Optimizing Update performance and Service Restart

When the Neuron® updates itself, it executes the Waher.Utility.Install.exe application that is installed with the Neuron® in a parallel process. When the Neuron® starts, it copies the install utility to a subfolder, to make sure its executable files are not the same as the Neuron’s. When the process has started, the Neuron® stops its execution, releasing the locks on the executable files, and releasing a named semaphore that signals to the install tool the files have been released. The install utility then performs its update instructions. In all neurons prior to build 2024-11-20, the Neuron® got restarted when the operating system restarts the service. This implies a delay from when the install procedure is completed, until Windows decides to restart the service. For some reasons, Windows may choose not to restart the service at all, leaving the service disabled.

Windows Defender

Furthermore, if Windows Defender is executing on the server, it can intercept the updating of each archive, which may take considerable time. This time may interfere with the restarting of the Neuron®, which may lock files, prohibiting the update. To minimize problems during the update, Windows Defender could be temporily disabled, drastically increasing update speed.

Auto-restarting service

To speed up the restarting of the service, and remove the dependency on Windows having to automatically restart the service, the install utility has been updated and can now issue a service restart command when the install procedure is completed. For this to work, the application needs to have sufficient privileges to do this. The service runs using the system Local Service account, with very few privileges. By default, this user cannot start services. The new installer gives the Local Service account access rights to start the Neuron® Windows service (i.e. the IoT Gateway Service). If you are running a Neuron® installed prior to 2024-11-20, or if the configuration was not successful, you can manually give the Local Service account sufficient privileges to enable this feature. Follow these steps:

1. Download the Service Security Editor on the Neuron® machine.

2. Select the “IoT Broker” service (or “IoT Gateway Service” or “Neuron Service”) on the starting screen.

   

3. If LOCAL SERVICE is not available in the user list, add it. Ensure that the user has rights to start the service, and no other rights.

   

4. Press OK and then Done to close the application. The install utility can now start the Neuron® again once it completes an update.

#neuron, #install, #service

Service for sending SMS using GatewayAPI

A new service package is available, that help services send SMS messages to its users. The service uses the GatewayAPI SMS service. The service also publishes a configuration page, accessible from the administration page, and a simple script function making it easy to integrate with services hosted on the Neuron® where the service is installed. The service is also available open source on GitHub.

Installable Package

The service has been made into a package that can be downloaded and installed on any TAG Neuron. If your Neuron® is connected to this network, you can install the package using the following information:

Package information
Package	TAG.Service.GatewayApi.package
Installation key	qHh3N01htgWDSci38o+U1c4O76prAaZ54FjGbweFLUcHmWNZn1WtORx+87Z+xZFydk886sxDRBAAb900fba31cac92078bed72e8d89fda7e
More Information	https://lab.tagroot.io/Community/Post/Service_for_sending_SMS_using_GatewayAPI

Configuration

After installation, you will find the service in the Software section:

Press the button to open the configuration page. Fill in the parameters provided to you by GatewayAPI. Make sure you use the European server, if you configured your account for use within Europe. Otherwise you leave the box unchecked. You can also provide test parameters to test your configuration. Notice that the sender name can only be 11 characters if consisting of non-digits.

You also have a Sniffer available (if you have sufficient privileges) to trouble shoot any configuration or communication issues:

Sending SMS from script

Once the service is configured, you can send SMS messages easily from script, using the SendGatewayApiSms script function, as follows:

Onboarding API

The custom Onboarding API provided by TAG has been updated as well, and been changed to use the new service instead of the earlier service textlocal.

#new, #service, #repository, #api, #sms, #neuron

Neuro-Access onboarding

A new service allows for the automated approval of simple Neuro-Access digital identities on Neurons, where the service is installed.

Some more information
Package	TAG.NeuroAccessOnboarding.package
Installation key	eCcfYJJTV4r/SQWsYK2wo/2aHCBp+ZuvrdaUOeTp0Sa2oz5CuCqbteKkUoHX1XXeNSppMqY+49WA17bcceb2e763824b855eb832a996a598
Configuring Service	See Configuring alternative onboarding Neuron /NeuroAccess/Settings.md on the Neuron® on which the service is installed.
More information	https://github.com/Trust-Anchor-Group/NeuroAccessOnboarding

You can also access the service from the Admin menu, by pressing the Neuro-Access button:

Configuration of the Onboarding Neuron®, used by this service, has been moved to the Neuron® itself. See the article Configuring alternative onboarding Neuron for more information.

