node-openzwave-shared
This is a node.js add-on for node 0.10.x and 0.12.x (and possibly even for NodeJS's 3 and 4, with the help of NAN), which wraps the Open Z-Wave library to provide access to a Z-Wave network from within node.js (server-side JavaScript.)
You can now easily control and manage your ZWave devices (lights, dimmers, blinds, you name it) from within NodeJS applications. Initial support for secure devices (eg door locks) that require encryption is also included.
Check out the Node-Red integration project for an interesting use case, in which I've wired up ZWave and KNX devices working together as one big happy automated home.
This addon is currently able to:
- scan a Z-Wave network and report on connected devices,
- write values to zwave nodes
- monitor the network for changes,
- heal nodes and/or the network
- perform management tasks (add/remove nodes, replace failed nodes, manage their group associations etc)
Important notice
This library differs from its ancestor library in that it links dynamically to an OpenZWave shared library by means of your system dynamic linker. This is in contrast to statically linking OpenZWave as part of the node.js addon.
Thus you need to have OpenZWave fully installed on your system (both the compiled library AND the development headers) before trying to install this little baby. I know this diverges from the dominant npm paradigm, but with the shared lib approach:
- compilation / installation is a lot faster and
- OZW minor upgrades / bugfixes are way lot easier.
This also means that you need to be careful if you upgrade your OZW library: you might need to rebuild this addon, otherwise you'd might get api mismatch exceptions.
Prerequisites
Linux/OSX
You will need to ensure the OpenZWave library and headers are installed first. You can do this one of two ways.
-
Manually compiling OpenZwave involves the usual dance of 1) downloading its source tarball (latest code from GitHub or a stable release) or from the OpenZWave snapshots repository and then 2) compiling it and installing on your system (
make && sudo make install) -
You could also install OpenZWave via a precompiled package that's suitable for your Linux distribution and architecture. Notice: Be sure to install BOTH the binary (libopenzwave-x.y) AND the development package (libopenzwave-dev).
Windows
Since there is no standard installation location for Open Z-Wave on Windows, it will be automatically downloaded, compiled, and installed when you install this module.
Installation
Node.JS >= 3.0 users: please send me reports if the addon works or breaks. I've had very bad experience with the NodeJS API quicksand already, and NAN appears to not be able to keep up. The NodeJS API is truly a wizard's tribute to Ctrl+Z.
Whenever you have OpenZWave installed in your machine, then all you need to do is:
$ npm install openzwave-shared
Development documentation
Environment-specific documentation
License
The Open Z-Wave library that this module heavily relies upon is licensed under the Lesser GPLv3.
Everything else (all the bits that I and Jonathan have written) is under the vastly more sensible ISC license.