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14 min read

The ultimate guide to tridium n4.

By Phil Zito on Nov 9, 2016 7:00:46 AM

Topics: Guides smartbuildings Building Controls Tridium

Well, folks, it's time. Time for me to update one of my most popular posts. A lot has happened since I wrote my two-part series on Tridium.

You can click on the links to read Part 1 and Part 2 .

I initially wrote the series as a way to solidify my knowledge around Tridium. Little did I know it would become one of my most popular posts and also a top ranking Google search.

Well, a lot has changed since I wrote those articles. Tridium released a new solution called N4 (Generation 4 of Tridium essentially), and to answer a ton of questions I am updating my series.

Table of Contents

Niagara overview, history of tridium, the niagara framework, niagara version 4, html/5 graphics gui, the newer security model, expanded api, device templating, the niagara version 4.2 update, linux support, alarm portal, improvements to the niagara 4 supervisor data management, niagara analytics software, analytics data model, base algorithms library, analytic control, tridium's api and sdk, upgrading a bas, struggling with niagara, high-level niagara video overview.

If you are a technician, engineer, operator, or programmer this guide will be very informative for you but you also need detailed training that provides guidance on how to do all of the common tasks in Niagara. Normally this requires you attending a $2,800 Niagara Certification Course and then hoping you remember what you learned. 

Our online, on-demand, Niagara Basics course will teach you everything you need to know and because it comes with lifetime access you can continue to watch the course videos any time you need. Click here to learn more.

The History of Tridium

Tridium is the company behind the Niagara Framework. When folks refer to Tridium they are referring to the company that produces, markets, and sells the Niagara Framework. The Niagara Framework was developed in 1999 and was released on the Vykon Platform. In Niagara circles, Vykon is often called "vanilla Tridium" as it is the "pure" implementation of the Niagara framework.

This doesn't make the Vykon solution any better or worse than the other solutions that have been implemented on the Niagara platform.

What is the Niagara Framework?

The Niagara Framework is an architectural and software "reference model" that companies can use to implement a building automation system. Essentially the framework dictates how to implement several portions of the Niagara architecture. I will dive much deeper into the framework from a technical perspective in later sections so let's leave it at that.

What was Niagara R2

My first exposure to Tridium was with the R2 platform. Was there an R1? Not sure, honestly I don't care. At this point in the game, R2 has been discontinued, and it is recommended that folks embrace the AX or the N4 solutions.

R2, as far as I can tell Niagara started with R2. Unfortunately, the information on R2 is spotty at best so I only have my experience with the solution to go on.

What is Niagara AX

AX provided multiple enhancements over the R2 platform. When you think about it, this makes logical sense. Back in 1999 when R2 was released most folks were still using modems and DSL/Cable connections were just coming out. Fast forward to 2005, and you have the release of the AX platform.

Things were quite different in 2005. We were on the cusp of a social media and telecommunications revolution. Think about it, the first I-Phone,  which brought mobile into the mainstream, wasn't released until 2007 and Facebook was only a year old!

AX provided a series of enhancements, the most notable of which were:

• An API and SDK
• Extensible Component Model (being able to add capabilities to the framework)
• A reporting engine
• Java UI's for Mobile Displays
• Low-Cost processor support

These capabilities would continue to be expanded for years.

What is Niagara Version 4

On September 8th, 2015, Tridium released version for of the Niagara Framework. At the time of this publication going live Niagara Version 4 (also known as N4), is at version 4.2.

At release, Niagara Version 4 supported the following capabilities.

Newer Security Model that brings the solution up to speed with the IT industry

Expanded api library.

The new graphical user interface utilizes HTML\5 which provides interoperability with current web design standards. The use of HTML allows developers to modify the graphical layout of the GUI.

Finally, the HTML\5 aspects of the new GUI, when used properly will allow the GUI to be utilized on mobile devices.

