Jump to content
C4 Forums | Control4

pushingbox


Recommended Posts

Is anyone interested in using a service called pushing box (pushingbox.com) with C4? I've written a very basic driver to handle the http request that can change the api key, subject, and message in the programming. It's a free service. I can only say the driver works on 1.7.4 right now though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


PushingBox allows you to send push notifications, emails, text messages, and tweet to multiple platforms. Using this driver you can send variables and messages to different devices via C4 programming.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This kinda looks above and beyond what you'd typically need since you can make custom messages and notifications in Control4 and then send them out... if you noticed they were using Prowl for iOS push notifications -- which PushNotify already does. Email you can get with Alan's drivers or using 4sight. There was a Twitter driver once.. not sure if it still works though.

The point is you can already do what this service offers by just having a Control4 system... Seems like an extra step with very little in return unless I'm missing something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good point Seth_j, however, I like pushing box because it allows me to manage which devices receive notifications. For instance, when a carbon monoxide detector activates I can send one command with the dev id, subject, and message from control4 and pushing box allows me to send it to any number of emails, phone numbers, prowl, android push clients, ect. I can set up different scenarios that can send certain events to certain people / devices. Not to mention, for what ever reason, the drivers you mentioned seemed to have fees associated with it. Since the process of sending to pushing box is nothing more than a get request I am debating releasing the driver for free to anyone. Seems silly to pay 100 a year to send an email or pay for a driver that should be implemented in the native structure of control4.

For those that have contacted me with interest. I am working on figuring out one last little problem with encoding variables to a URI friendly format. ( like space bar is %20 ). Once I get that done I'll likely beta release to those that contacted me to work out any more little bugs.

Just a recap on how the driver works...

C4 programming can dynamically set a dev_id , push_subject , push_message for each instance of pushingbox.

C4 programming calls the Push_Action.

C4 sends the dev_id , push_subject , push_message variables to pushing box via a simple HTTP GET request.

Pushingbox sees the dev_ID variable and based on that ID passes push_subject and push_message to your selected scenario devices.

Pushing box sends a HTTP 200 good request page to C4. This is processed and fires a Push_Sent event to confirm that pushing box got the information.

Hopefully I can provide some of the DIY users a cheap alternative to 4sight for doing something as simple as sending an email. As well, I'd like to provide more advanced users that want that kind of notification capability a way to do it. Until I can find a dealer around this area that wants me to be a part time programmer in exchange for composer 2.2 and an upgrade license I'll be on 1.7.4. :)

Cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hopefully I didn't come across as too rude.

I think it's important to get the name right, because if you ever ask questions in #lua on freenode, or in Lua forums, and you call it LUA, you'll get hounded out of there...

:)

Read the PIL (Programming In Lua) book, it's pretty good: http://www.lua.org/pil/ (the online version is good enough)

And... If you're already a pretty good programmer, most of what you *really* need to know is here:

http://lua-users.org/wiki/LuaShortReference

RyanE

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I have sent an email to a few of you who were interested in beta testing. If anyone else would like to beta test please PM me.

Probably will release the driver and documentation within the next two weeks if beta goes well. It will be open source and free of charge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If this worked in 2.0 software and beyond you might get more people interested. Many people have upgraded past 1.74 now.

Just got this working on 2.2 - seems to have no issue so far.

I have pushing box configured to my prowl client on IOS and my gmail email client.

Messages get sent to both

Here's my best idea for this driver.

I created a custom button on the Touch screen called Danny Call Home.

Programmed the custom button to send me an alert via email and Prowl

Now instead of wife calling me when I'm in a meeting, she can press the button, I get a message and I can call her when I'm free.

Also saves on call and voicemail costs.

Separately,

I'd like to build up more complex messages based on joining text with a bunch of variables, but I cannot see if this is possible???

Ideas?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Glad to see the driver is working. I'm using it to send me notifications when my security alarm senses smoke, carbon monoxide, or any break in condition. It also sends me notes when the temperature is outside of a certain range. We even have the dog bell trigger a message to let us know she needs to go outside for a bathroom break.

I'll look into introducing and combining variables.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I release it to every one I am going to have a fairly detailed setup guide. If you guys have anything that specifically needs to be added to the guide let me know. Its hard for me to step back and look at installing and setting up the driver now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Okay folks. I'm releasing the pushing box driver and guide. It's open source and free. You're welcome to play with it. Please let me know how your experience goes.

Thanks to all the beta testers and to everyone that helped!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just tried it out and while a bit complex, once you do it a few times it comes a bit more naturally. Am I right in that we have to use the Variable list as the method to go and copy the API ID before we then go and program for that scenario? Either that or log into pushingbox and copy from there. There's no secret variable name list that I'm missing, is there?

Overall, fantastic work. I appreciate the openness of this and your hardwork and ingenuity into making it happen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...
This kinda looks above and beyond what you'd typically need since you can make custom messages and notifications in Control4 and then send them out... if you noticed they were using Prowl for iOS push notifications -- which PushNotify already does. Email you can get with Alan's drivers or using 4sight. There was a Twitter driver once.. not sure if it still works though.

The point is you can already do what this service offers by just having a Control4 system... Seems like an extra step with very little in return unless I'm missing something.

PushNotify $35

4Sight $100 year

Alans SMTP $100

Alans POP $100

C4RVA's free

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This kinda looks above and beyond what you'd typically need since you can make custom messages and notifications in Control4 and then send them out... if you noticed they were using Prowl for iOS push notifications -- which PushNotify already does. Email you can get with Alan's drivers or using 4sight. There was a Twitter driver once.. not sure if it still works though.

The point is you can already do what this service offers by just having a Control4 system... Seems like an extra step with very little in return unless I'm missing something.

PushNotify $35

4Sight $100 year

Alans SMTP $100

Alans POP $100

C4RVA's free

You said it, not me. But I agree free is good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.