---
title: Routing Data to Cloud
description: Learn how to connect Blues Notecard applications to third-party cloud services using Notehub Routes and Cellular, Satellite, LoRa, or WiFi connectivity.
source_url: https://dev.blues.io/guides-and-tutorials/routing-data-to-cloud/thingspeak/
canonical_url: https://dev.blues.io/guides-and-tutorials/routing-data-to-cloud/thingspeak/
markdown_url: https://dev.blues.io/guides-and-tutorials/routing-data-to-cloud/thingspeak.md
---

# Routing Data to Cloud: ThingSpeak

#### Watch a video of this tutorial

[Video: quickstart-step-4.1280w.20260521.mp4](https://dev.blues.io/_media/quickstart-step-4.1280w.20260521.mp4)

In previous tutorials you've learned about the Blues Notecard, and used it to collect data and send it to Notehub, the Blues cloud service.

One powerful feature of Notehub is routes, which allow you to forward your data from Notehub to a public cloud like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, to a data cloud like Snowflake, to dashboarding services like Datacake or Ubidots, or to a custom HTTP or MQTT-based endpoint. The tutorial below guides you through sending data to several popular services, and teaches you how to build visualizations using that data.

*Don't see a cloud or backend that you need? Notehub is able to route data to virtually any provider. If you're having trouble setting up a route, [reach out in our forum](https://discuss.blues.com/) and we will help you out.*

## Introduction

*This tutorial should take approximately 30-40 minutes to complete.*

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to connect your Notecard-powered app to **ThingSpeak**, and learn how to start creating simple visualizations with sensor data.

This tutorial assumes you've already completed the initial [Sensor Tutorial](https://dev.blues.io/guides-and-tutorials/collecting-sensor-data.md) to capture sensor data, saved it in a [Notefile](https://dev.blues.io/api-reference/glossary.md#notefile) called `sensors.qo`, and sent that data through the Notecard to Notehub (or that you've already created your own app with sensor data and are ready to connect your app to external services).

## Create a Route

A Route is an external API, or server location, where Notes can be forwarded upon receipt.

Routes are defined in Notehub for a [Project](https://dev.blues.io/api-reference/glossary.md#project) and can target Notes from one or more [Fleets](https://dev.blues.io/api-reference/glossary.md#fleet) or all [Devices](https://dev.blues.io/api-reference/glossary.md#device). A Project can have multiple routes defined and active at any one time.

Before you create a Route, ensure the data you want to route is available in Notehub by navigating to the **Events** view:

![events view in notehub](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/events-view.png?v=e1b03b17)

We'll start with a simple route that will pass Notecard events through to [webhook.site](https://webhook.site), where you can view the full payload sent by Notehub. Using this service is a useful way to debug routes, add a simple health-check endpoint to your app, and familiarize yourself with Notehub's Routing capabilities.

1. Navigate to [webhook.site](https://webhook.site). When the page loads, you'll be presented with a unique URL that you can use as a Route destination. Copy that URL for the next step.

   ![webhook.site service](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/webhook-site-url.png?v=5ed567fe)

2. Navigate to the [Notehub.io](https://notehub.io) project for which you want to create a route and click on the Routes menu item in the left nav.

3. Click **Create Route**.

   ![create a route button in notehub](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/add-route.png?v=4724c860)

4. Select the **General HTTP/HTTPS Request/Response** route type.

   ![general https request route](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/general-route.png?v=b3b8e6a5)

5. Give the route a name (for example, "Health").

   ![name notehub route](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/route-name.png?v=9aa60fa8)

6. For the Route **URL**, use the unique URL you obtained from webhook.site.

   ![url for notehub route](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/route-url.png?v=449917f5)

7. In the **Filters** section, choose **Selected Notefiles** and check the box(es) next to the Notefile(s) you want to route. For example, we used `sensors.qo` for the sensor tutorial.

   ![choose the notefile to sync](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/sensors-qo.png?v=b347af44)

8. Make sure the **Enabled** switch at the top remains selected, and click **Create Route**.

9. Only Notes received *after* the Route is created are routed automatically. If new Notes have been received since you created the Route, proceed to the next step.

