helium-ruby

A Ruby gem for building applications with the Helium API. Helium is an integrated platform of smart sensors, communication, edge and cloud compute that enables numerous sensing applications. For more information about the underlying REST API, check out the Helium docs.

Developer and Community Support

Helium Developer Complete Helium developer resources can be found at dev.helium.com.
chat.helium.com - If you have questions or ideas about how to use this code - or any part of Helium - head over the chat.helium.com. We're standing by to help.
helium-ruby docs - Documentation for the gem's source can be found here.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'helium-ruby', require: 'helium'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install helium-ruby

Usage

Setup

require 'helium'

client = Helium::Client.new(api_key: '<Your API Key>')

Users

client.user
# => #<Helium::User:0x007fd58198d9e8 @id="dev-accounts@helium.co", @name="HeliumDevAccount Demo", @email="dev-accounts@helium.co", @created_at="2014-10-29T21:38:52Z", @updated_at="2015-08-06T18:21:32.186374Z">

Organizations

Get the current organization

client.organization
# => #<Helium::Organization:0x007fd3d94b1b08 @client=<Helium::Client @debug=true>, @id="dev-accounts@helium.co", @name="dev-accounts@helium.co", @timezone="UTC", @created_at="2015-09-10T20:50:18.183896Z", @updated_at="2015-09-10T20:50:18.183896Z">

Get all users associated with the current organization

client.organization.users
# => [
#   [0] #<Helium::User:0x007fd3d9449490 @client=<Helium::Client @debug=true>, @id="tom@helium.com", @name="Tom Santero", @email="tom@helium.com", @created_at="2015-01-21T16:39:31.397048Z", @updated_at="2015-02-12T20:42:22.674452Z">,
#   [1] #<Helium::User:0x007fd3d94492d8 @client=<Helium::Client @debug=true>, @id="dev-accounts@helium.co", @name="HeliumDevAccount Demo", @email="dev-accounts@helium.co", @created_at="2014-10-29T21:38:52Z", @updated_at="2015-08-06T18:21:32.186374Z">
# ]

Sensors

Get all Sensors

client.sensors
# => [#<Helium::Sensor:0x007f89acdd1318 @id="08bab58b-d095-4c7c-912c-1f8024d91d95", @name="Marc's Isotope", @mac="6081f9fffe00019b", @ports=["t", "b"], @created_at="2015-08-06T17:28:11.614107Z", @updated_at="2016-05-30T22:36:50.810716Z">, ...]

Get a Sensor by id

client.sensor("08bab58b-d095-4c7c-912c-1f8024d91d95")
# => #<Helium::Sensor:0x007f89acdb1b58 @id="08bab58b-d095-4c7c-912c-1f8024d91d95", @name="Marc's Isotope", @mac="6081f9fffe00019b", @ports=["t", "b"], @created_at="2015-08-06T17:28:11.614107Z", @updated_at="2016-05-30T22:36:50.810716Z">

Create a Virtual Sensor

sensor = client.create_sensor(name: "A New Sensor")
# => #<Helium::Sensor:0x007f89acdb1b58 @id="08bab58b-d095-4c7c-912c-1f8024d91d95", @name="A New Sensor", @mac="6081f9fffe00019b", @ports=["t", "b"], @created_at="2015-08-06T17:28:11.614107Z", @updated_at="2016-05-30T22:36:50.810716Z">

Update a Sensor

sensor.update(name: "An Updated Sensor")
# => #<Helium::Sensor:0x007f89acdb1b58 @id="08bab58b-d095-4c7c-912c-1f8024d91d95", @name="A New Sensor", @mac="6081f9fffe00019b", @ports=["t", "b"], @created_at="2015-08-06T17:28:11.614107Z", @updated_at="2016-05-30T22:36:50.810716Z">

Delete a Sensor

sensor.destroy
# => true

Timeseries

Get Timeseries data for a sensor

Timeseries data is paginated by the Helium API which by default, returns pages of 1000 data points. When you call .timeseries on a sensor, you get back a Helium::Cursor object, which is an Enumerable object that handles paging through this data automatically.

sensor = client.sensor("08bab58b-d095-4c7c-912c-1f8024d91d95")
timeseries = sensor.timeseries(port: 't', start_time: DateTime.parse('2016-08-01'), end_time: DateTime.parse('2016-08-16'))
# => #<Helium::Cursor:0x007f9b02a25798 @path="/sensor/aba370be-837d-4b41-bee5-686b0069d874/timeseries", @klass=Helium::DataPoint, @options={"page[size]"=>1000, "filter[port]"=>"t", "filter[start]"=>"2016-08-01T00:00:00Z", "filter[end]"=>"2016-08-16T00:00:00Z"}, @collection=[], @next_link=nil, @is_last=false>

Working with data points

A Helium::Cursor is a collection of Helium::DataPoints which can iterated over using the usual Object#Enumerable methods:

sensor = client.sensor("08bab58b-d095-4c7c-912c-1f8024d91d95")

sensor.timeseries.take(1000).each do |data_point|
  puts data_point.id
  puts data_point.timestamp
  puts data_point.value
  puts data_point.port
end

sensor.timeseries.first
# => #<Helium::DataPoint:0x007f9b0407f340 @id="6c115c10-323e-4756-ae1c-fc69982eb397", @timestamp="2016-08-15T23:55:42.2Z", @value=22.590084, @port="t">

Since pagination happens automatically, it's strongly recommended to define a start and end time, otherwise enumerating over the collection may take a very long time.

Filtering Timeseries data

Timeseries data can be filtered by port type and start/end time:

sensor.timeseries.take(1000).collect(&:port).uniq
# => [
#  [0] "b",
#  [1] "l",
#  [2] "h",
#  [3] "p",
#  [4] "t",
#  [5] "_se",
#  [6] "m"
# ]

sensor.timeseries(port: 't').take(1000).collect(&:port).uniq
# => [
#   [0] "t"
# ]

sensor.timeseries(start_time: DateTime.parse("2016-08-01"), end_time: DateTime.parse("2016-08-02")).take(1000).collect(&:timestamp)
# => [
#  [0] #<DateTime: 2016-08-01T23:55:29+00:00 ((2457602j,86129s,802000000n),+0s,2299161j)>,
#  [1] #<DateTime: 2016-08-01T23:55:29+00:00 ((2457602j,86129s,61000000n),+0s,2299161j)>,
#  [2] #<DateTime: 2016-08-01T23:55:29+00:00 ((2457602j,86129s,60000000n),+0s,2299161j)>,
#  [3] #<DateTime: 2016-08-01T23:55:29+00:00 ((2457602j,86129s,59000000n),+0s,2299161j)>,
#  [4] #<DateTime: 2016-08-01T23:54:45+00:00 ((2457602j,86085s,544000000n),+0s,2299161j)>,

Timeseries Aggregations

In addition to returning the raw data points, Helium can return timeseries data aggregated into buckets.

For example, if you wanted to display a graph of a sensor's temperature min, max and average readings grouped by day, you could do the following:

data_points = sensor.timeseries(port: 't', aggtype: 'min,max,avg', aggsize: '1d')
# => #<Helium::Cursor:0x007f9b0413a708 @path="/sensor/aba370be-837d-4b41-bee5-686b0069d874/timeseries", @klass=Helium::DataPoint, @options={"page[size]"=>1000, "filter[port]"=>"t", "agg[type]"=>"min,max,avg", "agg[size]"=>"1d"}, @collection=[], @next_link=nil, @is_last=false>

data_points.first.min
# => 21.47564

data_points.first.max
# => 24.145264

data_points.first.avg
# => 22.2916633036437

A full list of aggregation types and sizes can be found here: https://docs.helium.com/docs/timeseries#aggregations.

Live Timeseries data

If you're building a real-time application with Helium's API, you can stream live timeseries data from a sesnor.

sensor.live_timeseries do |data_point|
  puts "timestamp: #{data_point.timestamp}"
  puts "port: #{data_point.port}"
  puts "value: #{data_point.value}"}
end
# => timestamp: 2017-02-09T23:29:42+00:00
#    port: t
#    value: 14.17
#    timestamp: 2017-02-09T23:29:42+00:00
#    port: h
#    value: 93.0
#    timestamp: 2017-02-09T23:29:42+00:00
#    port: p
#    value: 101173.0

You can also filter live timeseries data by port, same as demonstrated above.

sensor.live_timeseries(port: 't') do |data_point|
  puts "timestamp: #{data_point.timestamp}"
  puts "port: #{data_point.port}"
  puts "value: #{data_point.value}"}
end
# => timestamp: 2017-02-09T23:24:41+00:00
#    port: t
#    value: 14.19

