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Niagara Developer Guide Index

Framework

• Overview Provides a high level overview of the Niagara Framework and its problem space.
• Architecture Provides a broad overview of the architecture and introduces key concepts such as station, workbench, daemon, fox, and modules.
• Directory Structure Provides an overview of the the Niagara 4 directory structure, highlighting the differences from NiagaraAX.
• API Information Provides an overview of API stability designation and public versus implementation APIs.
• Modules Provides an introduction to modules which are the software deliverables in the Niagara Framework.
• Object Model An introduction to the Niagara type system.
• Component Model An introduction to the Niagara component model.
• Entity Model An introduction to the Niagara entity model.
• Building Simples Details for building simple Types.
• Building Enums Details for building enum Types.
• Building Complexes Details for building complex struct and component Types.
• Registry The Niagara registry is used to query details about what is installed on a given system.
• Collections Details on the Niagara Collections API.
• Naming The Niagara ord naming architecture and its APIs.
• Links Discusses object links.
• Execution Discusses the runtime execution environment.
• Station Discusses station lifecycle.
• Remote Programming Describes how the component model is programmed across the network.
• Files Discusses how files are mapped into the Niagara object model.
• Localization Discusses localization in the Niagara Framework.
• Spy An overview of the Niagara diagnostics framework.
• Licensing An overview of the Niagara licensing framework.
• XML An overview of Niagara XML document model and parser APIs.
• Bog Format Details of the Bog (Baja Object Graph) XML schema and APIs used to encode and decode component graphs.
• Distributions An overview of Niagara Distributions.
• Test How to use Niagara's test framework.
• Virtual Components An overview of using transient, on-demand (virtual) components.

User Interface

In Niagara AX there were three different UI frameworks to choose from.

• bajaui: Niagara's own Java-based UI toolkit. bajaui widgets run natively in Workbench. To run outside of Workbench (such as from a web browser), they require a standalone client application called Niagara Web Launcher.
• Hx: A Servlet-based approach to creating user interfaces with HTML. The UI runs on the Niagara Station, and strings of HTML and JavaScript are sent to the browser to recreate that UI in the browser.
• Mobile: An HTML5-based UI framework specifically designed for smartphones and tablets. This is now removed in Niagara 4.15, because Niagara 4.6 added many enhancements to make the regular Hx profiles mobile-friendly.

Niagara 4 introduces a new framework called bajaux. bajaux is designed from the ground up to be native to HTML5 and JavaScript. Niagara UI development as a whole is also moving away from Java and towards HTML5 and JavaScript. This is for several reasons:

• Web access is critical for users. But very few web browsers support the Java plugin anymore. This means that users must install standalone, Java-based applications just to access a station. A native HTML5 UI requires no plugins or addons.
• Maintaining two separate versions of your UI - one for Workbench and one for browser - drains resources and adds complexity. Maintaining only one version that works for both Workbench and the browser is much simpler.

Developing in bajaux has several benefits.

• Workbench interop: Workbench has an integrated browser engine. This allows the exact same bajaux view to work in both Workbench and the web browser. We recognize a lot of Niagara developers have made a huge investment in bajaui. With this native integration, you can develop new HTML5 views and have them work seamlessly together with existing bajaui views.
• JavaScript: use JavaScript, HTML and CSS to create your web applications. We've provided a suite of JavaScript libraries to make this as easy as possible. This includes BajaScript, bajaux, and much more.
• Web Server: Niagara uses Jetty as a web server. This grants native support for Java Servlets.
• bajaui and Hx: due to the massive investment our customers have in Niagara AX UI technology, we still support both bajaui and Hx in Niagara 4.

Niagara 4 Open Web Technologies

Our new User Interface technology uses HTML5, JavaScript and CSS. For information on developing your own applications using this technology, please see the section on Building JavaScript Applications.

