Editing functions within the AASPortal and integration of own Asset Administration Shells

[promed859]

Hello everyone,

i have tested the AASPortal using the described Dockerhub solution ( docker run -p 80:80 fraunhoferiosb/aasportal_aio ). The access to localhost works and the samples have loaded.

I wanted to test to what extent Asset Administration Shells can be viewed and especially edited with the AASPortal.
In the initial view I see no possibility to edit Asset Administration Shells. Is this only possible if you connect your own repositories? If so, how do I connect my own repositories?
Currently I only see the possibility to connect an AAS registry. A test attempt to connect an Eclipse BaSyx registry resulted in an empty list. Previously, there was no error message when specifying and submitting the link (http://localhost:8082) via the Add function.

If you are available, I would be grateful for your help.

[fpethig]

Thank you for raising this issue. The confusion stems from the difference between an AAS Registry and an AAS Server, and how AASPortal currently handles them.

Current Limitation

AASPortal currently does not support connecting directly to standalone AAS Registries. When you try to add a registry endpoint like http://host.containers.internal:8082/shell-descriptors, the system fails with the error "adressiert eine ungülig oder nicht unterstützte VWS-Ressoure" (addresses an invalid or unsupported AAS resource).

Why This Happens

The technical reason is that AASPortal's endpoint validation (api-client-v3.ts) tests connections by attempting to fetch shells from the /shells endpoint, which is part of the AAS Server API specification. However, AAS Registries use a different API structure with /shell-descriptors as their primary endpoint. They only contain metadata about where AAS can be found, not the actual AAS data itself.

The Architecture Difference

• AAS Registry: A directory service that stores references (shell descriptors) pointing to where Asset Administration Shells are hosted. It's like a phone book that tells you where to find things.
• AAS Server: The actual server that hosts and serves complete Asset Administration Shell data, including submodels, properties, and all detailed information.

How to Connect Your Own Repositories

To connect your own AAS repositories to AASPortal, you need to:

1. Add an AAS Server endpoint (not just a registry):
   ◦ Go to the "Endpunkte" (Endpoints) section
   ◦ Click "Hinzufügen..." (Add)
   ◦ Select "AAS API" as the type
   ◦ Enter the base URL of your AAS Server (e.g., http://host.containers.internal:8081)
   ◦ Important: Do NOT include /shell-descriptors or /shells in the URL - just the base endpoint
2. Supported endpoint types:
   ◦ AAS API (v0, v1, v3) - Full AAS Servers that implement the specification
   ◦ OPC UA - Industrial automation protocol endpoints
   ◦ FileSystem - Local AASX file directories
   ◦ WebDAV - Web-based file repositories

For Eclipse BaSyx Users

If you're using Eclipse BaSyx, you typically need to connect to the BaSyx AAS Server endpoint, not just the registry. BaSyx provides both registry and server components, but AASPortal needs the server component to retrieve and edit the actual AAS data.

Example setup:
• BaSyx Registry: http://localhost:8082 (used internally by BaSyx components)
• BaSyx AAS Server: http://localhost:8081 (this is what you should add to AASPortal)

Editing Asset Administration Shells

Once you've successfully connected an AAS Server endpoint, extensive editing capabilities become available if the endpoint is writable (not read-only):

Viewing AAS:
• The sample AAS loaded by default are typically read-only (from FileSystem endpoints)
• When connected to a writable AAS Server, editing controls appear in the toolbar

Available Editing Operations:

1. Add New Elements (+ button):
   ◦ Add new Submodels to Asset Administration Shells
   ◦ Add SubmodelElements (Properties, Collections, Lists, etc.) to existing structures
   ◦ Choose from templates or create from scratch
   ◦ Select element type and specify idShort (name)
2. Edit Elements (pencil button):
   ◦ Modify properties of existing SubmodelElements
   ◦ Update values, descriptions, semantic IDs, etc.
   ◦ Single element selection required
3. Delete Elements (trash button):
   ◦ Remove SubmodelElements and Submodels
   ◦ Multiple selection supported
   ◦ Cannot delete Asset Administration Shells themselves
4. Undo/Redo (arrow buttons):
   ◦ Full command history with undo/redo support
   ◦ All editing operations are reversible before synchronization
5. Synchronize (refresh button):
   ◦ Push local changes back to the AAS Server
   ◦ Only enabled when modifications exist
   ◦ Requires 'editor' authorization role

Technical Details:

• Editing is hidden when document.readonly === true (as indicated by the [hidden]="readOnly()" attribute in the UI)
• FileSystem and some OPC UA endpoints are read-only by nature (readOnly: true)
• AAS API endpoints (v0, v1, v3) support full read-write operations (readOnly: false)
• The system uses a command pattern for all edits, enabling undo/redo functionality
• Authorization is checked before allowing edit operations (requires 'editor' role)

Potential Future Enhancement

Supporting standalone AAS Registries could be a valuable feature that would allow AASPortal to:

1. Query the registry for available AAS
2. Automatically discover and connect to the referenced AAS Servers
3. Provide a unified view across distributed AAS infrastructures

This would require implementing registry-specific client code and multi-endpoint resolution logic.

To summarize: You CAN edit Asset Administration Shells in AASPortal, but only when connected to a writable AAS Server endpoint (not a registry, and not read-only sources like local file systems). Connect to your BaSyx AAS Server at http://localhost:8081 to access full editing capabilities.