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homebridge / plugin-ui-utils

Create fully customisable configuration user interfaces for Homebridge plugins.
https://homebridge.io
MIT License
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homebridge homebridge-plugin homebridge-ui

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Plugin UI Utils

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The package assists plugin developers creating fully customisable configuration user interfaces for their plugins.

Implementation

A plugin's custom user interface has two main components:

Project Layout

A custom UI should be published under a directory named homebridge-ui:

Basic structure example:

homebridge-example-plugin/
├── homebridge-ui
│   ├── public
│   │   └── index.html
│   └── server.js
├── config.schema.json
├── package.json

You may customise the location of the homebridge-ui by setting the customUiPath property in the config.schema.json. For example: "customUiPath": "./dist/homebridge-ui".

User Interface API

A plugin's custom user interface is displayed inside an iframe in the settings modal, in place of the schema-generated form.

The user interface API is provided to the plugin's custom UI via the window.homebridge object. This is injected into the plugin's custom UI during render.

Note:

Example index.html:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://github.com/homebridge/plugin-ui-utils/blob/latest/your-plugin.css">

<div class="card">
  <div class="form-group">
    <label for="exampleInputEmail1">Email address</label>
    <input type="email" class="form-control" id="exampleInputEmail1" aria-describedby="emailHelp">
    <small id="emailHelp" class="form-text text-muted">Help text...</small>
  </div>
</div>

<script>
(async () => {
  // get the current homebridge config
  const pluginConfig = await homebridge.getPluginConfig();

  // make requests to your server.js script
  const result = await homebridge.request('/hello', { name: 'world' });
})();
</script>

Config

homebridge.getPluginConfig

homebridge.getPluginConfig(): Promise<PluginConfig[]>;

Returns a promise that resolves an array of accessory or platform config blocks for the plugin.

An empty array will be returned if the plugin is not currently configured.

const pluginConfigBlocks = await homebridge.getPluginConfig();
// [{ platform: 'ExamplePlatform', name: 'example' }]

homebridge.updatePluginConfig

homebridge.updatePluginConfig(pluginConfig: PluginConfig[]): Promise<PluginConfig[]>;

Update the plugin config.

This should be called whenever a change to the config is made.

This does not save the plugin config to disk.

Existing blocks not included will be removed.

const pluginConfig = [
  {
    name: 'my light 1',
    accessory: 'ExampleAccessory'
  },
  {
    name: 'my light 2',
    accessory: 'ExampleAccessory'
  }
]

await homebridge.updatePluginConfig(pluginConfig);

homebridge.savePluginConfig

homebridge.savePluginConfig(): Promise<void>

Saves the plugin config changes to the Homebridge config.json. This is the equivalent of clicking the Save button.

This should be used sparingly, for example, after a access token is generated.

You must call await homebridge.updatePluginConfig() first.

// update config first!
await homebridge.updatePluginConfig(pluginConfig);

// save config
await homebridge.savePluginConfig();

homebridge.getPluginConfigSchema

homebridge.getPluginConfigSchema(): Promise<PluginSchema>;

Returns the plugin's config.schema.json.

const schema = await homebridge.getPluginConfigSchema();

homebridge.getCachedAccessories

homebridge.getCachedAccessories(): Promise<CachedAccessory[]>;

Returns the any cached accessories for the plugin

const cachedAccessories = await homebridge.getCachedAccessories();

Requests

This allows the custom UI to make API requests to their server.js script.

homebridge.request

homebridge.request(path: string, body?: any): Promise<any>

Make a request to the plugin's server side script.

Returns a promise with the response from the server.

User Interface Example:

const response = await homebridge.request('/hello', { who: 'world' });
console.log(response); // the response from the server

The corresponding code in the server.js file would look like this:

// server side request handler
this.onRequest('/hello', async (payload) => {
  console.log(payload) // the payload sent from the UI
  return { hello: 'user' };
});

Toast Notifications

Toast notifications are the pop-up notifications displayed in the bottom right corner. A plugin's custom UI can generate custom notifications with custom content.

homebridge.toast.success

homebridge.toast.success(message: string, title?: string): void

Shows a green "success" notification.

homebridge.toast.error

homebridge.toast.error(message: string, title?: string): void

Shows a red "error" notification.

homebridge.toast.warning

homebridge.toast.warning(message: string, title?: string): void

Shows an amber "warning" notification.

homebridge.toast.info

homebridge.toast.info(message: string, title?: string): void

Shows a blue "info" notification.

