AASX Server is a companion app for the AASX Package Explorer. It provides a local service to host and serve Industrie 4.0 AASX packages. The Core version exposes endpoints for REST, OPC UA, and MQTT protocols. The GUI version offers the same functionality and additionally uses the Blazor Framework to provide a browser-based GUI for exploring AASX packages.

IMPORTANT

AASX Server is now in V3, and the main branch includes the first release:
AASX Server v2023-09-13.alpha
The latest work takes place in the policy3 branch, which will be merged into main soon.

TIP

A demo server is running at https://v3.admin-shell-io.com.
You can explore the API manually at https://v3.admin-shell-io.com/swagger.

An AASX Server with security enabled can be found here: https://v3security.admin-shell-io.com/.

Currently, AasxServerBlazor is primarily used, but AasxServerCore is also supported. AasxServerWindows will no longer be developed, as .NET 6 works well on Windows. The --rest, --host, and --port options are no longer supported and will be removed soon, as they pertain to the old V2 API.

Please ignore the "Connect to REST by:" message.

You can place your AASXs into the ./aasxs directory. In the examples below, replace YOURPORT and YOURURL with your actual port and URL.

You can run the AASX server directly using the dotnet command:

export DOTNET_gcServer=1  
export Kestrel__Endpoints__Http__Url=http://*:YOURPORT  
dotnet AasxServerBlazor.dll --no-security --data-path ./aasxs --external-blazor YOURURL  

Note: ASP.NET Core Runtime 6.0 can be downloaded here.

You can use the Docker image available at:
docker.io/adminshellio/aasx-server-blazor-for-demo:main

Place your AASXs into the ./aasxs directory and run the Docker container with:

docker run \
-p 5001:5001 \
--restart unless-stopped \
-v ./aasxs:/AasxServerBlazor/aasxs \
docker.io/adminshellio/aasx-server-blazor-for-demo:main

If you prefer to use Docker Compose, see the docker-compose.yaml configuration below:

services:
  aasx-server:
    container_name: aasx-server
    image: docker.io/adminshellio/aasx-server-blazor-for-demo:main
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - YOURPORT:5001
    environment:
      - Kestrel__Endpoints__Http__Url=http://*:5001
    volumes:
      - ./aasxs:/usr/share/aasxs
    command: --no-security --data-path /usr/share/aasxs --external-blazor YOURURL  

The V3 version of the server includes a basic implementation of persistence using a database. We use Entity Framework, which has been tested with SQLite and PostgreSQL. SQLite is part of the standard deployment. (PostgreSQL details will be explained in the README in the future.)

Add --with-db to turn on database storage. For the first start please add "--start-index 0" to get the AASX files in --data-path imported into the database. For further starts add "--start-index number" with number greater than you number of AASX files, e.g. 1000. If you change content by the API, you may add "--save-temp number_of_seconds" and the changes will be written to the database after the number_of_seconds. With "--aasx-in-memory number" you can specify how many AAS shall be shown in the blazor tree. Only the latest changed AAS will be shown.

Click on the links on the right. You can find an example server with database running here: Example Server. The database content can be seen here: Database Content. You may also do GraphQL queries to the database here: GraphQL Queries. On the GraphQL page, enter { followed by a space, and the wizard will guide you further. An example GraphQL query is:

{
   searchSubmodels (semanticId: "https://admin-shell.io/zvei/nameplate/1/0/Nameplate")
   {
     submodelId
     url
   }
}

If you want to create a registry and also automatically POST to it, please take a look at our GitHub issues page.

This documentation will be updated to V3 soon.

AASX Server serves Industrie 4.0 AASX packages accessible by REST, OPC UA and MQTT protocols.

The AASX Server is based on code of AASX Package Explorer.

There are three variants of the server:

• blazor. This variant uses Blazor framework to provide a graphical user interface in the browser for exploring the AASX packages. The other APIs are the same as in the core variant.

• core. This is a server based on .NET Core 3.1.

• windows. This variant uses .NET Framework 4.7.2, which is the only way how you can start a server on your Windows machine without administrator privileges. If you run on windows start with this variant first and try blazor later.