• Introduction to Niagara UI: an introduction for developers new to Niagara UI technologies.
• User Interfaces from AX to N4: an overview for Niagara AX developers transitioning to Niagara 4.
• UI Changelog: breaking API changes are always called out separately, but starting with Niagara 4.10, we'll keep a running tally of non-breaking API changes that are of interest to developers.
• Serving HTML from the Station's File System: information and best practices on serving static web content directly from the Station's file system.
• RequireJS: New JavaScript code in Niagara 4 uses AMD (Asynchronous Module Definition) for better performance and maintainability.
• BajaScript: a JavaScript library that's used to access Niagara data. It's important to note that BajaScript isn't a User Interface library. It's just for the data.
• bajaux: used to write User Interface Widgets in JavaScript. Code once and use everywhere. A bajaux Widget will run in both Hx and Workbench. These tutorials cover a lot of ground and utilize BajaScript, lexicons, dashboards and dialogs to create HTML5 web applications.
• webEditors: a library of widgets, editors, and frameworks built using bajaux.
• UxMedia: a method of rendering Px graphics natively in the browser using pure HTML5 and JavaScript.
• managers: create views on component containers to easily organize and batch manipulate their contents with tables.
• driver: contains managers for working with Points and Devices within driver networks.
• lexicon: translate your HTML5 Widgets into different languages.
• log: use JavaScript to log data in the browser and in the station.
• dialogs: add dialog boxes to your HTML5 Widgets.
• dashboards: allow the user to change and save the state of Px WebWidgets in real-time without the Px Editor.
• export: allow users to export Niagara data and download, save, or transmit it.

Niagara AX - bajaui

• Gx Provides an overview of gx graphic toolkit.
• Bajaui Provides an overview of the widget component toolkit.
• Workbench Overview of the workbench shell.
• Web Overview of web APIs.
• Hx Overview of Hx APIs.
• Px Overview of Px technology.

Niagara AX - Hx

• Overview Overview of Hx Architecture
• HxView Details of HxView
• HxOp Details of HxOp
• HxProfile Details of HxProfile
• Events Detail of Events
• Dialogs Details of Dialogs
• Theming Details of Theming

Niagara Theme Modules

• Creating Niagara 4 Themes Details on creating Niagara 4 theme modules.

Niagara Login Screen Customization

• Customizing the Niagara 4 Login screen

Niagara Session Expiry - Notes

• User Activity Monitoring and Auto log-off

Web Server

Niagara's web server can be extended in a number of ways. In Niagara AX, you could extend via Servlet Views and Web Servlet Components. In Niagara 4, you can also extend via standard Java Servlets.

• Niagara Web Modules: create Java Servlets in Niagara Modules.
• Servlet Views: create a view that is also a Servlet.
• Web Servlet Components: create a component that's also a Servlet.
• Exporter Servlet: invoke an Exporter from the web server and download its generated content.

In Niagara AX 3.7, we added support for Apache Velocity to Niagara. Velocity is a powerful Server Side Templating tool.

• Apache Velocity: create Server Side Templates for HTML.
• Px Velocity: use the Velocity engine to dynamically create Px XML.

Niagara RPC

From Niagara 4.1 onwards, a developer can easily create Remote Procedure Calls that can be invoked from FOX, BOX (including BajaScript) and through a Web Servlet. For more information please click here.

Horizontal Applications

• Control Overview of the control and automation module.
• History Overview to the historical database module.
• Alarm Overview to the alarming module.
• Schedule Overview of the scheduling module.
• Report Overview of the reporting module.
• Hierarchy Overview of the hierarchy module.

Queries (BQL, NEQL, Search)

• BQL Overview of the Baja Query Language.
• BQL Expressions Details on BQL expressions.
• BQL Examples Provides BQL examples.
• NEQL NEQL Overview and Examples.
• Search An overview of the Search Service

Drivers

• Driver Framework Overview of the driver framework.
• PointDeviceExt For reading and writing proxy points.
• HistoryDeviceExt For importing and exporting histories.
• AlarmDeviceExt For routing incoming and outgoing alarms.
• ScheduleDeviceExt Used to perform master/slave scheduling.
• Basic Driver APIs for the basic driver framework
• BACnet APIs for the BACnet driver
• Lonworks APIs for the Lonworks driver
• Lon Markup Language Specification for the lonml XML format

Development Tools

• Build Documentation on using the build tool to compile and package software modules.
• Building JavaScript Applications Documentation on creating new Niagara 4 web modules and developing views with HTML5 and Javascript.
• Deploying Help How to build and package help documentation with Niagara modules.
• Slot-o-matic Documentation for the slot-o-matic tool used to aid in the generation of boiler plate code for slot definitions.
• Module Migration from Niagara AX to Niagara 4 Guide on migration Niagara AX module to Niagara 4.
• Upgrading older N4 builds Documentation on updating older N4 build environments to the latest version