Creating Timeseries data

Data points can be written to a sensor's timeseries data.

sensor.timeseries.create(port: "power level", value: "over 9000", timestamp: DateTime.now)
# => #<Helium::DataPoint:0x007f88634b9e50 @params={"attributes"=>{"value"=>"over 9000", "timestamp"=>"2016-09-26T23:19:01Z", "port"=>"power level"}, "relationships"=>{"sensor"=>{"data"=>{"id"=>"071488bb-3050-4849-8984-ca9e683cfc91", "type"=>"sensor"}}}, "id"=>"fd557521-8f59-457f-a75e-d0ce2c58dc1a", "meta"=>{"created"=>"2016-09-26T23:19:06.695036Z"}, "type"=>"data-point"}, @id="fd557521-8f59-457f-a75e-d0ce2c58dc1a", @type="data-point", @created_at="2016-09-26T23:19:06.695036Z", @updated_at=nil, @timestamp="2016-09-26T23:19:01Z", @value="over 9000", @port="power level">

Elements

Get all Elements

client.elements
# => [#<Helium::Element:0x007faf732c11e8 @id="78b6a9f4-9c39-4673-9946-72a16c35a422", @name="SF Office", @mac="6081f9fffe0002a8", @created_at="2015-08-12T23:10:40.537762Z", @updated_at="2015-08-12T23:10:40.536644Z", @versions={"element"=>"3050900"}>,...]

Get an Element by id

client.element("1b686e82-bd4a-4aac-9d7b-9bdbe1e9a7de")
# => #<Helium::Element:0x007faf732c2548 @id="1b686e82-bd4a-4aac-9d7b-9bdbe1e9a7de", @name="SF Office", @mac="6081f9fffe00033f", @created_at="2015-08-12T23:19:34.175932Z", @updated_at="2015-08-12T23:19:34.174828Z", @versions=nil>

Update an Element

element.update(name: "A New Name")
# => #<Helium::Element:0x007faf732c2548 @id="1b686e82-bd4a-4aac-9d7b-9bdbe1e9a7de", @name="A New Name", @mac="6081f9fffe00033f", @created_at="2015-08-12T23:19:34.175932Z", @updated_at="2015-08-12T23:19:34.174828Z", @versions=nil>

Creating Timeseries data

Data points can be written to an element's timeseries data.

element.timeseries.create(port: "power level", value: "over 9000", timestamp: DateTime.now)
# => #<Helium::DataPoint:0x007f88634b9e50 @params={"attributes"=>{"value"=>"over 9000", "timestamp"=>"2016-09-26T23:19:01Z", "port"=>"power level"}, "relationships"=>{"sensor"=>{"data"=>{"id"=>"071488bb-3050-4849-8984-ca9e683cfc91", "type"=>"sensor"}}}, "id"=>"fd557521-8f59-457f-a75e-d0ce2c58dc1a", "meta"=>{"created"=>"2016-09-26T23:19:06.695036Z"}, "type"=>"data-point"}, @id="fd557521-8f59-457f-a75e-d0ce2c58dc1a", @type="data-point", @created_at="2016-09-26T23:19:06.695036Z", @updated_at=nil, @timestamp="2016-09-26T23:19:01Z", @value="over 9000", @port="power level">

Labels

Sensors can be grouped together under a named label.

Create a Label

client.create_label(name: 'A New Label')
# => #<Helium::Label:0x007ffd80f2be28 @id="409d9394-60d5-436a-b8cb-7160d466fc5a", @name="A New Label", @created_at="2016-08-22T18:58:34.415862Z", @updated_at="2016-08-22T18:58:34.415862Z">

List all Labels

client.labels
# => [#<Helium::Label:0x007ffd80f2be28 @id="409d9394-60d5-436a-b8cb-7160d466fc5a", @name="A New Label", @created_at="2016-08-22T18:58:34.415862Z", @updated_at="2016-08-22T18:58:34.415862Z">, ...]

