Basic Tutorial Request

Hello! I really need a basic tutorial. My goal with the Spark Core is to be able to send basic requests from a website or app to the core. I will be honest, I am so lost, I need to learn REST and CURL.

Tinker is awesome, but it is not my own thing, I need to learn how to play around.

But to start, it would be great to have a basic tutorial that walks us through creating a basic link from an HTML page to turn on a pin.

Same with a function, to call a specific function.

I know there was a helper app that people have referenced (http://jflasher.github.io/spark-helper/) but I just do not understand it. I have entered my core and API token and all I can get is an error. Can we please get a few basic tutorials that are pre curl and rest related? Does that make sense?

I would love to be able to play to learn. That is how I fell in love with the Arduino IDE.

Thank you very much! :smile:

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that is a great request…
i would even be willing to help add to this…

also, i have put in a request before, it would be fantastic if people could easily share their spark projects, with a very simple method to describe the components they have added to it, like an automatic schematic builder and a little area where they can add comments so other people can copy and learn.

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@Startgroup I have on my backlog a plan to create a tutorial for a nice extension for Chrome that allows you to create POST and GET requests. Wrapping your head around exactly what those requests really are goes a little deeper, so I'll add to my list a basic overview of that.

For now, see if poking around with this extension helps. Make sure you have the Tinker application flashed to your Core. See my brief tutorial on how to send a POST request to turn on D7 from this extension here:

You probably were lost with the jflasher app because you had not programmed your :spark: Core with an application that you could talk to. Maybe you will have better luck trying my Simple Spark Core Controller
GitHub - technobly/Simple-Spark-Core-Controller
(run the example first! and then you can learn how to customize it)

I am also a really new beginner. I have tried some of the mentioned examples and can get the basic idea. I would like to call the core from an app built in Visual Studio Express C#. Is there an example of that anywhere?

Check out this thread @Swg

Great request; I agree that we need more beginner materials on the API side. We will do our best to deliver additional materials in a timely fashion but community contributions are very welcome!

+1 to this. In the meantime, does anyone have links to good tutorials for REST, etc and how to integrate them with a basic html page?

@spongefile

:smile:

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A simple terminology / design flow I think would go a long way for people… for example:

Terminology:
Is the Tinker API used during mobile app development to connect to the Spark Cloud ?
Is the Spark Cloud API (“Rest”) used inside the Spark Core module by the programmer to connect to the Spark Cloud ?

Design Flow:
Do you write code like Arduino sketches, but compile them instead on the Spark Cloud based IDE?
(If not, what programming language is used, toolchain/debugger?)

What parts are handled by the SparkCore (web server, etc) and what parts is the user responsible for?

To echo Zach--we are oftentimes torn between creating new features and creating tutorials/examples for existing use cases. We're doing our best to keep keep everything updated, but it's definitely a challenge! Suggestions and contributions are both welcome and appreciated :smiley: