PowerShell to the Philips Hue API

If you have been to HPE Discover London 2015, Aruba Atmosphere 2016, CeBIT 2016 or you are going to Citrix Synergy 2016 you will have an opportunity to experience the Collaborate Cube(d).

https://twitter.com/hpecollaborate

I have been working with the Cube (making it do its song and dance) and related technologies for nearly two years.

This is an IoT thing.  But what we are driving and the place we are operating is not what most folks thing of as IoT.
This is about taking context (a person, a physical place, the capabilities of a space, and what is relevant at this moment in time) and tying them all together into a set of context specific actions (capabilities, events, controls - call it what you will).

The actions are relevant to this time and place.

One of the actions in the Cube is setting lights around the glass enclosure to red (the room is busy) or green (the room is available).

This sounds pretty simple on the surface.  You hook up a Philips Hue then you link it in, then you send some commands.  Actually, it is rather simple.  Except one part that is not entirely obvious to most folks (that aren't makers nor developers), and that is getting that first connection in the first place.

In helping to set the Cube up at three venues now, the Hue connection still seems to be one of the more complex things.  Especially when you Hue is brand new (which of course it is at each show :-S  ).

So, I have a little PowerShell script that will give you what you need to:

1. create a valid user in your local Hue bridge
2. get the information you need to connect to that

Of course I am using Octoblu to control the Hue.  Why wouldn't I?  There are some decent instructions for getting things set up. (see Step 4, then instead of 3 come back here, then 5).
But they send you off to an API document to sort out the one critical getting started piece, getting connected.  And then Philips hides their API guide behind a registration gate.  Double whammy.  Too much effort.  Walk away.

Here is my script, with comments, to get you started.
And after you get hooked up, there is most likely enough guidance in this script for you to simply play with the Philips Hue API.  ;-)

You can copy, save, and run this script and it should do everything you need.

# Associate your Hue Bridge with Octoblu.
# These are the setup things you need to do.

# find the Hue on your local network - this assumes you have only one
$hueIp = Invoke-RestMethod -URI https://www.meethue.com/api/nupnp
$ip = $hueIp[0].internalipaddress

$gatebluName = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the name of your Gateblu"

Do {
    if ( !$hueUser ) {
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Black -BackgroundColor White "Press the button on the top of the Hue bridge."
    }
    elseif ( $hueUser.error.description ) {
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Black -BackgroundColor White $hueUser[0].error.description
    }
   
    Read-Host -Prompt "Enter to continue"

    #Hue create account
    $body = @{ "devicetype" = "gateblu#$gatebluName" }
    $json_body = $body | ConvertTo-Json
    $hueUser = (Invoke-RestMethod -URI http://$ip/api -ContentType "application/json" -body $json_body -Method Post -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)[0]

} until ( $hueUser.success )

$apiUsername = $hueUser.success.username

Write-Host "Open the Philis Hue Thing in Octoblu interface"
Write-Host "Select the Gateblu instance to connect to"
Write-Host "Enter: $ip as the ipAddress"
Write-Host "Enter: $apiUsername as the apiUsername"

# Return the full state
$hueState = Invoke-RestMethod -URI http://$ip/api/$apiUsername -ContentType "application/json" -Method Get -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

"Configured Lights:"
$hueState.lights | Format-List

"Configured Groups:"
$hueState.groups

# Full configuration
# $hueState.config