Notes field

[barrygordon]

There is a field that can be set for devices called "notes".  Is this described anywhere?  Can it be retrieved by command e.g. over the REST interface as part of the configuration, nodes , . . .. It seems it might be a simple place to provide information that can be used by external systems when dealing with the ISY befor eversion 5 becomes fully available (out of alpha/beta) .  I could use it right now to provide aliases for the device names to use with the Amazon Echo.

[LeeG]

Sure.

 

http://192.168.2.2/rest/nodes/33 95 41 1/notes

 

<NodeProperties>

<location>Location Bedroom</location>

<description>Note text.</description>

<isLoad>false</isLoad>

<spoken/>

</NodeProperties>

[MWareman]

Cool! When did /notes get added to the REST interface? I have a .php script that does most thing via REST, but notes I've been getting via SOAP.

[LeeG]

Notes was added in 4.3.10 according to the announcement.

[MWareman]

Thanks @LeeG! I missed that one...

 

Michael.

[barrygordon]

Thanks Lee, as usual.

[LeeG]

Any time guys.  Happy to pass on that info.

[Michel Kohanim]

LeeG,

 

You are simply amazing! Thanks so very much.

 

With kind regards,
Michel

[barrygordon]

It would be nice if the same "Notes" capability existed for Scenes and Programs.  Scenes shouldn't be difficult to implement, but programs might be a bit tougher.

[MWareman]

Away for the computer right now, but I thought programs did already have a 'Comments' section....?

[barrygordon]

Yes there is a comments field.  I do not know if there is any way to retrieve it by a program using the REST interface as there is for a Notes field in a Node.  LeeG?

 

Having a free form(XML or JSON could be used)  field associated with scenes and programs allows one to place auxiliary information needed for some external process like an http endpoint running an Amazon Echo skill. 

[MWareman]

I have notices that if I request /notes from a device where there are no notes, no 'Is Load'  and no 'Location' - you get an error indicating that the /CONF/xx.PRP file was not found. It's a 404 satus - but the html in the response messed with the xml parser (which is expecting xml).

 

Any chance the behaviour could be changed to send proper XML with empty fields rather than sending a 404 and error when there is no properties file for the device?

 

Michael.

[barrygordon]

Yes that is what happens.  In my code I first check the returned header to ensure it is a 200 status.  It returns the 404 since it could not find the file it was looking for, the Note object. If it is not a status of 200, I make up a dummy note that has isloaded set to false. here is a snippet of code that should illustrate the point:

 

Function getNodeNote(node As String) As ISYNoteType   ' return a note object based upon the note contained at the node

    Dim temp As String

    ISY_NodeNote = ""   ' indicate nothing received from the rEST request

    SendRestMessage "nodes/" + encodeURI(node) + "/notes", 4

    While ISY_NodeNote = ""   ' the TCP receiver will set ISY_Node note to the note that exists

        DoEvents

    Wend

    temp = Mid(ISY_NodeNote, InStr(ISY_NodeNote, vbCrLf + vbCrLf) + 4)  ' temp will = the returned body

    If InStr(ISY_NodeNote, "HTTP/1.1 200 OK") Then

        getNodeNote.isLoaded = True

        getNodeNote.Location = ExtractFromXML(temp, "location")

        getNodeNote.Spoken = ExtractFromXML(temp, "spoken")

        getNodeNote.Description = ExtractFromXML(temp, "description")

    Else

        ' there is a problem

        getNodeNote.isLoaded = False

    End If

 

End Function

 

Hope that helps

[MWareman]

I agree, its easy enough to work around. It's just the 404 is syntactically correct for devices that don't exist, not so much for a /notes request for a device that does exist.

[barrygordon]

But, The thing you asked for was the Notes entry, not the Node, and it does not exist; ergo the 404 is what should be returned IMHO

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi MWareman,

 

I must agree with barrygordon. The resource does not exist!

 

With kind regards,

Michel