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+---
+title: Simple IOT application supported by real-time monitoring and data history
+permalink: /simple-iot-application.html
+date: 2017-08-11T12:00:00+02:00
+layout: post
+type: post
+draft: false
+---
+
+## Initial thoughts
+
+I have been developing these kind of application for the better part of my last
+5 years and people keep asking me how to approach developing such application
+and I will give a try explaining it here.
+
+IOT applications are really no different than any other kind of applications.
+We have data that needs to be collected and visualized in some form of tables or
+charts. The main difference here is that most of the times these data is
+collected by some kind of device foreign to developer that mainly operates in
+web domain. But fear not, it's not that different than writing some JavaScript.
+
+There are many devices able to transmit data via wireless or wired network by
+default but for the sake of example we will be using commonly known Arduino with
+wireless module already on the board → [Arduino
+MKR1000](https://store.arduino.cc/arduino-mkr1000).
+
+In order to make this little project as accessible to others as possible I will
+try to make it as inexpensive as possible. And by this I mean that I will avoid
+using hosted virtual servers and will be using my own laptop as a server. But
+you must buy Arduino MKR1000 to follow steps below. But if you would want to
+deploy this software I would suggest using
+[DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com) → smallest VPS is only per month
+making this one of the most affordable option out there. Please notice that this
+software will not run on stock web hosting that only supports LAMP (Linux,
+Apache, MySQL, and PHP).
+
+But before we begin please take notice that this is strictly experimental code
+and not well optimized and there are much better ways in handling some aspects
+of the application but that requires much deeper knowledge of technology that is
+not needed for an example like this.
+
+**Development steps**
+
+1. Simple Python API that will receive and store incoming data.
+2. Prototype C++ code that will read "sensor data" and transmit it to API.
+3. Data visualization with charts → extends Python web application.
+
+Step 1. and 3. will share the same web application. One route will be dedicated
+to API and another to serving HTML with chart.
+
+Schema below represents what we will try to achieve and how different parts
+correlates to each other.
+
+![Overview](/assets/posts/iot-application/simple-iot-application-overview.svg)
+
+## Simple Python API
+
+I have always been a fan of simplicity so we will be using [Bottle: Python Web
+Framework](https://bottlepy.org/docs/dev/).  It is a single file web framework
+that seriously simplifies working with routes, templating and has built-in web
+server that satisfies our need in this case.
+
+First we need to install bottle package. This can be done by downloading
+```bottle.py``` and placing it in the root of your application or by using pip
+software ```pip install bottle --user```.
+
+If you are using Linux or MacOS then Python is already installed. If you will
+try to test this on Windows please install [Python for
+Windows](https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/).  There may be some problems
+with path when you will try to launch ```python webapp.py``` so please take care
+of this before you continue.
+
+### Basic web application
+
+Most basic bottle application is quite simple. Paste code below in
+```webapp.py``` file and save.
+
+```python
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+import bottle
+
+# initializing bottle app
+app = bottle.Bottle()
+
+# triggered when / is accessed from browser
+# only accepts GET → no POST allowed
+@app.route("/", method=["GET"])
+def route_default():
+  return "howdy from python"
+
+# starting server on http://0.0.0.0:5000
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+  bottle.run(
+    app = app,
+    host = "0.0.0.0",
+    port = 5000,
+    debug = True,
+    reloader = True,
+    catchall = True,
+  )
+```
+
+To run this simple application you should open command prompt or terminal on
+your machine and go to the folder containing your file and type ```python
+webapp.py```. If everything goes ok then open your web browser and point it to
+```http://0.0.0.0:5000```.
+
+If you would like change the port of your application (like port 80) and not use
+root to run your app this will present a problem. The TCP/IP port numbers below
+1024 are privileged ports → this is a security feature. So in order of
+simplicity and security use a port number above 1024 like I have used port 5000.
+
+If this fails at any time please fix it before you continue, because nothing
+below will work otherwise.
+
+We use 0.0.0.0 as default host so that this app is available over your local
+network. If you find your local ip ```ifconfig``` and try accessing this site
+with your phone (if on same network/router as your machine) this should work as
+well (example of such ip ```http://192.168.1.15:5000```). This is a must have
+because Arduino will be accessing this application to send it's data.
+
+### Web application security
+
+There is a lot to be said about security and is a topic of many books. Of course
+all this can not be written here but to just establish some basic security → you
+should always use SSL with your application. Some fantastic free certificates
+are available by [Let's Encrypt - Free SSL/TLS
+Certificates](https://letsencrypt.org).  With SSL certificate installed you
+should then make use of HTTP headers and send your "API key" via a header. If
+your key is send via header then this key is encrypted by SSL and send encrypted
+over the network. Never send your api keys by GET parameter like
+```http://example.com/?api_key=somekeyvalue```.  The problem that this kind of
+sending presents is that this key is visible in logs and by network sniffers.
+
+There is a fantastic article describing some aspects about security: [11 Web
+Application Security Best
+Practices](https://www.keycdn.com/blog/web-application-security-best-practices/). Please
+check it out.
+
+### Simple API for writing data-points
+
+We will now be using boilerplate code from example above and extend it to be
+SQLite3 because it plays well with Python and can store quite large amount of
+able to write data received by API to local storage. For example use I will use
+data. I have been using it to collect gigabytes of data in a single database
+without any corruption or problems → your experience may vary.
+
+To avoid learning SQLite I will be using [Dataset: databases for lazy
+people](https://dataset.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html).  This package
+abstracts SQL and simplifies writing and reading data from database. You should
+install this package with pip software ```pip install dataset --user```.
+
+Because API will use POST method I will be testing if code works correctly by
+using [Restlet Client for Google
+Chrome](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/restlet-client-rest-api-t/aejoelaoggembcahagimdiliamlcdmfm).
+This software also allows you to set headers → for basic security with API_KEY.
+
+To quickly generate passwords or API keys I usually use this nifty website
+[RandomKeygen](https://randomkeygen.com/).
+
+Copy and paste code below over your previous code in file ```webapp.py```.
+
+```python
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+import time
+import bottle
+import random
+import dataset
+
+# initializing bottle app
+app = bottle.Bottle()
+
+# connects to sqlite database
+# check_same_thread=False allows using it in multi-threaded mode
+app.config["dsn"] = dataset.connect("sqlite:///data.db?check_same_thread=False")
+
+# api key that will be used in Arduino code
+app.config["api_key"] = "JtF2aUE5SGHfVJBCG5SH"
+
+# triggered when /api is accessed from browser
+# only accepts POST → no GET allowed
+@app.route("/api", method=["POST"])
+def route_default():
+  status = 400
+  ts = int(time.time()) # current timestamp
+  value = bottle.request.body.read() # data from device
+  api_key = bottle.request.get_header("Api_Key") # api key from header
+
+  # outputs to console received data for debug reason
+  print ">>> {} :: {}".format(value, api_key)
+
+  # if api_key is correct and value is present
+  # then writes attribute to point table
+  if api_key == app.config["api_key"] and value:
+    app.config["dsn"]["point"].insert(dict(ts=ts, value=value))
+    status = 200
+
+  # we only need to return status
+  return bottle.HTTPResponse(status=status, body="")
+
+# starting server on http://0.0.0.0:5000
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+  bottle.run(
+    app = app,
+    host = "0.0.0.0",
+    port = 5000,
+    debug = True,
+    reloader = True,
+    catchall = True,
+  )
+```
+
+To run this simply go to folder containing python file and run ```python
+webapp.py``` from terminal. If everything goes ok you should have simple API
+available via POST method on /api route.
+
+After testing the service with Restlet Client you should be able to view your
+data in a database file ```data.db```.
+
+![REST settings example](/assets/posts/iot-application/iot-rest-example.png)
+
+You can also check the contents of new database file by using desktop client 
+for SQLite → [DB Browser for SQLite](http://sqlitebrowser.org/).
+
+![SQLite database example](/assets/posts/iot-application/iot-sqlite-db.png)
+
+Table structure is as simple as it can be. We have ts (timestamp) and value
+(value from Arduino). As you can see timestamp is generated on API side. If you
+would happen to have atomic clock on Arduino it would be then better to generate
+and send timestamp with the value. This would be particularity useful if we
+would be collecting sensor data at a higher frequency and then sending this data
+in bulk to API.
+
+If you will deploy this app with uWSGI and multi-threaded, use DSN (Data Source
+Name) url with ```?check_same_thread=False```.
+
+Ok, now that we have some sort of a working API with some basic security so
+unwanted people can not post data to your database can we proceed further and
+try to program Arduino to send data to API.
+
+## Sending data to API with Arduino MKR1000
+
+First of all you should have MKR1000 module and microUSB cable to proceed.  If
+you have ever done any work with Arduino you should know that you also need
+[Arduino IDE](https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software). On provided link you
+should be able to download and install IDE. Once that task is completed and you
+have successfully run blink example you should proceed to the next step.
+
+In order to use wireless capabilities of MKR1000 you need to first install
+[WiFi101 library](https://www.arduino.cc/en/Reference/WiFi101) in Arduino IDE.
+Please check before you install, you may already have it installed.
+
+Code below is a working example that sends data to API. Before you try to test
+your code make sure you have run Python web application. Then change settings
+for wifi, api endpoint and api_key. If by some reason code bellow doesn't work
+for you please leave a comment and I'll try to help.
+
+Once you have opened IDE and copied this code try to compile and upload it.
+Then open "Serial monitor" to see if any output is presented by Arduino.
+
+```c
+#include <WiFi101.h>
+
+// wifi settings
+char ssid[] = "ssid-name";
+char pass[] = "ssid-password";
+
+// api server enpoint
+char server[] = "192.168.6.22";
+int port = 5000;
+
+// api key that must be the same as the one in Python code
+String api_key = "JtF2aUE5SGHfVJBCG5SH";
+
+// frequency data is sent in ms - every 5 seconds
+int timeout = 1000 * 5;
+
+int status = WL_IDLE_STATUS;
+
+void setup() {
+
+  // initialize serial and wait for port to open:
+  Serial.begin(9600);
+  delay(1000);
+
+  // check for the presence of the shield
+  if (WiFi.status() == WL_NO_SHIELD) {
+    Serial.println("WiFi shield not present");
+    while (true);
+  }
+
+  // attempt to connect to wifi network
+  while (status != WL_CONNECTED) {
+    Serial.print("Attempting to connect to SSID: ");
+    Serial.println(ssid);
+    status = WiFi.begin(ssid, pass);
+    // wait 10 seconds for connection
+    delay(10000);
+  }
+
+  // output wifi status to serial monitor
+  Serial.print("SSID: ");
+  Serial.println(WiFi.SSID());
+
+  IPAddress ip = WiFi.localIP();
+  Serial.print("IP Address: ");
+  Serial.println(ip);
+
+  long rssi = WiFi.RSSI();
+  Serial.print("signal strength (RSSI):");
+  Serial.print(rssi);
+  Serial.println(" dBm");
+}
+
+void loop() {
+  WiFiClient client;
+
+  if (client.connect(server, port)) {
+
+    // I use random number generator for this example
+    // but you can use analog or digital inputs from arduino
+    String content = String(random(1000));
+
+    client.println("POST /api HTTP/1.1");
+    client.println("Connection: close");
+    client.println("Api-Key: " + api_key);
+    client.println("Content-Length: " + String(content.length()));
+    client.println();
+    client.println(content);
+
+    delay(100);
+    client.stop();
+    Serial.println("Data sent successfully ...");
+
+  } else {
+    Serial.println("Problem sending data ...");
+  }
+
+  // waits for x seconds and continue looping
+  delay(timeout);
+}
+```
+
+As seen from example you can notice that Arduino is generating random integer
+between [ 0 .. 1000 ]. You can easily replace this with a temperature sensor or
+any other kind of sensor.
+
+Now that we have API under the hood and Arduino is sending demo data we can now
+focus on data visualization.
+
+## Data visualization
+
+Before we continue we should examine our project folder structure. Currently we
+only have two files in our project:
+
+_simple-iot-app/_
+
+* _webapp.py_
+* _data.db_
+
+We will now add HTML template that will contain CSS and JavaScript code inline
+for the simplicity reason. And for the bottle framework to be able to scan root
+application folder for templates we will add ```bottle.TEMPLATE_PATH.insert(0,
+"./")``` in ```webapp.py```. By default bottle framework uses ```views/```
+subfolder to store templates. This is not the ideal situation and if you will
+use bottle to develop web applications you should use native behavior and store
+templates in it's predefined folder. But for the sake of example we will
+over-ride this. Be careful to fully replace your code with new code that is
+provided below. Avoid partially replacing code in file :) Also new code for
+reading data-points is provided in Python example below.
+
+First we add new route to our web application. It should be trigger when browser
+hits root of application ```http://0.0.0.0:5000/```. This route will do nothing
+more than render ```frontend.html``` template. This is done by ```return
+bottle.template("frontend.html")```. Check code below to further examine how
+exactly this is done.
+
+Now we will expand ```/api``` route and use different methods to write or read
+data-points. For writing data-point we will use POST method and for reading
+points we will use GET method. GET method will return JSON object with latest
+readings and historical data.
+
+There is a fantastic JavaScript library for plotting time-series charts called
+[MetricsGraphics.js](https://www.metricsgraphicsjs.org) that is based on
+[D3.js](https://d3js.org/) library for visualizing data.
+
+Data schema required by MetricsGraphics.js → to achieve this we need to
+transform data from database into this format:
+
+```json
+[
+  {
+    "date": "2017-08-11 01:07:20",
+    "value": 933
+  },
+  {
+    "date": "2017-08-11 01:07:30",
+    "value": 743
+  }
+]
+```
+
+Web application is now complete and we only need ```frontend.html``` that we
+will develop now. If you would try to start web app now and go to root app this
+will return error because we don't have frontend.html yet.
+
+```python
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+import time
+import bottle
+import json
+import datetime
+import random
+import dataset
+
+# initializing bottle app
+app = bottle.Bottle()
+
+# adds root directory as template folder
+bottle.TEMPLATE_PATH.insert(0, "./")
+
+# connects to sqlite database
+# check_same_thread=False allows using it in multi-threaded mode
+app.config["db"] = dataset.connect("sqlite:///data.db?check_same_thread=False")
+
+# api key that will be used in Arduino code
+app.config["api_key"] = "JtF2aUE5SGHfVJBCG5SH"
+
+# triggered when / is accessed from browser
+# only accepts GET → no POST allowed
+@app.route("/", method=["GET"])
+def route_default():
+  return bottle.template("frontend.html")
+
+# triggered when /api is accessed from browser
+# accepts POST and GET
+@app.route("/api", method=["GET", "POST"])
+def route_default():
+
+  # if method is POST then we write datapoint
+  if bottle.request.method == "POST":
+    status = 400
+    ts = int(time.time()) # current timestamp
+    value = bottle.request.body.read() # data from device
+    api_key = bottle.request.get_header("Api-Key") # api key from header
+
+    # outputs to console recieved data for debug reason
+    print ">>> {} :: {}".format(value, api_key)
+
+    # if api_key is correct and value is present
+    # then writes attribute to point table
+    if api_key == app.config["api_key"] and value:
+      app.config["db"]["point"].insert(dict(ts=ts, value=value))
+      status = 200
+
+      # we only need to return status
+      return bottle.HTTPResponse(status=status, body="")
+
+  # if method is GET then we read datapoint
+  else:
+    response = []
+    datapoints = app.config["db"]["point"].all()
+
+    for point in datapoints:
+      response.append({
+        "date": datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(int(point["ts"])).strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"),
+        "value": point["value"]
+      })
+
+    bottle.response.content_type = "application/json"
+    return json.dumps(response)
+
+# starting server on http://0.0.0.0:5000
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+  bottle.run(
+    app = app,
+    host = "0.0.0.0",
+    port = 5000,
+    debug = True,
+    reloader = True,
+    catchall = True,
+  )
+```
+
+And now finally we can implement ```frontend.html```. Create file with this name
+and copy code below. When you are done you can start web application.  Steps for
+this part are listed below the code.
+
+```html
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html>
+
+  <head>
+    <meta charset="utf-8">
+    <title>Simple IOT application</title>
+  </head>
+
+  <body>
+
+    <h1>Simple IOT application</h1>
+
+    <div class="chart-placeholder">
+      <div id="chart"></div>
+    </div>
+
+    <!-- application main script -->
+    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.2.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
+    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/d3/4.10.0/d3.min.js"></script>
+    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/metrics-graphics/2.11.0/metricsgraphics.min.js"></script>
+    <script>
+      function fetch_and_render() {
+        d3.json("/api", function(data) {
+          data = MG.convert.date(data, "date", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S");
+          MG.data_graphic({
+            data: data,
+            chart_type: "line",
+            full_width: true,
+            height: 270,
+            target: document.getElementById("chart"),
+            x_accessor: "date",
+            y_accessor: "value"
+          });
+        });
+      }
+      window.onload = function() {
+        // initial call for rendering
+        fetch_and_render();
+
+        // updates chart every 5 seconds
+        setInterval(function() {
+          fetch_and_render();
+        }, 5000);
+      }
+    </script>
+
+    <!-- application styles -->
+    <style>
+      body {
+        font: 13px sans-serif;
+        padding: 20px 50px;
+      }
+      .chart-placeholder {
+        border: 2px solid #ccc;
+        width: 100%;
+        user-select: none;
+      }
+      /* chart styles */
+      .mg-line1-color {
+        stroke: red;
+        stroke-width: 2;
+      }
+      .mg-main-area, .mg-main-line {
+        fill: #fff;
+      }
+      .mg-x-axis line, .mg-y-axis line {
+        stroke: #b3b2b2;
+        stroke-width: 1px;
+      }
+    </style>
+
+  </body>
+
+</html>
+```
+
+Now the folder structure should look like:
+
+_simple-iot-app/_
+
+* _webapp.py_
+* _data.db_
+* _frontend.html_
+
+Ok, lets now start application and start feeding it data.
+
+1. ```python webapp.py```
+2. connect Arduino MKR1000 to power source
+3. open browser and go to ```http://0.0.0.0:5000```
+
+If everything goes well you should be seeing new data-points rendered on chart
+every 5 seconds.
+
+If you navigate to ```http://0.0.0.0:5000``` you should see rendered chart as
+shown on picture below.
+
+![Application output](/assets/posts/iot-application/iot-app-output.png)
+
+Complete application with all the code is available for
+[download](/assets/posts/iot-application/simple-iot-application.zip).
+
+## Conclusion
+
+I hope this clarifies some aspects of IOT application development. Of course
+this is a minimal example and is far from what can be done in real life with
+some further dive into other technologies.
+
+If you would like to continue exploring IOT world here are some interesting
+resources for you to examine:
+
+* [Reading Sensors with an Arduino](https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/projects/reading-sensors-with-an-arduino/)
+* [MQTT 101 – How to Get Started with the lightweight IoT Protocol](http://www.hivemq.com/blog/how-to-get-started-with-mqtt)
+* [Stream Updates with Server-Sent Events](https://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/eventsource/basics/)
+* [Internet of Things (IoT) Tutorials](http://www.tutorialspoint.com/internet_of_things/)
+
+Any comment or additional ideas are welcomed in comments below.