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Web Transactions

If your host needs to perform web requests (e.g. GET, PUT, POST, or DELETE) with a 3rd-party API or cloud service, the Notecard can facilitate these requests with the web.* APIs.

note

Web transactions are not supported on the Notecard LoRa nor while using NTN mode with Starnote.

  1. Requirements for Using Web Transactions
  2. Issuing Web Transactions
  3. Parsing Web Transaction Responses
  4. Using Web Transactions Asynchronously
  5. Sending Large Payloads to Notehub

Requirements for Using Web Transactions

Use of any of the Notecard API's web requests requires the following:

  1. The Notecard must be in continuous mode or be temporarily placed in continuous mode (with the exception of using web transactions asynchronously).

    You can place your Notecard into (permanent) continuous mode using the hub.set API as shown below:

    {
  "req": "hub.set",
  "product": "com.your-company.your-name:your_product",
  "mode": "continuous"
}
    J *req = NoteNewRequest("hub.set");
JAddStringToObject(req, "product", "com.your-company.your-name:your_product");
JAddStringToObject(req, "mode", "continuous");

NoteRequest(req);
    req = {"req": "hub.set"}
req["product"] = "com.your-company.your-name:your_product"
req["mode"] = "continuous"

card.Transaction(req)

    Alternatively, if your Notecard is in periodic mode, you can use the "on":true argument to temporarily switch to continuous mode while a web transaction is active. The "seconds" argument allows you to specify how many seconds the Notecard should remain in continuous mode before switching back to periodic (the default is 300).

    {
  "req": "hub.set",
  "on": true,
  "seconds": 120
}
    J *req = NoteNewRequest("hub.set");
JAddBoolToObject(req, "on", true);
JAddNumberToObject(req, "seconds", 120);

NoteRequest(req);
    req = {"req": "hub.set"}
req["on"] = True
req["seconds"] = 120

card.Transaction(req)

  2. The Notecard must have an active connection to Notehub.

    When you place a Notecard in continuous mode it immediately starts making a connection to Notehub. If you attempt to make any web.* requests before this connection is established, you'll receive the following error:

    { "err": "web operations require being online (hub.set)" }

    You can check whether your Notecard is actively connected using the hub.status API.

    {"req": "hub.status"}
    J *req = NoteNewRequest("hub.status");

NoteRequest(req);
    req = {"req": "hub.status"}
rsp = card.Transaction(req)

    When the hub.status request returns "connected": true, you know your Notecard has made a connection with Notehub and you are safe to perform web.* requests.

    > 
    {"req":"hub.status"}
    {"connected":true}

  3. The endpoint to the 3rd-party API or cloud service must be configured as a Route in Notehub using the "Proxy for Notecard Web Requests" type.

    This allows the host to avoid hardcoded URLs, keys, and certificates, while relying on Notehub secure authentication mechanisms for performing requests.

    notehub proxy for web requests

Issuing Web Transactions

With these steps complete, you can now use the web.get, web.put, web.post, and web.delete requests in accordance with the requirements of the remote endpoint.

web.get

The Route shown above creates a proxy to a GET request to a weather endpoint of the OpenWeatherMap API . The route argument corresponds to the Alias specified when the proxy Route is created.

{
  "req": "web.get",
  "route": "GetWeather"
}
J *req = NoteNewRequest("web.get");
JAddStringToObject(req, "route", "GetWeather");

NoteRequest(req);
req = {"req": "web.get"}
req["route"] = "GetWeather"

rsp = card.Transaction(req)

Note that you may optionally enable caching so that web.get requests return cached results to reduce latency and provide you with more control over Consumption Credit usage (i.e. cached responses do not cost CCs). When handling a web.get request with caching enabled, Notehub honors the Cache-Control response header as per RFC7234 with a minimum cache TTL of 5 minutes.

web.put and web.post

For PUT and POST requests, a JSON body OR base64-encoded payload can be provided using the body or payload arguments. Unlike the note.add API, you cannot use both at the same time in a single web transaction.

{
  "req": "web.post",
  "route": "SensorService",
  "name": "/addReading",
  "body": { "temp": 72.32, "humidity": 32.2 }
}
J *req = NoteNewRequest("web.post");
JAddStringToObject(req, "route", "SensorService");
JAddStringToObject(req, "name", "/addReading");

J *body = JCreateObject();
JAddNumberToObject(body, "temp", 72.32);
JAddNumberToObject(body, "humidity", 32.2);
JAddItemToObject(req, "body", body);

NoteRequest(req);
req = {"req": "web.post"}
req["route"] = "SensorService"
req["name"] = "/addReading"
req["body"] = {"temp":72.32, "humidity":32.2}

rsp = card.Transaction(req)

Parsing Web Transaction Responses

For all web requests the Notecard returns the HTTP Status Code in the result field. If the response also contains a body, that body is provided in the body field.

warning

The Notecard can only accept valid JSON in response to a GET, POST, or PUT request unless you override the default content argument of application/json with the appropriate MIME type.

{
 "result": 200,
 "body": {
  "base": "stations",
  "clouds": {
   "all": 75
  },
  "coord": {
   "lat": 42.5776,
   "lon": -70.87134
  },
  "name": "Beverly",
  "weather": [
   {
    "description": "broken clouds",
    "icon": "04d",
    "id": 803,
    "main": "Clouds"
   }
  ],
  "wind": {
   "deg": 240,
   "speed": 5.1
  }
 }
}
note

Data returned by a proxy Route is delivered to the Notecard unmodified. To preserve power and data, make sure the APIs you're working with return only the data needed by your host, if possible.

The Notecard does not store the result of web transactions in Notes. However, Notehub logs all web transactions as events, and you can view them in the Events view of your Notehub project.

notehub proxy route event

If you double click an event and visit its Route log tab, you can view the result of your web transaction in the Notehub UI.

notehub proxy route event details

Using Web Transactions Asynchronously

The Notecard also has the ability to perform web transactions asynchronously and retain responses (if any) in a local-only Database Notefile.

For example, if you issued a web.get request while the Notecard was in periodic mode, it will immediately return {"total":1} (signifying there is one request pending). When the Notecard next connects to Notehub, it will then perform any queued web transactions.

By default, the Notecard discards the responses to these transactions, but you can have the Notecard save the responses in a local-only Database Notefile (.dbx) by passing the file and note arguments.

{
  "req": "web.get",
  "route": "GetForecast",
  "file": "weather.dbx",
  "note": "forecast"
}
J *req = NoteNewRequest("web.get");
JAddStringToObject(req, "route", "GetForecast");
JAddStringToObject(req, "file", "weather.dbx");
JAddStringToObject(req, "note", "forecast");

NoteRequest(req);
req = {"req": "web.get"}
req["route"] = "GetForecast"
req["file"] = "weather.dbx"
req["note"] = "forecast"

rsp = card.Transaction(req)

After the next connection with Notehub, the transaction should be complete and the response available in the specified Notefile.

{
  "req": "note.get",
  "file": "weather.dbx",
  "note": "forecast"
}
J *req = NoteNewRequest("note.get");
JAddStringToObject(req, "file", "weather.dbx");
JAddStringToObject(req, "note", "forecast");

NoteRequest(req);
req = {"req": "note.get"}
req["file"] = "weather.dbx"
req["note"] = "forecast"

rsp = card.Transaction(req)

Sending Large Payloads to Notehub

Consult our guide on Sending and Receiving Large Binary Objects if your application needs to send large binary payloads to Notehub.