All that is new here is that the model is adopting what the rest of the IT industry deems as best practices in regards to security. There are five features that pop out:

• The login and passwords that users can select are now required to meet a specific level of complexity
• Data that is being moved around the system and data that is sitting in the database is encrypted, this is a common feature of IT systems
• The solution supports user roles, which allows administrators to limit the tasks that certain users can perform
• User actions are logged and recorded in an audit log
• Enterprise login systems like LDAP and Kerberos can be used. This means that the same login that is used by the business systems can be used by the BAS. I'm on the fence as to whether this is a good thing.

All-in-all, these capabilities are what you would expect from any modern IT system.

The bajascript API, which is the API Tridium uses, has been updated to version 2.0. There are three changes you should know about:

• The new version of the API has a different data model that should make working with data easier
• There is a list of new functions (actions you can perform) using the API
• The API is supposed to be implementing tagging, which should allow the end user to search for and share data easier

This is a pretty cool feature in that you can create device templates and deploy these "devices" to your system. You then will assign the device to a controller.

A template, is a list of predefined points, with tags (this is what Tridium uses to describe its data model).

By the way, if you want a full list of the capabilities of the individual Tridium versions click here .

The Version 4.2 Update

With the version 4.2 update Tridium released the following capabilities:

Linux support

Alarm portal, improvements to the niagara 4 supervisor data management.

Linux is an operating system that is used for both servers and desktops. Linux is what is called an open source operating system. This means that you do not need to purchase or "license" Linux.

Linux is popular in the embedded controller world because it is both open source and lightweight (meaning it doesn't have a lot of extra capabilities). For those of you who understand how to use Linux, you will be excited about this new capability.

This portal is a set of software that can be utilized on a remote PC to monitor alarms.

N4 released a new data model. The new data model along with the new GUI allowed Tridium to provide tagging and search. Well...

In the version 4.2 release of N4, Tridium also released version 2.0 of the Tridium Analytics solution. This added several capabilities to the Tridium Analytics software before I cover that I am going to address what the analytics software suite is.

The analytics software suite is a set of software included with N4 that allows you to analyze data that is pulled into your Tridium system.

Essentially you pull in points into this module, and then you can either apply algorithms and rules to the data, or you can create your logic flows using the graphical logic builder.

The main capabilities that came with 2.0 are:

Pre-existing analytics data model

A base algorithms library, real-time, on-premise analytic control.

You can use the existing data models from Niagara 4 to help you automatically apply analytics. With analytics in the past, you would have to normalize data to fit a certain data type before you could feed it into the analytics algorithm. The promise of the N4 data model is that you will be able

The promise of the N4 data model is that you will be able to feed data from N4 devices directly into the algorithms if the data types match.

The analytics solution provides a base set of algorithms that you can use to perform analytics. On top of this library, there is a logic block builder that will allow you to build out your algorithms and controls logic.

I would imagine that there is a line editor for code similar to SkySpark.

This solution is so new I haven't had any chance to play with it yet. Come back in a couple of months when I've had a chance to review the solution.

The capability to provide the analytics solution on-site using local servers. It will be interesting to see how this is implemented and if the resources at local sites can handle the analytics load. I've argued for a long time that analytics could be handled onsite.

I guess we will find out as the reviews of the platform start coming in.

One of the things that have helped Tridium to spread throughout the market was its application programming interface (API) and software development kit (SDK).

The  Tridium API is called BajaScript 2.0, and it enables developers to access the data from the Tridium platform. Essentially you will download the SDK which tells you what capabilities (functions) the API has and then you can write software to read or write data to and from the Tridium platform. The SDK and the Tridium support site has multiple examples of code snippets that you can use to write integrations to and from Tridium.

Are You Facing an Upgrade?

One of the things I've learned over the years is that upgrading BAS systems is challenging! I really want people to be successful, that is why I share my best content for free.

One of the pieces of content I am sharing is Chapter 9 from my new book.

In this chapter you will learn:

• How to know if you need to upgrade your BAS ( if you don't ask yourself these four questions you could be upgrading a perfectly good system)
• Why so many upgrade projects fail (and the five planning steps you can take to make sure yours doesn't)
• Twelve steps that every upgrade project should include ( step number seven, writing out your upgrade plan and how to roll back the upgrade will keep your building running in case something goes wrong)

I encourage you to click here to get access to the free PDF download of Chapter 9: Upgrading Building Automation Systems .

Are you struggling with Niagara?

If you find learning Niagara difficult and the idea of shelling out $2,000 to $3,000 dollars to attend a certification class seems like too much then you need to enroll in our Niagara Basics course. Niagara Basics is an on-demand video training course that guides you through the most common Niagara tasks! Click on the image below to learn more.

Ok folks, there you have it. That should update you on most of your questions related to the Tridium solution. I'm not endorsing any particular product, and the above is simply to help folks who want to understand the solution.

I hope this post was informative to you. I highly encourage you to check out my other posts here at Building Automation Monthly. You can see my top resources here .

So, what are your thoughts?

What else would you like to know?

Let me know in the comments below.

Written by Phil Zito

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BAS Briefing

Efficient PX Graphics in Niagara

Introduction

In my position, I often end up replacing or finishing PX graphics made by other contractors. While style is certainly subjective, there are almost always some very large mistakes I see being made in regards to the scalability/reusability of these graphics, specifically. PX files end up commonly copied/pasted just to use absolute ords on each binding, opportunities for reusable includes are missed, and as a result of the amount of manual work being done, there are even constant misspellings and typos. There are a large number of best practices and efficient tricks to creating and maintaining graphics more easily within Niagara, and we’re going to go over some of the most useful ones today!

Requirements

PX graphics are very adaptable, and you can make them fit to any station. However, everything I’ll say in this guide will be working with a few assumptions in regards to your station. The biggest, and most important, is that you have consistent point naming. Re-using any PX files will require that each device of a similar type has the same point names for the same data, for example, HTG_O for your heating valve actuator command, SF_C for your supply fan command. If your data model isn’t consistent, scalability becomes a major problem, for far more than just PX graphics.

It’s also important to keep a consistent file structure. This is easier to work around than inconsistent naming, but if one AHU has all points directly under the device’s “points” folder, and another has subfolders under “points” for “outputs”, “inputs”, and “setpoints”, that inconsistency will also cause problems. Similarly to point naming, this can also limit you in other ways, such as making you unable to filter a BQL query with something like “where parent.parent.name like ‘AHU*‘“.

Ord Relativization

To start, let’s take a look at our station. To keep things simple and quick, all we have are some reheat coils, with Zone Temp, Zone Temp Setpoint, and Heating Valve Output, with each coil in its own folder. We also have a Discharge Air Temp Sensor in some reheats, but not all. Below is a screenshot of our station:

Most commonly, when someone is new to Niagara, I see them binding ords in PX files by just copying the absolute ord (station:|slot:/TravisLogic/DemoReheats/RHC_1/ZN_T, in this case) and pasting it into the binding. They then do all linking to direct PX files in the file tree of the station. This, however, is incredibly inefficient. Niagara allows you to tie PX graphics to folders directly, and in doing so, provides several tricks to re-use files. To start, we want to right click one of our device folders (RHC_1, to start) and choose “new view”. This gives the following UI:

You point to an existing file in the Source→Px File option, but you can also point to one that doesn’t exist, and Niagara will create a blank graphic for you to work with. After this view is added, the default view of this folder will no longer be property sheet, but our graphic. First, lets set up our Zone Temp binding! This should mostly be familiar, but here, we’re going to use a relativized ord. If you bind to “slot:” on a PX graphic, it is functionally identical to binding directly to the folder we are viewing. Continuing to build out our ord from here will specify slots under the current folder. Below is our configuration for Zone Temp’s value label:

Now, this label will hold the correct Zone Temp on every folder, and allow us to re-use our PX file across all RHC_X folders!

