API Resources

One of the most interesting features of products is the possibility to create custom API resources for devices. This is specially useful for MQTT devices, as they will behave exactly the same as IOTMP devices, so they can be used directly on dashboards, use the API explorer, etc.
Using API Resources has several advantages, like:
Unified API access for different devices, brands, and protocols
Payload processing to adapt standard REST JSON to/from custom payloads required by the devices
MQTT support, including request-response schemas (publish to a topic, and wait for the response on another topic)
Device API Explorer compatibility, simplifying tests and integrations with other systems
Following our previous examples with the Shelly Smart Plug S, makes sense to create an endpoint to switch on/off the relay. The approach for building the API Resources is quite similar to the previous sections regarding properties and buckets. Just click on the 'Add' button on the API Resources section and start setting an identifier, like relay.
​
​
Then, there are two sections inside the API Resource. The first one is the Request, where it is configured the request that will be sent to the device, and the other one is the Response, that configures the response that will be sent to the API Rest client that originates the request.
In this case, we want to send a command to the Shelly Device, so, it is required to configure the Request section with Device Topic in Target field, as we are interacting with a MQTT device. Then, in the topic field, we can set the following topic, as described in the vendor documentation: 
shellies/{{device}}/relay/0/command
Then we must set the message payload, that must be 'on' or 'off' depending on the desired state. If we configure {{payload}} as the Request payload, then, any body sent to the API will be transmitted to the device. The standard 'on'/'off' representation in JSON is true/false, so, we can configure a processing function to convert an input JSON boolean to the required values by the device. In the Product Script section can be coded a function function like this:
function toOnOff(value){
    return value ? "on" : "off";
}
As described on Properties and Buckets sections, it is possible to configure the API Resource payload to call this function to transform the incoming payload.
{{payload:toOnOff}}
After saving the new API Resource, we can go to the device API, and the new relayresource will appear.
Device API for resource created over Product 
However, there seems to be something wrong there! The API can detect that the resource is expecting an input (Resource Input header is present), but nothing more appears. We are expecting here a true/false input, or just a switch to turn the relay on and off. 
This can be solved by assigning a default payload value on the API definition, which let the API explorer know the expected values by default. This can be done changing the API Resource payload to something like this:
{{payload:toOnOff=false}}
Now, refreshing the API explorer will display the relay resource expecting a boolean that can be easily changed over the GUI. At this moment, it is possible to turn on and off the switch button. It will call the API Resource on the product, that will convert the incoming payload to 'on' and 'off', and then will be transmitted to the required topic for the Shelly Plug S device. Cool! 😎
​
Device API for resource created over Product 
However, this use case can be improved a little bit. For example, suppose that it is required to display the current relay state to avoid showing always the default 'false' value set before. For this purpose we can reference other properties, or even API responses. To reference a property, i.e., the 'relay' one configured on the Properties section, we can set a default value with =property.<property_name> like in the following example:
{{payload:toOnOff=property.relay}}
Then, the next time the API explorer, or a dashboard, 'inspect' the device resource, will obtain the value stored on the property. In this case, the property is updated periodically with the current relay status, or even if the status is changed with the device psychical on/off button. Now we can use the API resource on a dashboard easily, just as any other device. Here are some sample dashboard widgets created for our MQTT Shelly Plug S device, allowing power switch and plotting some device information like real-time power consumption, total consumption, temperature, etc. 
​

Buckets

FILE STORAGE

Last modified 3mo ago

Copy link

Edit on GitHub