Glossary

Terminology used in Blynk

A

API - an Application Programming Interface – computing interface that defines interactions between multiple software intermediaries

Auth Token - a unique identifier that is assigned to each Device that is activated in the system.

Automation - condition-to-action sets allowing Devices to complete tasks without user interaction.

B

Blynk.Console - a web application to configure devices, manage users, organizations...

Blynk.Apps - a mobile app available for iOS and Android

Blynk.Air - a Blynk Service that manages firmware-over-the-air updates.

Blynk.Edgent - a Blynk hardware agent library that manages device connection and communication with the cloud

Blynk.Inject - Blynk Service that gets hardware connected to the Internet. In short - a wifi connection manager.

Blynk.R - Blynk Service for User registration and management

Board - microcontroller hardware that is used as a core of Device. List of supported hardware.

Blynk 0.1 - First version of the Blynk IoT platform. No longer developed and supported.

Blynk Library - first version of the hardware agent library . NowBlynk.Edgent

C

Category - Devices group by their type that allows controlling all of them with voice assistants (Alexa, Google Assistant).

Claiming - a process of associating the device with the User (device owner). Usually used with devices that connect to the Internet using cellular or wired connection. WiFI Provisioning

D

Dashboard - a collection of Widgets

Device - physical or virtual appliance, Users can get telemetry from, configure, interact with, etc. Each device needs to be registered in the system.

Device Owner- a user considered to be a primary owner of the physical device.

Datastream - is a set of digital signals used for different kinds of content transmission.

Dynamic Auth Token - a unique identifier that is activated in the system and is assigned to each Device automatically during Wi-Fi Provisioning

E

Event - a recorded occurrence of an application-important event on the device

F

Firmware - a low-level software application that controls electronics and peripherials

H

HTTP API - a service that allows inter-operating with devices using a simple HTTP client. Devices can report their data using HTTP protocol.

L

Library - a set of files embedded to the arduino (or any other) integrated development environment (IDE) that add more functionality and ease to the use the Board.

M

Metadata - a {key: value} data associated with every device of a certain Template

N

Notification - a short message triggered by a certain Event and delivered to the specified recipient as an Email, SMS or Push Notification

O

Organization - a collection of users, devices, and locations

OTA (also FOTA) – Over-The-Air Firmware updates without accessing the Device physically.

P

Pin - GPIO (general-purpose input/output) pin on your Board used to interface with external hardware components (sensors, servo motors, LCDs, etc) of your Device.

Product - a Template published to Blynk.Marketplace and available for public use

Provisioning (also WiFI provisioning) - a process where the Blynk app sends parameters required to establish a WiFi connection to the device.

Profiling - a process of filling-out of Device Matadata after Claiming or Provisioning a device

Push Notification - a type of notification sent directly to the app on the smartphone

S

Shipment - OTA Firmwareloading to a single or multiple Devices

Static Auth Token - a unique identifier that is activated in the system and is assigned to each Device manually by editting the Sketch

T

Tag - a keyword or term that can be used to give a short description to a User or a Device

Template - a set of elements and configurations, used to display all Devices of a particular type. Templates are created by Developers, and can be published to be accessible globally.

Template ID - a unique identifier that is automatically assigned to each Template.

Timeline - a list of Events in chronological order. Represents Device status changes and warnings.

Transfer - move operation applied to 'Organizations', 'Devices' and Users, such as Organization or Device Owner changes.

U

User - an account assigned to a person and is a member of group of people accessing an Organization

V

Virtual Pin - a "channel" used to send processed data from/to cloud . Virtual pins have no physical representation on the hardware.

W

Widget - a self-contained graphical user interface (GUI) element used to visualize data or get user input.