PX Object Degradation

One thing you may have noticed is that not all folders have the same points; We have a Discharge Air Temp in some reheats, but not all! Often, even when a contractor knows how to relative ords, they would split this into 2 different PX files, which can be harder to maintain. If you update to a newer graphical standard, for example, this means you have to make these changes twice! Luckily, there are also a few tricks to get around this limitation. To start, we’re assuming you’ve already added a discharge probe graphic and label to our existing graphic, and you’re viewing it from RHC_2’s folder.

In label bindings, there is a property called “degradeBehavior”. This will determine how an object in a PX graphic responds if the ord is unresolved. This option is what we’ll use to hide our discharge probe graphic and labels when they don’t exist. To start, we need to add some bindings that aren’t used for animation. We should already have our binding on the value label for Discharge Temp, but we need to add the same binding to the probe graphic and Discharge Temp label as well. To add a binding, you just have to click the icon circled below, and then choose “kitPx:Bound Label Binding” in the resulting popup:

This gives us the same binding as we get on Bound Labels, so all we need to do is add our “slot:DA_T” ord, then in degradeBehavior, just choose “Hide”. After making this change, we can view RHC_1 and RHC_2 using the same graphic, but Niagara hides our Discharge Temp info if it doesn’t exist.

This works very reliably, but one thing to point out is that if an object is hiding on degrade, it’s tough to select in the PX editor. Ideally, you want to edit this graphic on devices that have all possible points, but in a pinch, you can drag a box over where the hidden objects are placed, and edit them that way.

Bulk-Adding PX Views

Now that we have our graphic built and ready to go, we want to add the view to every RHC folder. This can be done manually, but the Batch Editor allows us to add these views to all applicable folders at once. I made a more in-depth Batch Editor guide previously, and I will link to it down below, but I’m covering it here because there are some specific quirks to using the Batch Editor to add views specifically that I want to cover.

As usual, we want to select all of our target folders, in this case all RHC folders, and we want to use the “Add Slot” action in Batch Editor. Our specific type is baja:PxView. Below is the configuration I’m using here:

We already have this view on two of our reheats, but since we’re using the same slot name and checking “Set if exists”, it doesn’t hurt to apply this action to all RHC folders. Now, at first glance, it appears to already be done, but this lack of clarity is why I’m documenting this process specifically. If you were to log in with a non-admin account, these graphics actually wouldn’t show up! The screenshot below shows why this is the case:

The Graphic slot we just added was added with no slot flags; Graphics actually aren’t visible to non-admin users without the “Operator” flag checked. Luckily, this is easy to remedy with the Batch Editor. With our same list of all RHC folders still in place, we can choose “Edit Slot Flags” and add this operator flag. Below is a screenshot of what we’ll set in the Batch Editor to make this fix.

PX Includes

The final important thing I see contractors regularly miss is usage of PX Includes. These allow you to re-use small PX files to tie data to multiple different folders. We’re going to make an include that will show some our RHC name and current Zone Temp, as well as link to the RHC graphics we just made. First, we need a blank graphic on our parent folder “DemoReheats”, and we also need to make a new PX file to serve as our include. We then want to start off as normal, and build a small graphic with absolute ords. Once we have that built, we’ll do a bulk ord search+replace by clicking the button circled below:

We’ll want to populate the search and replace dialog box with the following:

Our resulting ords look a little strange, but it will make more sense in a moment! For now, just remember that we are replacing the ord to the device with $(device) (Technically any string inside of the $() will work). Save this change, and the graphic should lose all data in the direct PX file view. This is expected! This ord is invalid outside of properly deployed includes. To deploy this, we’ll want to go to our overview graphic, select all of our RHC folders, and drag them out onto the PX file. This will give the following popup, which I’ve filled out:

Make sure to select “device” under our PX file variables; This can be easy to forget, but Niagara won’t properly populate our PX includes if we do! We end up with a series of PX objects populated with basic data, as well as links to the individual graphics if we made sure to add a blank label over top, with a bound label binding and $(device) in our hyperlink slot. Below is how this will look in the end:

Obviously this is quite ugly, but fortunately, this is a technical guide and not a graphic design guide!

