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Ubidots Python API Client

The Ubidots Python API Client makes calls to the Ubidots Api. The module is available on PyPI as "ubidots".

To follow this quickstart you'll need to have python 2.7 in your machine (be it a computer or an python-capable device), which you can download at http://www.python.org/download/.

Installing the Python library

Ubidots for python is available in PyPI and you can install it from the command line:

$ pip install ubidots==1.6.6

Don't forget to use sudo if necessary.

You can install pip in Linux and Mac using this command:

$ sudo easy_install pip

If you don't have easy_install, you can get it through apt-get on Debian-based distributions:

$ sudo apt-get install python-setuptools

If you are using Microsoft Windows you can install pip from here.

Connecting to the API

Before playing with the API you must be able to connect to it using an API token, which can be found in your profile.

If you don't have an account yet, you can create one here.

Once you have your token, you can connect to the API by creating an ApiClient instance. Let's assume your token is: "f9iP6BpxpviO06EbebukACqEZcQMtM". Then your code would look like this:

from ubidots import ApiClient

api = ApiClient(token='f9iP6BpxpviO06EbebukACqEZcQMtM')

If you're using an independent container, you'll have to chagne the API BASE URL:

from ubidots import ApiClient

api = ApiClient(token="4b00-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx", base_url="http://yourcompanyname.api.ubidots.com/api/v1.6/")

Now you have an instance of ApiClient ("api") which can be used to connect to the API service.

Saving a Value to a Variable

Retrieve the variable you'd like the value to be saved to:

my_variable = api.get_variable('56799cf1231b28459f976417')

Given the instantiated variable, you can save a new value with the following line:

new_value = my_variable.save_value({'value': 10})

Here we'll send some GPS coordinates as an example:

new_value = my_variable.save_value({'value':10, 'context':{'lat': 33.0822, 'lng': -117.24123}})

You can also specify a timestamp (optional):

new_value = my_variable.save_value({'value': 10, 'timestamp': 1376061804407})

If no timestamp is specified, the API server will assign the current time to it. We think it's always better for you to specify the timestamp so the record reflects the exact time the value was captured, not the time it arrived to our servers.

Creating a DataSource

As you might know by now, a data source represents a device or a virtual source.

This line creates a new data source:

new_datasource = api.create_datasource({"name": "myNewDs", "tags": ["firstDs", "new"], "description": "any des"})

The 'name' key is required, but the 'tags' and 'description' keys are optional. This new data source can be used to track different variables, so let's create one.

Creating a Variable

A variable is a time-series containing different values over time. Let's create one:

new_variable = new_datasource.create_variable({"name": "myNewVar", "unit": "Nw"})

The 'name' and 'unit' keys are required.

Saving Values in Bulk

This method used the "collections" API endpoints: http://ubidots.com/docs/api/v1_6/collections

To save several values to a single variable:

new_variable.save_values([
    {'timestamp': 1380558972614, 'value': 20,'context':{'lat': 33.0822, 'lng': -117.24123}},
    {'timestamp': 1380558972915, 'value': 40},
    {'timestamp': 1380558973516, 'value': 50},
    {'timestamp': 1380558973617, 'value': 30}
])

To update several variables in a single request:

api.save_collection([{'variable': '557f686f7625426a41a42f49', 'value': 10}, {'variable': '557f68747625426b97263cba', 'value':20}])

Getting Values

To get the values of a variable, use the method get_values in an instance of the class Variable. This will return a list like object with an aditional attribute items_in_server that tells you how many values this variable has stored on the server.

If you only want the last N values call the method with the number of elements you want.

# Getting all the values from the server. WARNING: If your variable has millions of datapoints, then this will take forever or break your code!
all_values = new_variable.get_values()

# If you want just the last 100 values you can use:
some_values = new_variable.get_values(100)

Getting the Last Value of a Variable

To get the last value of a variable, get a single item in the get_values method:

last_value = new_variable.get_values(1)

Then select the first item of the list (last_value[0]), which is a dict, and retrieve the "value" key:

print last_value[0]['value']

# Then you can read this value and do something:

if last_value[0]['value']:
    print "Switch is ON"
else:
    print "Switch is OFF"

Getting a group of Data sources

If you want to get all your data sources you can a method on the ApiClient instance directly. This method return a Paginator object which you can use to iterate through all the items.

# Get all datasources
all_datasources = api.get_datasources()

# Get the last five created datasources
some_datasources = api.get_datasources(5)

Getting a specific Data source

Each data source is identified by an ID. A specific data source can be retrieved from the server using this ID.

For example, if a data source has the id 51c99cfdf91b28459f976414, it can be retrieved as follows:

my_specific_datasource = api.get_datasource('51c99cfdf91b28459f976414')

Getting a group of Variables from a Data source

With a data source. you can also retrieve some or all of its variables:

# Get all variables
all_variables =  datasource.get_variables()

# Get last 10 variables
some_variables =  datasource.get_variables(10)

Getting a specific Variable

As with data sources, you can use your variable's ID to retrieve the details about it:

my_specific_variable = api.get_variable('56799cf1231b28459f976417')

Managing HTTP Exceptions

Given that possibility that a request to Ubidots could result in an error, the API client bundles some exceptions to make easier to spot the problems. All exceptions inherit from the base UbidotsError. The full list of exceptions is:

UbidotsError400, UbidotsError404, UbidotsError500, UbidotsForbiddenError, UbidotsBulkOperationError

Each error has an attribute 'message' (a general message of the error) and 'detail' (usually JSON from the server providing more detail).

You can gaurd for these exceptions in this way:

try:
    my_specific_variable = api.get_variable('56799cf1231b28459f976417')
except UbidotsError400 as e:
    print "General Description: %s; and the detail: %s" % (e.message, e.detail)
except UbidotsForbiddenError as e:
    print "For some reason my account does not have permission to read this variable"
    print "General Description: %s; and the detail: %s" % (e.message, e.detail)

Other Exceptions

There is anoter exception UbidotsInvalidInputError wich is raised when the parameters to a function call are invalid. The required fields for the parameter of each resource in this API version are:

Datasource:
Required:
name: string.
Optional:

tags: list of strings.

description: string.

Variables:
Required:

name: string.

unit: string.

Values:
Required:

value: number (integer or float).

variable: string with the variable of the id id.

Optional:
timestamp: unix timestamp.