Losant Walkthrough

Don’t have a device? No problem! This walkthrough allows you to experience many of the features in Losant by building a weather station dashboard.

Full Dashboard

In a real implementation, you’d use sensors and hardware to capture the weather information and send that data to Losant using MQTT or HTTP. For this walkthrough, instead of real hardware, we use the OpenWeather API to simulate hardware that sends weather data.

Step 1: Sign up for OpenWeather API

OpenWeather is an API that provides a simple way to acquire weather data. The OpenWeather API is a separate, paid service. You may see the details of OpenWeather’s pricing on their pricing page.

Sign up and get an API key for the OpenWeather API. Once you sign up you’ll be provided an API key. Keep this handy for future steps.

Step 2: Create Application

If you don’t have a Losant account, sign up. After creation, you’ll be prompted to create your first Application. Select “Add Application”.

Welcome Page

Next, you will see all of the Application Templates. Templates get you up and running quick by providing sample implementations you can use as the basis for your applications.

Select “Blank Application”.

Select Template

You can name and describe your application. Throughout this tutorial, we will call our application “Weather Station.”

Create Application

Step 3: Add the Device

Next, to store the data from the from the OpenWeather API, we create a Device that represents the weather data (temperature, humidity, etc.).

After creating the application, you will be presented with the Application Overview page. Select “Add Device” from the Recent Devices List.

Add Device

When creating the device, select “Standalone” as the Device Class.

Select Device Type

Most devices are standalone devices. Our device is a standalone device because the data source of this device is an API.

Configure Device

Next, configure your new device. Provide a name and an optional description for your device. For this walkthrough, we will not be configuring a Parent System or Device Tag, so you can leave these blank.

Device Configuration

Select “Create Device” to configure the attributes for your new device.

HELPFUL TIP

Need any Help? You can always ask for help in the Losant Forums.

Device Attributes

The OpenWeather API provides a lot of information, but we only need to track and store the most common information:

  • feels-like - Apparent temperature with wind chill and humidity accounted for.
  • humidity - Relative humidity in percent.
  • pressure - Sea-level air pressure in millibars.
  • temp - Temperature in degrees Kelvin.
  • visibility - Average visibility in miles.
  • wind-speed - Wind speed in miles per hour.

You’ve already made the device within Losant that represents the OpenWeather API. Now, we can create our attributes.

Device Attributes describe each data point your device is collecting. Attributes are used by Losant to identify the data this device will report and store in Losant’s time-series database.

Device Settings

After you’ve configured the attributes defined above, click the “Update Attributes” button.

Now that we have a device set up to track and store the data within Losant, let’s create a workflow to pull the data from the OpenWeather API and store it to our device.

Step 4: Requesting Weather Data

Workflows allow you to describe the logic for your application. For our Weather Station, we need to periodically request weather data. So, the logic would be:

Every two minutes, request weather data from the OpenWeather API and store it on our new device.

To create a workflow, select “Workflows” from the Application Menu. Then, select “Add Workflow.”

Create Workflow

Give your workflow a name, select Application Workflow as the workflow type and give your workflow a brief description.

Workflow Settings

Select “Create Workflow”.

Application Workflows run in Losant’s cloud. They can trigger logic when a device sends data to Losant. In this case, we can use an application workflow to query data from another service and store it within Losant.

After creation, you will be taken to the workflow canvas.

Timer Trigger

Timer Trigger

All workflows start with a Trigger Node. Since we want this workflow to run every couple of minutes to grab weather data, we can use the Timer Trigger Node.

Drag a Timer Node from the Node Pallet onto the workflow canvas.

The OpenWeather API provides us with 1,000 API requests per day. So, requesting every 2 minutes will only use 720 of those. Within the node configuration, create a “Simple Interval” that will run every two minutes.

Requesting Data

In order to request data, we need to add a few nodes to the canvas.

HTTP Node

Drag all of these nodes onto the canvas and connect them as shown above:

This workflow isn’t doing everything we need yet. But, we’ll use these nodes make a request to the OpenWeather API and see the results.

Configure HTTP Node

Press the HTTP Node to update its configuration.

HTTP Node Request Settings

There are two important configuration options for the HTTP Node. The first is the URL and the second is where to store the result.

The URL we configure will be OpenWeather’s API endpoint:

https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?lat=LATITUDE&lon=LONGITUDE&APPID=APIKEY

Copy/Paste the above text as your URL. After, replace APIKEY with the key you obtained in Step 1 after registering for the OpenWeather API.