Additional Resources

As always, you can use ctrl+L inside of Niagara and paste in the following documentation ords to view them.

PxInclude Widget: module://docGraphics/doc/AboutthePxIncludeWidget.html

PX Data Binding: module://docGraphics/doc/aBindingTypes.html

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• Preferences

Introduction to XML Algebra - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Introduction to XML Algebra

Goals of niagara algebra. be independent of schema information ... optimization with niagara. optimizer based on niagara algebra: ... – powerpoint ppt presentation.

• Based on talk prepared for CS561 by Wan Liu and Bintou Kane
• data model core data structures and data types supported by DBMS
• relational database is a table (set-oriented) data model
• XML format is a tree-structured hierarchical model
• It is common to translate a query language into an algebra.
• First, the algebra is used to give a semantics for the query language.
• Second, the algebra is used to support query optimization.
• Lore Algebra (August 1999)
• -- Stanford University
• IBM Algebra (September 1999)
• --Oracle IBM Microsoft Corp
• YAT Algebra (May 2000)
• ATT Algebra (June 2000)
• --ATT Bell Labs
• Niagara Algebra (2001)
• -- University of Wisconsin -Madison
• Title Following the paths of XML Data An algebraic framework for XML query evaluation
• By Leonidas Galanis, Efstratios Viglas, David J. DeWitt, Jeffrey. F. Naughton, and David Maier.
• Univ. of Wisconsin
• Concepts of Niagara Algebra
• Optimization
• Be independent of schema information
• Query on both structure and content
• Generate simple, flexible, yet powerful algebraic expressions
• Allow re-use of traditional optimization techniques
• Customer.xml
• ltCustomer_Documentgt
• ltcustomergt
• ltaccountgt1 lt/accountgt
• ltnamegtTom lt/namegt
• lt/customer gt
• ltaccountgt2 lt/accountgt
• ltnamegtGeorge lt/namegt
• lt/Customer _Documentgt
• Collection of bags of vertices.
• Vertices in a bag have no order.
• Bag elements are reachable by path expressions.
• Path expression consists of two parts
• An entry point
• A relative forward part
• Example account_numberinvoice
• Source S , Follow ?, Select ?, Join , Rename ?, Expose ?, Vertex ?, Group ?, Union ?, Intersection ?, Difference - , Cartesian Product ?.
• Input a list of documents
• Output a collection of singleton bags
• S () All Known XML documents
• S (invoice.xml) All XML documents whose filename match
• invoice.xml
• S (,schema.dtd) All known XML documents that conform
• to schema.dtd
• Input a path expression in entry point notation
• Functionality extracts vertices reachable by path expression
• Output a new bag that consists of the extracted vertex all contents of original bag (in case of unnesting follow)
• Input a set of bags
• Functionality filters the bags of a collection using a predicate
• Output a set of bags that conform to the predicate
• Predicate Logical operator (?,?,?), or simple qualifications (?,?,?,?,?,?)
• Input two collections of bags
• Functionality Joins the two collections based on a predicate
• Output the concatenation of pairs of pages that satisfy the predicate
• Input a list of path expressions of vertices to be exposed
• Output a set of bags that contains vertices in the parameter list with the same order
• Creates the actual XML vertex that will encompass everything created by an expose operator
• Group ? is used for arbitrary grouping of elements based on their values
• Aggregate functions can be used with the group operator (i.e. average)
• Rename ? Changes entry point annotation of elements of a bag.
• Example ?(invoice.bill_period,date)
• List account number, customer name, and invoice total for all invoices that has carrier Sprint.
• FOR i in (invoices.xml)//invoice,
• c in (customers.xml)//customer
• WHERE i/carrier Sprint and
• i/account_number c/account
• ltSprint_invoicesgt
• i/account_number,
• lt/Sprint_invoicesgt
• ltSprint_Invoicegt
• ltaccount_numbergt1 lt/account_numbergt
• lttotalgt1.20lt/totalgt
• lt/Sprint_Invoice gt
• Optimizer based on Niagara algebra
• Use the operation more efficiently
• Produce simpler expressions by combining operations
• A and B are path expressions
• Alt B --? Path Expression A is prefix of B
• AnB ---? Common prefix of path A and B
• AnB ---? Greatest common of path A and B
• - ---? Null path Expression
• Allow optimization based on path selectivity
• When applying un-nesting following operation Fµ
• Fµ(A) Fµ(B)Fµ (B)Fµ (A)
• TRUE when exists C such that C lt A C lt B and C AnB
• Fµ(acc_Numinvoice)Fµ(carrierinvoice)
• Fµ(carrierinvoice)Fµ(acc_Numinvoice)
• Equivalent because both share the common prefix invoice.
• Case AnB invoice
• NOTE let us assume that acc_Num is required for each invoice element, while
• carrier is not required for invoice element
• Then what algebra tree do we prefer?
• Fµ(acc_Numinvoice)Fµ(acc_Numcustomer)
• make more sense than Why?
• Reduction of Input Size on first
• Sub-operation
• Fµ(carrierinvoice)
• Should we/can we apply the rule below?
• Fµ(acc_Numinvoice)Fµ(acc_NumCustomer)
• acc_Numinvoice and
• acc_Numcustomer
• are two totally different paths
• Case is AnB -
• So yes, rule is valid.

