Everactive Edge API and Pipedream

Oct 9, 2022 · 1312 words · 7 minute read

The Everactive Edge RESTful API gives you direct programmatic access to the data returned by Eversensors. The API provides endpoints to retrieve data based on time ranges, and shortcuts to get the last-available reading from a particular sensor. Typically, applications will poll these endpoints to get the most up-to-date information. In this article, we are going to use Pipedream.com as a mechanism to periodically poll the API for new data and log it in a spreadsheet on Google Docs.

The Plan 🔗

The overall design of the solution we are going to implement looks like this:

Everactive API Data Logger click to zoom in

We will use the Pipedream.com service to orchestrate the requests for data to the Everactive Edge API and the insertion to a simple Google Sheet. The API will be polled every few minutes for the last reading of a particular sensor. Every response will be appended as a new row in the spreadsheet.

The Data Source 🔗

The data we are looking for is produced by a Machine Vibration Eversensor attached to an industrial machine. Everactive’s Internet of Things technology is based on self-powered (no batteries required) sensing devices that can deliver rich data streams. Apart from the Everactive Web Console, the data is made available by the Everactive Edge Platform via different channels like the Restful API, Webhooks, or MQTT Subscriptions.

Everactive Edge Platform click to zoom in

The Everactive Console

Eversensor Vibration Data click to zoom in

In our exercise, we will be polling data from the API endpoint that retrieves the last-available reading from this sensor. This endpoint is very simple: it acts as a shortcut, so we don’t need to specify incremental timestamps. The full API specification can be found here: https://everactive-ds-docs.readme.io/reference/get-eversensors-macaddress-readings-last

Setting up access to the API. 🔗

Before we can make any request, we have to prepare a set of Keys that will grant us access to the API.

If you haven’t, use this guide to create your first set of API Credentials. Make sure you have included the privileges for User and Developer in the scope. Retrieve the Client ID and the Client Secret and keep them handy, we’ll need them for our exercise.

With Insomnia:

API Credentials Scope click to zoom in

Testing the API 🔗

Now that we have our API Credentials let’s test them against the endpoints we need. You can use any REST Client, like curl, Insomnia, or Postman.

The first request we have to make is to the authorization endpoint to obtain a valid Token for subsequent requests. We’ll use the client id and secret we just created:

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.data.everactive.com/auth/token' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "client_id": "{your client id goes here}",
    "client_secret": "{your secret goes here}",
    "grant_type": "client_credentials"
}'

With Insomnia:

Insomnia Login click to zoom in

This returns a response with our token:

{
    "access_token": "LONG_JWT_TOKEN_STRING",
    "expires_in": 86400,
    "token_type": "Bearer"
}

Note the access_token field, that is the value we are looking for.

Request some Data 🔗

With our token in hand, we can now request some data. We are going to use the endpoint to fetch the last reading from a sensor using its MAC address (e.g. bc:5e:a1:ff:fe:00:56:fb):

curl --location --request GET 'https://api.data.everactive.com/ds/v1/eversensors/{sensor mac address}/readings/last' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {the token goes here}'

Insomnia Get Data click to zoom in

Remember to put the token in the header.

This request will return an Eversensor reading by this schema: https://everactive-ds-docs.readme.io/reference/eversensors-overview#sensor-readings-data-schema

For example:

code click to zoom in

Now that we have successfully tested our API Credentials, let’s put Pipedream to work for us to fetch and log the data.

Pipedream 🔗

Pipedream.com defines itself as “the fastest way to automate any process that connects APIs”. To us, it has been a good tool to create fast prototypes and scenarios for the usage of our services. Pipedream offers a wide range of service integrations to combine with the Everactive Platform APIs. If you don’t have one, go to Pipedream.com and create a free account.

You’ll find plenty of documentation for your reference on their website https://pipedream.com/docs

The WorkFlow 🔗

Remember the plan: fetch de data from the Everactive API and log it into a Google Spreadsheet. To accomplish this we need to create a Pipedream Workflow that looks something like this:

Pipedream workflow click to zoom in

It should be clear by now, but you will need a Google account to create the spreadsheet, any account, free or enterprise, will work.

Start 🔗

Create a new workflow, let’s name it “everactive-api-logger”

Step 1 - Trigger 🔗

The first step in our workflow is a Trigger. We will use a “Custom Interval” timer. Set a reasonable interval, like every 1 or 5 minutes: