AnyState

AnyState is a lightweight tool to easily store, update and retrieve values (like texts, numbers or arrays) in a JSON file.

It was developed for automated processes where different devices, apps and operating systems need to exchange data with each other in a simple and fast way. This includes workflow tools like n8n, IFTTT and Zapier as well as Home Assistant and iOS Shortcuts.

Possible use cases

• Checkin at work using iOS shortcut, use AnyState to set working status to true, add timestamp to Google Sheet via n8n
• Get cards from Trello board via n8n, store their attributes with AnyState, use a custom dashboard in your office to display Trello board statistics
• Reduce API calls by caching data within AnyState
• Monitor and visualize real-time data from sensors or IoT devices (like temperature, humidity, motion detection)

Features

• Self host-able
• Save keys and values (via POST or GET requests)
• Get single value for specific key (via GET parameter)
• Get timestamp for specific key (via GET parameter)
• Limit maximum storage time for keys (allows keys to expire)
• Preview keys and values in browser

Prerequisites

• Common web server with PHP support

Installation

• Copy files to web server

Usage

Save data - GET

For simple use cases you can set a key and its value with URL parameters:

index.php?set=currentTemp&content=26

Sanitization is not performed on GET requests. So special characters should be escaped before sending them to AnyState. Numbers will be converted to int/float variables automatically.

Save data - POST

AnyState expects one data key with a value that contains your JSON encoded key-data pairs.

Example: General usage

1. To set currentTemp to 26 and currentConditions to rainy you need to construct a string in the following format: {"currentTemp": 26,"currentConditions": "rainy"}

2. You should then add this string (encoded in JSON) to the data key. So the final POST body with a application/x-www-form-urlencoded header would look like this

   data={"currentTemp":26,"currentConditions":"rainy"}

Sanitization is not performed on POST requests. So special characters should be escaped before sending them to AnyState.

Example: Home Assistant

To create a switch that toggles between two states:

switch:
  - platform: rest
    resource: https://example.com/anystate/
    state_resource: https://example.com/anystate/?state=working&format=json
    name: "Working status"
    body_on: 'data={"working":"true"}'
    body_off: 'data={"working":"false"}'
    is_on_template: "{{ value_json.value == 'true' }}"
    headers:
      Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
    verify_ssl: true

---

To create an entity that displays a value:

rest:
  - resource: "https://example.com/anystate/?filter=values&format=json"
    scan_interval: 3600
    sensor:
      - name: "AnyState Values"
        value_template: "{{ value_json.currentTemp }}"

Example: iOS Shortcuts

To generate this format from an iOS Shortcut, follow these instructions:

1. Create a dictionary and add your keys/values as items
2. Add the dictionary to a text action
3. Use a Get Contents of URL action to send the data to your AnyState instance. Set it up like this:

• URL: [Url to your AnyState instance]
• Method: POST
• Request Body: Form
• Request Body field (key): data
• Request Body field (Text): Text from text action

Example: PHP

To submit data with a PHP script use this example function (Source):

function sendToAnyState($keyData,$valueData){
    $url = 'https://example.com/anystate/';
    $data = [$keyData => $valueData];

    // use key 'http' even if you send the request to https://...
    $options = [
        'http' => [
            'header' => "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n",
            'method' => 'POST',
            'content' => http_build_query( ['data' => json_encode($data, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT)] ),
        ],
    ];

    $context = stream_context_create($options);
    $result = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);
    //if ($result === false) {
        /* Handle error */
    //}

    //var_dump($result);

}

Read data

Apart from reading the whole JSON file you can also use parameters (one at a time) to get the data for specific keys or filter all entries. If you omit these parameters the script will output a simple preview of all keys and values including their last updated timestamps. For better readability the preview doesn't output arrays.

• Get value of key in plain text format with index.php?state=currentTemp (arrays not supported)
• Get value of key in JSON format with index.php?state=currentTemp&format=json
• Get last update timestamp for individual value index.php?time=currentTemp (arrays not supported)
• Get only keys and values (without timestamps) as JSON index.php?filter=values&format=json

Roadmap

• UI improvement: Display arrays in preview without reducing readability

Notes

• If you're planning to handle sensitive data with this tool on a publicly accessible server you should harden your system using at least htaccess restrictions.

License

MIT