Modal

homebridge.closeSettings

homebridge.closeSettings(): void

Close the settings modal.

This action does not save any config changes.

homebridge.closeSettings();

homebridge.showSpinner

homebridge.showSpinner(): void

Displays a spinner / loading overlay, preventing user input until cleared with homebridge.hideSpinner.

// show the spinner overlay
homebridge.showSpinner();

// wait for the request to process
await homebridge.request('/hello');

// hide the spinner overlay
homebridge.hideSpinner();

homebridge.hideSpinner

homebridge.hideSpinner(): void

Hide the spinner / loading overlay.

homebridge.hideSpinner();

Forms

The custom user interface allows you to create two types of forms:

  1. A form based on your plugin's config.schema.json file
    • User input is automatically mapped to the plugin config object
    • You can listen for change events from your custom user interface
    • The schema must contain all config options
  2. A standalone form
    • Not linked to your config.schema.json form in any way
    • You must listen for change events, process the event, and update the plugin config
    • The form does not need to include all config options

Developers are also able to create their own forms using HTML.

homebridge.showSchemaForm

homebridge.showSchemaForm(): void

Show the schema-generated form below the custom user interface. This feature only works for platform plugins that have set singular = true in their config.schema.json file.

homebridge.showSchemaForm();

When enabling the schema form, you should listen for the configChanged event to keep your config in sync. This event is triggered whenever the user makes a change in the schema-generated form (250ms debounce).

window.homebridge.addEventListener('configChanged', (event: MessageEvent) => {
  console.log('Updated config:', event.data);
});

homebridge.hideSchemaForm

homebridge.hideSchemaForm(): void

Hides the schema-generated form.

homebridge.hideSchemaForm();

homebridge.createForm

homebridge.createForm(schema: FormSchema, data: any, submitButton?: string, cancelButton?: string): IHomebridgeUiFormHelper;

Create a new standalone form. You may pass in an arbitrary schema using the same options as the config.schema.json.

Only one standalone form can be displayed at a time. The main config-schema based form cannot be shown while a standalone form is being displayed.

Example:

// create the form
const myForm = homebridge.createForm(
   {
      schema: {
        type: 'object',
        properties: {
          name: {
            title: 'Name',
            type: 'string',
            required: true,
          }
        }
      },
      layout: null,
      form: null,
   },
   {
      name: 'initial name value'
   }
);

// watch for change events
myForm.onChange((change) => {
  console.log(change);
});

// watch for submit button click events
myForm.onSubmit((form) => {
  console.log(form);
});

// watch for cancel button click events
myForm.onCancel((form) => {
  console.log(form);
});

// stop listening to change events and hide the form
myForm.end();

Events

The homebridge object is an EventTarget, this allows you to use the browsers built in addEventListener and removeEventListener functions to subscribe and unsubscribe from events.

Ready Event

Called when the Homebridge UI has completed rendering the plugin's custom UI.

homebridge.addEventListener('ready', () => {
  // do something with event
});

Custom Events

Custom events can be pushed from the plugin's server.js script.

UI Example:

homebridge.addEventListener('my-event', (event) => {
  console.log(event.data); // the event payload from the server
});

The corresponding code in the server.js file would look like this:

this.pushEvent('my-event', { some: 'data' });

Plugin / Server Information

homebridge.plugin

homebridge.plugin

Is an object that contains plugin metadata. 