Next, replace the LATITUDE and LONGITUDE values. They are the coordinates, in decimal degrees, of the location to request. You can use MyGeoPosition.com to get these coordinates.

Here’s the coordinates of Losant’s headquarters if you’d like to use these:

https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?lat=39.108335&lon=-84.509212&APPID=APIKEY

Define Payload Path

The second required configuration parameter for the HTTP Node is the location on the payload to put the result.

Workflows pass a JSON payload through each node in the workflow. The job of each node is to add, remove, or modify the payload as needed as it flows through them. In this case, we want to make a request to the OpenWeather API and add it to the payload.

HTTP Node

Configure the “Payload Path to Store Response” to be working.weather.

This means that, at the path of working.weather on the payload we will find the response from the OpenWeather API.

HELPFUL TIP

When using the Workflow Engine, it's helpful to have standards. Though you can put data anywhere you want on the payload working is a best practice we settled on at Losant. Everything in working represents data that we are actively manipulating a workflow. Using working you can always assume that the rest of the payload is untouched, and you can use those values in other nodes without worry.

Now that we’ve configured our HTTP Node, it’s time to see the workflow in action.

Deploy Workflow

To deploy the workflow, select the “Save & Deploy” button at the top of the workflow canvas.

Deploy Workflow

Your workflow is now running within Losant’s cloud. You can wait 2 minutes for the Timer Node to start, or simply click the Virtual Button to trigger the workflow.

Once triggered, click the Debug Tab on the right to see the output.

Debug Output

We can now inspect our payload and can see that the result from the OpenWeather API call has been placed on the working.weather field of the payload.

Payload

Displayed in the Debug Panel is the payload. At working.weather we can see the result of the HTTP Node, which includes the body of the request, details about the initial request and more.

The Workflow Payload

Here is a sample payload that this workflow would generate:

{
  "working": {
    "weather": { // working.weather
      "body": {
        "cod": 200,
        "name": "Newport",
        "id": 4302529,
        "timezone": -14400,
        "sys": {
          "sunset": 1586304441,
          "sunrise": 1586257934,
          "country": "US",
          "id": 3729,
          "type": 1
        },
        "dt": 1586264536,
        "clouds": {
          "all": 40
        },
        "wind": {
          "deg": 200,
          "speed": 3.6
        },
        "visibility": 14484,
        "main": {
          "humidity": 76, // working.weather.body.main.humidity
          "pressure": 1013,
          "temp_max": 289.15,
          "temp_min": 284.82,
          "feels_like": 284.92,
          "temp": 287.38
        },
        "base": "stations",
        "weather": [
          {
            "icon": "03d",
            "description": "scattered clouds",
            "main": "Clouds",
            "id": 802
          }
        ],
        "coord": {
          "lat": 39.11,
          "lon": -84.51
        }
      },
      "headers": {
        ...
      },
      "statusCode": 200, // working.weather.statusCode
      "request": {
        ...
      }
    }
  },
  "globals": {},
  "applicationName": "Weather Station",
  "flowName": "Weather grabber ",
  "flowId": "5e8bbb9ddd5002000606e055",
  "relayType": "user",
  "relayId": "574f2ca804595101007ff876",
  "flowVersion": "develop",
  "triggerType": "virtualButton",
  "triggerId": "5e8bbb9ddd7002500606e055-RaSYX9851aJ3AhPF7VxQA",
  "applicationId": "5e8627da95be4d000795879d",
  "data": {},
  "time": "2020-04-07T13:07:26.328Z"
}

At working.weather.statusCode we can see the HTTP Status Code of the request. A 200 means the request was successful.

At working.weather.body.main.humidity we can see the humidity data coming from the request.

Now, we can use these values within our workflow logic.

Step 5: Save Weather Data to Device

Now that workflow is running in Losant’s cloud, we’ve got weather data being requested every two minutes and adding it to the payload. It’s time to start storing it on our device.

To accomplish this, we need to add a few more nodes to the canvas.

Device State

Drag all of these nodes onto the canvas and connect them as shown above:

  • The Conditional Node - Checks to make sure the request to OpenWeather was successful before attempting to store the data.
  • The Device State Node - Saves the data to Losant’s time-series database.

HELPFUL TIP

When you drag a node over a connector, it will add the node to the series and autoconnect the nodes for you.

Conditional Node

To make sure the request to the OpenWeather API was successful before we attempt to save the data, we can use the Conditional Node to make sure the status code of the request was 200.

Conditional Node

Use the following Expression in the Conditional Node to perform this check:

{{working.weather.statusCode}} === 200

The {{ }} syntax you see is Handlebar Templating. Templating is very powerful and used throughout the Workflow Engine. It allows us to inject values of the payload into the expression.

