This repository contains the backend code for homebridge-alexa

homebridge-alexa

These are my notes and backlog for the creating of the Skill Based approach for integrating Amazon Alexa with HomeBridge. Also all code for this version will use this branch of the repository.

Concept

      -------------------
      | Alexa HomeSkill |
      -------------------
              |
             \|/
      -------------------
      | website         |
      -------------------
             /|\
              |
      ---------------------
      | Homebridge Plugin |
      ---------------------
      | HAPNodeJS         |
      ---------------------

Alexa --> HomeBridge --(webservice)--> WebSite <--(MQTT)--> HomeBridge --(WebService)--> (HAP-NodeJS)
          HomeSkill                                         Plugin

End to End Design

Plugin Design

HomeBridge HomeSkill sends alexa directives to website, website uses endpoint.scope.token to lookup account, and mqtt topic of account. Website sends alexa directive to HomeBridge plugin via MQTT. Plugin uses endpoint.endpointid to determine HAP instance, and create HAP request.

HomeBridge plugin has a module that generates events for each directive. Events name based on directive.header.namespace ( ie Alexa.Discovery ), but with 'Alexa.' removed.

My inspiration for the design is based on the work done to create a Alexa Skill for Node Red by Ben Hardill. You read the details here: http://www.hardill.me.uk/wordpress/2016/11/05/alexa-home-skill-for-node-red/

backlog

Moved to https://github.com/NorthernMan54/alexaAwsBackend/issues/6

Setup Development Toolchain

Alexa Lambda HomeSkill

• Followed this - https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/post/Tx1UE9W1NQ0GYII/Publishing-Your-Skill-Code-to-Lambda-via-the-Command-Line-Interface

1 - Name - AlexaHome 2 - Runtime - NodeJS 6.10 3 - Role - Choose existing 4 - Existing Role - lamba_basic_execution Create function 5 - Add trigger - Alexa Smart Home 6 - Application ID - Copy from Alexa config save 7 - Timeout - 10 Seconds

9 - Add ARN to Alexa Skill config

** Environment Variables

ENDPOINT - https://homebridge.cloudwatch.net/ DEBUG - ( empty or true )

aws LightSail web website

• Selected Ubuntu OS image, and installed nodejs

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_7.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

• install mongodb mosquitto mosquitto-auth-plugin

sudo apt-get install apache2 mongodb unzip

apt-get build-dep mosquitto mosquitto-auth-plugin sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev sudo apt-get install libmongoc-developer sudo apt-get install libbson-dev

Installed from source

mongo-c-driver-1.9.2 - http://mongoc.org/libmongoc/current/installing.html mosquitto-1.4.14 mosquitto-auth-plug-0.1.2

cd mosquitto-auth-plugin vi config.mk - enable mongo and files make sudo cp auth-plug.so /usr/lib/mosquitto-auth-plugin/auth-plugin.so

mosquitto Config

cp mosquitto/conf/mosquitto.conf /etc/mosquitto/conf.d/mosquitto.conf

Growing over 1024 Users

1. Added ulimit -n 60000 to /etc/init.d/mosquitto

2. Added to /etc/security/limits.conf

mosquitto 	hard	nofile 		10000000
mosquitto 	soft	nofile 		10000000

Apache SSL Config

• Registered IP Address at freeDNS - homebridge.cloudwatch.net

1. Followed the instructions here http://freedns.afraid.org/scripts/afraid.aws.sh.txt, but used this script as it worked better. http://freedns.afraid.org/scripts/update.sh.txt

2. URL/hostname is coded in /etc/cron.d/afraid.aws.sh

• Create SSL at Let's Encrypt

This is wrong

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python-certbot-apache
sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh stop apache
sudo certbot certonly
  2
  homebridge.cloudwatch.net

- Congratulations! Your certificate and chain have been saved at:
   /etc/letsencrypt/live/homebridge.cloudwatch.net/fullchain.pem
   Your key file has been saved at:
   /etc/letsencrypt/live/homebridge.cloudwatch.net/privkey.pem
   Your cert will expire on 2018-04-28. To obtain a new or tweaked
   version of this certificate in the future, simply run certbot
   again. To non-interactively renew *all* of your certificates, run
   "certbot renew"

From https://docs.bitnami.com/google/how-to/generate-install-lets-encrypt-ssl/

Enable storage of more logs

sudo mkdir /var/log/journal
sudo systemd-tmpfiles --create --prefix /var/log/journal
sudo systemctl restart systemd-journald

Local version of awsWebsite

brew install mongo; brew services start mongodb
brew install mosquitto; brew services start mosquitto

Amazon AWS Lambda function

Create AWS Lambda function

1. Name - AlexaHome
2. Version - Node.js 6.1.0
3. Role - Choose an existing Role
4. Existing Role - lambda_basic_execution
5. Trigger - Alexa Smart Home

Historical Dates

• Beta test started - Feb 19, 2018
• Production launch - March 14, 2018
• Added Germany and France - March 28, 2018
• Added Italian (IT), English (IN), English (AU), Spanish (ES), Japanese (JP), Spanish (MX), French (CA) - Feb 13th, 2019

Credits

• Ben Hardill - For the inspiration behind the design.