Find a Label by id

label = client.label("409d9394-60d5-436a-b8cb-7160d466fc5a")
# => #<Helium::Label:0x007ffd80f2be28 @id="409d9394-60d5-436a-b8cb-7160d466fc5a", @name="A New Label", @created_at="2016-08-22T18:58:34.415862Z", @updated_at="2016-08-22T18:58:34.415862Z">

Update a Label

label.update(name: 'An Updated Label')
# => #<Helium::Label:0x007ffd80d41680 @id="409d9394-60d5-436a-b8cb-7160d466fc5a", @name="An Updated Label", @created_at="2016-08-22T18:58:34.415862Z", @updated_at="2016-08-22T18:58:34.415862Z">

Add Sensors to a Label

label.add_sensors(a_sensor)
# Or
label.add_sensors([sensor_1, sensor_2])

View a Label's Sensors

label.sensors
# => [
#  [0] #<Helium::Sensor:0x007ffd81147450 @id="08bab58b-d095-4c7c-912c-1f8024d91d95", @name="Marc's Isotope", @mac="6081f9fffe00019b", @ports=["b", "t"], @created_at="2015-08-06T17:28:11.614107Z", @updated_at="2016-05-30T22:36:50.810716Z">
# ]

Remove Sensors from a Label

label.remove_sensors(a_sensor)
# Or
label.remove_sensors([sensor_1, sensor_2])

Destroy a Label

label.destroy
# => true

JSON

All objects and collections of objects have a JSON representation. Simply call .to_json:

client.sensors.first.to_json
# => "{\"id\":\"08bab58b-d095-4c7c-912c-1f8024d91d95\",\"created_at\":\"2015-08-06T17:28:11+00:00\",\"updated_at\":\"2016-05-30T22:36:50+00:00\",\"name\":\"Marc's Isotope\",\"mac\":\"6081f9fffe00019b\",\"ports\":[\"b\",\"t\"]}"

Metadata

Metadata is a set of user-definable properties associated with a particular resource. These properties are declared as keys and values in the JSONAPI attributes object.

Metadata is always represented as a JSON object (hash) that maps string properties to any valid JSON type (strings, numbers, or further nested objects). Metadata can be used to store application preferences, user-defined properties, or additional details associated with a resource.

Accessing Metadata

A resource's metadata object can be accessed by calling .metadata on it. For example:

client.sensors.first.metadata
# => <Helium::Metadata properties={"location"=>"Building B"}>

client.sensors.first.metadata.properties
# => {
#   "location" => "Building B"
# }

client.sensors.first.metadata.location
# => "Building B"

Updating Metadata

A resource's metadata can be updating by using the .update method:

client.sensors.first.metadata.update(location: 'Building A')
# => <Helium::Metadata properties={"location"=>"Building A"}>

Filtering by Metadata

Resources can be filtered based on their metadata properties. The following would perform a search and return only the sensors that have a location metadata property equal to 'Building A':

client.sensors.where(location: 'Building A')
# => [#<Helium::Sensor ...>]

The where filter also accepts arrays and will match metadata properties when the array in the filter forms a subset of the corresponding array value in the metadata object.

client.sensors.where(departments: ['facilities', 'it'])
# => [#<Helium::Sensor ...>]

Development

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run rake spec to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.

To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.

Roadmap

We're working toward a v1.0.0 release, which will represent a feature-complete implementation of the Helium API. You can check the progress here: https://github.com/helium/helium-ruby/milestone/1.

Until the v1.0.0 release, the functionality of this gem is subject to change. To prevent breaking changes, you should use the pessimistic version constraint operator (~>) in your Gemfile to lock your helium-ruby version to the current minor release. This will allow updates to patch versions.

Running specs with Guard

To receive system notifications of test status, install terminal-notifier:

$ brew install terminal-notifier

Then run Guard with:

$ bundle exec guard

When you modify any of the files in lib/, all specs will run. When you modify a spec file, just that file will be run. You can press Enter at the guard prompt to run all tests as well.

helium-ruby

Development

Runtime

helium-ruby

Developer and Community Support

Installation

Usage

Setup

Users

Organizations

Get the current organization

Get all users associated with the current organization

Sensors

Get all Sensors

Get a Sensor by id

Create a Virtual Sensor

Update a Sensor

Delete a Sensor

Timeseries

Get Timeseries data for a sensor

Working with data points

Filtering Timeseries data

Timeseries Aggregations

Live Timeseries data

Creating Timeseries data

Elements

Get all Elements

Get an Element by id

Update an Element

Creating Timeseries data

Labels

Create a Label

List all Labels

Find a Label by id

Update a Label

Add Sensors to a Label

View a Label's Sensors

Remove Sensors from a Label

Destroy a Label

JSON

Metadata

Accessing Metadata

Updating Metadata

Filtering by Metadata

Development

Roadmap

Running specs with Guard