Expressions are always evaluated as true or false. Once this workflow runs, the above will be evaluated as:

200 === 200 // true

If the expression is true, the Conditional Node will take the right path. In this case, the right path means our request to the weather API was successful. Conditional Nodes are a great way to do “if this than that” logic.

Device State Node

The Device State Node saves the data to Losant’s time-series database.

Device State Configuration

The Device State Node requires you to select the device to report as. Select the device you created earlier.

Device State Node Select Device

Now, we can connect the data we’ve received from the OpenWeather API to the attributes we’ve defined for our device. Since our values are on the payload, we can use templating to reference them.

Device State Node Select Device

As shown above, assign values to our various attributes by using the following templates:

  • feels-like : {{subtract working.weather.body.main.feels_like 273.15}}
  • humidity : {{ working.weather.body.main.humidity }}
  • pressure : {{ working.weather.body.main.pressure }}
  • temp : {{subtract working.weather.body.main.temp 273.15}}
  • visibility : {{ working.weather.body.visibility }}
  • wind-speed : {{ working.weather.body.wind.speed }}

As you can see, we are using templating to pull the value of the humidity out of the payload:

{{ working.weather.body.main.humidity }} // 67

As you saw with the Conditional Node, when using templates within expressions, we expect the result to be true or false. Here, we are using String Templates. It will simply place the value at that payload path as text.

In this case, it allows us to set each attribute to its corresponding value on the payload.

HELPFUL TIP

Notice the following template:

{{subtract working.weather.body.main.temp 273.15 }}

This is using Handlebar Helpers. The helper here is subtract. The temperature reported by the OpenWeather API is in Kelvin. So, to convert to Celsius, we need to subtract 273.15.

Helpers allow us to easily do this within templating. Here, we can use the subtract format helper to properly convert our value.

So far we have configured our workflow to:

  • Request data from the OpenWeather API.
  • Verify that our API request was successful.
  • Report the weather data from the API as device state.

Now it’s time to test and run what we’ve put in place! Deploy your workflow.

Deploy Workflow

Every time the timer triggers, or you press the Virtual Button, the Device State Node will publish the state attributes to your device.

Verifying Device State

You can verify that the state is being reported and saved to the device by navigating to your device page log panel.

You can view a real-time stream of events in the Device Log panel, or navigate to the State Report History panel to view the most recent device states published to that device.

Recent States

There, you should be able to see the data we reported from our workflow. You can also view the device data stored in Losant’s time-series data base using the Data Explorer.

Data Explorer

Now, it’s time to visualize that data using Dashboards.

Step 6: Create a Dashboard

Now that we’ve got weather data being stored, we can visualize it using a Losant Dashboard. Just like workflows, dashboards are super easily and very flexible to customize with drag and drop.

Here is a preview of the dashboard we are creating:

Full Dashboard

A dashboard is made up of blocks. Each block gives you a different way to present your data. Let’s create our dashboard and add our first block.

To begin, create a new dashboard by selecting “Dashboards” from the application menu and then select “Add Dashboard”.

Create Dashboard

Display Temperature

The first block we are going to add is the Gauge Block. The Gauge Block displays a single attribute value, either as a number or as a visual representation in a dial. In this case, we can use it to show the current temperature.

Add Gauge

For each block, you can configure what device state data to display within the block.

Gauge Settings

To configure this block, perform the following steps:

  1. Set the block title to Temperature.
  2. Select Number Gauge as the “Gauge Type.” The Gauge has two ways to display itself. One is a simple number, which is what you’ll want for this, and the other is a dial.
  3. Set the duration to Last received data point. Gauges can also display aggregates over time. For example, you could display the average temperature over the last 24 hours.
  4. For the block data, set the label to ˚C, which is an arbitrary string that will appear under the number. Typically this would be the units for the data being displayed.
  5. Select the device you created earlier and set the attribute to temp. The attributes correspond to the attributes we defined for our device and the attributes that the workflow is currently populating with weather data.

Overall, we are configuring this block to query the most recently received value for the temp attribute from the device and displays it on the dashboard.

Click Add Block to view it on your new dashboard.

Temp Gauge

Display Humidity

Next, let’s add another Gauge to show the humidity. Add a new gauge block using the Add Block button at the top of the dashboard.

Add Block Button

The steps are very similar to the previous. But, this time we are going to create a Dial gauge type instead of Number.

Humidity Gauge Settings

To configure this block, perform the following steps:

  1. Set the block title to Humidity.
  2. Select Dial as the “Gauge Type”.
  3. Set the “Min” and “Max” to 0 and 100 respectfully. Humidity is returned from OpenWeather as a percentage between 0 and 100
  4. Check “Display as Percentage” since humidity is a percentage.
  5. Set the duration to Last received data point.
  6. Select the device you created earlier and set the attribute to humidity.

After you add the block, your dashboard will look like this:

Humidity Gauge

Now let’s make some space for a graph to show how data is changes over time. Drag the humidity gauge underneath the temperature gauge.

Dashboard Drag

Display Values Over Time

Next, let’s add a graph that displays temperature vs. humidity over time. We can do this using the Time Series Block.

Time Series Graph

Click the “Add Block” button and add a Time Series Block.

Time Series Basic Settings

To configure this block, perform the following steps:

  1. Set the block title to Temperature vs. Humidity.
  2. Select Historical as the “Data Type”.
  3. Select 60 Minutes as the “Duration” and 1 minute as the “Resolution.”
  4. Set the “Min” and “Max” to 0 and 100 respectfully. Humidity is returned from OpenWeather as a percentage between 0 and 100
  5. Check “Display as Percentage” since humidity is a percentage.
  6. Set the duration to Last received data point.
  7. Select the device you created earlier and set the attribute to humidity.

The Time Series Graph requires you to select a duration and a resolution. The duration is how far back in time you’d like to view. Since you don’t have much data yet, select 60 minutes. As your device continues to collect weather data, you can increase this to view longer time periods if needed.

The resolution is how far apart individual data points are. Select one minute for this example, which means you’ll see a data point for every minute.

Temperature Segment

Unlike the Gauge, which can only display a single value, Time Series Graphs can display multiple series. In this example we want to display two: one for the temperature and one for the humidity. Let’s configure our first segment.

Time Series Temperature"

To configure this block, perform the following steps:

  1. Set the block title to Temperature vs. Humidity.
  2. Select Historical as the “Data Type”.
  3. Select 60 Minutes as the “Duration” and 1 minute as the “Resolution”.
  4. Set the “Min” and “Max” to 0 and 100 respectfully. Humidity is returned from OpenWeather as a percentage between 0 and 100
  5. Check “Display as Percentage” since humidity is a percentage.
  6. Set the duration to Last received data point.
  7. Select the device you created earlier and set the attribute to humidity.

After configuring the first series to display temperature, like above, click the Add Segment button to add a second configuration block for humidity.

Once you’re done, you should see a preview like this:

Time Series Graph

Next, click Add Block to add this new block to the dashboard. You now have a graph that displays temperature and humidity over the last 60 minutes.

Time Series Graph

Congrats! You have now created an application that queries from the OpenWeather API, saves it to a device within Losant, and visualize the data on a dashboard.

What’s Next?

Once complete, you now have a capable local weather dashboard for viewing the current and historical weather data.

Additional Challenges

The remainder of the dashboard is left as a challenge for you.

Full Dashboard

The above dashboard adds the following blocks:

  1. Pressure number gauge using the pressure attribute.
  2. Wind Speed number gauge using the wind-speed attribute.
  3. Pressure graph showing the pressure attribute over the last 60 minutes.
  4. Visibility number gauge using the visibility attribute.

All of these blocks can be added using the same steps as above but with different attributes for the data source.

If you are looking to go even further: Build another workflow to set up SMS notifications when the temperature and/or humidity goes above or below certain values.

Application Templates

In this tutorial, we created an application from the ground up. Losant also included application templates you can use as a starting point for your own applications.

The Weather Station Application Template provides a complete implementation of the Losant Walkthrough. Check out this template to see a working example of a weather station.

Weather Station Template Preview

Each template was carefully designed to demonstrate a specific set of Losant’s capabilities. You can check out these templates:

  1. Industrial Equipment Monitor, by Losant: A multi-tenant equipment monitoring application with multiple customers and users.
  2. Asset Tracker, by Losant: Monitors real-time geolocation, temperature, and shock for multiple asset tracking devices.
  3. Huddle Room Monitor, by Losant: Provides real-time availability and historical occupancy data for corporate huddle rooms.

More Resources

Here are more great ways to learn about Losant:

Losant University — Losant University’s combination of video training, hands—on workshops, and assessments provides the fastest way possible to gain an understanding of the Losant Enterprise IoT Platform.

Workflow Lab — The Losant Workflow Lab is an interactive training tool that provides a set of challenges to solve using Losant’s Visual Workflow Engine. The Workflow Lab is intended to be used by new Losant Developers to grow their workflow development skills.

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