How to send a notification

[sdetweil]

@alyx so in alexacontrol, you have to create a notification device

notifications: [
    {
        name: 'Notificaition 1',
        port: 11100,
        OnOff: false,
        notification: ["NOTIFICATION", "PAYLOAD"]
    }
]

name is the thing Alexa will know
the tcp/ip port number to use for Alexa to contact this machine
and the notification info should look familiar

then u restart MagicMirror
( in the MagicMirror startup messages you should see a line listening on ??? where ??? is the port number you used in the notification entry)
and then Alexa discover devices

then whatever name is, should be discovered.

then you invoke it with
Alexa, turn on xxxx
where xxxx is the name of your device
(because alexacontrol creates fake wemo electric outlets)

note that notifications shown above is a list [], so each {} is a notification device

and this stuff goes in the alexacontrol module
config:{}
section

[Alyx]

@sdetweil I have that set up al;ready but my alexa cant discover it for some reason. If you need you can see it in my config.js file above

[sdetweil]

@alyx nice, but you missed one key point

and this stuff goes in the alexacontrol module
config:{}
section

u have in the general module section not in the module config

[Alyx]

@sdetweil Ah! that worked thanks :) Next issue it doesnt call the module when activated lol

[sdetweil]

@alyx so, now open the developers window, ctrl-shift-i, and look at the console tab

u may be able to see some module report the notification

or install my samplemodule as it reports all notifications received
https://github.com/sdetweil/SampleModule

in the Alexa app u can control devices manually, so that makes testing a lot easier

[Alyx]

@sdetweil Hi sam,

Great so i can see that the notification isnt being sent via the dev console, it shows up via Alexa app but isnt communicating to the MM. Would you happen to know the cause?

 {
        module: 'MMM-AlexaControl',
        position: 'middle_center',
	

	config:{
		
            image: true,
	    deviceName: "mirror",
            pm2ProcessName: "mm",
            vcgencmd: "hide",
	    startPort: 11001,
	    refresh: true,
	    restart: true,
	    //stop: true,
	    reboot: true,
	    shutdown: true,
	    monitorToggle: true,
	    //cecAddress: "0.0.0.0",
	    //usb: false
	    pages: 3,
	    notifications:[
    {
        name: 'Next page',
        port: 11102,
        OnOff: false,
        notification: ["PAGE_INCREMENT", 'payload']
    },
     {
        name: 'Previous page',
        port: 11103,
        OnOff: false,
        notification: ["PAGE_DECREMENT", 'payload']
    },
    {
        name: 'Selfie',
        port: 11104,
        OnOff: false,
        notification: ["SELFIE_SHOOT", 'payload']
    }
],
        }
    },

[sdetweil]

@alyx not really. if u stop MagicMirror, and then tell Alexa to turn on your notification device, you should get a ‘not responding’ message from alexa

that will tell you the two are really connected.

Alexa turn on selfie

[Alyx]

@sdetweil Yep that makes sense but it isnt popping up below is a quick snapshot of the dev panel

MMM-MotionDetector.js:75 MMM-MotionDetector: DiffCamEngine init successful.
module.js:195 MMM-AlexaControl is suspended.
module.js:195 MMM-NASA is suspended.
module.js:195 MMM-ISS-Live is suspended.
module.js:195 MMM-MotionDetector is suspended.
module.js:195 lifecounter is suspended.
module.js:195 compliments is suspended.
module.js:195 MMM-chromecast is suspended.
MMM-NASA.js:132 Hailing NASA
module.js:202 MMM-page-indicator is resumed.
module.js:202 MMM-Selfieshot is resumed.
module.js:202 MMM-Astro is resumed.
module.js:202 MMM-MoonPhase is resumed.
module.js:202 clock is resumed.
eventtracking-log.services.video.ibm.com/eventtracking.web.player/:1 Failed to load resource: net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT
eventtracking-log.services.video.ibm.com/eventtracking.web.player/:1 Failed to load resource: net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT
eventtracking-log.services.video.ibm.com/eventtracking.web.player/:1 Failed to load resource: net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT
eventtracking-log.services.video.ibm.com/eventtracking.web.player/:1 Failed to load resource: net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT
eventtracking-log.services.video.ibm.com/eventtracking.web.player/:1 Failed to load resource: net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT
eventtracking-log.services.video.ibm.com/eventtracking.web.player/:1 Failed to load resource: net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT
MMM-AlexaControl.js:75 RECEIVE monitor NOTIFICATION=SLEEP_WAKE
MMM-AlexaControl.js:75 RECEIVE monitor NOTIFICATION=SLEEP_HIDE
MMM-AlexaControl.js:75 RECEIVE monitor NOTIFICATION=SLEEP_WAKE
MMM-pages.js:97 

The errors lead to this page
400 Bad Request
‘json’ or ‘msgpack’ parameter is required

[sdetweil]

@alyx said in How to send a notification:

Yep that makes sense but it isnt popping up below is a quick snapshot of the dev panel

one thing at a time

you didn’t answer the question about connection

[Alyx]

@sdetweil Apoligies, tested there.

So I stopped magic mirror/ restarted the pi and it came up with device unresponsive.

[sdetweil]

@alyx ok, and when MM is running you get the completion sound from alexa, correct?

[Alyx]

@sdetweil what do mean by a completion sound? Do you mean the confirmation of ‘ok’ after? If so then yes

[sdetweil]

@alyx when u turn on or off a device, alexa does tada sound… to says it processed your request

[Alyx]

@sdetweil ah my one says ‘ok’ but id assume its the same

[sdetweil]

@alyx I added your config to my MM and added debugging… and it works as expected

samplemodule reports Selfie_shoot was received

SampleModule received a module notification: SELFIE_SHOOT from sender: MMM-AlexaControl

and because u have is as onOff:false
u get a notification every time (on or off)

I did this using the alexa app…

[Alyx]

@sdetweil oh… where do you think I went wrong so?

[sdetweil]

@alyx i don’t know… i didn’t change anything in your config…

if you use the alexa app to turn the plug on or off, do you see the notifications?

[Alyx]

@sdetweil ok I re added the selfie device on the alexa app and it found it fine but its now coming up as unresponsive

[sdetweil]

@alyx so, discovery records the IP address of the ‘device’ and the port.

so, if your pi changes ip address during boot, then it won’t work again …

all my pi type devices have fixed addresses to avoid this problem…

[Alyx]

@sdetweil ah ok I’ll set a static! TBH I did have that concern but i was wrong to assume it was dynamic with the IP’s

I’ll come back if this works or not , I have a call rn