About

This is an addon for qToggleServer.

It provides ports that are backed by configurable HTTP requests.

Install

Install using pip:

pip install qtoggleserver-generic-http

Usage

qtoggleserver.conf:

...
peripherals = [
    ...
    {
        driver = "qtoggleserver.generichttp.GenericHTTPClient"
        name = "myperipheral"  # a name of your choice
        read = {
            url = "https://api.example.com/myresource"
            method = GET  # default
            query = {
                name1 = "value1"
                ...
            }
            headers = {
                name2 = "value2"
                ...
            }
            cookies = {
                name3 = "value3"
                ...
            }
            request_body = {  # JSON or custom body string content
                "name4": "value4"
            }
        }
        write = {
            url = "https://api.example.com/myresource"  # inherited from read, if unspecified
            method = POST  # default
            query = {
                name1 = "value1"
                ...
            }
            headers = {
                name2 = "value2"
                ...
            }
            cookies = {
                name3 = "value3"
                ...
            }
            request_body = {  # JSON or custom body string content
                "name4": "value4"
            }
        }
        auth = {
            type = basic  # none (default) or basic
            username = "your_username"
            password = "your_password"
        }
        ignore_response_code = true  # see below, defaults to false
        ignore_invalid_cert = true   # whether to ignore TLS cerfificate issues or not, defaults to false
        timeout = 10                 # default request timeout is 10 seconds
        ports = {
            "port_id1" = {
                type = boolean                # boolean or number
                writable = true               # defaults to false
                read = {
                    json_path = "/path/to/field"  # RFC6901 JSON pointer to port value, inside response body
                    body_regex = "myvalue=(\d+)"  # regular expression inside body for port value lookup
                    true_value = 1                # value or list of values that are true (for boolean ports)
                    false_value = 1               # value or list of values that are false (for boolean ports)
                }
                write = {
                    ...  # overrides to common write details above
                }
            }
            ...
        }
    }
    ...
]
...

Placeholders

Placeholders are based on the Jinja2 template rendering engine.

Any of the following fields may be given as templates containing placeholders:

• url
• query
• headers
• cookies
• request_body

The following context variables are recognized when replacing placeholders:

• value - the current port value
• new_value - the new port value, available only when writing a value to port
• port - the port itself
• attrs - a dictionary with current port's attributes

Complex data structures containing lists or dictionaries will be parsed recursively and placeholders will be replaced in each element or key.

For example, following request body will send the new value in a dictionary field called "value":

request_body = {
    "value": "{{new_value}}"
}

All builtin Python functions are available to be used inside the placeholder expression. For more details, see the Jinja2 Template Designer Docs.

Template strings containing placeholders must be enclosed in quotes. However, their final value will not be surrounded by quotes unless it's a string itself.

If you really want quotes around your placeholder's real value, you can simply ensure that the final value is a string, by passing it to the builtin Python function str (e.g. {{str(new_value)}}).

Port Value Readings

Port values are read using the response to an HTTP request (one request for all defined ports). Intermediate raw values are determined from the response and are coerced to the data types of the respective ports.

A raw value is determined as follows:

• if ignore_response_code is false (default) and status code is >= 400, the raw value is set to false, regardless of the response body
• otherwise, if json_path is specified, response body is interpreted as JSON and the raw value is looked up using given JSON path (RFC6901 JSON pointer); if the lookup does not go well (for any reason), the raw value is undefined
• otherwise, if body_regex is specified, a regex match is attempted on the entire body content; the first group (or the entire match, if no group is given) is used to determine the raw value; on unsuccessful match, the raw value is undefined
• otherwise, the raw value is set to true if status code is < 300 and to false otherwise (3xx status codes will be used internally by the HTTP client)

Now given a raw value, the actual port value is determined as follows:

• if the raw value is undefined, the port value becomes undefined
• for a boolean port, the value is true if the raw value is equal to true_value (or one of its items if true_value is a list) and false otherwise
• for a number port, the raw value is transformed to a number, unless it already is a number, as follows:
  • true is 1 and false is 0
  • strings are converted to numbers, after being stripped of leading and trailing whitespace
  • any other raw value type will result in an undefined port value

Port Value Writings

Writing port values is done using an HTTP request whose response is ignored (but awaited, up to the given timeout).

As opposed to port readings, there will be one separate request for each port whose value changes.

A Few Remarks

If the request body is not given as a string, it is assumed to be JSON and transmitted as such, including the corresponding Content-Type header set to application/json.