Redstone

Simple automated workflow curation using JSON and HTTP.

Automated Workflow Curation? 🤔

Redstone acts as a curator for existing automated workflows powered by systems like IFTTT. Workflows are easily configured using a simple JSON based configuration. Each workflow is represented as a wire and workflow actions are reprsented in a hook.

TLDR; Automated workflows for automated workflows using JSON and HTTP...

System Requirements

• Apache Maven
• JDK 8+
• Linux or Mac OSX

Running Redstone

If you don't already have Maven installed and configured, you can find an easy guide here.

# Running in Foreground
mvn compile vertx:run

# Running in Background
mvn clean install vertx:start

# Stopping Background Service
mvn vertx:stop

# Compiling a JAR
mvn package

Once the server has started, you can login to the Redstone UI over at http://127.0.0.0.1:9999/login with the default username redstone and password redstone.

Wiring Redstone

Configuring Redstone wires is fairly easy. Like I mentioned above, the wires.json file houses the entire configuration for the system.

Below is an example of a wire.json configuration with two wires to be activated at bed time and in the morning.

{
    "bedtime_wire": {
        "title" : "Bed Time",
        "activate": {
            "ifttt" : ["dim_lights", "do_some_stuff", "phone_on_silent"],
            "schedule" : {
                "when" :"08:00",
                "wire" : "daytime_wire"
            }
        }
        "received_email": {
            "ifttt": "digest_emails",
            "http_get": "https://api.mywebsite.com/batch_digest" 
        },
        "my_event": "do_something",
        "slack_message" : {
            "ifttt": "slack_to_email"
        },
        "deactivate": {
            "ifttt" : "disable_something"
        }
    },
    "daytime_wire": {
        "title" : "Day Time",
        "activate": {
            "ifttt" : ["daily_digest", "batch_todos", "phone_off_silent"],
            "schedule" : {
                "when" :"22:00",
                "wire" : "bedtime_wire"
            }
        },
        "slack_message": {
            "ifttt": "slack_sms"
        },
        "my_event": "do_something",
        "received_email" : {
            "ifttt" : ["slack_to_email", "digest_email_summary"]
        }
    },
    "_alias_do_something" : {
        "http_get": "https:/10.10.1.15:8888/my_api" 
    },
    "_config_default_wire": "daytime_wire",
    "_config_http_port" : 9999,
    "_config_http_host" : "127.0.0.1",
    "_config_http_auth" : "httpauth",
    "_config_trip_key"  : "NOTSECURE"
}

Redstone Hooks

A hook is a set of workflow actions that are triggered when a hook is tripped. By default there are two built-in hooks deactivate and activate that are tripped by Redstone itself.

The following workflow actions are currently supported:

• timer - Initiates a workflow action on a timer
• repeat - Repeats a workflow action on a timer
• schedule - Schedules a workflow action at a later date
• ifttt - Triggers an IFTTT event.
• http_get - Initiates an http GET request
• wire - Activates the specified wire (disables the currently active one)
• hook - Trips the specified hook or triggers an inline hook.

Here is an example hook:

{
    "motion_hook": {
        "timer": {
            "delay": 60000,
            "ifttt": "trigger_event"
        },
        "repeat": {
            "delay": 15000,
            "ifttt": "trigger_event"
        },
        "ifttt": "trigger_event"
    }
}

The above hook will trigger the IFTTT event "trigger_event" immediately, again in 60s, and repeat every 15s.

Tripping Redstone Hooks

The REST API is used trip redstone hooks, aka initiate a workflow action. Hooks are only able to be triggered on the active wire. If a hook does not exist on the active wire, it will not be triggered.

# Tripping a hook with curl
curl --header "Content-Type: application/json" --request POST \
  --data '{"hook":"my_event","key":"NOTSECURE"}' \
  http://localhost:9999/v1/trip

The _config_trip_key is used as a simple identifier when receiving trip events. Hooks are only tripped via HTTP when the key is passed.

Redstone is not designed to be 100% secure out of the box. Any trip events received over HTTP should never be trusted, therefore it is reccomended that you configure a proxy with TLS enabled.

Configuration Variables

As you can see in the example above example, wires are identified by their root key, for example bedtime_wire. Any value starting with _config_ is treated as a configuration variable. This design makes it easy to bundle configurations within the wire.json file.

Below is a list of currently supported configuration variables

• _config_default_wire - The default wire to be activated on startup. (Note: A single wire is currently allowed to be active.)
• _config_http_port - The http server port to be used.
• _config_http_host - The http server host to be used.
• _config_http_auth - The file to be used for htdigest authentication within the HTTP Server.

The Redstone UI

At the moment Redstone includes a simple UI for activating wires. The Redstone UI uses HTTP Digest authentication that can be easily configured with the htdigest command. You can find instructions on how to install it here.

# Create a new htdigest file with the user myuser

htdigest -c httpauth redstone myuser

# Adding new users

htdigest httpauth redstone myuser2

Contributions

At the moment I have not defined any contribution guidelines because there isn't a need. If anyone wishes to contribute, feel free to submit an issue, PR, or just shoot me an email over at [email protected]

All contributions are welcome!

TODO

• Tests
• Javadocs
• Everything else