• Mind that blazor and core variants require administrator privileges, so they can not be used for demonstration purposes on tightly-administered machines (which are wide-spread in larger organizations and enterprises).

A blazor demo server is running on https://admin-shell-io.com/5001/. Please click on an AAS and use the DOWNLOAD button on the right or use "https://admin-shell-io.com/51411/server/getaasx/0" etc. by browser or CURL on the command line. You can connect to this AASX Server by AASX Package Explorer by "File / AASX File Repository / Connect HTTP/REST repository" with REST endpoint "https://admin-shell-io.com/51411".

The binaries are available in the Releases section. We provide portable dotnet assemblies.

AASX Server depends on .NET Core 3.1 runtime (blazor and core variants) and .NET Framework (windows variant), respectively. You need to install the respective runtimes before you start the server. .NET framework is part of windows. See https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-core/3.1

To deploy the binaries, simply extract the release bundle (e.g., AasxServerWindows.zip or AasxServerCore.zip) somewhere on your system.

We include an example AASX and various extra files (e.g., certificates) in the release bundle so that you can readily start the server for demonstration purposes. The scripts startForDemo.sh and startForDemo.bat will start the server with these pre-packaged files.

For example, if you run on Linux, change to the directory where you extracted the release bundle and invoke:

./startForDemo.sh

On Windows please start startForDemo.bat.

We provide a couple of sample admin shells (packaged as .aasx) for you to test and play with the software at: http://www.admin-shell-io.com/samples/. Please copy these to the aasxs subdirectory as needed.

1. Change to the directory where you extracted the release bundle.

2. Start the server by running startForDemo.bat or by invoking the executable directly with the appropriate server variant. For example:

   AasxServerWindows.exe --opc --rest --data-path /path/to/aasxs

You can see the AAS on the server with: http://localhost:51310/server/listaas. To show the JSON of the exampleMotor AAS please use: http://localhost:51310/aas/ExampleMotor. To show submodel "Identification" please use: http://localhost:51310/aas/ExampleMotor/submodels/Identification/complete.

To obtain help on individual flags and options, supply the argument --help:

AasxServerWindows.exe --help

or

AasxServerCore.exe --help

AasxServerCore:
  Serve AASX packages over different interfaces

Usage:
  AasxServerCore [options]

Options:
  -h, --host <host>                      Host which the server listens on [default: localhost]
  -p, --port <port>                      Port which the server listens on [default: 51310]
  --https                                If set, opens SSL connections. Make sure you bind a certificate to the port before.
  --data-path <data-path>                Path to where the AASXs reside
  --rest                                 If set, starts the REST server
  --opc                                  If set, starts the OPC server
  --mqtt                                 If set, starts a MQTT publisher
  --debug-wait                           If set, waits for Debugger to attach
  --opc-client-rate <opc-client-rate>    If set, starts an OPC client and refreshes on the given period (in milliseconds)
  --connect <connect>                    If set, connects to AAS connect server. Given as a comma-separated values (server, node name, period in milliseconds) or as a flag (in which case it connects to a default server).
  --proxy-file <proxy-file>              If set, parses the proxy information from the given proxy file
  --no-security                          If set, no authentication is required
  --edit                                 If set, allows edits in the user interface
  --name <name>                          Name of the server
  --version                              Show version information
  -?, -h, --help                         Show help and usage information

Change to the directory where you extracted the release bundle.

Start startForDemo.bat or use dotnet to execute the DLL with the same name as the server variant. For example:

dotnet AasxServerCore.dll --opc --rest --data-path /path/to/aasxs

You can use AasxServerWindows with Mono. Change to the directory where you extracted the release bundle. Use mono to execute the EXE:

mono AasxServerWindows.exe --rest --data-path /path/to/aasxs

If you want to also use "--opc" with Mono you need to change Opc.Ua.SampleServer.Config.xml: change <StoreType>X509Store</StoreType> to <StoreType>Directory</StoreType>.

Mono gives you the possibility to run AasxServer on platforms like x86, PowerPC or MIPS.

