homebridge-http-lightbulb Plugin

homebridge-http-lightbulb is a Homebridge plugin with which you can configure HomeKit light bulbs which forward any requests to a defined http server. This comes in handy when you already have home automated equipment which can be controlled via http requests. Or you have built your own equipment, for example some sort of lightning controlled with an wifi enabled Arduino board which than can be integrated via this plugin into Homebridge.

Installation

First of all you need to have Homebridge installed. Refer to the repo for instructions.
Then run the following command to install homebridge-http-lightbulb

sudo npm install -g homebridge-http-lightbulb

Updating the light bulb state in HomeKit

All characteristic from the 'lightbulb' service have the permission to notify the HomeKit controller of state changes. homebridge-http-lightbulb supports two concepts to send state changes to HomeKit.

The 'pull' way:

The 'pull' way is probably the easiest to set up and supported in every scenario. homebridge-http-lightbulb requests the state of the light in an specified interval (pulling) and sends the value to HomeKit. However the pull way is currently only supported for the 'On' characteristic!
Look for pullInterval in the list of configuration options if you want to configure it.

The 'push' way:

When using the 'push' concept, the http device itself sends the updated value to homebridge-http-lightbulb whenever values change. This is more efficient as the new value is updated instantly and homebridge-http-lightbulb does not need to make needless requests when the value didn't actually change.
However because the http device needs to actively notify the homebridge-http-lightbulb there is more work needed to implement this method into your http device.

Using MQTT:

MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is a protocol widely used by IoT devices. IoT devices can publish messages on a certain topic to the MQTT broker which then sends this message to all clients subscribed to the specified topic. In order to use MQTT you need to setup a broker server (mosquitto is a solid open source MQTT broker running perfectly on a device like the Raspberry Pi) and then instruct all clients to publish/subscribe to it.

Using 'homebridge-http-notification-server':

For those of you who are developing the http device by themselves I developed a pretty simple 'protocol' based on http to send push-updates.
How to implement the protocol into your http device can be read in the chapter Notification Server

Configuration:

The configuration can contain the following properties:

Basic configuration options:

• accessory <string> required: Defines the plugin used and must be set to "HTTP-LIGHTBULB" for this plugin.
• name <string> required: Defines the name which is later displayed in HomeKit

• onUrl <string | urlObject> required: Defines the url (and other properties when using an urlObject) which is called when you turn on the light bulb.
• offUrl <string | urlObject> required: Defines the url (and other properties when using an urlObject) which is called when you turn off the light bulb.
• statusUrl <string | urlObject> required: Defines the url (and other properties when using an urlObject) to query the current power state from the light bulb. By default it expects the http server to return '1' for ON and '0' for OFF leaving out any html markup.
  You can change this using statusPattern option (see below).
• statusPattern <string> optional (Default: "1"): Defines a regex pattern which is compared to the body of the http response from the statusUrl. When matching the status of the light bulb is set to ON otherwise OFF.
  More about regex pattern.

• brightness <object> optional: Defines everything related to the 'Brightness' characteristic:
  • setUrl <string | urlObject> required: Defines the url (and other properties when using an urlObject) which is called when you set a new brightness level. The brightness is sent in the given unit.
    When including %s in the url and/or body it will be with the brightness to set. Have a look at placeholders.
  • statusUrl <string | urlObject> required: Defines the url (and other properties when using and urlObject) to query the current brightness level from the light bulb. By default it expects the http server to return the brightness level in percent (range from 0-100). This can be changed with the unit property below.
  • unit <string> optional (Default: "percent"): Defines unit expected from the http server. The following are available:
    • "percent": Using percent to calculate brightness level
    • "rgb": Using rgb style (range of 0-254) to calculate brightness level
  • statusPattern <string> optional (Default: "([0-9]{1,3})"): Defines a regex pattern with which the brightness is extracted from the body of the http response from the brightness.statusUrl. The group which should be extracted can be configured with the brightness.patternGroupToExtract property.
  • patternGroupToExtract <\number> optional (Default: 1): Defines the regex group of which the brightness is extracted.
  • withholdPowerUpdate <\boolean> optional (Default: false): The Home App has the quirk that when setting brightness it also send a request to turn the lamp on immediately afterwards. This may be annoying behaviour for some people. When this property is to to true the plugin prevents those requests.
    It only lets pass requests:
    • (a) when brightness set to 0%. The http device will receive an 'off' requests
    • (b) when the device is powered off and the brightness is set to something greater than 0%. The device will receive an 'on' requests