   Alternatively, you can **manually route** existing Notes by (1) checking the box next to an event, (2) clicking the **Route** button, and (3) choosing the Route you would like to use:

   ![manually route notes](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/manual-route.png?v=904af97c)

10. Return to webhook.site. This page will update automatically with data sent from Notehub. The data from your sensor is contained within the `body` attribute. Notice that Notehub provides you with a lot of information, by default. In the next section, we'll look at using transformations to customize what Notehub sends in a Route.

    ![notehub data in webhook.site](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/webhook-site-data.png?v=83ed5ec7)

## Use JSONata to Transform JSON

Before moving on to routing data to an external service, let's briefly explore using JSONata expressions to transform the data Notehub routes.

As mentioned above, Notehub provides a lot of information in each Route request. You may want to trim down what you send to the external service, or you might need to transform the payload to adhere to a format expected by that service. Either way, Notehub supports shaping the data sent to a Route using JSONata.

> **Note:**
>
> To learn more about JSONata later, have a look at the [Blues JSONata Guide](https://dev.blues.io/guides-and-tutorials/notecard-guides/using-jsonata-to-transform-json.md).

### Transform Your Data

Let's try a simple query to the webhook.site Route created in the last section.

1. Navigate to the **Routes** page in Notehub and click on the Route you wish to edit.

   ![view a route](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/routes-screen.png?v=0a7ebd91)

2. In the **Transform Data** drop-down, select **JSONata Expression**.

   ![jsonata expression](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/jsonata-expression.png?v=98cabc60)

3. In the JSONata Expression text area, add the following query to select the `temp` and `humidity` from the `body`, create a `location` field that concatenates the `tower_location` and `tower_country` fields, and create a `time` field.

   ```json
   {
      "temp": body.temp,
      "humidity": body.humidity,
      "location": tower_location & ', ' & tower_country,
      "time": when
   }
   ```

4. Click **Apply changes**. Then, navigate back to webhook.site. As requests come in, you'll see your custom, JSONata-transformed payload in the Raw Content section.

   ![transformed data routed to webhook.site](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/webhook-site-jsonata.png?v=e69aa638)

   > **Note:**
   >
   > The `tower_location` and `tower_country` fields are only populated for events sent over cellular. For Starnote/satellite, LoRa or WiFi devices, those fields will be empty. If you want a single expression that works across connectivity types, use the `best_location` and `best_country` fields instead — Notehub appends those to every event, choosing the most accurate source available (GPS/GNSS, triangulation, or cell tower). See [Data Notehub Appends to Events](https://dev.blues.io/notehub/notehub-walkthrough.md#data-notehub-appends-to-events) to learn more.

JSONata is simple, powerful, and flexible, and will come in handy as you create Routes for your external services. To explore JSONata further, [visit our Blues JSONata Guide](https://dev.blues.io/guides-and-tutorials/notecard-guides/using-jsonata-to-transform-json.md).

## Route to an External Service

Now that you've created your first Route and learned how to use JSONata to shape the data sent by a Route, you can connect Notehub to an external service.

For this tutorial, you'll connect your app to [ThingSpeak](https://thingspeak.com/), a simple IoT analytics tool from MathWorks that provides simple dashboards and built-in visualizations for your projects.

### Create a ThingSpeak Account

If you don't have one already, first create a [ThingSpeak account](https://thingspeak.com/login).

![ThingSpeak account signup](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/thingspeak-account.png?v=ee55194b)

### Create a Channel for Sensor Data

1. Once you've created an account and have signed in, head to the Channels dashboard and click on **New Channel**

![ThingSpeak My Channels page](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/create-channel.png?v=aca42f81)

2. On the New Channel screen, give your channel a name. Then, in each Field text box, add `Temperature (C)`, `Humidity`, `Location`, and `Time`, respectively.

![ThingSpeak new channel fields](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/add-fields.png?v=75b00818)

3. Click Save Channel. You'll be taken to your Channel dashboard, which includes some pre-built, but empty charts. The next step is to get these connected to your Notehub project with a Route.

![ThingSpeak channel dashboard](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/channel-dashboard.png?v=ce507323)

### Create a Route in Notehub

1. To write to your ThingSpeak channel, you'll first need your Write API key, which you can get from the "API Keys" tab. Copy your Write API Key for the next steps.

