Can someone speak on the benefits of using the MQTT Transmission module on the edge and publishing the UDT Definitions as opposed to not publishing the UDT Definitions, just plain tags?
I currently use different type of edge devices so I opted into not to publish UDT Definitions on any ignition edge devices.
I have a chance to use ignition edge exclusively moving forward and want to know the benefits people find publishing the UDT Definitions.
The biggest benefits of using UDTs over normal tags are scalability, repeatability, and less data processing necessary on the target gateway that is receiving the data. Using a UDT also reduces human error when having to manually create numerous tags.
There are considerations when designing the data structure that have to be taken into account. Are your future implementations going to be repeatable? If not fully repeatable, are the data structures repeatable? What differences can be accounted for in a single UDT and what differences would require creation of a UDT?
We spend a lot of time on the front-end of any new projects defining and designing UDTs, and when done correctly it makes the rest if the project go much smoother.
If your receiving end is also Ignition, I recommend not to publish the UDT in most cases.
The reason is that MQTT Engine receives the UDT, but never overwrites them when you publish a new version of that UDT, which makes your udt Instances not update. So you have to delete the UDT in MQTT Engine every time you make an update.
@louagejasper that's a good point about the UDT not being overridden when a change is made to it on the edge. I'm at an end user and the amount of times I heard it'll just like the previous asset to when we go to deploy, I find out it's not the same.
@Eric_Alvey I would like to say a lot of the equipment is the same so it should be repeatable. Like I said above there's sometimes something different about this pump compared to this other pump, like 1 or 2 more sensors.
Even though I'd have to delete the UDT in MQTT engine, that shouldn't happen very often, like once a month or longer. That is something that's doable.