• hue <object> optional: Defines everything related to the 'Hue' characteristic:
  • setUrl <string | urlObject> required: Defines the url (and other properties when using an urlObject) which is called when you set a new hue.
    When including %s in the url and/or body it will be replaced with the hue to set. Have a look at placeholders.
  • statusUrl <string | urlObject> required: Defines the url (and other properties when using and urlObject) to query the current hue from the light bulb.
  • unit <string> optional (Default: "hsv"): Defines unit expected from the http server. The following are available:
    • "hsv": Using standard representation of hue in the HSV system (0-360 degree)
    • "zigbee": Using a presentation which is popular in Zigbee bridges like the Phillips Hue bridge. The representation of 0-360 is mapped to a range of 0-65535.
  • statusPattern <string> optional (Default: "([0-9]{1,3})" ["/([0-9]{1,5})/" when using zigbee unit]): Defines a regex pattern with which the hue is extracted from the body of the http response from the hue.statusUrl. The group which should be extracted can be configured with the hue.patternGroupToExtract property.
  • patternGroupToExtract <\number> optional (Default: 1): Defines the regex group of which the hue is extracted.

• saturation <object> optional: Defines everything related to the 'Saturation' characteristic:
  • setUrl <string | urlObject> required: Defines the url (and other properties when using an urlObject) which is called when you set a new saturation level.
    When including %s in the url and/or body it will be replaced with the saturation to set. Have a look at placeholders.
  • statusUrl <string | urlObject> required: Defines the url (and other properties when using and urlObject) to query the current saturation level from the light bulb.
  • unit <string> optional (Default: "percent"): Defines unit expected from the http server. The following are available:
    • "percent": Using percent to calculate saturation level
    • "rgb": Using rgb style (range of 0-254) to calculate saturation level
  • statusPattern <string> optional (Default: "([0-9]{1,3})"): Defines a regex pattern with which the saturation is extracted from the body of the http response from the saturation.statusUrl. The group which should be extracted can be configured with the saturation.patternGroupToExtract property.
  • patternGroupToExtract <\number> optional (Default: 1): Defines the regex group of which the saturation is extracted.

• colorTemperature <object> optional: Defines everything related to the 'ColorTemperature' characteristic:
  Although the HAP documentation states, that when using colorTemperature, hue and saturation must not be defined, using all three in combination works perfectly fine.
  When selecting something in the color selector the color is sent via the Hue and Saturation characteristics. When selecting something in the temperature selector the temperature is sent via the ColorTemperature characteristic.
  If colorTemperature is not specified, the color temperature is sent via the Hue and Saturation characteristics.
  • setUrl <string | urlObject> required: Defines the url (and other properties when using an urlObject) which is called when you set a new color temperature. The color temperature is sent in the given unit.
    When including %s in the url and/or body it will be replaced with the color temperature to set. Have a look at placeholders.
  • statusUrl <string | urlObject> required: Defines the url (and other properties when using and urlObject) to query the current color temperature from the light bulb. By default it expects the http server to return the brightness level in mired. This can be changed with the unit property below.
  • unit <string> optional (Default: "mired"): Defines unit expected from the http server. The following are available:
    • "mired": Using mired (more specifically microreciprocal degree) to calculate color temperature
    • "kelvin": Using Kelvin to calculate color temperature
  • minValue <number> optional (Default: 50): Defines the minimum supported temperature in the given unit. The defaut is 50 mired or 20.000 Kelvin.
  • maxValue <number> optional (Default: 400): Defines the maximum supported temperature in the given unit. The fault is 400 mired or 2.500 Kelvin.
  • statusPattern <string> optional (Default: "([0-9]{2,3})" ["([0-9]{4,5})" when using Kelvin]): Defines a regex pattern with which the color temperature is extracted from the body of the http response from the colorTemperature.statusUrl. The group which should be extracted can be configured with the colorTemperature.patternGroupToExtract property.
  • patternGroupToExtract <\number> optional (Default: 1): Defines the regex group of which the color temperature is extracted.

Advanced configuration options:

• auth <object> optional: If your http server requires authentication, you can specify your credential in this object. It uses those credentials for all http requests and thus overrides all possibly specified credentials inside an urlObject for any characteristic.
  The object can contain the following properties:
  • username <string> required
  • password <string> required
  • sendImmediately <boolean> optional (Default: true): When set to true the plugin will send the credentials immediately to the http server. This is best practice for basic authentication.
    When set to false the plugin will send the proper authentication header after receiving an 401 error code (unauthenticated). The response from the http server must include a proper WWW-Authenticate header.
    Digest authentication requires this property to be set to false!

• statusCache <number> optional (Default: 0): Defines the amount of time in milliseconds a queried value of the On characteristic is cached before a new request is made to the http device.
  Default is 0 which indicates no caching. A value of -1 will indicate infinite caching.
• brightnessCache <number> optional (Default: 0): Same as above, but for the Brightness characteristic
• hueCache <number> optional (Default: 0): Same as above, but for the Hue characteristic
• saturationCache <number> optional (Default: 0): Same as above, but for the Saturation characteristic
• colorTemperatureCache <number> optional (Default: 0): Same as above, but for the ColorTemperature characteristic

• pullInterval <integer> optional: The property expects an interval in milliseconds in which the plugin pulls updates from your http device. For more information read pulling updates.
  (This option is currently only supported for the 'On' characteristic!)
• mqtt <mqttObject> optional: Defines all properties used for mqtt connection (More on MQTT).
  For configuration see mqttObject.

• debug <boolean> optional: If set to true debug mode is enabled and the plugin prints more detailed information.

In the Examples section are some example configurations to get you started.

Experimental configuration options

The options in this section are all part of some experimental features and can change in any update.

I'm currently experimenting with allowing setting and querying device status with mqtt alongside http. So that you are for example able to manage the ON characteristic fully over mqtt and the color and brightness values over http. Currently this is only supported for the ON characteristic but I'm planning to add this for any combination of characteristics and in the long run also to get added into my homebridge-http-switch plugin if everything works well.

• setPowerTopic <string | object> optional: Defines the mqtt topic to which a message is published when you turn the light on or off.
  • topic <string> required:
  • qos <number> optional (Default: 0):
  • retain <boolean> optional (Default: false):
  • dup <boolean> optional (Default: false):
  • payloadFormatter <function body> optional:
• getPowerTopic <string | object> optional: Defines the mqtt topic which is subscribed to in order to receive updates of the current power state of the light.
  • topic <string> required:
  • qos <number> optional (Default: 0):
  • messagePattern <string> optional:
  • patternGroupToExtract <number> optional (Default: 1):

Placeholders in setUrl properties

On every set there are the following placeholders available which will be replaced with the respective value.
Note that for example when the setUrl for the brightness characteristic is called, %s will be replaced with the new value and %brightness will be replaced with the current/old value.
The value for the placeholders will be supplied in the specified unit.

• %s will always be replaced with the new value which will be set for the current characteristic
• %brightness - current brightness level
• %hue - current hue
• %saturation - current saturation
• %colorTemperature - current color temperature (case sensitise)

UrlObject

A urlObject can have the following properties:

• url <string> required: Defines the url pointing to your http server
• method <string> optional (Default: "GET"): Defines the http method used to make the http request
• body <any> optional: Defines the body sent with the http request. This is usually a string for maximum flexibility with placeholders. If the value is not a string, it will be converted to a JSON string automatically.
• strictSSL <boolean> optional (Default: false): If enabled the SSL certificate used must be valid and the whole certificate chain must be trusted. The default is false because most people will work with self signed certificates in their homes and their devices are already authorized since being in their networks.
• auth <object> optional: If your http server requires authentication you can specify your credential in this object. When defined the object can contain the following properties:
  • username <string> required
  • password <string> required
  • sendImmediately <boolean> optional (Default: true): When set to true the plugin will send the credentials immediately to the http server. This is best practice for basic authentication.
    When set to false the plugin will send the proper authentication header after receiving an 401 error code (unauthenticated). The response must include a proper WWW-Authenticate header.
    Digest authentication requires this property to be set to false!
• headers <object> optional: Using this object you can define any http headers which are sent with the http request. The object must contain only string key value pairs.

Below is an example of an urlObject containing all properties:

{
  "url": "http://example.com:8080",
  "method": "GET",
  "body": "exampleBody",
  
  "strictSSL": false,
  
  "auth": {
    "username": "yourUsername",
    "password": "yourPassword"
  },
  
  "headers": {
    "Content-Type": "text/html"
  }
}

MQTTObject

A mqttObject can have the following properties:

Basic configuration options:

• host <string> required: Defines the host of the mqtt broker.
• port <number> optional (Default: 1883): Defines the port of the mqtt broker.
• credentials <object> optional: Defines the credentials used to authenticate with the mqtt broker.
  • username <string> required
  • password <string> optional

• subscriptions <object | array> required: Defines an array (or one single object) of subscriptions.
  • topic <string> required: Defines the topic to subscribe to.
  • characteristic <string> required: Defines the characteristic this subscription updates.
  • messagePattern <string> optional: Defines a regex pattern. If messagePattern is not specified the message received will be used as value. If the characteristic expects a boolean value it is tested if the specified regex is contained in the received message. Otherwise the pattern is matched against the message and the data from regex group can be extracted using the given patternGroupToExtract.
  • patternGroupToExtract <number> optional (Default: 1): Defines the regex group of which data is extracted.

Advanced configuration options:

• protocol <string> optional (Default: "mqtt"): Defines protocol used to connect to the mqtt broker
• qos <number> optional (Default: 1): Defines the Quality of Service (Notice, the QoS of the publisher must also be configured accordingly).
  In contrast to most implementations the default value is 1.
  • 0: 'At most once' - the message is sent only once and the client and broker take no additional steps to acknowledge delivery (fire and forget).
  • 1: 'At least once' - the message is re-tried by the sender multiple times until acknowledgement is received (acknowledged delivery).
  • 2: 'Exactly once' - the sender and receiver engage in a two-level handshake to ensure only one copy of the message is received (assured delivery).
• clientId <string> optional (Default: 'mqttjs_' + Math.random().toString(16).substr(2, 8)): Defines clientId
• keepalive <number> optional (Default: 60): Time in seconds to send a keepalive. Set to 0 to disable.
• clean <boolean> optional (Default: true): Set to false to receive QoS 1 and 2 messages while offline.
• reconnectPeriod <number> optional (Default: 1000): Time in milliseconds after which a reconnect is tried.
• connectTimeout <number> optional (Default: 30000): Time in milliseconds the client waits until the CONNECT needs to be acknowledged (CONNACK).

Below is an example of an mqttObject containing the basic properties for a light bulb service:

{
  "host": "127.0.0.1",
  "port": "1883",
  
  "credentials": {
    "username": "yourUsername",
    "password": "yourPassword"
  },
  
  "subscriptions": [
    {
      "topic": "your/topic/here",
      "characteristic": "On",
      "messagePattern": "on"
    },
    {
      "topic": "your/other/topic/here",
      "characteristic": "Brightens",
      "messagePattern": "([0-9]{1,3})"
    }
  ]
}

Examples

Basic light bulb with power and brightness

This is a basic light bulb configuration supporting the required On and the optional brightness characteristic.
Note that every url is simply a string and are only examples. You could also define every url using a urlObject.