Onboarding process

During the onboarding process, the user validates its e-mail address and phone number with an onboarding Neuron®, who directs the app to the most suitable host for the Neuro-Access account. If the user chooses to create a simple Neuro-Access digital identity (i.e. only containing the phone number and e-mail address provided) the digital identity can be automatically approved, if the host Neuron® is able to validate the information with the onboarding Neuron. This service performs this task: It registers an Identity Authenticator with the Neuron®, which authenticates such simple Neuro-Access digital identities with the onboarding Neuron®, and approves the applications automatically, if the information matches the information validated during the onboarding process.

Configuration page

The configuration page for the service is very simply. All you need to do is provide the domain name of the onboarding Neuron® used. By default, the TAG ID Onboarding Neuron® will be selected.

Configuration of the Onboarding Neuron®, used by this service, has been moved to the Neuron® itself. See the article Configuring alternative onboarding Neuron for more information.

#new, #features, #neuro-access, #onboarding, #id, #service

Multi-Purpose QR-codes

A new service has been published, that allows users and services on a TAG Neuron® to create multi-purpose QR-codes. Such QR-codes can embed multiple links and sets of information, including multimedia-content such as images and video, into one simple QR-code.

Following is a list of features:

• Supports multiple links, for multiple purposes.
• Include descriptive labels and and descriptions.
• Can be used to embed multi-media, such as images, video, audio, etc.
• Allows for custom design and presentation.
• Supports TAG URI schema coloring of QR-codes.
• Allows limitation of codes in time.
• Allows limitation of codes in number of uses.
• Can count usage.
• Can be used by services on the Neuron® to create custom Multi-purpose QR-codes from script.

Installation Package

The following package contains the service. Install it on your Neuron® to enable multi-purpose QR-codes on the Neuron®.

Package for ,ulti-purpose QR codes
Package	TAG.MultiQR.package
Installation key	lOUZEY8IYlvFlZG/5w/cmlpUi+wf5AT/6bLFxeOBLLnkGb9JIalJX4DnrYlq+ptx1Q0IFMq72BKAad7686eccaa8c34bc092e2026b2619f3
Repository	https://github.com/Trust-Anchor-Group/MultiQR
Start page	https://DOMAIN/MultiQR.md

Create a Multi-purpose QR code

Start by going to the /MultiQR.md page on the Neuron® where the service is installed. A link to the page will be available from the Admin page, under Software. The first part of the page will contain the general definition of the QR-code:

• The Title will represent the Title of the page that opens when scanning the page. As such, it will appear in the header of the page. If will also be shown at the top of the page, if the default presentation is selected. (Custom designs can be used, see below. For the purposes of brevity, it will be assument the default presentation is selected in all the following items, unless explicitly stated otherwise.)

• Description contains a textual presentation of the QR code to the user. It will also appear in the HTML header, describing the page.

• You can customize the presentation of the QR-code, by providing a different Master file, than the default suggested file. If using the default file, the QR-code will be loaded and then presented by the MultiQR.md file. If providing another master file, the MultiQR.md file will still load the QR-code definition, but pass the definition to the selected Master-file, in the MultiQrCode variable. The custom file can then choose how to present the information.

• Coloring scheme allows you to select how the QR-code is to be displayed to users. You can choose between available coloring schemes on the Neuron®.

• It is possible to limit the use of the QR-code in two ways. You can set an expiry date, after which the QR-code will no longer be avaialble. You can also set a usage limit, which caps the number of times the QR-code can be used.

• Statistics on how often QR-codes are used can be configured by setting a Count Category. If set, the counter defined by category, prefixed with MultiQR., will be incremented each time it is used.

Adding links

Each QR-code contains at least one link. You can add more, by pressing the Add Link button. For each link, you provide the following information:

• The Label provides a sub-header label for the link.

• Text contains a textual description of the link.

• The link itself should be provided under Link, as a valid URL.

• If the link represents multi-media, you can choose to embed the content on the page. Instead of a link to the content, it will be embedded directly on the page.

• If the embedded multi-media represents an image or video, you can also optionally provide a Width and Height. This enables the content to be presented properly, and to scale.

Creating the code

Once the infomration has been properly provided, you create the QR-code by pressing the Create button. If you want to see how a multi-purpose QR-code would look like, scan the following code:

QR-codes presented on the page can both be scanned again, but also clicked, to directly navigate to the underlying URL. URLs are also presented, together with labels and descriptions provided. Embedded Multi-media will be presented directly.

Script interface

You can create multi-purpose QR-codes from script using the following call:

CreateMultiQR(
\{
	"Title": Required(Str(Title)),
	"Description": Required(Str(Description)),
	"Master": Required(Str(Master)),
	"Scheme": Required(Str(Scheme)),
	"ExpiryDate": Optional(DateTime(ExpiryDate)),
	"CountLimit": Optional(Number(CountLimit)),
	"CountCategory": Optional(Str(CountCategory)),
	"Label1": Required(Str(Label1)),
	"Text1": Required(Str(Text1)),
	"Link1": Required(Str(Link1)),
	"MultiMedia1": Optional(Boolean(MultiMedai1)),
	"Width1": Optional(Number(Width1)),
	"Height1": Optional(Number(Height1)),
	...
	"LabelN": Required(Str(LabelN)),
	"TextN": Required(Str(TextN)),
	"LinkN": Required(Str(LinkN)),
	"MultiMediaN": Optional(Boolean(MultiMedaiN)),
	"WidthN": Optional(Number(WidthN)),
	"HeightN": Optional(Number(HeightN))
\}, "/MultiQR.md");

The Scheme property can be the empty string (for default encoding), or any of the following URI scheme strings:

• tagsign
• iotid
• iotsc
• iotdisco
• edaler
• nfeat
• obinfo
• aes256

The call returns an object of the following format:

\{
	"Image": Str(ImageUrl),
	"Page": Str(PageUrl)
\}

The Image property returns a link to the image of the multi-purpose QR code. Use it to download or present the image of the QR code. The Page property returns an URL to the page showing the contents of the QR-code. The QR code image contains a link to this page encoded.

Example:

CreateMultiQR(
\{
	"Title": "Test",
	"Description": "This QR-code was created as part of a test.",
	"Master": "/Master.md",
	"Scheme": "nfeat",
	"ExpiryDate": Today.AddDays(30),
	"CountLimit": 100,
	"CountCategory": "Test",
	"Label1": "Kermit",
	"Text1": "Following is an image of Kermit.",
	"Link1": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/62/Kermit_the_Frog.jpg",
	"MultiMedia1": true,
	"Width1": null,
	"Height1": null,
	"Label2": "More Information",
	"Text2": "The following link contains more information about Kermit.",
	"Link2": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_the_Frog",
	"MultiMedia2": false,
	"Width2": null,
	"Height2": null
\}, "/MultiQR.md");

#new, #service

Neuro-Babel, a multi-language multi-user chat service

Neuro-Babel™ is a new service package you can install on your Neuron®. It permits users to participate in Multi-User-Chat rooms using their own preferred language. The service translates the messages sent in the room, using OpenAI. Translations should maintain Markdown formatting of messages, even though OpenAI might be unpredictable in its responses… (If you find any strange behaviour in the translations, please provide examples on how to repeat the issue as responses to this message. The problem may be fixed by updating the instructions given to OpenAI, on how to translate the corresponding messages.)

You install the service, by installing the TAG.Babel.package, available in the Packages page in the Admin menu. You will need to provide a key when installing. Use the following public key:

Some more information
Package	TAG.Babel.package
Installation key	KnV3cIjL1u9SFxProgNEdkEViKF+HDhEtzWazhxwQDuNcrsBLNTT2iCtPRalfaLmPLNv9kCJvsGA65f36c3aa43de3a07170faf9cf33c0f1
Neuron Build-time	2023-04-17 or later
Configuring Service	TBD.
More information	https://github.com/Trust-Anchor-Group/NeuroBabel
Start Page	/Babel/Index.md

You can test the service on this Neuron® by opening the following link:

https://lab.tagroot.io/Babel/Index.md

Service will require you to login-using the Quick-Login API. It will then ask you for what room you want to enter, and what language you wish to chat in.

Note: If you’re logged in to the Community service (where you read this), you’re automatically logged in to the Neuro-Babel™ service on the same Neuron® as well.

You can share a multi-user-chat room, by sending the link to the starting page of the service, and append ?Room=ROOMNAME at the end, where you replace ROOMNAME with the name of the room you want to share. You can create as many rooms as you like, as long as you’re able to login.

#new, #features, #babel, #chat, #neuron, #service, #repository