NativeScript Particle plugin

Prerequisites

Hop on over to the Particle.io store and order any or all of their cool devices.

While developing this plugin and the demo app I used a Photon Kit and it was a joy to work with.

Thanks, Brandon Satrom for sending one over!

Installation

tns plugin add nativescript-particle

iOS 12+ setup

iOS 12 and up requires you to enable 'Access WiFi Information' for your App ID here.

Also, add this to your App_Resources/iOS/app.entitlements (mind the name!) file:

<key>com.apple.developer.networking.wifi-info</key>
<true/>

The demo app has this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>com.apple.developer.networking.wifi-info</key>
  <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Demo app

If you want to just play with your Particle device without writing code yet, follow these steps to install the demo app I've created with NativeScript Core:

git clone https://github.com/EddyVerbruggen/nativescript-particle
cd nativescript-particle/src
npm i
npm run demo.ios # or demo.android

Tip: If you get tired entering your login credentials every time you log in, set the PARTICLE_USERNAME and PARTICLE_PASSWORD properties to reflect your own.

Want to see the demo in action? Check out this short video 📺.

API

All examples below assume you have these imports and instantiated the Particle class:

import { Particle, TNSParticleDevice, TNSParticleEvent } from "nativescript-particle";
const particle = new Particle();

startDeviceSetupWizard

To help registering devices to your account (and avoid having to use the Particle CLI) you can add devices to your account right from your app! 😎

particle.startDeviceSetupWizard()
    .then(isSuccessful => console.log("Wizard success? " + isSuccessful));

login

Communication between your app and a device is HTTP (REST) based, so the first step is authenticating yourself with the Particle Cloud:

particle.login(
    {
      username: "my-particle-username@mydomain.com",
      password: "my-particle-password"
    })
    .then(() => console.log("Login successful"))
    .catch(error => console.log(`Login error: ${error}`));

loginWithToken

Alternatively, you can login with an access token.

particle.loginWithToken("the_token");

logout

Once done interacting with your device(s) it's best to log out as this will do a little cleanup in the plugin and underlying SDK.

There's no reason not to because it couldn't be easier:

particle.logout();

publish

Publish an event from your app to the Particle Device Cloud.

particle.publish(
    "ledStatusApp123", // the event name
    "ON", // the event data (string)
    true, // isPrivate (default true)
    30 // ttl (default 60)
);

subscribe

Subscribe to the firehose of public events, plus the private events published by devices one owns. You really want to use a unique prefix, otherwise you'll receive a lot of data (not only from your own devices!).

particle.subscribe(
    "ledStatusApp123",
    (event: TNSParticleEvent) => console.log(`Got a ledStatus event for App 123 from the Particle Cloud: ${JSON.stringify(event)}`));

unsubscribe

To stop receiving published events, unsubscribe from the events. Make sure the prefix is equal to the one you previously subscribed with.

particle.unsubscribe("ledStatusApp123");

listDevices

Make sure you've claimed a device in your Particle account, then do this to list them in your app:

particle.listDevices()
    .then((devices: Array<TNSParticleDevice>) => {
      if (devices.length === 0) {
        console.log("No devices have been claimed in this account.");
      } else {
        console.log("Devices fetched.. now do something neat with 'em.");
      }
    })
    .catch(error => console.log(`Error fetching devices: ${error}`));

The returned list of TNSParticleDevice objects has these properties and functions:

Property	Type	Description
id	string	The unique ID of this device.
name	string	The given name of this device.
status	string	The current status of the device, usually normal.
connected	boolean	Whether or not the device is currently connected..
type	TNSParticleDeviceType	One of Unknown, Core, Photon, P1, Electron, RaspberryPi, DigistumpOak, RedBearDuo, Bluz.
functions	Array<string>	The list of functions currently available on the device. You can invoke these with callFunction (see below).
variables	Array<TNSParticleDeviceVariable>	The list of variables currently available on the device. You can get their values with getVariable (see below).

<device>.rename

You can change the device name right from your app! 💪

const myDevice: TNSParticleDevice = null; // you got this from 'listDevices'

myDevice.rename("rocket_bubble")
    .then(() => console.log("Device renamed"))
    .catch(error => console.log(`Error renaming the device: ${error}`));

<device>.callFunction

You can invoke any of the functions you discovered on the device.

As an example let's assume you've flashed this code tutorial to your device, so there's a led function which takes 1 argument: the value must be either "on", or "off":

const myDevice: TNSParticleDevice = null; // you got this from 'listDevices'

myDevice.callFunction("led", "on")
    .then(result => console.log(`Result: ${result}`))
    .catch(error => console.log(`Error in callFunction: ${error}`));

What if you have a function which takes multiple arguments? Let's assume you're using the tinker app and want to set "D7" to "HIGH" via the "digitalWrite" function:

myDevice.callFunction("digitalWrite", "D7", "HIGH")
    .then(result => console.log(`Result: ${result}`))
    .catch(error => console.log(`Error in callFunction: ${error}`));

<device>.getVariable

Getting a variable is quite similar to callFunction.

Let's say you have a variable named "analogvalue", then this will give you the current state of that variable:

const myDevice: TNSParticleDevice = null; // you got this from 'listDevices'

myDevice.getVariable("analogvalue")
    .then(result => console.log(`Result: ${result}`))
    .catch(error => console.log(`Error in getVariable: ${error}`));

<device>.subscribe

You can get notified in your app in case an app on one of your devices publishes an event.

To suppress noise you can filter those events by supplying a prefix, in this case my-prefix-, so events like my-prefix-temp or my-prefix-sensorOn are caught:

const myDevice: TNSParticleDevice = null; // you got this from 'listDevices'

myDevice.subscribe(
    "my-prefix-",
    (event: TNSParticleEvent) => console.log(`device event: ${JSON.stringify(event)}`));

<device>.unsubscribe

To stop receiving published events from your devices, unsubscribe from the events. Make sure the prefix is equal to the one you previously subscribed with.

myDevice.unsubscribe("my-prefix-");

<device>.unclaim

Removes this device from your account.

myDevice.unclaim();

Thanks!

markoImake for adding a few very cool features.

Happy IoT'ing! 🕹🤖🚪🖲💡📸🎙⛈🚦🛎🔊