Access denied problem with IFTTT

Posted on
Sat Sep 03, 2016 6:44 pm
gsades offline
Posts: 18
Joined: Aug 17, 2016

Access denied problem with IFTTT

I need to find a way to let Indigo know that I'm at home (or away, if that's the case). I thought I had found a solution using the Maker channel of IFTTT. I set up a recipe which connects to a goprism URL just as I did with Locative. Results with Locative were more or less successful but at least I was able to change variables in Indigo depending on my location.

The recipe is quite simple. If I'm home (which is detected by the iOS location channel), an URL with a variable change request is run (with the Maker channel). The problem is that Indigo reports that goprism is rejecting the connection.

The URL is as follows: http://username:password@reflector_name ... value=true (or value=false when I leave home). This is the exact URL entered in Locative which has worked ok. Indigo says:

WebServer access denied "http://indigodomo.net:11975/variables/Presencia/gioEnCasa3" from gsades @ 127.0.0.1

I don't understand why goprism is accepting the request from Locative but is rejecting the IFTTT one. Is there any way to make goprism to accept IFTTT commands?

Posted on
Sun Sep 04, 2016 5:18 am
petematheson offline
Posts: 847
Joined: Sep 14, 2014
Location: Southampton, UK

Re: Access denied problem with IFTTT

I can't comment on your specific question, however after lots of playing around I've found the best location detection for me has been to use Life360 which is configured to send my Indigo email account a message to say X is at home, X is at work, the house is empty, the house is occupied.

I just found the IFTTT presence detection pretty hit and miss. Most of the times it just didn't work as I'd hoped.

Life360 on the other hand has worked brilliantly, and I've even tweaked the radius on Life360 so things like the outside lights come on just as I'm driving down my driveway.
This also means it doesn't think I've left the house when I take the bins to the end of the road on rubbish collection day.

I'm looking to be a bit more intelligent when doing location now as I'm starting to use iBeacons. I have one in mine and my wife's car so indigo knows where each of us is. I have one at work and again at home so it knows if I've left work and entered my car, therefore on my way home etc.. Very neat!

The only issue I have sometimes with Life360 is my wife sometimes closes the app on her phone, which I've told her off for multiple times! She quickly realises when all of the lights and Tv etc switches off at home though .
That's another reason for combining it with iBeacons - so there are 2 ways to detect presence and scenes only trigger if both show a device isn't in the house.

You can also do more specific locations with Bluetooth, who's in which room of the house etc. I started using that to present that rooms remote control on the SimpleControl for my iPad.

/end waffle !

Posted on
Sun Sep 04, 2016 7:19 am
gsades offline
Posts: 18
Joined: Aug 17, 2016

Re: Access denied problem with IFTTT

Hi Pete,

Thanks a lot for your comment: you are putting down in words some of the ideas I have tried or I would like to try.

Some weeks ago I got 4 Estimote Beacons which I placed over the house to set another presence approach. The idea was to let the phones locate them and inform Indigo about that. It didn't work well and I don't know what to do with de iBeacons now. How are you using your beacons? I understand that your approach is opposite, how do you detect the beacons? Are you using your Mac for that? If so, what software?
I have looked around to find how to make a bluetooth setup but couldn't find much. Could you point me in the right direction?

I haven't tried the location / email alternative. My wife is super tidy with her phone and it's difficult for her to leave an app open (in the background) "with no reason". I've been using Locative and Home Remote in tandem with mixed results. Yesterday I started some tests with the Smartphone radar plugin which should perform as a support system since is not fast enough to become the main location source.

Giovanni.

Posted on
Sun Sep 04, 2016 9:16 am
petematheson offline
Posts: 847
Joined: Sep 14, 2014
Location: Southampton, UK

Re: Access denied problem with IFTTT

I would definitely say as a starting point, Life360 is great as you can enter rough locations.
I found when making the boundary fences too small that it would sometimes think I'm not home when I was, because my phone blipped for a second and thought it was a few doors down.

With the iBeacons I'm using the Geohopper app on my iPhone and then I add each of the iBeacons that I own into the app and tell it to notify a web service on enter and exit. This does (probably) require you to leave the app open so we'll see how that goes down with the wife.

This then directly works with the Beacon plugin for Indigo.

As you can see here, we're both in my wife's car!

Image

I've been able to rely on Life360 on its own for well over a year, it's been reliable and never had any issues except when the wife closes the app down. But you will have that issue with anything other than the plugins on here that detect when devices are on the wireless network - which I had little success with due to wireless signal in my house being flaky at best with the thick walls.

