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Weather data using HTTP Agent

This tutorial explains how to connect to the Open Weather Map API using the Http Agent and is based on the basic environment described in the quick start.

Prerequisites​

  • A running Open Remote instance (this tutorial assumes https://localhost)
  • A free API key for the Open Weather Map API

Create the Agent​

  1. Login to the manager UI (https://localhost/ admin/secret)
  2. Navigate to the Assets page and click the + at the top of the Asset list on the left to add an Agent or Asset.
  3. In the dialog do the following:
    • Name: HTTP API Agent
    • Select the agent from the list: HTTP Agent
    • Confirm with Add
  4. The agent is now created with pre-configured attributes. We will set some of those to establish the connection and set our location of interest to Rotterdam:
    • Base URI: https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/ (Don't forget to send the value by clicking the send button on the right or pressing Enter)
    • Request query parameters (Input the API key from you openweathermap account):
    {
       "appid": ["YOUR_API_KEY"],
       "q": ["Rotterdam,nl"],
       "units": ["metric"]
    }

You now have a basic HTTP API protocol ready to be linked to by asset attributes.

Create the weather asset​

Now we will create a weather asset where we show the temperature and humidity in Rotterdam that we collect using the OpenWeatherMap API.

  1. Click the + to add an asset:
    • Name: Weather Rotterdam
    • Select the asset type from the list: Weather Asset
    • Confirm with Add The weather asset will now appear in the list as a child of the HTTP API Agent. You can change its parent if you wish.
  1. Go to the modify mode by clicking the toggle at the top of the asset page. In the modify mode you can alter the attributes of an asset and set configuration items.
  2. First we will set up the humidity value:
    • Expand the humidity attribute
    • Click Add configuration item and select and add Agent link.
    • Select the HTTP API Agent
    • Add parameters to specify what the agent should do and give them the following values:
      • Polling millis: 60000
      • Path: weather
      • Value filters: JsonPathFilter-2, and add the item:
        • Path: $.main.humidity

What this means is that the information can be found at the base URI + weather, and we want it every minute. Then the returned data (JSON payload) is filtered to find the humidity value.

  1. We do the same for the temperature value:
    • Expand the temperature attribute
    • Click Add configuration item and select and add Agent link.
    • Select the HTTP API Agent
    • Add parameters to specify what the agent should do and give them the following values:
      • Polling millis: 60000
      • Path: weather
      • Value filters: JsonPathFilter-2, and add the item:
        • Path: $.main.temp
  2. Save the asset (top right)

Switch to view mode (top right) to view the live values. You now have the live weather data of Rotterdam linked.

As you may have noticed we do two calls in the above example, one to get the humidity and one to get the temperature. You can imagine that when collecting all the attributes this way, and for several assets, will greatly increase the number of calls you make. This can be optimized by doing one call and extracting all the values you need and pushing them to the attributes of your assets. At the moment Attribute links does not have an auto-generated UI, so we'll have to add JSON code. We will recreate the example above using this method.

  1. First lets remove the agent links from the Weather asset attributes temperature and humidity.
    • Go to the edit mode in the Weather asset
    • Expand humidity
    • Click the 'X' on the right of the Agent link configuration item
  2. Do the same for the temperature asset.
  3. Now we create a custom attribute that will hold the weather data we collect so that we can push the values from there. You could also do this from the HTTP API Agent asset or any other asset if that makes more sense to you.
    • Click Add attribute at the bottom of the list of attributes.
    • Select custom, select the attribute type JSON object and give it a name: weatherData. Click Add
    • Add the configuration item Agent link, Attribute links and Read only by selecting them in the add configuration item dialog and clicking Add.
  4. In the Agent link configuration item add the following, again first selecting your weather agent:
    • Add parameters to specify what the agent should do and give them the following values:
      • Polling millis: 60000
      • Path: weather
  5. In the Attribute link configuration item add the following, using the ID copied from this assets URL (the asset that has the attributes you want to push the data to. E.g. 501p87wK1bhf6Dh2M5ZQZj if URL is: https://localhost/main/#!assets/false/501p87wK1bhf6Dh2M5ZQZj):
[
  {
    "ref": {
      "id": "THE_ASSET_ID_YOU_COPY_FROM_ITS_URL",
      "name": "temperature"
    },
    "filters": [
      {
        "type": "jsonPath",
        "path": "$.main.temp",
        "returnFirst": true,
        "returnLast": false
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "ref": {
      "id": "THE_ASSET_ID_YOU_COPY_FROM_ITS_URL",
      "name": "humidity"
    },
    "filters": [
      {
        "type": "jsonPath",
        "path": "$.main.humidity",
        "returnFirst": true,
        "returnLast": false
      }
    ]
  }
]
  1. Click read only to set it to true.
  2. Save the asset (top right)
  3. Don't forget to add the add the 'Store data points' configuration item to each of the attributes you are pushing data to, if you want to see the data in the history chart. Attributes that have an agent link are implicitly storing data points.

With the attribute link configuration item you filter the values collected with the agent link and push them to the attributes in your specified asset. When you go to view mode you will see the weather data, temperature, and humidity value in their respective attributes.

Additional Exercises​

Try and create additional attributes that link to the OpenWeatherMap API, some ideas: