Real use cases for UI Components

In the next sections we will provide a brief overview of potential use cases and explain why a UI component is sufficient.

When should you use a UI Component?

As a machine builder, it is possible to use the UI Component CDK (Component Development Kit) to build components tailored to your needs in case that functionality is not already available by default.

A few examples could be:

• Customizing the visualization of your current active/inactive connections.
• Customizing the visualization of a machine or fleet's health.
• Customizing buttons based on your needs.
• Embedding another web application into a UI Component that acts as an iframe wrapper. You can read more about this in this section.

Via the use of the UI Component CDK's ComponentContext, you will be able to access and retrieve the resources you need to achieve these goals, without having to store any additional and potentially sensitive data in your code.

In what cases is a UI Component not enough?

At times, a UI Component is sufficient if all you want to do is create simple and basic components, or customize your data visualization or interaction.

For example, you might need to visualize the data points belonging to a specific variable or tag: since the CDK offers a way to do this, you will not need to interact with a database directly, and therefore a UI Component will be enough.

Instead, as soon as you will have to deal with more complex and sensitive logic, or in case you will need storage for data persistence or more security, a UI Component alone will not be sufficient and a Cloud Function will need to be added to the project.