In this chapter, we will cover:
Discovering the Temboo platform
Tweeting from an Arduino board
Posting updates on Facebook
Storing data on Google Drive
Automation with IFTTT
Sending push notifications
Sending text message notifications
Troubleshooting usual issues with web services
Having an Arduino board that can easily be connected to the Internet allows many exciting applications, for example, by making the board communicate with existing web services.
In this chapter, we are going to learn how to use existing web services to really build amazing Internet of Things projects with our Arduino board. We'll, for example, use it to post on Facebook or Twitter, and to send automated notifications based on data measured by the board.
To interact with web services from the Arduino MKR1000 board, the easiest thing to do is to use a platform that will make the connection between the board and the web services themselves.
The first platform of this kind that we are going to use in this chapter is the Temboo platform, which was the platform recommended by Arduino when their first IoT product (the Arduino Yun) came out. We'll see how easy it is to create an account there and how to use it to connect to a lot of web services.
The first step is to create a Temboo account. To do so, simply visit https://temboo.com/.
You should then be able to create an account and log in:
After that, you will be able to explore the Temboo libraries to interact with other web services, which are called Choreos:
You can now click on a given Choreo to see what kinds of interactions are available. For example, this is the Disqus Choreo:
For example, this is what you will see if you click on one possible interaction...
In this recipe, we are going to learn how to use Temboo to tweet a message from your Arduino board. We are going to create an app on Twitter, and then see how to configure your Arduino board to send tweets from it.
The first step is to create a Twitter account if that's not done yet, and then log in with this account at https://apps.twitter.com/.
You will then be able to create a Twitter application:
What matters is to get the application API key and app secret:
You will also have to get the app access token and token secret:
Let's now see how to configure the Arduino board. You have two choices here: either do it from the Temboo interface, or simply grab the sketch from the GitHub repository of the project.
As Temboo does not officially support the MKR1000 board at the time of writing, I recommend getting the code from the GitHub repository of this book.
The Choreo we are going to use here is called statusesUpdate:
Let's now see how to...
In this recipe, we are going to learn how to use Temboo again, this time to post an update on your Facebook feed.
The first step is to create a Facebook application. To do so, go to https://developers.facebook.com/.
You will then be able to name your app:
Then you need to add the following line inside the settings of your app, replacing account_name with the name of your Temboo account:
Now we need to authorize the use of this application by the Temboo servers. To do so, visit https://temboo.com/library/Library/Facebook/OAuth/InitializeOAuth/.
Here you will need to insert the application ID, which can be found on the Facebook app page:
Once that's done, you will need to visit a URL to authorize the app:
Finally, after following all the steps from the Temboo website, you will be given your access token that will be used by the Arduino board to post on Facebook:
For the rest of this recipe, we'll use the Choreo at https://temboo.com/library/Library...
In the next few recipes of this book, we are going to use another website to interact with web services: IFTTT. We'll see how IFTTT will allow you to quickly define powerful automation rules and actions that can be triggered by the Arduino board.
The first step for all the remaining recipes of this chapter is to create an IFTTT account at https://ifttt.com.
From there, you will be able to explore the first important part of IFTTT: channels. Channels are all the web services or triggers that you can use within IFTTT, for example, Gmail, Twitter, Pushover, and so on. You can quickly have an overview of the available channels:
For example, if you type Weather, you can quickly add the weather channel, allowing you to trigger actions depending on the weather:
The next important part of IFTTT is recipes. Recipes allow the user to create an action (on a given channel) when a trigger is called (on another channel). This is really the core of IFTTT. You can also quickly...
In this recipe, we are going to see how to send push notifications from your Arduino boards, via IFTTT. As we are slowly discovering the IFTTT service, we are only going to build a simple alert system here.
To start, you need to connect to the Pushover channel, which is a service to send notifications to your mobile device. If you don't have a Pushover account yet, create one by downloading the app on your mobile device.
Then, add the channel inside IFTTT:
Next, we are going to need some sensors connected to your Arduino board. Please see the previous chapter to see how to connect a photocell and the DHT11 sensor to your Arduino board.
We are now going to create our first IFTTT recipe:
In this recipe, we'll continue using IFTTT, but this time we are going to see how to send data along with the trigger coming from the board. This will allow us to actually send data via IFTTT. To illustrate this, we'll send data right on your phone via text messages.
For this recipe, you will need to have your board connected to sensors just like in the previous recipe. You will also need to connect the SMS channel to your IFTTT account:
Create a new recipe, and name the event text_data:
After that, select SMS as the action channel:
This time, we are actually going to send data with the request, and this data is available as Value1, Value2, and so on. Therefore, this is the message we are going to use:
This is how the final recipe should look like:
In this last recipe of this chapter, we are going to see how to use our Arduino board and IFTTT to log measured data right on a Google Drive spreadsheet, so it can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
Before building this recipe, we need to connect the Google Drive channel to your account:
You will simply need to log in to your Google account from IFTTT, authorize the app, and then you'll be able to see the Google Drive channel inside your IFTTT account:
Now, create a new recipe, use the Maker channel as the trigger, and name the event google_data:
As the action channel, choose Google Drive, and then select the Add row to spreadsheet action:
Next, leave it as it is for the row to be appended to the spreadsheet, as it already contains all the data that we want to log:
In this part of the chapter, we are going to see what can go wrong when using your Arduino board to interact with web services. Indeed, some of the steps involved here are quite complex and many things can go differently than expected.
The first thing that can happen is incorrectly entering your Twitter API keys or Facebook access token inside the Arduino sketch. Also make sure that you correctly entered the callback URL inside the Facebook app settings. Finally, make sure that you didn't reach the calls limit on Temboo.
If you don't receive any notifications from IFTTT, either via push notifications or text messages, first check that you entered the correct Maker key for IFTTT inside the sketch, as well as the correct event name. Also check that the recipe is still marked as active on IFTTT. Finally, make sure that you are connected to the Internet with your Arduino board, and that the sensors connected to the board...
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