tutorial Archives | Page 3 of 4

Consuming JSON Web Data Using Google Sheets

Note: This article has been superseded with Fetching, Filtering, and Sorting JSON APIs in Google Sheets: The Missing Functions which provides a set of Google Sheets functions with additional capabilities. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. JSON has become the lingua franca for exchanging data on the web, and we (as developers) need to know how to process JSON data received from RESTful web services so we can be positioned for the present and for the future. My article on Consuming Node.js Microservices Created with stdlib provided a high-level tour covering several methods of parsing and processing JSON data. Last time, we focused on how to consume Read More

Controlling a Raspberry Pi from a Mobile Device with Bonus Menu Too

In my Beginner’s Guide to Installing Node.js on a Raspberry Pi, I equipped you with the knowledge needed to build an awesome Raspberry Pi system that could also run in a headless mode. We’re able to avoid a dedicated monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and this opens a whole new world of possibilities! This brings us to today’s scenario: you’ve deployed your headless Raspberry Pi in the living room and connected it to your speaker system, soaking in the full stereo sound of your favorite music using pianobar, the console-based Pandora player. It’s eventually time for bed and you’re tired. Should you yank the power cord on your Raspberry Pi and Read More

Consuming Node.js Microservices Created with Stdlib

In our last article, we learned how to create Node.js microservices using Polybit’s stdlib platform. We created a fabulous (IMHO 🙂 ) GPS service that enabled us to retrieve the name of a city based on its GPS coordinates. Today, we’re going to learn how to consume data returned from this stdlib GPS microservice using several methods. While the information presented here is specific to consuming Polybit stdlib microservices, many aspects of this article will be generally applicable for consuming Web API JSON data from any http endpoint. Strap on your seatbelts as we embark on a whirlwind tour to learn about consuming JSON data from a variety of contexts…and I’m Read More

Node.js: Playing Sounds to Provide Notifications

In a previous tutorial, we learned how to send email notifications Using Nodemailer and Gmail. In today’s session, we will learn how to play sounds using Node.js. As a bonus, we will learn how to continue to play a sound until our notification has been acknowledged by pressing a key on the keyboard. How does that sound? 🙂 Enough bad puns! 🙂 Let’s get started!

Creating Node.js Microservices with Ease Using Stdlib

Microservices and serverless architectures are all the rage in the software industry. After working with Polybit’s amazing stdlib platform, I am clearly seeing the value of this promising technology! Today, I will introduce you to stdlib. I encourage you to work alongside me as we leverage stdlib to build a microservice that we can consume in a variety of contexts. Let’s get started with this fabulous technology!

Connecting a Raspberry Pi Using an Ethernet Crossover Cable and Internet Connection Sharing

I’m preparing for an upcoming speaking engagement around the topic of using Node.js and the Raspberry Pi for IoT applications. While at home, I enjoy the luxury of being the owner of my network which provides complete freedom in network configuration. On the road, I will not have this luxury whether it is at a hotel or when speaking at the conference. Here’s the problem I am trying to solve. While on the road, I want to be able to connect my laptop to the Wi-Fi hotspot on my phone rather than utilizing the wireless network at the conference location which might be fraught with both security and reliability issues. Read More

Getting Started with YAML in Node.js using js-yaml

In this tutorial, we harness the power of YAML for use within Node.js. As described on the official YAML site, YAML (YAML Ain’t Markup Language) is a “human friendly data serialization standard for all programming languages”. YAML and JSON are closely related. In fact, all JSON syntax is valid YAML as of the YAML 1.2 spec, but not all YAML syntax is valid JSON. YAML is a superset of JSON.

Node.js IoT: Logging Data That Is Out of This World

The ability to log data is an important capability in IoT applications. In this tutorial, we learn how to use Node.js to log data by utilizing built-in Node modules. There are certainly excellent logging modules available including pino and Winston (see my Winston tutorial here); however, our goal today is to deepen our knowledge of Node by implementing some simple logging code ourselves in order to become better Node developers.

Node.js IoT: Tracking the ISS through the Sky

We’re back today to embark on another cool Node.js IoT project. This time, we’re going to interact with the International Space Station (ISS) and track it as it flies through the sky. We’ll eventually work with physical sensors that sit right on our desk, but at this stage we won’t need to buy parts or read resistor color codes in order to retrieve values from the ISS GPS “sensor” in the cloud—or actually 250 miles above the clouds. While our tutorials are geared toward creating awesome Node.js IoT projects on the Raspberry Pi, any Node.js-capable machine will suffice for today’s tutorial. Other useful articles to help you may include my Beginner’s Guide to Installing Node.js Read More

Node.js IoT – Data Visualization of Sensor Values

In today’s article, we’re moving beyond printing numbers in the console and creating some data visualization plots in both the terminal and in a graphical window. We’re also going to have fun! 😀 Today, I’m going to make the inductive leap that you’re making all of this happen using a Raspberry Pi. You may be able to implement these amazing ASCII terminal plots in the Windows world using Bash on Windows, but I have not tested in that context. In addition to Raspbian, these steps will also generally work for other Linux distros as well as OS X. If you are not running Node.js on your Raspberry Pi, please see my Beginner’s Guide to Installing Node.js Read More