View source for V2/Concepts/Connector

<h1 class="main-heading">Connectors</h1>
Connectors are applications built to allow external systems to communicate with Senfi. At the moment, Senfi provides a [https://mqtt.org/ MQTT] interface for receiving data from external systems.

Here's a diagram of Senfi solution architecture showing the role of Connectors as a communicator between external systems and Senfi.

[[File:Concepts_Connector.png|1000px|center|link=]]

There are two ways to send data to Senfi, namely:
* via MQTT
* via Senfi API

A typical integration follows this pattern:

 External system --> Connector --> Senfi MQTT endpoint / Senfi API

Either the external system you are monitoring pushes to the Connector, or the Connector polls the external system for its current values. Either way, once the Connector has the values of its measurement, the Connector can prepare to send it to Senfi's MQTT endpoint or Senfi's API endpoint.

Connectors should be built on standard communications protocol for building automation and control systems such as BACnet, OPC UA, Modbus etc.

==== What's Next ====
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* Learn about [[V2/Concepts/API Key|API Key]]
* [[V2/Integrate/Others|Writing Connectors]]