Super Secret IFTTT Beta

Cloud Integrations
1

Can I post about IFTTT?

  • This is not public knowledge yet, please do not write any articles or posts anywhere about IFTTT unless they’re in the private ifttt-beta-only category here on the forums. We would absolutely love it if you wanted to prepare tutorials, builds, or had recipes to release for the scheduled announcement (planning on January 2015). Or just play with the channel and have fun! :slight_smile:

What is happening?

Exciting news! When it comes to the new beta features, we’ve all been like:

Well good news! We’re inviting you to test the secret Spark channel on IFTTT! The time to beta test IFTTT is Now (over the next month or so when you have time)!

How do I beta test IFTTT??

1.) If you don’t have an account yet, create one here:

2.) Click on this magic link that lets you use the Spark channel!

3.) Grab a totally normal spark core and create a recipe that uses the Spark channel, create 10, create 100!

4.) Generate feedback, enhancement requests, etc! Post any bugs you find along with steps to reproduce in the IFTTT category (or in this thread, or other ifttt-only threads on the forums, and tag me @Dave, and put IFTTT / feedback / bug / request / etc in the title)

What should I expect?

  • When a trigger happens on your core, ifttt should hear about it in
    about a minute or so. If realtime stuff isn’t working, it might take
    up to 15 minutes.
  • PUSH based triggers (core is online/offline, core
    publishes an event), should happen fairly immediately / consistently
  • PULL based triggers (my variable is, my function returns) will need
    to be valid for a long time (over a minute) in order for them to be
    caught triggers may create an event every time they’re checked if
    they’re valid. e.g: If your “variable is greater than 10” for a few
    minutes, you might have a whole bunch of responses from IFTTT.
  • To have fun!

Thanks!
David

bonus animated gif:

8 Likes
2

Anyone know how to set up a list of functions on the IfTTT web site so I can create a new action? For example I was going to create a new recipe so that when I send out a tweet, my spark core would set the onboard LED high. I do have an LED function listening on my spark core but I’m having trouble with how to tell IfTTT web site I have a function called that and I want to set the LED high.

EDIT: The account used on IfTTT must be the same email associated with the Spark Core. After creating a new account on IfTTT that matches my Spark Core email, I can now see the LED function on the IfTTT website when trying to create a Spark Core action.

3

I’ve created some simple IfTTT recipes to test the functionality between Twitter and the Spark Core. First I tried to turn the onboard LED high whenever I tweeted. That worked but with some delay. Next, I created new functions based on tags #ledoff and #ledon to trigger the Spark Core’s LED off or on. These also worked but also with delay. On average, the delay from the time I tweeted to the time the action took place on my Spark Core was about 15 minutes.

Bottom line it does work but at least in the case of twitter being the trigger event, one must take the reaction time into account and decide if that is acceptable for their particular application. I’m really happy to see IfTTT functionality added to the Spark!

2 Likes
4

How did you turn the LED on? I tried to create a recipe but the function didn’t work. Other than that it’s awesome to see IFTTT integration with Spark.

5

Hi @collut,

You can use a simple firmware like this:

void setup() {
  pinMode(D7, OUTPUT);
  Spark.function("led_on", led_on);
  Spark.function("led_off", led_off);
}

int led_on(String cmd) {
  digitalWrite(D7, HIGH);
}

int led_off(String cmd) {
  digitalWrite(D7, LOW);
}

void loop() {

}

Thanks!
David

2 Likes