Context
Change Type: Preview
Product area: Device management & connectivity
Component: Data Preparation
Technical details
Build artifact: apama-in-c8y
Description
Preview
This feature is in Public Preview, that is, it is not enabled by default and may be subject to change in the future.
Data Preparation is a new application that lets you transform incoming device messages before they are stored in Cumulocity. You create rules that receive raw payloads over MQTT, process them with custom code, and produce standard Cumulocity measurements—for example, converting proprietary sensor data from a device into a format the platform can store and display.
Each rule targets a specific MQTT topic or client ID filter and runs a smart function—a Javascript snippet—that processes the incoming message. The built-in AI assistant (powered by the AI Agent Manager) helps you generate the transformation code from a sample payload and a plain-language description of your goal.
Key capabilities include:
- A guided wizard for creating rules with topic and client ID filters.
- An AI assistant that generates smart function code from sample payloads.
- A rule editor with live testing against sample data before deployment.
- Draft and deployed states for safe iteration without affecting live traffic.
To enable Data Preparation, open the right drawer (by clicking on your username initials) in the Administration application and select Manage preview features. Then activate the toggle next to Data Preparation. If you use a custom or duplicated application (for example, a duplicate of Cockpit or Administration), upgrade to the latest Web SDK or duplicate the application again. Otherwise, the Data Preparation icon does not appear in the app switcher in those applications.
For details, see Data Preparation.