Actions on Google: Smart Home sample using Node.js

This sample contains a fully functioning example of a Smart Home provider cloud service designed to work with Actions on Google. This can be used with a Actions Console project to create an Action interface to your IoT devices. This sample includes everything you need to get started, including a mocked user authentication service with sample users and a user web portal to demonstrate the user experience when controlling their lights with your action.

An example of a Smart Home IoT cloud engine is stored in smart-home-provider. This consists of both the main smart-home-provider-cloud.js main web service, as well as the web portal used to interact with virtual devices in frontend/. smart-home-provider-cloud.js is the entry point to the Node.js Express app that runs the IoT cloud service, and handles authentication, and ultimately handles requests from the Google Assistant.

The primary AoG intent handlers are stored in smart-home-provider/smart-home-app.js. Here, you can find listeners for POST requests similar to the one your app will receive from the Google Assistant when SYNCing, QUERYing, or EXECuting smart home device control with your cloud. The path for requests to this app is '/smarthome'.

This sample also includes a mock-assistant-platform module that you can use to locally test your Smart Home app with mocked requests for the SYNC, QUERY, and EXEC intents that you will receive from the Google Assistant. See below for instructions on how to use. It is hard coded to use the account under username 'rick' given in smart-home-provider/datastore.js. However you swap the appropriate Bearer token in the makeReq method of the mock-assistant-platform.

Setup Instructions

See the developer guide and release notes at https://developers.google.com/actions/ for more details.

Steps for testing with Google Assistant

Create and setup project in Actions Console

1. Use the Actions on Google Console to add a new project with a name of your choosing and click Create Project.
2. Click Home Control, then click Smart Home.
3. On the left navigation menu under SETUP, click on Invocation.
4. Add your App's name. Click Save.
5. On the left navigation menu under DEPLOY, click on Directory Information.
6. Add your App info, including images, a contact email and privacy policy. This information can all be edited before submitting for review.
7. Click Save.

Add Request Sync

The Request Sync feature allows a cloud integration to send a request to the Home Graph to send a new SYNC request.

1. Navigate to the Google Cloud Console API Manager for your project id.
2. Enable the HomeGraph API. This will be used to request a new sync and to report the state back to the HomeGraph.
3. Click Credentials
4. Click 'Create credentials'
5. Click 'API key'
6. Copy the API key shown and insert it in smart-home-provider/cloud/config-provider.js Enable Request-Sync API using these instructions.

To use it, add a new device while the sample is active.

Add Report State

The Report State feature allows a cloud integration to proactively provide the current state of devices to the Home Graph without a QUERY request. This is done securely through JWT (JSON web tokens).

1. Navigate to the Google Cloud Console API & Services page
2. Select Create Credentials and create a Service account key
3. Create the account and download a JSON file. Save this as smart-home-provider/cloud/jwt-key.json.

The sample already includes support for report state. To use it, create a device in the web frontend. Then click on the arrow icon in the top-right corner. It will start reporting state when the state changes locally.

Setup sample service

1. Set up the web portal

    cd smart-home-provider/frontend
    npm install -g bower
    bower install
    cd ..
   

2. Run smart-home-provider-cloud.js, either locally or hosted

   • If running locally

     npm install
     npm start
     

   • If running in a hosted env,

     node cloud/smart-home-provider-cloud.js smart-home="https://your_domain.com"
     

3. In the resulting output, note the config data. In particular the client ID and client Secret.

4. In a browser, open the ngrok URL shown.

5. Log in with one of the sample user accounts, for instance:

   user: rick
   password: oldman
   

6. This is a web portal to your Smart Home devices. Configure the smart lights shown as you please. Click the cloud icon shown above at least one of them to enable it for cloud control.

Start testing

1. Navigate back to the Actions on Google Console.
2. On the left navigation menu under BUILD, click on Actions. Click on Add Your First Action and choose your app's language(s).
3. Enter the URL for fulfillment, e.g. https://xyz123.ngrok.io/smarthome, click Done.
4. On the left navigation menu under ADVANCED OPTIONS, click on Account Linking.
5. Select No, I only want to allow account creation on my website. Click Next.
6. For Linking Type, select OAuth.
7. For Grant Type, select 'Authorization Code' for Grant Type.
8. Under Client Information, enter the client ID and secret from earlier.
9. The Authorization URL is the hosted URL of your app with '/oauth' as the path, e.g. https://xyz123.ngrok.io/oauth
10. The Token URL is the hosted URL of your app with '/token' as the path, e.g. https://xyz123.ngrok.io/token
11. Enter any remaining necessary information you might need for authentication your app. Click Save.
12. On the left navigation menu under Test, click on Simulator, to begin testing this app.