See supported Mono platforms on: https://www.mono-project.com/docs/about-mono/supported-platforms/

Find Mono downloads on: https://www.mono-project.com/download/stable/

To build the binaries from the source code, run the powershell script src/BuildForRelease.ps1.

To package the binaries for release, call src/PackageRelease.ps1.

For more information on continuous integration, see .github/workflows/build-and-package-release.yml for a workflow executed on each release and .github/workflows/check-release.yml for a workflow which is executed on each push to master branch.

We provide pre-built docker images meant for demonstration purposes at the following DockerHub repositories:

• blazor linux/amd64
• blazor linux/arm32
• blazor linux/arm64
• core linux/amd64
• core linux/arm32
• core linux/arm64

In case you want to deploy on Raspberry PI, you probably need to use ARM 32-bit.

Ideally, we would like to set up a multi-arch docker container (see this article). If you have experience with multi-arch images and would like to help, please let us know by creating an issue.

For example, to pull the latest core variant of the server for the demonstration on an x86 64-bit machine (linux/amd64), invoke:

docker pull adminshellio/aasx-server-core-for-demo

You can then run the container with:

docker run \
    --detach \
    --network host \
    adminshellio/aasx-server-core-for-demo

The server should be accessible now on your localhost. For example, curl:

curl http://localhost:51310/server/listaas

should give you something like this:

{
  "aaslist": [
    "0 : ExampleMotor : [IRI] http://customer.com/aas/9175_7013_7091_9168 : ./aasxs/Example_AAS_ServoDCMotor_21.aasx"
  ]
}

As you can see, we already provide an example AASX in the container. For a more thorough demo, you might want to copy additional AASX packages (e.g., from the samples) into the container. Find the container ID of your running container with:

docker ps

Then use docker cp to copy the AASX packages into the aasxs directory (assuming your docker container ID is 70fe45f1f102):

docker cp /path/to/aasx/samples/  70fe45f1f102:/AasxServerCore/aasxs/

If you demo with blazor variant, change the destination path analogously to AasxServerBlazor.

For example a docker with blazor may be started by

docker run -p 51000:51310 -p 51001:5001 -v ~/samples:/AasxServerBlazor/aasxs adminshellio/aasx-server-blazor-for-demo
/AasxServerBlazor

connecting host port 51000 to REST port 51310 and host port 51001 to blazor view port 5001. In addition, the host directory ~/samples is used to load .AASX files from inside the docker.

Mind that there are many other options for managing containers for custom demos such as Docker multi-stage builds (using one of our demo images as base), bind mounts etc.

We provide a powershell script to build the docker containers meant for demonstrations at src/BuildDockerImages.ps1.

Please find a short description of the REST API below.

{aas-identifier} = idShort of AAS
{submodel-identifier} = idShort of Submodel
{se-identifier} = idShort of SubmodelElement
{sec-identifier} = idShort of SubmodelElementCollection

Example: http://localhost:51310/aas/ExampleMotor/submodels/Documentation/complete

Example: http://localhost:51310/aas/ExampleMotor/submodels/OperationalData/elements/RotationSpeed/complete

Example: http://localhost:51310/aas/ExampleMotor/submodels/Documentation/elements/OperatingManual/DocumentId/complete

PUT http://localhost:51310/aas/ExampleMotor/submodels/OperationalData/elements
Payload:

{
  "value": "1234",
  "valueId": null,
  "semanticId": {
    "keys": [
      {
        "type": "ConceptDescription",
        "local": true,
        "value": "http://customer.com/cd//1/1/18EBD56F6B43D895",
        "index": 0,
        "idType": "IRI"
      }
    ]
  },
  "constraints": [],
  "hasDataSpecification": [],
  "idShort": "RotationSpeedNEW",
  "category": "VARIABLE",
  "modelType": {
    "name": "Property"
  },
  "valueType": {
    "dataObjectType": {
      "name": "integer"
    }
  }
}

Test with: GET http://localhost:51310/aas/ExampleMotor/submodels/OperationalData/elements/RotationSpeedNEW

If you want to request new features or report bugs, please create an issue.

Code contributions are very welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for more information.