SmartThings SmartApp - Ambient Weather Statioin Integration

The purpose of this repo is to provide an updated implementation for accessing data from your local Ambient Weather Station (AWS) on the SmartThings platform. This was done in the past using a SmartThings SmartApp that was built with groovy, but that has since been deprecated. SmartThings now utilizes a Node.js SDK for developing SmartApps for their platform

Preliminary Research

• An API Keys need to be created on the Ambient Weather Network (AWN) before being able to access the Ambient Weather API
  • applicationKey
  • apiKey
• The Ambient Weather API (python, node.js) allows for REST calls through Websockets
• "Create a SmartApp" inside of the SmartThings Developers Workspace, some examples and tutorials to look into:
  • Simple SmartApp Tutorial (SmartApp SDK) (specifically the video)
  • Set the color of a light based on the weather

Node.js Server - Simple App Set-up

• The scope of this project will initially be local testing so Node.js, ngrok, and npm will be needed as dependencies

  sudo apt install nodejs npm
  snap install ngrok
  

• server.js: This is where the SmartApp will be created for the platform; for now it just starts a simple app with the Express framework.
  • The ambient-weather-api/ambient-api and SmartThings SmartApp Node.js SDK will need to be imported in.
• Run the server: node server.js
• The app can be exposed to a public URL using ngrok: ngrok http 3000
  • A ngrok account is needed for this step (it's free!)
  • The app needs to be running for public URL access through ngrok

SmartThings SmartApp Creation

• Following the steps provided in Create a SmartApp.

  • "Services with a Complex App" will be needed since we want to reach out to transmit/receive data from Ambient Weather.

• Need to have the app running with the public URL

• SmartThings Developer Workspace -> Create a New Project -> Automation for the SmartThings App

• Project Name: "Ambient Weather"

• Select "Register App" -> Webhook Endpoint

• There is a requirement by the SmartThings SmartApp to handle a confirmation request from SmartThings by issuing a HTTP GET request to confirmationURL:

  

• The current implemenation for the SmartApp is returning a 404 whenever SmartThings attempts to verify it with this request:

  

• This is due to how barebones the implementation is now, but it lets us know that we're in a position to start developing the actual implementation for the SmartApp!

Project Log

• Repo Refactor: update readme, move unsupported to new smartthings folder
• Added readme to unsupported directory
• Initial Simple App set-up with local server for testing/development
• SmartThings SmartApp creation on the Developer Workspace
• ambient-api Integration: locally serve weather data at the endpoint

Potential Setbacks

• ambientweather.net fails to load at points
• glitch.com fails to load at points
• Web-hosting fees depending on the size/service calls of the SmartApp
• ngrok generates a random URL everytime the server is started; this could potentially be fixed by following these steps.