ThingWorx Remote Access Extension
The ThingWorx Remote Access Extension (RAE) adds Remote Access functionality to the ThingWorx Platform for agent devices that can handle remote sessions. This extension provides entities, the RemoteAccessSubsystem, and the raClientLinker widget, which you can use in custom mashups for your end users, for example service technicians. More specifically, this extension provides the following features:
• Remote Access Provider — Similar in concept to ThingWorx Persistence Provider, a Remote Access Provider can determine the correct remote server (if any) to interact with for remote sessions as well as list sessions for its specific agent type.
• Remote Access Subsystem — This component provides common management features that can be performed across all session types, such as listing all active sessions of each type together in a unified format. This component aggregates session information from all Remote Access Providers.
• RemoteAccessible Thing Shape — When a Thing implements this Thing Shape, users can perform remote access operations on that Thing. The RemoteAccessible Thing Shape leverages the provider to get the appropriate Remote Access Server to perform operations, such as start and end sessions, and to get the status of the current sessions on the Remote Access Server.
• Remote Access Server Entities — The Remote Access Server entities manage the session operations on a Remote Access Server such as starting and ending sessions. The Remote Access Server Thing interacts with the Remote Access Server it represents through the appropriate Connector to initiate and end sessions. It stores session state locally in ThingWorx.
• Remote Viewer Support — This support includes client viewer download and launch details to the ThingWorx Remote Access Client for a remote session. The Remote Viewer functionality includes managing the location and metadata for remote client viewers persisted on an external server and matching the appropriate remote viewer for the configured remote server for a remote session.
• raClientLinker widget — For developers who are creating mashups for end users, this extension includes the raClientLinker widget. Intended for use with a RemoteAccessProvider Thing, this widget is added to ThingWorx Mashup Builder when the extension is imported into a ThingWorx Platform. For more information, refer to Using the RemoteAccessClientLinker Widget.
ThingWorx Remote Access Client (RAC)
Available separately, the ThingWorx Remote Access Client (RAC) can be used in single-server and clustering ThingWorx Platform environments (ThingWorx 9.x) as well as in a ThingWorx High Availability Active-Active Clustering environment (ThingWorx Platform 8.5.x).
For more information about RAC, refer to ThingWorx Remote Access Client (RAC) in this help center.
Together, the RAE and RAC support devices running any of the following software:
• Edge applications written using one of the following Edge SDKs: ThingWorx Edge C SDK, ThingWorx Edge Java SDK, or ThingWorx Edge .NET SDK.
• ThingWorx Edge MicroServer (EMS) and Lua Script Resource (LSR).
• Axeda eMessage Agents
 | Users of Axeda eMessage Agents should refer to Remote Access for Axeda eMessage Agents through ThingWorx in the Axeda Compatibility Package 2 Help Center for more information. |
Supported Agents
The following table lists the types of Agents for which the RAE provides entities as well as the Remote Access Server that each can use.
Agents | Remote Access Server Used by Agents | RemoteAccessProvider Thing |
|---|---|---|
ThingWorx Edge MicroServer ( EMS) | ThingWorx Internal | ThingWorxInternalRemoteAccessProvider Thing |
An Edge application written using a ThingWorx Edge SDK (C, Java, or .NET) | ThingWorx Internal | ThingWorxInternalRemoteAccessProvider Thing |
Axeda eMessage Agents (Axeda Gateway Agent and Axeda Connector Agent) | Axeda Global Access Server (GAS), 6.9.2/6.9.3 or ThingWorx Global Access Server, 7.x | GASRemoteAccessProvider Thing |
Getting Started with ThingWorx Remote Access Extension (RAE) and Remote Access Client (RAC)
To help you get started with the RAE and RAC, the topics below provide architectural overviews, explain where to obtain the RAE and RAC, and how to import the RAE into your ThingWorx Platform. The entities provided by the RAE changed in 3.0.0 of the extension. Different versions of extension are supported on ThingWorx Platform 8.5.x versus 9.x.x. For complete compatibility information, refer to the PTC Release Advisor. For 3.0.0 of the extension, you can find a reference to all of its entities in the ThingWorx Axeda Compatibility Package 2 Help Center.
 | If you are currently running the Remote Access Extension and Remote Access Client, you can learn what has changed in RAE 3.0.0 and RAC 2.2.1 and later in the following topics: What's New in the ThingWorx Remote Access Extension. |
The following topics provide the steps for getting started with the Remote Access Extension and using the Remote Access Client: