Getting Started
This page will guide you through the setup procedure of a qToggleServer instance. If you're not already familiar with qToggle, make sure you read the Basic Notions page first.
Depending on your system and requirements, you'll have to choose among serveral installation methods:
- Installation in Docker is desirable if you run Docker
- qToggleOS is the recommended variant if you want to run qToggleServer on a Raspberry Pi board
- Python Package Installation method can be used if you want to install the qToggleServer Python package on your system
After making sure that you can access and log into the web app, you should proceed with the configuration of your qToggleServer.
qToggleServer reads its basic configuration from qtoggleserver.conf. The location of the file depends on the installation method.
One thing that you'll want to configure is the persistence driver. By default, qToggleServer uses a simple JSON file to save data. If your setup is fairly small, a JSON file should be good enough; just make sure though to specify your persist.file_path. If however you have bigger plans for your qToggleServer instance, you'll want to use a more appropriate persistence driver.
There are a few system settings that can and should be adjusted via the web app. Just go to the Settings page in the app and you'll notice the following system settings:
The device name plays an important role in a master-slave qToggle setup: it uniquely represents the device on your network. Use simple names made of non-accented letters, numbers and dashes.
Every qToggle device has the following roles:
- administrator role - unlimited privileges, used for administrative purposes
- normal role - daily, regular usage with no access to the Settings page
- view-only role - can only view the state of your qToggle device
By default, all passwords are empty. It is important to set up strong passwords for at least the administrator and normal roles, since these roles can do damage to your setup.
To make something useful out of your qToggleServer, you'll probably want to install some add-ons.
Or you can simply use this qToggleServer instance as a hub for other devices. In that case, you can check out some supported devices based on the ESP8266-chip. You can also use Raspberry Pi boards running qToggleOS as devices that control relays or actuators.