====Data Points / Point Names====

For every property or alert that is linked to live data, ARDI creates a //point name//. This is a unique identifier for that particular connection.

When you use the live or historical data API, you use these names to find your values.

===Format===

A data point name is made up of three colon-delimited values. The **asset ID**, the **property ID** and the **node**.

==Asset ID==

The Asset ID is the numeric ID that ARDI assigns to your asset when you create it. 

The ID number appears in the URL of the web page when you visit the dashboard for the asset. For example, in the URL **/dashboard/2073**, the ID of the asset is '2073'.

==Property ID==

The Property ID is the numeric ID that ARDI assigns to your property when you create it. 

Like assets, the ID number appears in the URL when you view or edit your property - for example, in the URL **/admin/properties/update?id=22**, the ID number is fairly obviously '22'.

Note that negative numbers here represent non-property links. For example, -1 indicates that this is a link to an **alert**, not a property.

==Node==

The node is the individual piece of information that you are linked to. Measurement properties have several nodes - //measurement//, //units//, //points//, //min// and //max// - and this nominates which of those nodes you are bound to.

For measurements, this is almost always **measurement**. For status properties, it's **state**. For enumerations and lookups, it's **value**.

In the case of alerts (ie. where the property value is //-1//), this is the unique ID number of the alert. 

===Examples===

For example, if you wanted the measured value of the **measurement** property **22** for asset **2912**, your node name would be...

**2912:22:measurement**

If you wanted to know if alert #283 on asset #2292 was active, you would use the name...

**2292:-1:283**

===In API Functions===

Many API functions return these node names as part of the property values.