# Ability Platform Learning Paths
The Ability Platform provides a secure infrastructure and service Platform to build innovative and impactful software solutions based on cloud and edge computing concepts. Are you new to development on the Platform? Learn about the components that make up the Platform architecture such as: the edge environment, the information model, and the APIs. Learn how to get started with setting up an edge environment for edge computing and data ingestion.
# ABB Ability™ Platform Components Overview
Get a high-level overview of the Platform as a whole and the major data ingress and egress paths that all business line users will be interacting with.
# What you'll learn
- The overall architectural structure of the Platform
- A high-level summary of the key components of the Platform available to all users including: edge devices, Ability APIs, and the information model
| Module Name | Target Audience | Tutorial Type |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture Overview | All Users | PPT |
| Available API Overview | Non-Technical User | |
| Edge Module Concept Overview | Non-Technical User | |
| Information Model Overview | Non-Technical User |
# Build an Information Model
The basis of the Ability Platform is built upon the ability to model your devices and your systems. The Information model is the conduit for modelling in the Ability Platform. In this series you will learn the concepts that make up the information model and how it relates to creating a successful solution in the ability ecosystem. Models are not meant to be unique for every single instance of a device and are built and designed to be shared across business lines and this series will explain how to make those design decisions.
# What you'll learn
- How to build an object model
- How to build a custom information model
- Concepts of the meta model
- Model References
| Module Name | Target Audience |
|---|---|
| Type Definitions Overview | Platform Developer/Edge Developer |
# Application Development
Once data is in the Platform there are a number of APIs and services available to interact with your data when you want behind a security protected roles services. The Ability Platform does not provide any pre-developed UI solutions for users, but offers many services to develop interesting and dynamic, data based web applications for your BL. This series will teach you how to interact with the various APIs and secure your data from the web application end using the ABB Ability™ Platform.
# What you'll learn
- How to send meaningful requests to the Ability API endpoints
- How to handle the response messages from various API endpoints
- Setting up a front-end user interface to interpret hot path data.
| Module Name | Target Audience |
|---|---|
| Hot Path Subscription Example | Application Developer |
| Publisher Endpoint example | Application Developer |
| Build a Graph UI to Display Hot Path Data | Application Developer |
# Request Ability Environment For Edge Development
Once you have basic understanding of how the Ability Platform can be utilized, you can now start development. The following steps will highlight the process to request, setup and utilize an Ability Environment for development activities. These steps are not for production deployments. While both production and development deployments share many of the same steps, production deployments require additional details. For example, the Azure Region and resource scaling suitable for production loading is not required for initial development activities and will not be covered in detail here.
# What you'll learn
The table below will take you through the steps to get your environment and use it to start the Edge Tutorials provided in this documentation.
| Step | Activity | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Request your Environment | Create a request for an environment |
| 2 | Request your Solution | Typically Ability Operations will setup your solution. For development environments, you can request Ability Administrator permissions and configure your own solution. |
| 3 | Configure your Solution | Here you define roles and grants for your application. |
| 4 | Configure your Tenant | In this step you assign grants to your tenant user(s). |
| 5 | Access your Environment | The Instance API is secured in a private VNET. Two methods exist to access the environment. This procedure takes you through the steps to access your environment. |
| 6 | Load Tutorial Type Definitions | Pre-existing Edge Types are available to load it an Instance. |
| 7 | Configure and Edge run a Tutorial | Select the best environment to run one of the tutorials. |
| 8 | Verify a tutorial is running correctly | Follow the link on this page for the tutorial used to start the edge in the previous step. |