Developer guide for Azure IoT Operations

You can extend the capabilities of Azure IoT Operations by developing custom edge applications and connectors that interact with Azure IoT Operations services. This article provides an overview of the tools, extension points, and SDKs available to help you build these solutions.

Common scenarios for custom development

You can develop custom solutions to address various scenarios with Azure IoT Operations, including:

• Custom connectors for integrating with proprietary or specialized devices and protocols by using the Akri services. To learn more, see:

  • What are Akri services
  • Build Akri connectors in VS Code

• Edge applications that perform data processing, transformation, and analytics at the edge by using WebAssembly (WASM) modules. Data flow graphs with WASM modules let you build custom data processing pipelines. To learn more about using and building WASM modules, see:

  • Use a data flow graph with WebAssembly modules
  • Transform incoming data with WebAssembly modules
  • Build WASM modules for data flows in VS Code
  • Develop WASM modules and graph definitions for data flow graphs

• Extend the capabilities of data flows by using the state store for maintaining application state. The state store is also accessible from WASM modules. To learn more, see:

  • Enrich data by using data flows
  • State store support for WASM operators

• Build highly available applications that programmatically interact with the MQTT broker for reliable communication with Azure IoT Operations services. For example, the OPC UA connector enables you to control connected OPC UA servers by sending commands through the MQTT broker. The protocol compiler tool in the SDK lets you generate client code from models to simplify the development of such applications. The v2 version of the protocol compiler uses Web of Things (WoT) model files as input. To learn more, see:

  • Protocol compiler v2
  • Protocol compiler
  • OPC UA sample application

  Tip

  The TestThing folder contains an example of a .NET library generated by the protocol compiler v2 from a WoT Thing model file. You can use this library as a starting point for building your own applications that interact with Azure IoT Operations services through the MQTT broker. For example, see the CounterServer and CounterClient sample applications.

• Programmatically manage devices and assets by using the Azure Device Registry service and the schema registry. To learn more, see the following samples in the SDK repository:

  • Service samples (.NET)
  • Service samples (Rust)

Overview of Azure IoT Operations SDKs

The Azure IoT Operations SDKs are a suite of tools and libraries across multiple languages that help you develop for Azure IoT Operations. You can find the SDKs open source on GitHub:

• Azure IoT Operations .NET SDK
• Azure IoT Operations Rust SDK

To learn more about the SDKs, see:

• Components of the SDKS
• Tools included in the SDKs
• Samples and tutorials
  • .NET samples
  • Rust samples
  • Go samples

VS Code extensions for Azure IoT Operations

Use the following VS Code extensions to develop custom solutions for Azure IoT Operations:

• Azure IoT Operations Akri connectors VS Code extension: This extension provides templates and tools to help you build custom Akri connectors for Azure IoT Operations by using either .NET or the Rust programming language. To learn more, see Build Akri connectors in VS Code.
• Azure IoT Operations WASM modules VS Code extension: This extension provides templates and tools to help you build WebAssembly (WASM) modules for data flow graphs and connectors in Azure IoT Operations by using either the Python or Rust programming language. To learn more, see Build WASM modules for data flows in VS Code.

Next step

Try the Quickstart: Start developing with the Azure IoT Operations SDKs.