Last Updated: February 15, 2024
What's changing with device online and offline status?
We’ve reworked this component to set the right expectations when you manage your devices. We’ve also found that the terms “Online” and “Offline” weren’t accurate enough. We've rolled out these changes to many tenants already.
The good news is that we've made these changes backward-compatible, meaning you won't need to change your APIs or other workflows when these changes go into effect.
Reach out to Esper if you think your workflows might be affected.
Dashboard
Devices & Groups
Pipelines
How will commands change?
You may be familiar with how commands work in Esper today. After you send a command (through an API, the console, etc.), it is queued. If the device does not check in with Esper in seven days, then the command is deleted.
We are changing this behavior. Now, commands will no longer be deleted automatically. Users won't be able to cancel the commands that are fired. When sending commands to a large group of devices, we recommend sending a scheduled command.
How will Reports change?
In Reports, we show the Online and Offline devices in addition to the Last Seen timestamp. We’ve noted that the Online, Offline, and Status tags will be deprecated over time. We will make appropriate announcements as necessary.
Online/Offline Experience
Last Seen Experience
Devices will be considered Active if they were online the previous day (if starting from the current date).
How will the API change?
Current APIs will not change, so you can continue to use your APIs in workflows for the time being. We’ve also added new APIs to retrieve the Last Seen timestamp.
- Backward Compatibility of device API
- We haven’t made any changes to the Device API contract so backward compatibility isn’t required
- New Fields in status-metrics
- We’ve created a new v2 API for status metrics and added two new fields to the response
- Last seen (it has 3 interval count)
- First Interval ( < 30 min)
- Second Interval (> 30 min & < 24 hour)
- Third Interval (> 24 hour)
- Unprovisioned devices
- Last seen (it has 3 interval count)
- We’ve created a new v2 API for status metrics and added two new fields to the response
- New API to get Last seen
The new API will return the last seen timestamp for a specific device.
- GET /api/device/v0/heartbeat/{device-id}/
- Response:
How will Remote Viewer/Remote Control change?
You will now be able to start a Remote Viewer/Remote Control session whether or not the device is communicating with Esper. We’ve added a warning to inform you that the device may not connect, but you will be able to attempt a session regardless.
Online/Offline Experience
Last Seen Experience
How will Alerts change?
We’ve changed the language in the Alerts network screen to make it clear that you will receive an alert if the device has not checked in with Esper in the specified period.
The minimum value for alerts is now 15 minutes.
What guidance will I need for removing devices?
Currently, we recommend device removal based on if the device is online or offline. Going forward, device removal will no longer depend on that status. Device removal will be the same as every other command, meaning, they will be queued indefinitely until the device connects with Esper. We will update our Removing Device article once the Last Seen changes occur.
Should I change how I send commands based on these changes?
Since we'll no longer have a 7-day timeout, we recommend using scheduled commands for large deployments. There are a few ways to do this: schedule an app update, schedule a Converge, or use the API.