Open the Box Workshop

Table of Contents:

1 Introduction
1.1 Architecture and required devices
1.2 Deployment choice of the Open the Box infrastructure
2 Installation
3 Tutorials
3.1 Developing an Open the Box application
3.2 Device Management
4 Application Template
5 Related Open-source Projects
6 Acronyms

Main goal: Help the developer to understand and handle the « Open the Box  software development workshop », as it will be provided for, e.g. a  creativity session, like a Hackathon or a FAB LAB event. A development laptop, a HAB (e.g. a Raspberry Pi), some USB dongles (for EnOcean, ZigBee, etc.), and the corresponding set of devices will be used in the workshop.

The Java developer will then take advantage of the Open the Box infrastructure in order to make a Smart Home application based on already integrated/available devices. S/He will finally deploy her/his applications on a Rapsberry Pi.

Prerequisites: The developer should have skills in Java/OSGi (knowing the OSGi compendium would be even better), as well as classic development tools like Eclipse and Maven. S/He may also know, for example, the ZigBee, or the SimpleBee concepts.

How-to use this guide: This page is the home page of a set of documentation files. It provides an overview of the guide, an acronyms list, and links to associated Open Source projects. Each referred page starts by a link to this home page in order to ease browsing this web site.

1 Introduction

This section briefly presents the technical organisation of an Open the Box Workshop. A workshop consists of “business” users (i.e. users that imagine services related to their business expertise/knowledge) using the Open the Box infrastructure in order to rapidly prototype the services they just imagined. A workshop can take several hours.

1.1 Architecture and required devices

An Open the Box workshop usually involves 5 development workspaces that are linked to an Open the Box infrastructure.

A workspace regroups:

• a development laptop (i.e a PC containing the Open the Box development environment based on Eclipse) ;
• a Home Automation Box, in short HAB, (i.e. a Raspberry Pi) supporting at least one wireless connectivity via USB dongles (one per connectivity technology) ;
• a set of devices related to the HAB connectivities.

The Open the Box infrastructure involves:

• a HABs Management Platform (HMP, aka PFG in french) for administrating the applications deployed on the HABs via an Auto Configuration Server (ACS) ;
• an Application Store (AS) displaying to the user, on a web site (GUI), a list of ’applications that can be deployed on the HAB via the HMP/PFG.

1.2 Deployment choice of the Open the Box infrastructure

The Open the Box infrastructure is designed to manage a set of HABs (owned by the customers).  The AS, and the HMP/PFG are designed to be shared amongst several HABs. As a consequence, the AS and the HMP/PFG are expected to be on a WAN (e.g. a telecom operator WAN), and each HAB itself is expected to be on a LAN (i.e. a customer home).

Several deployment choices are made in order to ease the Open the Box workshop:

• All the Open the Box infrastructure, as well as the development workspaces will be on the same unique LAN provided by a WiFi router.
• The development workspaces, and in particular the development laptops, will also be on this LAN.
• The WiFi router will, in general, be connected to the Internet.
• The AS, the HMP/PFG, and the ACS will be unique, and available on-line.

All the configuration details are available in the Installation section.

2 Installation

Prerequisites:
Hardware

• A PC laptop with Windows 7, or Linux. MacOS is expected to be supported soon…
• An Android tablet with version >= 4.2.2.
• A Raspberry Pi.

Software to be installed on the PC

• Oracle VirtualBox version 4.3.20. The version is mandatory, see https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_4_3
• Download the Virtual Machine parts available here. Use Winrar to assemble the 5 parts.

Software to be installed on the Raspberry Pi

• Install the Raspbian distribution for Raspberry Pi. This distribution is available here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/
• Install and configure OpenTheBox Debian APT package for Raspberry Pi

The Installation guide section indicates how to install and configure the development workspace.

3 Tutorials

3.1 Developing an Open the Box application

The Open the Box Application Developper Guide details what an Open the Box application is, how to develop and use one, as well as, how to test and deploy it. The developer is deeply encouraged to read it, in particular because it contains a sample Open the Box application.

3.2 Device Management

The Open the Box Connectivity Guide presents the connectivities (Zigbee, EnOcean, Philips Hue, etc.) supported by the Open the Box infrastructure (thanks to the base drivers it embeds), and how to integrate them in the applications.

4 Application Template

This page describes an Open the Box application template. It can be used as a basis when starting the development of a new Open the Box application. The page itself proposes a general presentation of the template, and a zip file containing the template application itself (as a Maven project), the Java code, and the related configuration files.

5 Related Open-source Projects

[EnOcean] EnOcean Base driver, open source project under Eclipse license, currently being transferred to the Eclipse SmartHome project.

[Modus] BroadBand Forum TR-069 Client, open source project under Apache license.

[SimpleBee] SimpleBee Base driver, open source project under Apache license.

[SimpleBee4Arduino] SimpleBee on Arduino, open source project under Apache license.

6 Acronyms