Does Solution Central work with past versions of ThingWorx?

As stated in Getting Started with Using Solution Central, Solution Central requires ThingWorx 8.5 or later for development and deployment. We recommend using the latest available ThingWorx version to access the latest Solution Central features.

Is there a cost or new license that I require for Solution Central?

All ThingWorx (version 8.5 and later) licensees are entitled to this functionality.

Is there a user limit?

There is no limit to the number of users in your organization who can publish and deploy solutions. However, only those users who are actively developing ThingWorx solutions and administering ThingWorx server environments require access.

Can I have multiple versions of my solution in the cloud?

Yes, versions on each solution are used to organize and differentiate content. You can deploy v1 to some environments, and v2 to others! Semantic versions are utilized.

Can other customers access my data or apps?

Solution Central is fully multi-tenant, by licensee and Customer ID. No other parties can access your content in Solution Central.

How should I best architect my solution with user entities when leveraging Solution Central?

Review the Best Practices for Developers topic to understand best practices around solution development, solution deployment, and user entities.

Can two developers publish the same solution under the same version?

No, Solution Central does not allow this. Two developers can publish the same solution under different versions, and possibly drastically different contents. It is recommended that you use source control to support ThingWorx development which can enable teams working in the same codebase and managing changesets.

What if my extension is a library and not a solution application?

Solution Central works with all ThingWorx extensions, regardless of their content. If the extension comprises models, logic, and UI building blocks, but is not a functioning application, Solution Central can still manage it as a dependency with the applications that reference it.

Do I need to open any inbound ports in the firewall for Solution Central?

All requests necessary for Solution Central are in the form of outbound https requests from the ThingWorx platform to Solution Central or Azure Active Directory (AD).

How does Solution Central treat editable and noneditable entities?

Solution Central does not change your declarations of editable or noneditable for existing content within your development systems. On packaging and publishing to Solution Central for use in other environments, the entities in your solution are marked as noneditable. Standard ThingWorx application developer guidelines still apply. It is recommended that you leverage configuration tables and other practices where customization requirements exist for your application. For more information, see the "Developing Solutions" section in Best Practices for Developers.

What kind of data does Solution Central store and where?

Solution Central stores packages that are published from the ThingWorx platform during the development and deployment processes of your solution. These packages are compressed/zipped files that are application configuration definitions of Mashups (user interfaces, navigation) and entities (Things, templates, shapes, property definitions, service definitions, and application logic). Packages can reference other packages, as dependencies, and are linked in a deployment chain for successful deployments. This is akin to other package/dependency systems like in Java with JARs, Maven, and Artifactory.

The packages, when published to the Solution Central cloud services from ThingWorx Composer (or ThingWorx APIs), are stored in your customer tenancy in an Azure Blob Store under PTC’s Azure subscription. Only packages that you actively select for publishing and archive in Solution Central are transferred and stored. You have control over all data stored in Solution Central, including the ability to delete an artifact. Once deleted from Solution Central, the artifact is permanently deleted from the service.

What are the security measures in place for data storage and transfer?

The transfer of packages to and from a customer’s ThingWorx platform environment is protected by the TLS encryption via HTTP/Websocket transport. Once in the cloud, the artifact packages are stored in a customer tenant which is authorized by license, customer ID, and may only be accessed by users authorized by the customer administrator managing their Solution Central environment. This customer tenant includes Azure Blob storage for the artifacts, and it uses encrypted storage and retrieval.

As Solution Central is hosted in the PTC Cloud, it follows cybersecurity best practices. All data centers are SSAE16 SOC 2 Type II Security & Availability Trust Principles audited for the US and ISAE 3402 internationally. Learn more in the Cloud Security white paper.

I do not wish to publish my content to Solution Central in the PTC Cloud, but I want to access Digital Performance Management (DPM). How do I access DPM? What is the role of Solution Central with DPM?

You can use Solution Central to download DPM on your platform and receive ongoing updates of the solution software. As long as your DPM license is installed in ThingWorx Composer, you can use one-click deploy to deploy DPM to your platform. In this case, you are pulling DPM down from the PTC Cloud via Solution Central to use in your own environment.

As an additional option, you can also use Solution Central to publish, deploy, and manage your custom content that you create with the ThingWorx platform to supplement your DPM usage. In this case, you would use Solution Central as a location to store and deploy those supplemental, preconfigured packages and their dependencies to deliver your customizations to any additional instances that you need.