thingtalk
?thingtalk
is a library for the Web of Things protocol in Python Asyncio. This library is derived of webthing-python project (supporting Tornado) but adapted for fastapi (based on Uvicorn for better performance).
update
, else sync
self.value.on("update", lambda _: self.thing.property_notify(self))
self.value.on("sync", lambda _: self.thing.property_notify(self))
self.value.on("update", lambda _: self.thing.property_action(self))
thingtalk can be installed via pip, as such:
$ pip install thingtalk
$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hidaris/thingtalk/master/example/test.py
$ uvicorn test:app --reload
This starts a server and lets you search for it from your gateway through mDNS. To add it to your gateway, navigate to the Things page in the gateway's UI and click the + icon at the bottom right. If both are on the same network, the example thing will automatically appear.
In this code-walkthrough we will set up a dimmable light and a humidity sensor (both using fake data, of course). Both working examples can be found in here.
Dimmable Light Imagine you have a dimmable light that you want to expose via the web of things API. The light can be turned on/off and the brightness can be set from 0% to 100%. Besides the name, description, and type, a Light is required to expose two properties:
on: the state of the light, whether it is turned on or off Setting this property via a PUT {"on": true/false} call to the REST API toggles the light.
brightness: the brightness level of the light from 0-100% Setting this property via a PUT call to the REST API sets the brightness level of this light. First we create a new Thing:
from thingtalk import Thing, Property, Value
class Light(Thing):
type = ['OnOffSwitch', 'Light'],
description = 'A web connected lamp'
super().__init__(
'urn:dev:ops:my-lamp-1234',
'My Lamp',
)
Now we can add the required properties.
The on property reports and sets the on/off state of the light. For this, we need to have a Value object which holds the actual state and also a method to turn the light on/off. For our purposes, we just want to log the new state if the light is switched on/off.
async def build(self):
on = Property(
'on',
Value(True, lambda v: print('On-State is now', v)),
metadata={
'@type': 'OnOffProperty',
'title': 'On/Off',
'type': 'boolean',
'description': 'Whether the lamp is turned on',
})
await self.add_property(on)
The brightness property reports the brightness level of the light and sets the level. Like before, instead of actually setting the level of a light, we just log the level.
brightness = Property(
'brightness',
Value(50, lambda v: print('Brightness is now', v)),
metadata={
'@type': 'BrightnessProperty',
'title': 'Brightness',
'type': 'number',
'description': 'The level of light from 0-100',
'minimum': 0,
'maximum': 100,
'unit': 'percent',
})
await self.add_property(brightness)
Now we can add our newly created thing to the server and start it:
# If adding more than one thing, use MultipleThings() with a name.
# In the single thing case, the thing's name will be broadcast.
with background_thread_loop() as loop:
app = WebThingServer(loop, Light).create()
This will start the server, making the light available via the WoT REST API and announcing it as a discoverable resource on your local network via mDNS.
Sensor Let's now also connect a humidity sensor to the server we set up for our light.
A MultiLevelSensor (a sensor that returns a level instead of just on/off) has one required property (besides the name, type, and optional description): level. We want to monitor this property and get notified if the value changes.
First we create a new Thing:
from thingtalk import Thing, Property, Value
class Light(Thing):
type = ['MultiLevelSensor'],
description = 'A web connected humidity sensor'
super().__init__(
'urn:dev:ops:my-humidity-sensor-1234',
'My Humidity Sensor',
)
Then we create and add the appropriate property:
level: tells us what the sensor is actually reading
Contrary to the light, the value cannot be set via an API call, as it wouldn't make much sense, to SET what a sensor is reading. Therefore, we are creating a readOnly property.
async def build(self):
await self.add_property(
Property(
'level',
Value(0.0),
metadata={
'@type': 'LevelProperty',
'title': 'Humidity',
'type': 'number',
'description': 'The current humidity in %',
'minimum': 0,
'maximum': 100,
'unit': 'percent',
'readOnly': True,
}))
return self
Now we have a sensor that constantly reports 0%. To make it usable, we need a thread or some kind of input when the sensor has a new reading available. For this purpose we start a thread that queries the physical sensor every few seconds. For our purposes, it just calls a fake method.
self.sensor_update_task = \
get_event_loop().create_task(self.update_level())
async def update_level(self):
try:
while True:
await sleep(3)
new_level = self.read_from_gpio()
logging.debug('setting new humidity level: %s', new_level)
await self.level.notify_of_external_update(new_level)
except CancelledError:
pass
This will update our Value object with the sensor readings via the self.level.notify_of_external_update(read_from_gpio()) call. The Value object now notifies the property and the thing that the value has changed, which in turn notifies all websocket listeners.