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Crime Stoppers tackling sex trafficking, NOTL councillor offers help with school programs

C rime Stoppers of Niagara is hoping to increase fundraising and awareness about everything the organization does, and also to bring greater attention to a campaign designed to make young residents cautious about human trafficking.  

Jason Snyder, vice-chair of Crime Stoppers of Niagara’s board, delivered a presentation to Niagara-on-the-Lake council on Tuesday night, providing statistics of what the organization has accomplished in recent years, and asking for non-financial support.  Requests included the town exploring putting up signage to promote Crime Stoppers and providing information on the town’s website.  

A report will come back to council at a later date encompassing what was delivered in Snyder’s presentation, which also focused on a human trafficking awareness campaign.  

Snyder said he played a role in the campaign being launched as a result of a frightening incident involving his daughter. When she was 13 years old and walking home from school in Welland, she was approached by a man trying to coax her into his vehicle. “She was less scared than I was when she told me,” he said, adding she ended up hiding between parked cars to escape the man.

This prompted him to contact her school’s principal, who explained that lessons surrounding “stranger danger” are only given to kindergarten students. “It became pretty obvious there’s a hole in our education system,” he said.  

Crime Stoppers of Niagara has applied for grants that will support a program to teach more kids about the dangers and signs of human trafficking. “We want older students to talk to younger students in classroom settings,” said Snyder.  

Coun. Maria Mavridis said there was an incident in Virgil recently involving children who “weren’t educated on how to handle a situation like this,” suggesting the town could assist Crime Stoppers with getting into local schools.

Mavridis told The Local a group of kids were in the Crossroads School playground over March break, when a man got out of a white van and walked toward them. They got onto their bikes and headed out, reaching home safely.

Coun. Wendy Cheropita said the town could help with scheduling events where Snyder could deliver a presentation. “I’m happy to do presentations like this for anyone who will listen,” said Snyder.  

In the last five years, Crime Stoppers of Niagara has received 10,429 tips that resulted in a reward, and has handed out $50,000 in rewards. The organization has assisted in 210 arrests across the region in that time, and played a role in 523 charges being laid.  

More than $1 million in drugs have been seized in five years through Crime Stoppers activity, and about $307,000 in cash has been recovered, said Snyder.    

Kris Dube, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Niagara-on-the-Lake Local