HOME-interface

This is the cloud part of the HOME project, a home automation open source initiative. The project consists of a frontend and backend part. The backend is based on the Django framework, frontend uses Angular. Part of the HOME cloud is also a central RabbitMQ broker to mediate messages sent from hubs part of the HOME network. To manage frontend websocket topic updates, Redis is used as a backend to dispatch websocket events to consumers.

Python

This project currently uses Python 3.9.6. Install all dependencies from the project requirements.txt.

Tips

Use pyenv to manage your Python versions.

Use virtualenvwrapper to manage project Python dependencies.

NodeJS

Currently used NodeJS version is 14.17.5.

Tips

Use NVM to manage your NodeJS versions.

Development

Here follows some instructions to start development on the HINT project. This section consists of getting RabbitMQ, Redis, Django, and Angular up and running so that code changes trigger reloads that are useable directly.

Backend

Serve the Django project as you would with any other Django project: . /manage.py runserver.

Create local settings

Django settings are managed through a set of base settings backend/settings/base.py and local user settings. Local settings override the base settings.

In order to create local user settings, create a local.py file under backend/settings/ and insert the following:

from .base import *  # noqa


HUME_BROKER_USERNAME = <Central RabbitMQ Username>
HUME_BROKER_PASSWORD = <Central RabbitMQ Password>

HUME_BROKER_IP = <Central RabbitMQ IP>
HUME_BROKER_PORT = <Central RabbitMQ Port>

MASTER_COMMAND_QUEUE_NAME = "hint_master"  # Or another queue name of your choosing

local.py should be updated whenever you need custom settings to your local environment. For example, if a custom SQL database is to be used locally. Any settings that should be shared must be stated in base.py as local.py is not under version control.

RabbitMQ

HINT requires a RabbitMQ instance that it can listen to messages from hubs on. Make sure the address and port of the RabbitMQ instance correspond to the HUME_BROKER_IP and HUME_BROKER_PORT settings, as well as the HUME_BROKER_USERNAME and HUME_BROKER_PASSWORD shall correspond to a user with sufficient rights to create a message queue. MASTER_COMMAND_QUEUE_NAME is customizeable, but ensure it corresponds to the queue name where HOME hubs will post messages.

Redis

Redis is used to enable pub/sub for websocket frontend updates, to update users in real time of hub events. By default, HINT expects a local Redis instance running on port 6379.

Database

By default, HINT uses SQLite for development purposes. Other SQL databases can be used just as well. Override Django settings in your local.py file if you want to use something else.

Frontend

Angular

Install the Angular CLI through npm. It's useful for creating new components etc. Install all dependencies from the frontend package-lock.json as with any other NodeJS project. Use the Angular CLI to update project dependencies.

Watch for file changes

Issue ng build --watch --output-path=<path-to-hint>/backend/static/ang/ to compile the frontend project to get served by the Django development server. The command will make sure the compiled JS files get served from a known Django static directory.