Posted on
Sun Sep 04, 2016 9:18 am
petematheson offline
Posts: 847
Joined: Sep 14, 2014
Location: Southampton, UK

Access denied problem with IFTTT

I should also note that I have Bluetooth built into 2 wireless access points, so they're a lot more powerful than the battery powered ones.
The one at works detects me in the whole office, and the one at home seems to be a little flaky due to walls again. I've rectified this by setting the app not to send an exit notification, but instead when I enter another location (either car) Indigo then manually sets the Home beacon to Off.

Posted on
Sun Sep 04, 2016 9:56 am
gsades offline
Posts: 18
Joined: Aug 17, 2016

Re: Access denied problem with IFTTT

That's nice! I wish I had BT built into my access points. I currently use 5 Airport Extreme / Express which are spread all over the place, so upgrading them will be an expensive movement specially when they are working fine. I like what you did with the beacons and I will try a similar solution.

BTW, Home Remote (iOS) runs in the background even with the app closed. It natively connects to Indigo and can silently report beacon-related activity. It also has an iPhone widget and Apple Watch app. It also reacts to location (even with closed app) and could be a complete solution by itself. The only problem is that for some reason, my iPhone restricts some procedures from time to time and I haven't been able to fully stabilize it yet. Maybe it could be of use for you.

Posted on
Tue Sep 13, 2016 11:20 pm
spiv offline
Posts: 190
Joined: Jul 15, 2014

Re: Access denied problem with IFTTT

I am trying to do a similar thing to trigger on "Leaving Home" and "Entering Home" by using Geofencing.

I have gotten IFTTT to trigger geofences fairly reliability and connected the iOS location to an email sender which works. My next step is to use the Indigo POP email receiver to process it. (I tried Better email plug-in with IMAP but it wasn't reliable for me.). Initially, the time delay of using email as the trigger mechanism is not ideal but allows me to avoid the security and configuration issues of trying to talk directly to the Indigo server from outside the local LAN.

Right now, I use a VPN for remote access and that has worked well, but that work for geofencing messages. I was going to try the Indigo Prism service, so I anxiously await seeing if you can get it work.

On a related note, I have been experimenting with Stringify instead of IFTTT. It has much richer capability and seems to be far better than IFTTT. Definitely worth a look if you have not seen it yet.

For the Home Remote app, which directly supports Indigo and Geofences - how does it work when you are outside your local LAN? Can it communicate back to the Indigo server or only when it is running on the same Wifi/local lan?

Posted on
Wed Sep 14, 2016 12:26 am
petematheson offline
Posts: 847
Joined: Sep 14, 2014
Location: Southampton, UK

Re: Access denied problem with IFTTT

Not sure about the home remote app - but when talking about time delays for emails to be received, I've taken this into account and set the geofences a little wider to allow time for the Home rules to trigger. Although I think I have my email check set to every minute so it's not much of a difference.

I've noticed recently that the Bluetooth beacons aren't very reliable, or rather the apps I'm using aren't. I can be sat at work and enter / leave the Bluetooth beacon about 50 times without moving the phone !

Posted on
Thu Sep 15, 2016 12:42 pm
gsades offline
Posts: 18
Joined: Aug 17, 2016

Re: Access denied problem with IFTTT

Still wondering why goprism is rejecting IFTTT communication. Ant ideas?

Posted on
Thu Sep 15, 2016 1:22 pm
jay (support) offline
Site Admin
User avatar
Posts: 18200
Joined: Mar 19, 2008
Location: Austin, Texas

Re: Access denied problem with IFTTT

IFTTT channel maker doesn't support digest authentication (the default authentication for the Indigo web server) - only the less secure basic authentication. We think this is a big security issue with IFTTT.

You can switch to basic authentication if you're OK with having a less secure system...

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Sun Sep 18, 2016 4:55 pm
spiv offline
Posts: 190
Joined: Jul 15, 2014

Re: Access denied problem with IFTTT

I've been working with Stringify which is a new competitor to IFTTT with more advanced options and added logic steps in their "flows" and they are actively considering adding digest authentication as an option to their HTTP/HTTPS "maker" calls.

Their tech support has been very responsive and helpful in tracking down a separate issue I was having.

I would suggest taking a look at Stringify instead of IFTTT and let them know you/we want digest authentication support. They might implement it faster than IFTTT.

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