Metadata

Thistle’s device manager contains update information about each device in your fleet, but in some cases it may be helpful to add additional metadata to each device. This is accomplished with the use of an optional metadata JSON file. The Update Client will then automatically report the metadata to Thistle’s backend for each data-reporting event.

In order to use a metadata file, the file must be present and populated before the Update Client is invoked, and the field metadata_path must be populated in the configuration file.

Example metadata file:

{
  "serial_number": "TH931X2",
  "model": "Thistle Plus",
  "miscellaneous": "QA device"
}

Optional fields

Currently the device manager supports displaying the keys below, but we plan on supporting any additional free-form keys in the future. Note that these fields are meant to simplify device identification, and grouping - so fluctuating data can render the dataset more difficult to use.

• serial_number
• model
• manufacturer
• manufacture_date
• mac_address
• miscellaneous