![ThingSpeak API keys tab](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/api-keys.png?v=6974c4e2)

2. Open the Routes dashboard in Notehub and click the **Create Route** button.

![Notehub Create Route button](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/add-route.png?v=4724c860)

3. Select the **General HTTP/HTTPS Request/Response** route type.

   ![General HTTP route type selection](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/general-route.png?v=b3b8e6a5)

4. Give the Route a name, and enter `https://api.thingspeak.com/update.json` for the **URL**.

   ![ThingSpeak route configuration](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/thingspeak-route.png?v=e572444e)

5. In the notefiles dropdown, select **Select Notefiles** and specify `sensors.qo`. Then, in the **Transform JSON** option, select **JSONata Expression** and enter the following expression. Be sure to change the `api_key` placeholder to match the value from your ThingSpeak channel.

```python
{
    "api_key":"L7F5G2R4HAU3HUIO",
    "field1": body.temp,
    "field2": body.humidity,
    "field3": tower_location & ', ' & tower_country,
    "field4": when
}
```

Notice that we're using `field1`, etc. to designate each key. ThingSpeak requires this structure when writing data to a channel, and anything beyond these values and `api_key` are ignored. `field1` et al correspond to the field name you specified on the New Channel screen above.

6. Click **Create Route** and navigate back to your ThingSpeak channel dashboard. If everything is wired up correctly, the built-in field-specific charts will update as new values come in.

![ThingSpeak dashboard with data](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/thingspeak-dashboard-with-data.png?v=2e619b28)

> **Tip:**
>
> To debug a route or inspect the exact request Notehub sends to your third-party service, open an event in Notehub, click **Route as cURL**, and choose the appropriate HTTP-based route. The modal shows a cURL command that reproduces the same request Notehub makes, with secrets (API keys, passwords, etc.) replaced by placeholders.
>
> ![view curl request from route](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/event-route-curl.png?v=22e6a261)

## Build Data Visualizations

ThingSpeak has built-in visualizations for time-series data, which makes it an easy tool to get started with. You can edit the built-in visualizations to add a title, change the visualization type, and more. To check it out for yourself, click the pencil icon in the top-right of each chart widget.

![Chart edit pencil icons](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/pencil-icon.png?v=764bd80f)

It's also possible to add your own widgets, or build complex visualizations using MATLAB. Let's take a look at creating a simple gauge for the temperature value.

1. Click on the "Add Widgets" button on your channel dashboard.

![Add Widgets button](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/add-widget.png?v=248702f8)

2. Next, click the Gauge card and click Next.

![Widget type selection](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/gauge.png?v=79471016)

3. Give the widget a name like "Current Temp", select "Field 1" as the data source, set the min to -20, max to 40, and use the plus sign button to add color-coded temperature ranges.

![Gauge widget configuration](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/gauge-config.png?v=b308095e)

4. Click Save and the widget will be placed on your channel dashboard.

![Gauge widget on dashboard](https://dev.blues.io/images/guides/route-tutorial/gauge-on-dashboard.png?v=f93ca6e4)

## Next Steps

**Congratulations!** You've created your first Route and connected your Notecard app to an external service. If you're following a Cell+WiFi Quickstart, you're done!

Now that you know the basics of how Notecard and Notehub work, you’re ready to apply what you’ve learned towards a real project. We have a few recommendations on what to do next:

- [**Learn Best Practices for Production Projects**](https://dev.blues.io/guides-and-tutorials/best-practices-for-production-ready-projects.md): This skimmable guide has a list of best practices for moving your project from a prototype to a real, production-ready deployment.

- [**Browse Example Apps**](https://dev.blues.io/example-apps.md): Our collection of IoT apps that show how to build common projects with Blues. These example apps include dozens of [official Blues project accelerators](https://dev.blues.io/example-apps/accelerators/) and a collection of [purpose-built sample apps](https://dev.blues.io/example-apps.md).

- [**Follow the Notehub Walkthrough**](https://dev.blues.io/notehub/notehub-walkthrough.md): Learn how to manage projects and device fleets, update Notecard and host firmware, set up alerts, securely route your data, and more.

At any time, if you find yourself stuck, please reach out on the [community forum](https://discuss.blues.com/).