder site to create and configure a Device Manager. Then, from the Builder manager list, click on the Add Manager" icon or the Edit** icon to modify an existing Device Manager.
This will display the Manager configuration panel.
Select the Custom App option and upload your manager.zip archive and click Save.
The Builder will then deploy the image to the associated Ioto device cloud, which will take a few minutes.
See the Manager App in the Ioto Agent documentation for full details.