Tag inheritance and the a:a tag

The a:a marker tag identifies each point used by the framework. It is an origin entity. Entities that declare a tag are an instance of that tag. Think of this entity as having an “is a” relationship with the tag, while descendants of this entity have an “in a” relationship. This is a useful concept for algorithms.

When you add the a:a tag to a device or point in a Supervisor station, that device or point becomes an ancestor to similar points in remote stations. You can use these ancestors to find certain tags, such as hs:zoneAirTempSensor and potentially aggregate or access the information from the remote station.

Hierarchies group tags hierarchically. Any device or point to which you assign a tag as part of a hierarchy can serve as an ancestor tag.