Overview

Snippet Dynamic Applications on the SL1 platform are extremely powerful and flexible. A snippet developer has the full Python ecosystem available to them to solve the common problems of monitoring. Some common tasks of monitoring are:

specifying what to collect
communicating with an endpoint or device
transforming device responses into useful data
handling device errors
handling code errors
managing internal events, metrics, and logs

The power and flexibility of Snippet Dynamic Applications mean that nearly any collection problem can be solved with enough time and code, but most developers do not have unlimited time and code. The Snippet Framework builds on top of the Snippet Dynamic Application and aims to make the common problems of monitoring simple to solve, while still allowing for customization to solve more complex problems.

The goal of the Snippet Framework is to handle the routine and difficult parts of data collection, so that you can focus only on the specific problem you need to solve. Many problems will be solved with no code. A smaller set of problems can be solved with small amounts of code. Finally, the most complex and unusual problems can be solved by plugging in custom libraries and functions.

The Snippet Framework philosophy is that common collection tasks should not require a mountain of complex code. Common collection tasks should be easy while complex tasks should be possible.

Default Snippet

All Snippet Framework Dynamic Applications use the Default Snippet as its basis. The Snippet is essentially a wrapper and contains a section for specifying custom information such as custom substitution, custom steps, and imports. When writing your own Dynamic Applications, you should begin with the Default Snippet and place all custom information in between the User Editable comment blocks. To get started, it is recommended to use a Dynamic Application included in the Low-code Tools PowerPack and customize it to your needs.

You can find the Default Snippet below:

from silo.apps.errors import error_manager
with error_manager(self):

    from silo.low_code import *
    from silo.apps.collection import create_collections, save_collections

    # =====================================
    # =========== User Editable ===========
    # =====================================

    # List any custom substitutions that need to occur within the snippet arguments
    custom_substitution = {}

    # =====================================
    # ========= End User Editable =========
    # =====================================


    collections = create_collections(self)
    snippet_framework(collections, custom_substitution, snippet_id, app=self)
    save_collections(collections, self)

Result Handling

The Snippet Framework provides out-of-the-box unicode normalization(NFKD) to ASCII for all results. To understand how your data is normalized and displayed in SL1 use the provided box below.

Enter your text:

Normalized text:

Note

While the Snippet Framework does support Bulk Dynamic Applications, it does not support the use of the self object in said applications, with the exception being the Default Snippet itself.