Introduction
What this section is about
The Concepts section gives you a high-level understanding of the core building blocks in Factry Historian.
It’s not technical reference documentation. Instead, it helps you build a mental model of how the system works, what the key components are, and how they fit together.
If you're new to Factry Historian, or you want to better understand how to configure and use the platform, this is a great place to start.
Who this is for
This section is written for users and administrators of Factry Historian:
- Production engineers and process experts
- Data and quality analysts
- Project leads and system integrators
- Anyone who configures, uses, or supports Factry Historian on the shop floor or at a production site
You won’t need a background in software or databases to understand these pages, but you will learn what each building block does and how it connects to others.
What you’ll find here
Each concept page explains:
- What the concept is
- Why it matters
- How it fits into the system
- Some examples
- When to use or configure it
- Common misconceptions and best practices
- Links to related documentation
Topics covered
This section currently includes explanations for:
- Collectors: How data flows into the system
- Measurements: The time series at the core of the Historian
- Calculations: How derived values are created
- Assets: How your physical equipment is structured
- Events: How the system tracks what happened, when, and why
- Manual Entry Forms: Structured ways to input data by hand
- Sinks & Forwarders: How data is published to other systems
- Time-series databases: The storage layer for high-frequency data
- Organizations: How data and permissions are isolated
- Users and Groups: How access control is managed per organization
More concepts will be added over time as the product evolves.
What this section is not
This section does not cover:
- Configuration steps or setup instructions
- API or schema documentation
- Grafana-specific functionality
- Release notes or how-tos
Next step
Pick any concept from the list in the sidebar to get started. If you're not sure where to begin, we recommend starting with:
- System Architecture - Describes the overall architecture of Factry Historian
- Measurements - Understand the foundation of all data in the system
- Assets - Learn how data is structured to reflect your production environment
- Events - See how you can capture and contextualize what happens during production