Setup Account linking

1. On a device with the Google Assistant logged into the same account used to create the project in the Actions Console, enter your Assistant settings.
2. Click Home Control.
3. Click the '+' sign to add a device.
4. Find your app in the list of providers.
5. Log in to your service.
6. Start using the Google Assistant in the Actions Console to control your devices. Try saying 'turn my lights on'.

ℹ️ Assistant will only provide you control over items that are registered, so if you visit your front end https://xyz123.ngrok.io and click the add icon to create a device your server will receive a new SYNC command.

Steps for testing with mock-assistant-platform

1. Set up the web portal

   cd smart-home-provider/frontend
   npm install -g bower
   bower install
   cd ..
   

2. Run smart-home-provider-cloud.js, either locally or hosted

   npm install
   

   • If running locally:

     npm start
     

   • If running in a hosted environment

     node cloud/smart-home-provider-cloud.js smart-home="https://your_domain.com"
     

3. In the resulting output, note the config data. In particular the client ID and client Secret.

4. In a browser, open the ngrok URL shown.

5. Log in with one of the sample user accounts, for instance

   user: rick
   password: oldman
   

6. This is a web portal to your Smart Home devices. Configure the smart lights shown as you please. Click the cloud icon shown above at least one of them to enable it for cloud control.

7. Use the mock-assistant platform to send requests to your Smart Home app.

   cd mock-assistant-platform
   node platform help
   node platform url="https://<NGROK_DOMAIN>.ngrok.io/smarthome" sync
   node platform url="https://<NGROK_DOMAIN>.ngrok.io/smarthome" query
   node platform url="https://<NGROK_DOMAIN>.ngrok.io/smarthome" exec
   

Examples of SYNC, QUERY, and EXEC requests

Your app will need to handle these 3 basic requests from the Google Assistant.

Sync

POST /smarthome HTTP/1.1
Host: <something>.ngrok.io
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer psokmCxKjfhk7qHLeYd1
Cache-Control: no-cache

Body:
{
    "requestId": "ff36a3cc-ec34-11e6-b1a0-64510650abcf",
    "inputs": [{
        "intent": "action.devices.SYNC"
    }]
 }

Query

POST /smarthome HTTP/1.1
Host: <something>.ngrok.io
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer psokmCxKjfhk7qHLeYd1
Cache-Control: no-cache

Body:
{
    "requestId": "ff36a3cc-ec34-11e6-b1a0-64510650abcf",
    "inputs": [{
        "intent": "action.devices.QUERY",
        "payload": {
            "devices": [{
                "id": "1",
                "customData": {
                    "smartHomeProviderId": "FkldJVJCmDNSaoLkoq0txiz8Byf2Hr"
                }
            },{
                "id": "2"
            },{
                "id": "3"
            },{
                "id": "4"
            }]
        }
    }]
}

Execute

POST /smarthome HTTP/1.1
Host: <something>.ngrok.io
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer psokmCxKjfhk7qHLeYd1
Cache-Control: no-cache

Body:
{
    "requestId": "ff36a3cc-ec34-11e6-b1a0-64510650abcf",
    "inputs": [{
        "intent": "action.devices.EXECUTE",
        "payload": {
            "commands": [{
                "devices": [{
                    "id": "1",
                    "customData": {
                        "smartHomeProviderId": "FkldJVJCmDNSaoLkoq0txiz8Byf2Hr"
                    }
                },{
                    "id": "3"
                }],
                "execution": [{
                    "command": "action.devices.commands.Brightness",
                    "params": {
                        "brightness": 60
                    }
                },{
                    "command": "action.devices.commands.ChangeColor",
                    "params": {
                        "color": {
                            "name": "red",
                            "spectrumRGB": 65280
                        }
                    }
                },{
                    "command": "action.devices.commands.OnOff",
                    "params": {
                        "on": true
                    }
                }]
            }]
        }
    }]
}

References and How to report bugs

• Actions on Google documentation: https://developers.google.com/actions/.
• If you find any issues, please open a bug here on GitHub.
• Questions are answered on StackOverflow.

How to make contributions?

Please read and follow the steps in the CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

See LICENSE.md.

Terms

Your use of this sample is subject to, and by using or downloading the sample files you agree to comply with, the Google APIs Terms of Service.

Google+

Actions on Google Developers Community on Google+ https://g.co/actionsdev.