TheZlodziej/mqtt-simulator

Setup

After cloning the repo, before running the app you need to install required packages. I recommend using virtual environment (venv) for this:

First create the virtual environment:
```
python3 -m venv <your-venv-name>
```

Then you need to activate the environment:

MacOS

source <your-venv-name>/bin/activate

Windows

using cmd
```
<your-venv-name>/Scripts/activate.bat
```
using powershell
```
<your-venv-name>/Scripts/Activate.ps1
```

Once environment is activated, install required packages
```
pip install -r requirements.txt
```
Run the app using
```
python3 main.py
```
To quit the app use the exit button in gui (or Ctrl+C in CLI mode)
To quit virtual environment, type
```
deactivate
```

Arguments

You can run the app with several arguments described below:

command	shortened	arguments	example	description
`--set-broker`	`-sb`	host (string), port (int)	python main.py -sb localhost 1883	sets current broker
`--add-topic`	`-at`	topic name (string), data format (string), interval [seconds] (float)	python main.py -at "my/topic" "<%randi%>" 10	adds topic to list
`--no-gui`	`-nogui`	-	python main.py -nogui	launches app without gui
`--verbose`	`-v`	-	python main.py -v	prints logs to console in addition to logs.txt file

Data format

Data format is a string containg formula for a message. Additionally, data format functions can accept arguments. Here is table with each function and argument described

function	accepted arguments	default	example data format	description
`randi`	`min` (int), `max` (int)	min = -2^31, max = 2^31-1	<%randi min=-10 max=10%>	Sends random int from [`min`; `max`] range
`randu`	`min` (int), `max` (int)	min = 0, max = 2^32 - 1	<%randu min=10 max=20%>	Sends random uint from [`min`; `max`] range
`randf`	`min` (float), `max` (float)	min = 0, max = 1	<%randf min=-1 max=16.9%>	Sends random float from [`min`; `max`) range
`rands`	`collection` (list of strings), `length` (int)	length = 10	<%rands collection=["a","ab",'abc']%>	Sends random string from given `collection` or generates random string with given `length`. If both arguments are passed, it will prioritize collection.
`file`	`src` (string), `separator` (string)	separator = "None"	<%file src="test.txt" separator="\n"%>	Sends data from given file one, split by given `separator` (or all of it at once if separator is not specified)
`time`	-	-	<%time%>	Sends current time (datetime.now().time())
`datetime`	-	-	<%datetime%>	Sends current date time in ISO format (datetime.now().isoformat())
`inc`	`start` (int \| float), `inc` (int \| float), `reset` (int \| float)	start = 0, inc = 1, reset = None	<%inc start=0 inc=2 reset=10%>	Every time the message is sent, the value is incremented by `inc`. When the value is more than `reset` it returns back to `start`.

Keep in mind that you dont always have to pass in all the arguments. If you skip any (for example max in randi, it will use the default value).

Argument value cannot contain space characters unless it's a string or a list (starts with ', " or [). For example:

<%rands collection=["x", "y"]%> - OK (collection value uses [ ... ])
<%rands collection= ["x", "y"]%> - ERROR (space before opening square bracket)
<%file src="https://github.com/TheZlodziej/mqtt-simulator/raw/master/hello world.txt"%> - OK (src value uses " ... ")
<%randi max= 10%> - ERROR (space after parameter value)

Example

Assume we want to revieve messages with following format

{
    "data": {
        "x": <some int>,
        "y": <some float>,
    }
}

Our Data format would then be

{ "data": { "x": "<%randi%>", "y": "<%randf%>" } }

Manual setup of config file

You can always create config.json file yourself if you think writing it with the command line tool is too tedious - simply follow the format below (uuid is treated as str not uuid type, so you can use whatever unique string you want).

{
    "broker": { 
        "host": "localhost",
        "port": 1883
    },
    "topics": {
        "5b8cf095-c3c6-4730-8618-80811f4506ab": {
            "topic": "topic1"
            "data_format": "<%randi%>",
            "interval": 1,
            "manual": false
        },
        "my-app-unique-id": {
            "topic": "test/topic2",
            "data_format": "{ \"x\": \"<%randu%>\" }",
            "interval": 1.5,
            "manual": false
        }
    }
}

result - app publishes random int value on 'topic1' every second and random uint value on 'test/topic2'

Screenshots

Keep in mind that the look of the app is dependent on user's system - QT uses native components.

Main window

Add topic window