Links

Links provide metadata about how a Thing can interact with other resources or services. These are essential for navigating between Things and their associated resources, enabling interoperability within IoT ecosystems. Links often include references to additional APIs, documentation, or related Things, ensuring seamless integration and discovery.

Here you can see a link that establishes a relationship between two different Things:

"links": [
 {
    "href":https://api.swx.altairone.com/spaces/my-space/categories/my-category/things/01FJW37STRFYV19CAS53VCFS3M",
    "rel": "BelongsTo"
 }
],
In this definition, you can see what data is expected for this device:
  • "Href": a string representation of a URL. Identifies the linked Thing
  • "Rel": a string describing the relationship established

This helps you define a robust and powerful database, where connections between the assets can be created.

Note: For more information, the Web of Things is defined here by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Add Links to a Thing

  1. In the Overview panel of a Thing, click the plus icon next to Links.
    Figure 1.


    The Add Link dialog opens.
  2. Enter the relationship type. Note that any relation can be established; there is no validation. Examples could include BelongsTo, PartOfOrg, Parents, etc.
  3. Enter the URL that indicates the resource that the relation is being established to.
    Figure 2.


    The URL can also be a reference to an external source.
    Figure 3.


  4. Click Add.
    The information is added to the schema.
    Note: You can create several Links for a specific Thing.
  5. Once the link has been created, you can click the Edit icon to make further changes. There is also a navigation button to access the specified URL.
    Figure 4.