For Live data, Historical data logging, Datalogging to MQTT broker, and Alarms & Notifications you'll need to set up a data source and add variables. This article shows you how to do this for communication via SMTP.

For help and solutions with issues, see SMTP data source issues and solutions.

• How does it work?
• Prepare the machine
• Add a data source
• Add variables
• Live data, Historical data logging, Alarms & Notifications

• Remove a data source

How does it work?

The machine sends an e-mail to the SMTP catcher inside the edge gateway instead of to a public cloud SMTP server. The SMTP catcher will then pass on a part of this e-mail to the IXON Cloud. You can configure what you'd like to pass on. This value can then be used for Live data, Historical data, and Alarms & Notifications.

For example, let's say you configured a variable to search for a text pattern (e.g. "Description:") and the original e-mail contains the following text:

Alarm triggered
Description: Valve C6 opened during operation. Machine has entered error state.
Code: 153

The SMTP catcher will search for the pattern "Description:" and get the text after this pattern until the end of that line. This means the following value will be passed on:

Valve C6 opened during operation. Machine has entered error state.

If Alarms & Notifications will be used, the e-mail in your inbox will look as follows:

Prepare the machine

Instead of sending an e-mail to a public cloud SMTP server, the machine will have to send the e-mail to the edge gateway's SMTP catcher.

1. Open the SMTP server settings on your machine and enter the edge gateway's LAN IP address as the SMTP server address and use one of the SMTP ports: 25, 465, or 587.

Add a data source

The machine will need to be added as an SMTP data source.

2. Go to Fleet Manager > Devices and click on your device name.
3. In the left menu, go to Data sources.
   • Tip: You can switch between the Card view , with useful data source information at a glance, and the List view . For more information, see Data sources overview FAQ.
4. Click onAdd data source and select SMTP/GPIO.
5. Enter the requested information (details below) and click on Add.

   Field	Description / instructions
   Name	Enter a name for the data source.
   Identifier	The identifier is entered automatically and ensures that every data source remains unique, even if they share the same name.
   IP address	Leave this field empty.
   Error grace period	Supported hardware SecureEdge and SecureEdge Pro, firmware 5.0 and up (upgrade) IXrouter3, firmware 3.25 and up (upgrade) IXrouter2 (unsupported) In rare situations, mainly during the startup period of a PLC, the PLC might already accept communication attempts from the edge gateway, but it may not be fully ready yet. It might then return errors or 0-values instead of the actual values. This may result in no data (missing data) or incorrect data being read. The error grace period can be configured to bridge this moment and only start polling variables after the configured time, granting the PLC sufficient time to fully start up and maintaining the reliability of the machine data. An error grace period of 0 seconds (Off) is recommended. In the rare case that you are experiencing no data (missing data) or incorrect data during startup you can increase this setting to bridge that period.
   Use custom broker	Leave this unchecked unless you are following instructions for Datalogging to MQTT broker.

Add variables

Once you've added a data source, you can add the variables.

6. The Variables tab of your data source should have automatically opened.
   • If it didn't: Go to Fleet Manager > Devices, click on your device name, go to Data sources, click on your data source, and go to the Variables tab.
7. Click onAdd variable.
8. Enter the requested information (details below) and click on Add.

   Field	Description
   Name	Enter a name for the variable.
   Identifier	The identifier is entered automatically and ensures that every variable remains unique, even if they share the same name.
   Type	Boolean Turns TRUE briefly when an e-mail has been received. String Use content from the original e-mail. For example the subject or a specific part of the e-mail. Configurable at Action.
   Length	(for String data types only) The String length.
   Protocol	Select SMTP.
   Action	Select the content from the original e-mail you want to use.
   Text pattern	(only for "Text pattern"-action) The e-mail will be searched for this text pattern (e.g. "Description:"). If found, everything after "Description:" until the end of the line is used.
   Keywords	Only e-mails containing these keywords are handled. Other e-mails are ignored.

9. A single variable is all you need to handle all your e-mails. If the configured text pattern or keywords do not match with all e-mails that you want to use, then repeat the previous steps to add more variables. Alternatively, you can also click Import from CSV-file near the top right corner to add variables in bulk instead.
   • The structure of the CSV file is explained here: Import variables: CSV file structure.
   • Using Export to CSV-file and Import from CSV-file enables you to easily copy variables from one device to another device. Alternatively, you can also use device templates.

You have now made the changes in the IXON Cloud, but these are not yet active in your device. You will need to push your changes to your device for them to take effect.

10. Click on Push device config in the top right corner.

Live data, Historical data logging, Alarms & Notifications

Now that the data source and variables have been set up, you can continue below.

11. Click below to continue in the feature specific articles.
    • Live data
    • Historical data logging
    • Datalogging to MQTT broker
    • Alarms & Notifications

Remove a data source

Deleting a data source is permanent and cannot be undone. All logged data that is linked to this data source or its variables will also be permanently removed.

1. Go to Fleet Manager > Devices and click on your device name.
2. In the left menu, go to Data sources.
3. Click on the data source you wish to remove.
4. In the top right, open More optionsand select Remove data source.