1E SDK

The Tachyon Agent ships with a number of modules, and each module has a number of methods. Modules are simply a container, and provide a way of logically grouping methods together. Methods are operations which interact with the device and provide output data in the form of a table. A method may also take one or more parameters (see section below). If you have used any kind of object-oriented programming language before, these concepts should be familiar.

An example of a module may be the "Network" module; a corresponding method on that module may be "GetConnections". Calling this method returns a table of data which contains a row for each network connection, with corresponding columns for "IpAddress", "Port", etc. Some methods return only a single value.

The full list of methods is too long to include here, but can be found in the Tachyon Agent Methods reference.

In addition, the Agent language includes some cross-platform built-in functions – think of them like methods available in a "global" module. See Tachyon Agent Built-in Functions reference.

The Tachyon Agent’s architecture allows new modules (and therefore new capabilities) to be deployed after the Agent has been installed.

An individual method may take one or more parameters which will determine the behaviour of that method. For example, the "Users" module has a method named "GetLocalGroupMembers". This method takes a parameter named "GroupName" which is the name of the local group whose members should be queried.

A parameter may be mandatory, in which case you must provide a value for that parameter when calling the method, or optional, in which case it can be omitted.

A parameter has a corresponding data type, which determines the possible values that can be supplied for that parameter. For example, a parameter may be a "string", or an "integer", etc.

Method parameters should not be confused with instruction parameters. However, you can use instruction parameters as method parameters.

Method names and their parameter names are case-sensitive.

The output of a method is always a table of data.

The output can be assigned to a @table. Once data is in a @table, it can be processed using SQL, iterated over using FOREACH, and used as a parameter for subsequent method calls.

These concepts are discussed below.

The Tachyon Agent language integrates with SQLite – an open source, light-weight database engine with comprehensive support for the SQL querying syntax. SQLite is a popular, high-performance, feature-rich and light-weight database technology which is incredibly pervasive in modern IT – indeed, it is speculated that SQLite is one of, if not the most widely deployed software component in the world.

Although SQLite has full SQL support, including advanced concepts like views, triggers, pragmas, etc., the Agent Language supports only SQL SELECT statements. Statements such as UPDATE, INSERT and DELETE are not supported within the language. However, by using SQLite to its fullest, it is possible to perform very complex data processing. @tables within the Agent language manifest themselves as temporary tables which can be queried using SQL SELECT statements.

Documentation for SQLite is found on its website. There are other help sites and forums you can search for help and examples. The following are some useful pages:

SQL is only used to process @tables that are used as parameters and output of Methods. It is not possible to call Methods from within a SQL SELECT statement, therefore if you require some form of flow control then use the Agent Language FOREACH loop. Nor can you use a SQL SELECT statement as a Method parameter; instead use SQL to save a parameter as a @table and use that @table in the Method.

In addition to SQLite functions, the Agent language takes advantage of SQLite extensibility by providing "application defined functions" for use in SELECT statements. See Tachyon Agent SQL Functions reference.