Support for Notifiers

[bewee]

It would be great if one could use macros to send notifications, just as rules can. This includes browser notifications as well as adapter specific notifications (as in #37).
Unfortunately, I have no clue how to implement this, and the W3C Web Thing API draft (where I looked up some stuff for the implementation of interaction with things) is not helpful this time. Maybe @mrstegeman can help?

[mrstegeman]

There is a REST API to create new notifications. However, it requires a user JWT, rather than an OAuth token, so it's not super practical for an add-on to use it.

Of note, though, is that the LG TV adapter (which I created) actually does have a separate action for the toast message, in addition to the notifier, so you could easily support that by adding support for action inputs.

https://github.com/WebThingsIO/lg-tv-adapter/blob/master/lib/lg-tv-device.js#L56-L64

[bewee]

That sounds perfect! Then we should be able to get toasts for the LG TV adapter running soon.

However, I still think that notifiers are really worth implementing, so the problem with the user token remains.
#32 aims to add support for importing rules. I haven't yet had a look into this, but I guess this would require a user token too?
Another thing: I would like to be able to execute a macro externally (e.g. whenever my phone enters my home's WiFi, or an NFC tag was scanned). Best-case I would just have a link I can call up. Currently, I use curl to interact with the macrozilla extension API - which requires a user mode token too.
I don't know how much sense this makes, but may it be possible to add more versatile options for creating local authorizations to the gateway? So that you could say that the token you generate should also be able to make notifications, access rules or interact with extension APIs?
On the other hand, at the public meeting, it was also mentioned that it's not the most user-friendly procedure to have the user copy and paste a token into the add-on's config anyway. Maybe there's a different option to think about? What are your thoughts?

[mrstegeman]

#32 aims to add support for importing rules. I haven't yet had a look into this, but I guess this would require a user token too?

You could technically do this by reading them directly from the database, if you're just importing.

Another thing: I would like to be able to execute a macro externally (e.g. whenever my phone enters my home's WiFi, or an NFC tag was scanned). Best-case I would just have a link I can call up. Currently, I use curl to interact with the macrozilla extension API - which requires a user mode token too.

Correct, this requires a user JWT.

I don't know how much sense this makes, but may it be possible to add more versatile options for creating local authorizations to the gateway? So that you could say that the token you generate should also be able to make notifications, access rules or interact with extension APIs?

That's an interesting question. This probably ties into WebThingsIO/gateway#787

On the other hand, at the public meeting, it was also mentioned that it's not the most user-friendly procedure to have the user copy and paste a token into the add-on's config anyway. Maybe there's a different option to think about? What are your thoughts?

See WebThingsIO/gateway#2249