technic/web-settings

Server which provides web interface for editing settings in the Set-Top-Box or other IoT devices

Web Settings

Server which provides web interface for editing settings in the Set-Top-Box or some IoT devices. This repository has only the server side implementation. Program is written in rust using actix-web framework.

Usage

The device sends list of config parameters definitions to the server, currently we can have string, integer, bool and choice box (see example).

curl 'http://localhost:8000/stb/new-session' -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @example.json -s

{"key":"qrsT1w","secret":"AtxW3kwOIeXFty0q-WAoopnYISL-zMSWz8zAapGovoirSBSwCpuvBiVjFFYs6CSuHlG6YOSmv66MjrCercfdOg"}

The resulting key is displayed to the user, with which he can access web interface. The device starts polling server for changes using secret. We have http polling for simplicity. The devices also tells the server the revision of the settings values it currently has. It is incremented each time the user submits changes.

curl 'http://localhost:8000/stb/poll?sid=AtxW3kwOIeXFty0q-WAoopnYISL-zMSWz8zAapGovoirSBSwCpuvBiVjFFYs6CSuHlG6YOSmv66MjrCercfdOg&revision=0' -s

When changes were submitted, the server replies with incremented revision and the setting specification which contains new values.

{
  "revision":1,
  "values":[
    {
      "name":"a",
      "title":"TestA",
      "type":"string",
      "value":"new text"
    },
    {
      "name":"b",
      "title":"TestB",
      "type":"integer",
      "min":0,
      "max":100,
      "value":100
    },
    {
      "name":"c",
      "title":"TestC",
      "type":"selection",
      "value":"bar",
      "options":[
        {
          "value":"foo",
          "title":"Foo!"
        },
        {
          "value":"bar",
          "title":"Bar!"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name":"d",
      "title":"TestD",
      "type":"bool",
      "value":false
    }
  ]
}

Compilation

Basically it is just cargo build --release. You can examine my circleci config to get more insight into the required build commands.

Example of systemd unit

Create a new service file under the /etc/systemd/system with the following content

[Unit]
Description=Web settings server
After=network.target

[Service]
User=your_username
Environment=RUST_LOG=info
Environment=RUST_BACKTRACE=1
WorkingDirectory=/opt/web-settings
ExecStart=/opt/web-settings/app --port 3080
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=web-settings

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

This will start the server at localhost:3080, afterwards you can set up nginx reverse proxy to get the host and https done right.

Note to developer

• Keep code clean by using cargo clippy
• Keep dependencies updated with cargo update