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Motive AVL

The Motive Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) feed type connects to the Motive platform to receive location data for vehicles and assets, allowing you to track their status in real time. This feed is ideal for users who need real-time visibility into vehicle and asset locations for fleet management, workforce management, and equipment tracking.

Examples

The following are example use cases for the feed:

  • A GIS analyst uses vehicle location data in a real-time analytic to track real-time vehicle positions and analyze historical movement patterns for operational decisions and service optimization.

  • A fleet manager uses asset location data to track asset movement and usage across job sites, enabling better maintenance scheduling, reducing idle time, and preventing unauthorized equipment use.

Configuration notes

Configuration of the Motive feed in Velocity requires the following prerequisites:

  • You have access to the Motive Developer Portal.

  • You have access to the machine where Velocity is installed.

  • Your Velocity environment is accessible from the internet on port 7143.

    Note:

    During authentication, Motive's servers initiate a callback to https://<your-velocity-FQDN>:7143/motive-auth-complete. If this endpoint is not publicly reachable, authentication fails.

Before configuring a Motive feed in Velocity, complete the following steps:

  1. Log in to the Motive Developer Portal.

  2. Create a new app in the portal.

  3. Retrieve the Client ID and Client Secret from the app dashboard.

  4. Add a Redirect URL to the app.

    Your redirect URL is in the following format: https://<your-velocity-FQDN>:7143/motive-auth-complete.

  5. Turn on the following required permissions for the app:

    • Vehicles with Current Location and Current Driver

    • Vehicle Location History

    • Asset with Asset Gateway Location History

    • Assets

  6. Copy the following values for use in the next step:

    • Client ID

    • Client Secret

    • Redirect URL

  7. Add the Motive environment variable to Velocity.

    Add the following variable to both configuration files listed below, substituting your actual Client ID, Client Secret, and Redirect URL:

       set.MOTIVE_CONFIG={"clientId":" yourClientID ","clientSecret":" yourClientSecret","redirectUri":" yourMotiveRedirectURL "}  

       MOTIVE_CONFIG='{"clientId":"yourClientID","clientSecret":"yourClientSecret","redirectUri":"yourMotiveRedirectURL"}'

    Files:

    <installation directory>\etc\ArcGISVelocityControlPlane.cfg 
<installation directory>\etc\ArcGISVelocityFeeds.cfg 

    <installation directory>/services/Control-Plane/realtime-controlplane.env 
<installation directory>/services/Feed-Manager/realtime-feed.env

  8. Restart all Velocity services.

    Note:

    For more information on how to restart Velocity services, refer to processes started by Velocity.

You can now use Velocity to create a new Motive feed.

Note:

When you initially configure the Motive feed in Velocity, Motive may prompt you with an Install ArcGIS Velocity for ArcGIS Enterprise message. Click the Install option and continue with the configuration.

Usage notes

Keep the following in mind when working with the feed:

  • The Motive AVL feed updates vehicle locations every 120 seconds. However, the feed can be configured to poll more frequently to retrieve updated location data as soon as it becomes available. This polling behavior does not change the underlying update frequency of the Motive API.

  • The Motive AVL feed’s refresh token expires every two hours. If the feed is actively running, this is not an issue and the refresh token renews automatically. However, if the feed is inactive for more than two hours due to the feed being stopped or during an upgrade of ArcGIS Velocity, the feed fails to run because the OAuth authentication expires. Since Velocity does not store your authentication credentials, the feed won't start if it does not run within that two-hour window. In that case, you need to edit the existing Motive AVL feed to re-establish authentication with Motive.

  • Velocity automatically handles the data schema for the data types. The schema is predetermined based on the data provided by Motive.

  • The data provided by Motive is in JSON format, and the Location parameter is handled automatically when identifying key fields.

  • Velocity automatically handles the Track ID parameter when identifying the key fields.

Parameters

The following are the parameters for the feed:

Parameter

Description

Type

Motive API format

The specific Motive API version being used. Velocity uses version three (v3) of Motive’s vehicle API and version one (v1) of asset location API. The parameter has the following options:

  • Vehicle Locations—Geographic position of mobile vehicles such as trucks, buses, cars, and more. This feed provides detailed data including GPS coordinates, speed, bearing, auxiliary equipment engagement, and vehicle state.

  • Asset Locations—Geographic position of assets that are not vehicles, such as heavy machinery, trailers, and more. This feed provides detailed data including GPS coordinates, movement status, battery capacity, equipment identifiers, and other relevant information.

Motive API format type

Provide Motive Credentials

Initiates the authentication process required to access the Motive AVL feed. Type your Motive credentials and complete the authentication process through Motive’s workflow.

Note:

You must allow pop-ups in your web browser. If pop-ups are blocked, the Motive workflow won’t open, and you won’t be able to type your credentials to complete the authentication process. Learn more about getting started with Motive

String

Additional logging

Turn on the Enable Request Logging option to specify whether you can log for raw HTTP requests and responses issued by Velocity to the Motive URL.

Note:

Turn this parameter on for troubleshooting purposes and turn it off when troubleshooting is complete. Once turned on, start the feed; the debug level logs are available on the feed logs page. Contact Esri Technical Support for help with troubleshooting, if necessary.

Boolean

Considerations and limitations

Consider the following when using the feed:

  • If the user credentials are invalid, the feed retries the connection up to three times. Invalid credentials errors appear in the logs. The feed automatically attempts to restart after a delay, based on the configured recurrence schedule.

  • The Motive authentication flow requires inbound access from Motive servers to your Velocity environment on port 7143. If Velocity is not publicly accessible, authentication fails.