KPN Things Integration

KPN Things is an IoT platform provided by KPN, a Dutch telecommunications company. It supports a range of IoT connectivity types — including LoRa, LTE-M, and mobile data — and lets users connect, manage, and route device data to cloud destinations via a concept called Flows. After integrating KPN Things with ThingsBoard, you can connect, communicate, process, and visualize data from your devices in the ThingsBoard IoT platform.

1. Go to Integrations center ⇾ Integrations and click + Add integration.
2. Basic settings:
   • Set Integration type to KPN Things.
   • Enable integration and Allow create devices or assets are on by default.
   • Click Next.
3. Uplink data converter:
   • Choose Create new. The default converter uses decodeToJson(payload) — KPN Things sends data pre-formatted in a structure ThingsBoard already understands, so no custom decoding is needed unless you want to transform the fields further.
   • Click Next.
4. Downlink data converter:
   • Leave the Downlink data converter field empty for now.
   • Click Skip.
5. Connection:
   • Specify your Base URL.
   • Copy the HTTP endpoint URL — you will need it when configuring the KPN Things destination.
   See Connection settings for a full description of each parameter.
6. Click Add.

Base URL

The base address of the ThingsBoard server, used to construct the HTTP endpoint URL. For ThingsBoard Cloud, this is https://thingsboard.cloud.

Destination shared secret

Optional secret token used to authenticate KPN Things requests arriving at ThingsBoard. Click the generate icon to create a value, then configure KPN Things to include it in outgoing requests so ThingsBoard can verify the source.

HTTP endpoint URL

Auto-generated endpoint for this integration. Paste this URL into the KPN Things ThingsBoard destination so that KPN Things forwards device uplink messages to ThingsBoard.

Allow downlink

Enable to allow ThingsBoard to send commands back to devices via KPN Things. When toggled on, additional Credentials fields appear:

• GRP tenant id — the KPN Things tenant identifier
• API id — the API client ID used to authenticate ThingsBoard against the KPN Things API
• API Key — the corresponding API secret key

Enable security (Headers filter)

Enable to restrict incoming requests to those carrying a specific HTTP header with a matching value. Click Add to define one or more Header / Value pairs. Requests missing any listed header or carrying an incorrect value are rejected. Use this to validate the X-Things-Secret header generated by KPN Things — see Update integration with security header.

Execute remotely

When enabled, ThingsBoard generates an Integration key and Integration secret that allow the integration to run as a separate process outside the ThingsBoard cluster — useful when the integration must reach services not accessible from the ThingsBoard server.

Advanced settings

• Description — optional text description for this integration
• Metadata — key-value pairs injected into every uplink message as integrationMetadata in converter scripts

Open the KPN Things Portal and log in to your account.

1. Go to the Things Manager tab and click Add new Device.
2. Choose Device Simulator, set a name for your device, and click Add Device.
3. Install the KPN Things Device Simulator app on your phone. Scan the QR code displayed on screen with the app. Note that the Shared Secret is only visible at this step — save it in a secure place. Click Add Network Info.
4. KPN Internet Network is created. Click Finish.

1. Go to Flows in the left menu and click the My first flow row.
2. Click Link Device in the Devices row.
3. Click Link next to the device you created.
4. The device is successfully linked to the flow.

1. Click the My Device row to open the Device & Connectivity detail page.
2. Go to the Flows tab and click the My first flow row.
3. Click Data Processing to open the Data Processing details page.
4. Enable the Decoded ThingsML and raw SenML data decoder toggle. Your change is saved automatically.

1. Go to Destinations in the left menu and click Add new Destination.
2. Find the ThingsBoard destination type and click Choose ThingsBoard.
3. Enter a name for your destination.
4. Paste the HTTP endpoint URL copied from the ThingsBoard integration into the HTTP endpoint URL field.
5. In the Security Header section, the Header name is pre-filled as X-Things-Secret. Click Generate to create the token value and save it — you will add it to ThingsBoard in the next step to authenticate incoming requests.
6. Click Add ThingsBoard Destination.

1. Go to Flows ⇾ My first flow and click Link Destination in the Destinations row.
2. Click Link next to the destination you created.
3. The destination is successfully linked to the flow and its status changes to Active.

To authenticate incoming requests from KPN Things, add the generated X-Things-Secret token as a security header in the ThingsBoard integration.

1. Go to Integrations center ⇾ Integrations, open the KPN Things integration, and click the edit icon.
2. Expand Enable security (Headers filter) and click Add.
3. Enter X-Things-Secret in the Header field and paste the generated token into the Value field. Click Apply changes.

Use the KPN Things Device Simulator app on your phone to send a message to ThingsBoard. Tap Send data now in the app.

After sending, ThingsBoard automatically creates a new device. Go to Entities ⇾ Devices — the new KPN device appears with its latest telemetry (e.g. accelerationX, battery) received from the simulator.

Go to Integrations center ⇾ Integrations, select the KPN Things integration, and open the Events tab to see the messages consumed by the integration.

• Integration Overview
• Uplink Converters
• Downlink Converters
• Rule Engine