Connector screens

This page names every control on the connector screens. For the concepts (kinds, lifecycle, direction), see Connectors; for what each connector connects to, see the Connector catalog.

Connector Manager

The screen has two halves: Connected (the instances you have configured) and Catalogue (the connector types available to this node).

Control	What it is
All / Hardware (OT) / Cloud / IT filter	Narrows both halves by connector kind.
Search connectors…	Filters by name.
Connected	Every configured instance across all types (columns below).
Catalogue	One tile per connector type (below).

Connected table columns

Column	What it shows
Name	The instance id.
Type	The connector type, with its icon.
Status	A live status pill (Connected, Stopped, Error, …).
Latency	Round-trip time for the last exchange (where applicable).
Enabled	A toggle that starts/stops the instance.
Configure	Opens the instance in its type’s page.

Catalogue tiles

Element	What it is
Freshness row	When the catalogue was last checked, plus Check now. Offline is a normal state — installed connectors keep running; you just can’t add new ones until the node can reach JasperX.
State badge	Installed (on this node), Not installed (available to install), Removed, Unavailable.
Description	What the connector is for — the same sentence used in the catalog reference.
Version line	Which version this node is pinned to. An Update ready flag appears when a newer one is staged.
OT / IT + counts	The connector’s kind, and how many of its instances are active / total.
Install / Configure	Install downloads and installs the type; once installed the button becomes Configure and opens the type’s page. A removed type offers Restore.
ⓘ About	Opens a card with When to use it and On this node (installed version, instances, what it is doing right now), plus install / update / roll-back actions.

A connector type page

Opening a type (e.g. Modbus) shows a header with its name, a one-line description, and a ← Connector Manager back-link, then an Instances tab — and, on connectors that support direct device access (currently Modbus), a Bench Tools tab.

Instances tab

Control	What it is
＋ New	Creates a new instance of this connector type.
ID / Enabled / Status / Connected columns	The instances and their live state.
Enable connector (▷)	Starts the instance (turns enabled on).
Edit configuration (✎)	Opens the form editor (below).
Edit config JSON (<>)	Edit the raw configuration directly.
Delete connector (🗑)	Removes the instance.

The configuration editor

Editing an instance opens a form split into Master (connection), Mapping (the tags), and a live Diagnostics panel, with Cancel / Save at the top. The fields below are the Modbus example; other connector types have an analogous, tailored set.

Master (connection & polling):

Field	What it is
Instance ID	The id/slug for this instance (letters, digits, _, -).
Name	A human-friendly label shown in the IDE.
Transport	How to reach the device (e.g. TCP, RTU).
Tags’ base path	The folder the connector creates its tags under.
Host / Port	The device address (TCP).
Unit ID	The Modbus slave/unit address.
Cycle time (ms)	How often the connector polls/exchanges.
Op timeout (ms)	How long to wait for a single operation before failing it.
Force-reconnect after N failures	Drop and re-open the connection after this many consecutive failures.
Batch adjacent reads	On by default. Off = every input gets its own request.
Batch adjacent writes	On by default. Off = every ungrouped output writes on its own.

On a serial transport the address fields change to suit it — Serial path, Baud rate, Parity and Stop bits in place of Host / Port.

Mapping (one row per value):

Column	What it is
Name	The tag’s name.
Sub-path	An optional extra folder under the base path.
Space	The register/area (e.g. Holding Registers).
Addr	The numeric address.
Dir	Direction — in (device→tag) or out (tag→device). See Direction.
Type	The data type (e.g. u16).
▸ expander (row caret)	Opens the row’s per-register settings — bit, Unit ID override, raw offset, grouping (below).
copy / delete (row icons)	Duplicate or remove a mapping row.
Filter registers	Filters the mapping list.
＋ Add register	Adds a mapping row.

Grouping — controlling how registers share a request

By default the connector merges neighbouring addresses into as few requests as possible, in both directions. Some devices don’t cope with that, and some need the opposite — several registers landing in one write so the device sees them change together. Both are controlled here.

The two Master checkboxes turn automatic merging off wholesale, per direction. Turn Batch adjacent reads off for a device that misbehaves on multi-register reads, and Batch adjacent writes off for one with no multi-write support (each output then writes on its own). Explicit groups, below, still batch either way.

Expand a mapping row for the per-register controls. They follow the row’s Dir, so an input shows the read pair and an output the write pair:

Control (input rows)	What it does
Read group	A name. Every row sharing it is fetched in one request, gaps included.
Read with its own request	Never merge this register with its neighbours. Unavailable if it’s in a group.

Control (output rows)	What it does
Write group	A name. Every row sharing it is written in one operation, together.
Write on its own (never batch)	Never batch this register. Unavailable if it’s in a group.

Three things to know:

• Group membership is by name. Every register in a block must carry the exact same string.
• A read group may span gaps; a write group must be contiguous. Reading a few extra registers is harmless, but writing across a gap would overwrite whatever sits in it, so the form rejects a write group with holes.
• Editing any of these restarts the instance — grouping changes the request layout, so it isn’t applied in place.

Reach for a write group when a device rejects single-register writes, or when a command word and its value must arrive together. Reach for a read group when the values you need are scattered (say 100, 104, 108) and you’d rather pay for one request than three.

Diagnostics panel (read-only, live): the instance’s Status, Connected, request/response latency, and cycle I/O timing — sourced from __sys/node/service/connectors/<type>/<id>/stats/*.

Bench Tools

A per-connector-type workbench for direct device access during bring-up and diagnostics, independent of any configured instance. It connects on its own using the Host / Port / Unit ID fields at the top, then offers (for Modbus):

Tool	What it does
Probe device	A read-only scan that reports which addresses respond and which return errors — so you build your config from addresses that actually respond, not from a datasheet alone.
Detect byte order	Helps determine the device’s word/byte ordering.
Read	Reads specific addresses on demand.
Write (marked destructive)	Writes a value directly to the device — use with care; it changes the real device.
Run	Executes the selected tool.

Bench Tools is the fastest way to sanity-check wiring and addressing before you commit a mapping.