{
  "accessory": "HTTP-LIGHTBULB",
  "name": "Light",
  
  "onUrl": "http://localhost/api/lightOn",
  "offUrl": "http://localhost/api/lightOff",
  "statusUrl": "http://localhost/api/lightStatus",

  "brightness": {
    "setUrl": "http://localhost/api/setBrightness?brightness=%s",
    "statusUrl": "http://localhost/api/getBrightness"
  }
}

Light bulb supporting color

{
  "accessory": "HTTP-LIGHTBULB",
  "name": "Light",
  
  "onUrl": "http://localhost/api/lightOn",
  "offUrl": "http://localhost/api/lightOff",
  "statusUrl": "http://localhost/api/lightStatus",
  
  "brightness": {
    "setUrl": "http://localhost/api/setBrightness?brightness=%s",
    "statusUrl": "http://localhost/api/getBrightness"
  },
  
  "hue": {
    "setUrl": "http://localhost/api/setHue?hue=%s",
    "statusUrl": "http://localhost/api/getHue"
  },
  "saturation": {
    "setUrl": "http://localhost/api/setSaturation?saturation=%s",
    "statusUrl": "http://localhost/api/getSaturation"
  }
}

Light bulb support color temperature

{
  "accessory": "HTTP-LIGHTBULB",
  "name": "Light",
  
  "onUrl": "http://localhost/api/lightOn",
  "offUrl": "http://localhost/api/lightOff",
  "statusUrl": "http://localhost/api/lightStatus",
    
  "brightness": {
    "setUrl": "http://localhost/api/setBrightness?brightness=%s",
    "statusUrl": "http://localhost/api/getBrightness"
  },
  
  "colorTemperature": {
    "setUrl": "http://localhost/api/setColorTemperature?temperature=%s",
    "statusUrl": "http://localhost/api/getColorTemperature",
    "unit": "mired"
  }
}

Light bulb using body parameters

{
  "accessory": "HTTP-LIGHTBULB",
  "name": "Light",
  "debug": true,
  "onUrl": {
    "url": "http://localhost/api/light",
    "method": "PUT",
    "body": "{ \"on\": 1 }"
  },
  "offUrl": {
    "url": "http://localhost/api/light",
    "method": "PUT",
    "body": "{ \"on\": 0 }"
  },
  "statusUrl": "http://localhost/api/light",
  "brightness": {
    "statusUrl": "http://localhost/api/light",
    "setUrl": {
      "url": "http://localhost/api/light",
      "method": "PUT",
      "body": "{ \"brightness\": %s }"
    }
  },
  "colorTemperature": {
    "statusUrl": "http://localhost/api/light",
    "unit": "mired",
    "minValue": 143,
    "maxValue": 344,
    "setUrl": {
      "url": "http://localhost/api/light",
      "method": "PUT",
      "body": "{\"temperature\": %s }"
    }
  }
}

Notification Server

homebridge-http-lightbulb can be used together with homebridge-http-notification-server in order to receive updates when the state changes at your external program. For details on how to implement those updates and how to install and configure homebridge-http-notification-server, please refer to the README of the repository first.

Down here is an example on how to configure homebridge-http-lightbulb to work with your implementation of the homebridge-http-notification-server.

{
    "accessories": [
        {
          "accessory": "HTTP-LIGHTBULB",
          "name": "Light",
          
          "notificationID": "my-switlightch",
          "notificationPassword": "superSecretPassword",
          
          "onUrl": "http://localhost/api/lightOn",
          "offUrl": "http://localhost/api/lightOff",
          
          "statusUrl": "http://localhost/api/lightStatus"
        }   
    ]
}

• notificationID is an per Homebridge instance unique id which must be included in any http request.
• notificationPassword is optional. It can be used to secure any incoming requests.

To get more details about the configuration have a look at the README.

Available characteristics (for the POST body)

Down here are all characteristics listed which can be updated with an request to the homebridge-http-notification-server

• characteristic "On": expects a boolean value
• characteristic "Brightness": expects a number value in mired
• characteristic "Hue": expects a number value
• characteristic "Saturation": expects a number value
• characteristic "ColorTemperature": expects a number value TODO