Defining Attributes

Attributes are key-value pairs that define characteristics of a thing, such as the vehicle identification number of a car, a serial number of a piece of equipment, or a customer name.

A thing can have an unlimited number of attributes defined.

If the Auto def attributes field is selected in the thing definition, a thing can automatically define a key-value pair that was not previously defined in the associated thing definition.

Attributes can be viewed in table format from the thing details page under the Attributes tab.

You can add an attribute when you create a new thing definition or when you edit an existing thing definition.

On the Developer page, click Thing definitions.
On the Thing Definitions page, click the Edit icon of the thing definition you want to modify.
On the thing definition editing page, select the Standard tab, and then select the Attributes tab.

Select Attribute Definition, and then type or select the values for the new attribute definition.

The fields are:


Field	Description
Key	A unique identifier for the attribute that is globally unique within the organization. The valid characters for a key are letters, numbers, underscore (_), and hyphen (-).
Name	The name of the attribute that is displayed on Management Portal pages.
Default value	The value to return if the attribute has never been set before.
View security tags	Enter any number of tags to the attribute that controls whether a user or application can view the attribute. The user or application must have a with the same view security tag associated with it to view an attribute with a view security tag associated with it.
Update security tags	Enter any number of tags to the attribute that controls whether a user or application can update the attribute. The user or application must have a role with the same update security tag associated with it to update an attribute with an update security tag associated with it.

Repeat step 4 as needed to add new attributes.
When you finish, click Add.