Fi-Ware is a public-private partnership launched by the European Union in 2014 to promote the development of smart cities apps based on open standards and open source code. By providing tools and components in areas such as data management, Internet of Things interoperability, and information security, the initiative seeks to provide simple, standards-based interconnectivity between apps across any vertical.
The Fi-Ware Development team at Telefónica has recently built a connector for CartoDB. The python script parses data from a Fi-Ware “Context Broker” (a service which allows for easy publishing of/subscribing to frequently updated data). By leveraging CartoDB’s SQL API, the connector updates rows in a CartoDB table with the latest data from the context broker, keeping the map’s underlying data as fresh as possible.
Architecture Diagram of a FiWare "Context Broker" publishing sensor data
The new connector can be seen in action powering this CartoDB map of Bus Locations in the city of Santander, Spain. You can see near real-time vehicle locations as markers, or view a torque animation of location data collected over the previous 24 hours.
The Fi-Ware to CartoDB connector is now listed on CartoDB’s booming external libraries list. Take a look to see how other platforms and companies are leveraging the power of CartoDB’s APIs to bring their data to life as maps.
Happy Mapping!