A product consists of multiple devices of the same type. In most cases, these devices have the same features. For example, you can create a product to represent a hardware product model, and create a device of the product model. Before you connect a device to IoT Platform, you must create a product in the IoT Platform console. This topic describes how to create a product.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Log on to the IoT Platform console.
  2. On the Overview page, find the instance that you want to manage and click the instance name to go to the Instance Details page.
    Important Enterprise Edition instances are available in the China (Shanghai) and Japan (Tokyo) regions. If the Enterprise Edition instances are unavailable in the region that you select, skip this step.
    Overview
  3. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Devices > Products. On the page that appears, click Create Product.
  4. Configure the parameters and click OK. The following table describes the parameters.
    Parameter Description
    Product Name The name of the product. The product name must be unique in the Alibaba Cloud account. For example, you can enter the product model as the product name. The name must be 4 to 30 characters in length and can contain letters, digits, underscores (_), hyphens (-), at signs (@), and parentheses ().
    Node Type

    The type of devices in the product. Valid values:

    • Directly Connected Device: Devices can directly connect to IoT Platform. Sub-devices cannot be attached to the devices. The devices cannot be attached to gateways as sub-devices.
    • Gateway Sub-device: Devices cannot directly connect to IoT Platform. The devices must be connected to IoT Platform by using gateways. For more information about gateways and sub-devices, see Gateways and sub-devices.
    • Gateway Device: Devices can directly connect to IoT Platform and be attached with sub-devices. You can use a gateway to manage sub-devices. You can maintain the topological relationships of sub-devices, and synchronize the topological relationships to IoT Platform.
    Gateway Connection Protocol

    This parameter is available only if you set the Node Type parameter to Gateway Sub-device. This parameter specifies the communication protocol between sub-devices and gateways. Valid values:

    • Custom: Other open source or proprietary protocols are used.
    • Modbus: The Modbus protocol is used.
    • OPC UA: The OPC UA protocol is used.
    • ZigBee: The ZigBee protocol is used.
    • BLE: The BLE protocol is used.
    Network Connection Method The network connection method of directly connected devices or gateway devices. Valid values:
    • Wi-Fi
    • Cellular (2G/3G/4G/5G)
    • Ethernet
    • Others
    Data Type The format of upstream data and downstream data. Valid values:
    • ICA Standard Data Format (Alink JSON): The JSON-based Alink protocol is provided by IoT Platform to establish communication between devices and IoT Platform.
    • Custom: If you want to use a custom serial data format, set this parameter to Custom.

      You must submit a data parsing script in the console to convert upstream custom-format data to Alink JSON data and parse downstream Alink JSON data to custom-format data. This way, devices can communicate with IoT Platform.

    Checksum Type After a device submits Thing Specification Language (TSL) data to IoT Platform, IoT Platform verifies the data based on the specified verification type.

    If the Data Format parameter of a product is Custom, the TSL data submitted by the devices under the product is parsed before verification. IoT Platform uses a data parsing script to convert the submitted data to Alink JSON data.

    • Weak Verification: IoT Platform verifies only the identifier and dataType fields of device data. All data is forwarded.

      The verified data is displayed on the TSL Data tab of the Device Details page in the IoT Platform console. The data that fails the verification is not displayed.

      You can view the data that fails the verification in the checkFailedData parameter of the forwarded data. For more information, see Data formats.

    • Verification-free: IoT Platform does not verify device data. All data is forwarded.

      Usage notes of TSL models:

      • Submit TSL properties: The property data is not displayed on the TSL Data > Status tab of the Device Details page in the IoT Platform console .
      • Call TSL services: The asynchronous call method is used for all services.
      • Submit TSL events: The type of all events is Info.
    Authentication Mode The method for authenticating devices that are connected to IoT Platform. This parameter is set to Device Secret and cannot be modified.

    When this parameter is set to Device Secret, the signature string for a device is calculated based on the device secret that is generated by IoT Platform for the device. For more information, see Establish MQTT connections.

    Product Description The description of the product. The description must be 1 to 100 characters in length.

What to do next

  1. Configure the product.
    1. On the Products page, click View in the Actions column corresponding to the product that you want to configure.
    2. On the product details page, click a tab and perform the related operations.
      Tab Description References
      Product Information You can view the product information and modify tags for the product. Add product tags
      Topic Categories You can view the topic categories that are preset in IoT Platform, which are topics for basic communications, topics for TSL communications, and custom topic categories. You can add custom topic categories to the product.
      Define Feature You can configure the properties, events, and services for a TSL model, which is used for TSL communication.
      Data Parsing If the Data Type parameter of the product is set to Custom, you need to write a script to parse data.
      Server-side Subscription You can create server-side subscription to forward the data submitted by the devices of the product. Configure an AMQP server-side subscription
  2. Provision devices.

    On the product details page, click the Device Provisioning tab. You can create a device, configure device features, burn a certificate to the device, and authenticate the device when you establish a connection. After you configure the device, you can connect the device to IoT Platform. For more information, see Connect devices to IoT Platform.

  3. In the upper-right corner of the product details page, click Publish to publish the product.

    Before you publish the product, make sure that all parameters of the product are configured, and devices are configured and debugged.

    After the product is published, the product enters the Published state.

    Important When the product is in the Published state, it cannot be modified or deleted.
    Products
  4. Optional. Unpublish a published product. In the upper-right corner of the product details page, click Cancel Publishing. In the message that appears, click OK.
  5. Optional. Go to the Products page and perform the following operations on a product that is not published.
    Operation Procedure
    Modify the product

    You can modify the name and description of the product.

    1. Click View in the Actions column corresponding to the product.
    2. On the Product Information tab, click Edit to the right of the Product Information section.
    3. In the Edit Product Information dialog box, modify the Product Name and Product Description parameters.
    4. Click OK.
    Delete the product

    If a product is not published, you can delete the product.

    Warning All data related to the product will be deleted. If devices of the product have been connected with IoT Platform, all their services will become unavailable and customer business will be interrupted. Proceed with caution.
    1. Before you delete a product, you must delete all devices of the product. For more information, see Delete a device.
    2. Click Delete in the Actions column corresponding to the product.
    3. Click OK.