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:

<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! 🕹🤖🚪🖲💡📸🎙⛈🚦🛎🔊