Hologram Dashboard Overhaul: New Data Router and Message Console

We’re excited to announce a major revamp of the Hologram Dashboard! Making the Dashboard's data router and message management features simultaneously simpler to use and more powerful.

We're excited to announce a major revamp of the Hologram Dashboard!The goal of the Hologram Cloud and Dashboard is to provide a simple, secure, and insightful landing pad for your data messages as they come in from your edge devices, and then easily send them to whatever custom or third-party applications you need, such as Amazon Web Services, Slack, or your own email.This upgrade makes the Dashboard's Data Router and message management features simultaneously simpler to use and more powerful.

What's changed

After collecting valuable user feedback, we've upgraded the Dashboard interface to better highlight the valuable routing and message log features, and added new functionality to make them even more useful.The new improvements include:

New Route Creation UI, Operations, and Actions
  • We added the concept of internal Operations and outbound Actions, both which are types of routing apps. The result of Operations, such as our Heartbeat or Modifier apps, stay within the current route and are chained into other Operations or Actions. Actions send the data out of the route. This makes it so that operations can be easily sequenced together on the same route, without the need for complex coordination of topics between different routes
  • Create a new route in the Disabled state so that you can save your progress and start it back up later, without risking any sort of garbage being sent to your production-level integration.
Message Simulation

Now, from the dashboard, you can get messages logged and experiment with the router, without having to sending it from an actual end device. This makes experimentation with log messages and the message router much easier and more streamlined, so you can debug any errors with your integrations separate from your device. Not to mention that simulated messages are free of charge!

Message Console

The new Message Console enables viewing your data messages in full-screen or as a partial collapsible drawer which persists no matter where you are on the Hologram dashboard. This especially helpful when referencing to edit or create a route, or when debugging so that you don't have to switch back and forth between contexts.

  • See exactly which routes were triggered as a result of a message, and then be able to quick jump into the details of that route.
  • Descriptive error logging attached right to the message, so you know exactly what failed and why. You're able to filter by error messages, to fix your issues ASAP.
  • See a message that just showed up in the logs and want to create a route from it? No problem, there's now a quick-route button directly on the log console that pre-populates everything you need to route all messages of that message type.
Advanced Message Filtering

We now allow you to filter by:

  • Messages with errors associated with them, to immediately find what's gone wrong
  • Time filtering down to the second, to hone in around when things started to error out
  • Individual device, or devices grouped by the same tag
  • Individual message topics, auto-completed for easy remembering

Getting Started

To start, if you haven't gotten one yet, stop by our store (http://hologram.io/store) to pick up a Hologram Global IoT SIM card (https://hologram.io/store/global-iot-sim-card) and get your devices connected (https://hologram.io/activate).In order to start working with the new Data Router and Message Console, you'll need to have some messages in your data logs. While the ultimate purpose is for messages to originate from your edge devices, basic trial of these data services is most accessible by simulating the messages from within the dashboard itself.Instructions on how to quickly simulate messages from the dashboard (https://hologram.io/docs/guide/cloud/simulate-from-device/)Instructions for sending messages from your end devices (https://hologram.io/docs/reference/cloud/embedded/)We also have SDKs and hardware available to help get you up and running quicker:

  • Hologram CLI and Python SDK (https://hologram.io/docs/reference/cloud/python-sdk/) – geared towards Linux-based devices such as the Raspberry Pi with a cellular USB modem.
  • Hologram Dash API (https://hologram.io/docs/reference/dash/api/#hologramcloud) – used when programming with the Hologram Dash.

Once you have messages in your console, you'll be able to play around with all these new improvements. Try creating a few routes and see how easy it is to forward data via SMS, email, or even your own custom webhook. We also provide an ever-growing list of 3rd party integrations such as Amazon S3, Slack, and AT&T M2X – here is a full list of our supported integrations (https://hologram.io/docs/guide/cloud/routing-rules/).

More about the Hologram platform

If you want to learn more about the other parts of our platform, check out some of these resources:

Global Cellular IoT Connectivity

  • Self-service SIM card ordering and management (https://hologram.io/iot-sim-card/)
  • Transparent, scalable IoT pricing (https://hologram.io/pricing/)
  • Seamless, automatic carrier switching around the world (https://hologram.io/pricing/)
  • Dashboard and API for connectivity management (https://hologram.io/cloud/)
  • Secure inbound tunneling into your devices via Hologram SpaceBridge (https://hologram.io/docs/guide/cloud/spacebridge-tunnel/)

End-Device Solutions

  • Hologram CLI and Python SDK (https://hologram.io/docs/reference/cloud/python-sdk/) – for linux-based IoT devices
  • The Hologram Dash (https://hologram.io/dash/) – a microcontroller with built-in cellular connectivity
  • Raspberry Pi and cellular USB modem tutorial (https://hologram.io/docs/tutorials/raspberry-pi-cellular/)
  • SIMCOM 800/900 helper libraries (https://github.com/hologram-io/hologram-SIMCOM)

Are you a hardware manufacturer interested in learning about going cellular? Contact us at success@hologram.io (mailto:success@hologram.io).

Get started with Hologram today

  • Talk to an IoT expert
  • Receive a free SIM
  • Customize your plan