{
  name: string;
  description: string;
  installedVersion: string;
  latestVersion: string;
  verifiedPlugin: boolean;
  updateAvailable: boolean;
  publicPackage: boolean;
  links: {
    npm: string;
    homepage?: string;
  }
}

homebridge.serverEnv

homebridge.serverEnv

Is an object containing some server metadata

{
  env: {
    platform: string;       // darwin, win32, linux, freebsd etc.
    nodeVersion: string;    // Node.js version
  }
}

Server API

To provide server API endpoints that can be called from the custom UI, a plugin must place a server.js file in the homebridge-ui directory.

You will need to include the @homebridge/plugin-ui-utils library as a prod dependency:

npm install --save @homebridge/plugin-ui-utils

Note:

Example server.js:

const { HomebridgePluginUiServer } = require('@homebridge/plugin-ui-utils');

// your class MUST extend the HomebridgePluginUiServer
class UiServer extends HomebridgePluginUiServer {
  constructor () { 
    // super must be called first
    super();

    // Example: create api endpoint request handlers (example only)
    this.onRequest('/hello', this.handleHelloRequest.bind(this));

    // this.ready() must be called to let the UI know you are ready to accept api calls
    this.ready();
  }

  /**
   * Example only.
   * Handle requests made from the UI to the `/hello` endpoint.
   */
  async handleHelloRequest(payload) {
    return { hello: 'world'; }
  }
}

// start the instance of the class
(() => {
  return new UiServer;
})();

Setup

this.ready

this.ready(): void

Let the UI know the server is ready to accept requests.

this.ready();

Request Handling

this.onRequest

this.onRequest(path: string, fn: RequestHandler)

Handle requests sent from the UI to the given path.

The value returned/resolved from the request handler function will be sent back to the UI as the request response.

Example creating a request handler on the server:

// server side code
this.onRequest('/hello', async (payload) => {
  console.log(payload) // the payload sent from the UI
  return { hello: 'user' };
});

The corresponding call in the UI to send requests to this endpoint:

// ui code
const response = await homebridge.request('/hello', { who: 'world' });
console.log(response); // the response from the server

Request Error Handling

If you need to throw an error during your request, you should throw an instance of RequestError instead of a normal Error:

Example:

// server side code
const { RequestError } = require('@homebridge/plugin-ui-utils');

this.onRequest('/hello', async (payload) => {
  // something went wrong, throw a RequestError:
  throw new RequestError('Something went wrong!', { status: 404 });
});

You can then catch this in the UI:

try {
  await homebridge.request('/hello', { who: 'world' });
} catch (e) {
  console.log(e.message); // 'Something went wrong!'
  console.log(e.error); // { status: 404 }
}

Uncaught errors in event handlers, or errors thrown using new Error will still result in the waiting promise in the UI being rejected, however the error stack trace will also be shown in the Homebridge logs which should be avoided.

Push Events

this.pushEvent

this.pushEvent(event: string, data: any)

Push events allow you to send data to the UI, without needed the UI to request it first.

Example pushing an event payload to the UI:

this.pushEvent('my-event', { some: 'data' });

The corresponding code to watch for the event in the UI:

homebridge.addEventListener('my-event', (event) => {
  console.log(event.data); // the event payload from the server
});

Server Information

this.homebridgeStoragePath

this.homebridgeStoragePath: string

Returns the Homebridge instance's current storage path.

const storagePath = this.homebridgeStoragePath;

this.homebridgeConfigPath

this.homebridgeConfigPath: string

Returns the path to the Homebridge config.json file:

const configPath = this.homebridgeConfigPath;

this.homebridgeUiVersion

this.homebridgeUiVersion: string

Returns the version of the Homebridge UI:

const uiVersion = this.homebridgeUiVersion;

Examples

A full list of plugins that have implemented the custom user interface can be found here.

homebridge-mercedesme

The homebridge-mercedesme plugin by @SeydX allows users to pair their vehicle using a custom user interface:

homebridge-bravia-tvos

The homebridge-bravia-tvos plugin by @SeydX allows users to pair and dynamically configure a user's TV using a custom user interface:

homebridge-electra-smart

The homebridge-electra-smart plugin by nitaybz allows users to request a OTP and enter it in exchange for an authentication token:

Development

For hints and tips on how to develop your custom user interface, see DEVELOPMENT.md.