Getting Started With Device Twin In Azure IoT Hub (.NET)

Please read the previous parts of the article series before continuing with this one.

What is device twin?

Device twins contain information on IoT device configurations, metadata, and conditions. Device twins store the device state information in a JSON document.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that you have created Azure IoT Hub and registered IoT device in the IoT Hub. if not, here is the article on How To Create Azure IoT Hub Using PowerShell and also, How to Register IoT Device in Azure IoT Hub Using PowerShell.

Get IoT Hub connection string

Open the IoT Hub in the Azure Portal. Select resource groups, select the resource group where you created the IoT Hub.
In the left pane, you can see the Shared access policies. From the top menu select +Add.
Enter the access policy name as serviceAndRegistryRead. choose permissions Registry Read and Service connect. Then, click Create.

Back on the Shared access policy, select copy icon for the Connection string --primary key

Create the service app to add tags and query the device twins

Here we create the .NET console app using C# that adds the location metadata to the device twin associated with the registered IoT device.

Here we query the device twins store in the IoT Hub to select devices located in Coimbatore and then reported a cellular connection.

Open Visual Studio -> choose to create a new project and select the Console App (.NET Core) and click Next.

Enter the project name as AddTagsAndQuery, location, solution name and click Create.

In Solution Explorer, right-click the AddTagsAndQuery project, and then click Manage NuGet package...
In the NuGet Package Manager, click the Browse tab and search Microsoft.Azure.Devices, and select Install.

Add the following code in the program.cs file.

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.Azure.Devices;
namespace AddTagsAndQuery
{
class Program
{
static RegistryManager registryManager;
static string connectionString = "<Enter the IoT Hub Connection String>";
static void Main(string[] args)
{
registryManager = RegistryManager.CreateFromConnectionString(connectionString);
AddTagsAndQuery().Wait();
Console.WriteLine("Press Enter to exit.");
Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
}
public static async Task AddTagsAndQuery()
{
var twin = await registryManager.GetTwinAsync("RPi01");
var patch =
@"{
tags: {
location: {
region: 'India',
plant: 'Coimbatore'
}
}
}";
await registryManager.UpdateTwinAsync(twin.DeviceId, patch, twin.ETag);
var query = registryManager.CreateQuery(
"SELECT * FROM devices WHERE tags.location.plant = 'Coimbatore'", 100);
var twinsInCoimbatore = await query.GetNextAsTwinAsync();
Console.WriteLine("Devices in Coimbatore: {0}",
string.Join(", ", twinsInCoimbatore.Select(t => t.DeviceId)));
query = registryManager.CreateQuery("SELECT * FROM devices WHERE tags.location.plant = 'Coimbatore' AND properties.reported.connectivity.type = 'cellular'", 100);
var twinsInCoimbatoreUsingCellular = await query.GetNextAsTwinAsync();
Console.WriteLine("Devices in Coimbatore using cellular network: {0}",
string.Join(", ", twinsInCoimbatoreUsingCellular.Select(t => t.DeviceId)));
}
}
}

Here we use Registry Manager class that interacts with device twins from the service. It initializes the registryManager object, then retrieves the device twin for my Device Id (RPi01). And it updates the tags to desired location information as Coimbatore.
After updating it executes two queries, first select the device twins; that device is located in Coimbatore. The second refines the query to select the devices that are connected through a cellular network.
Run the project using the F5 function key.

You can see the one device name (RPi01) that is located in Coimbatore plant and none for the devices using a cellular network.

Get IoT device connection string from Azure IoT Hub

Open your Azure portal and choose your IoT Hub.
Click IoT devices In Explorers. You can see the list of devices that are connected to the IoT Hub.

Double click the device, copy the connection string (primary key) to use later.

Create the device app to report that is connected using a cellular network

Here we create the .NET console app using C# that connects to your IoT Hub as RPi01(IoT device) and then updates the properties containing information on where the IoT device is connected over a cellular network

Open Visual Studio -> choose to create a new project and select the Console App (.NET Core) and click Next.

Enter the project name as ReportConnectivity, location, solution name and click Create.

In Solution Explorer, right-click the ReportConnectivity project, and then click Manage NuGet package...
In the NuGet Package Manager, click the Browse tab and search Microsoft.Azure.Devices.Client, and select Install.

Add the following code in the program.cs file. Replace the DeviceConnection value that you copied in the previous section.

using Microsoft.Azure.Devices.Client;
using Microsoft.Azure.Devices.Shared;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
static string DeviceConnectionString = "Enter the device connection string";
static DeviceClient Client = null;

Add the following method in the Program class. The Client object retrieves the device from the device twins.

public static async void InitClient()
{
try
{
Console.WriteLine("Connecting to hub");
Client = DeviceClient.CreateFromConnectionString(DeviceConnectionString,
TransportType.Mqtt);
Console.WriteLine("Retrieving twin");
await Client.GetTwinAsync();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Error in sample: {0}", ex.Message);
}
}

Add the following method in the Program class. The below code updates; the property type is cellular with the connectivity information.

public static async void ReportConnectivity()
{
try
{
Console.WriteLine("Sending connectivity data as reported property");
TwinCollection reportedProperties, connectivity;
reportedProperties = new TwinCollection();
connectivity = new TwinCollection();
connectivity["type"] = "cellular";
reportedProperties["connectivity"] = connectivity;
await Client.UpdateReportedPropertiesAsync(reportedProperties);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Error in sample: {0}", ex.Message);
}
}

Finally, add the below code in the main method.

try
{
InitClient();
ReportConnectivity();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Error in sample: {0}", ex.Message);
}
Console.WriteLine("Press Enter to exit.");
Console.ReadLine();

Run the project using F5 function key.

You can see that code retrieves the twin and sends connectivity data as reported property.
Run the AddTagsAndQuery app. Now the device RPi01 appears in both the queries.

That's it. I hope you have learned what device twins are and how to create device identity in the IoT Hub, how to add metadata as tags to IoT devices and device app to report the device connectivity information in the device twin. Feel free to fill up the comment box below if you need any further assistance from me.

3 Comments

Join the conversation! Your thoughts help the community grow.

Sundaram Subramanian6y ago
Thanks a lot, mate. Good to know many new technologies. Keep sharing, helps me a lot
Abhishek Mishra7y ago
Your series is highly helpful for one of my friend. He is doing IOT implementation and using your article as reference.
- Ravishankar N7y ago
  I'm just sharing my knowledge . Happy to hear that it is useful for someone.