The life cycle of a Twin
The life cycle described here only applies to the context of the Digital Twin Registry. The Twin has its own life cycle outside of the context of the Digital Twin Registry, for example a Twin can exist without ever being registered in the Digital Twin Registry, meaning it’s not discoverable by solutions.
A Twin has the following life cycle phases:
Registration
Whenever a Twin is created, it should at some point be registered in the Digital Twin Registry in order for solutions to be able to find and use this Twin. A Twin can be registered at the Registration endpoint. A Twin is registered without aspects. When a Twin is registered, the Digital Twin Registry generates an ID for the Twin. This ID is then used for all subsequent interactions with this Twin in the other life cycle phases.
Discovery
During this life cycle phase a Twin can be found by any solution using the Digital Twin Registry.
During this phase the twinType, twinCategory and description of the Twin may be updated.
A client may also add and remove aspects using the Aspect endpoint as well as add and remove Local Identifiers.
Deregistration
A Twin may be deregistered at any point in time using the Deregistration endpoint. However, when a Twin is removed from the Digital Twin Registry, it must be deregistered, i.e., its entry in the Digital Twin Registry must be deleted.