hlc-server

HLC: Hyperlocal Context

How can computers understand the context of what's happening in a space? First and foremost, they need a digital representation of everything and everyone that is present. Hyperlocal context is a digital snapshot of a physical space and its contents. It combines the concepts of identification, location and time. Read more at: context.reelyactive.com

hlc-server acts as a convenience wrapper around our other npmjs packages, barnowl, barnacles, barterer and chickadee. You may consult the documentation for each individual package for a better understanding of the ensemble.

hlc-server is the middle piece in the json-silo - hlc-server - smartspaces stack. The easiest way to learn how these all fit together is our Make a Smart Space tutorial.

Installation

npm install hlc-server

Hello Hyperlocal Context

var server = require('hlc-server');
var app = new server();

// See barnowl: "Where to listen?"
app.bind( { protocol: 'test', path: 'default' } );

Then browse to http://localhost:3001 to see the landing page.

Type test in the search bar (or browse to http://localhost:3001/at/test) to see the following test output:

{
  "_meta": {
    "message": "ok",
    "statusCode": 200
  },
  "_links": {
    "self": { "href": "http://localhost:3001/at/test" }
  },
  "devices": {
    "001bc50940100000": {
      "identifier": {
        "type": "EUI-64",
        "value": "001bc50940100000"
      },
      "url": "http://reelyactive.com/metadata/test.json",
      "href": "http://localhost:3001/id/001bc50940100000"
    }
  }
}

RESTful interactions

POST /id

Create a new device association via chickadee. For example, to associate a device with identifier 001bc50940100000 to the url http://myjson.info/story/test include the following JSON:

{
  "identifier": "001bc50940100000",
  "url": "http://myjson.info/story/test"
}

GET /id/id

Retrieve real-time location/context for a given device via barterer. For example, the identifier 001bc50940100000 would return:

{
  "_meta": {
    "message": "ok",
    "statusCode": 200
  },
  "_links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "http://localhost:3001/id/001bc50940100000"
    }
  },
  "devices": {
    "001bc50940100000": {
      "identifier": {
        "type": "EUI-64",
        "value": "001bc50940100000",
        "flags": {
          "transmissionCount": 0
        }
      },
      "timestamp": "2015-01-01T12:34:56.789Z",
      "radioDecodings": [
        {
          "rssi": 136,
          "identifier": {
            "type": "EUI-64",
            "value": "001bc50940800000"
          }
        }
      ],
      "url": "http://reelyactive.com/metadata/test.json",
      "href": "http://localhost:3001/id/001bc50940100000"
    }
  }
}

PUT /id/id

Update a device association via chickadee. For example, to associate a device with identifier 001bc50940100000 to the url http://myjson.info/story/lonely include the following JSON:

{
  "identifier": "001bc50940100000",
  "url": "http://myjson.info/story/lonely"
}

POST /at

Create a new place association via chickadee. For example, to associate a place named test to the device identifiers 001bc50940800000 and 001bc50940810000 include the following JSON:

{
  "place": "test",
  "identifiers": [ "001bc50940800000", "001bc50940810000" ]
}

GET /at/place

Retrieve real-time location/context for a given place via barterer. For example, the place named test would return:

{
  "_meta": {
    "message": "ok",
    "statusCode": 200
  },
  "_links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "http://localhost:3001/at/test"
     }
  },
  "devices": {
    "001bc50940100000": {
      "identifier": {
        "type": "EUI-64",
        "value": "001bc50940100000",
        "flags": {
          "transmissionCount": 0
        }
      },
      "url": "http://reelyactive.com/metadata/test.json",
      "href": "http://localhost:3001/id/001bc50940100000"
    },
    "fee150bada55": {
      "identifier": {
        "type": "ADVA-48",
        "value": "fee150bada55",
        "advHeader": {
          "type": "ADV_NONCONNECT_IND",
          "length": 22,
          "txAdd": "random",
          "rxAdd": "public"
        },
        "advData": {
          "flags": [
            "LE Limited Discoverable Mode",
            "BR/EDR Not Supported"
          ],
          "completeLocalName": "reelyActive"
        }
      },
      "url": "http://reelyactive.com/metadata/bluetoothsmart.json",
      "href": "http://localhost:3001/id/fee150bada55"
    }
  }
}

Administrative Interface

Browse to http://localhost:3001/admin to associate IDs with URLs containing JSON metadata, and to add places and their associated IDs. The default username and password are both admin.

Connecting with services

You can connect the barnacles inside hlc-server with any of the services they support. For detailed information about each service consult the barnacles documentation. A service is added as follows:

app.addNotificationService(options);

Options

You can create an instance of hlc-server with any or all of the following options (what's shown are the defaults):

{
  httpPort: 3001,
  password: 'admin',
  secret: "YoureProbablyGonnaWantToChangeIt",
  useCors: false,
  maxDecoders: 3,
  maxStaleMilliseconds: 10000
}

Note that if you see Access-Control-Allow-Origin errors, you'll likely want to set useCors to true.

Implicit Associations

Consult the documentation for chickadee to learn more about which devices are implicitly associated (via their identifier) with static metadata or a third-party API (via a URL).

What's next?

This is an active work in progress. Expect regular changes and updates, as well as improved documentation!

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2014-2015 reelyActive

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.