Home Assistant Cloud Alternatives

anthonylavado · October 28, 2018, 8:35am

Hey all. Just to add some clarity surrounding Haaska.

On that GitHub repository, Mike Grant writes the code, and I handle the Documentation/Wiki/Issues. Just like you folks, we’re just users of Home Assistant, who handle what we can in our spare time. No one pays us to do this.

Fortunately, once set up, Haaska is pretty low maintenance - you don’t have to do anything for it to keep working.

There were some recent updates needed in order to handle the authentication system changes in Home Assistant. While I’ve never met Mike, I know that he has a full time job, so he updates the software when needed, but only when he can/has time to. I also have a full time job and family to take care of, so I also have very limited time to write the documentation. Issues are usually much easier to deal with - it’s often just a missing setting or a small change, and people manage to get it working.

I don’t really monitor these forums, so without getting any more requests/messages for it on GitHub, the documentation went on the back burner for a while. I have since started work on a re-write of everything, and I hope to have it done soon. For example:

Apologies to anyone that was turned off by this before, but like I said, I am working on it now. Suggestions are always welcome.

anthonylavado · October 28, 2018, 8:41am

A question: How far back should the guide go? Really this should be about setting up Haaska, and I plan on mentioning what you’ll need ahead of time (e.g. Amazon Developer account, AWS account, etc.).

For example, the guide that @fcollingwood wrote (thank you Frank), specifically mentions how to set it up with Hass.io, and takes you through setting up the DuckDNS add-on with it. That’s probably outside of the scope of what I would write. Would it be okay if I listed that as a option in the “Before you begin…” page, and just link to another tutorial on that?

fcollingwood · October 29, 2018, 12:43am

Possibly if something is a pre-requisite, perhaps at least a little info to help those (like me - While I have plenty experience of most things, I’ve never worked with anything AWS related at all before) who’ve never encountered it before. There’s quite possibly a lot of potential users who just give up on hasska as they may perceive it as being too difficult to set up. Things I feel should absolutely be mentioned:

That users behind router using NAT will have to port forward - you can’t be expected to provide guidance on how to do that, there’s just too many devices out there, but a mention that they will have to do it will give them some idea of what to Google
That unless users have a static routable IP address, they will need some form of dynamic DNS in place, and list a few alternatives
That users should seriously consider SSL
A little more/better guidance around the whole AWS/Alexa/Lambda side of things

Another thing to consider: There are people out there who don’t have a clue about how to set up or use a development environment. Possibly suggest to Mike that the project provides the deployment package as well as the source - I discovered that it’s pretty easy to edit the config file in the Lambda console.

anthonylavado · October 29, 2018, 3:50am

Re: Prebuild - Yes, I’ll at least mention it (which will be in the form of a GH issue), if not create a Pull Request myself. I think it might just be a legacy thing to have it be built, so it’s always using the latest version of Requests (which is the only package we use).

Regarding the setup, I have instructions written now that take you through each click and tell you what to put in what fields, even if a text box is supposed to be left blank. I wonder how long this will last though - Amazon have a habit of changing their console layouts frequently.

For the pre-requisite page, if you have any text/steps you’d like to contribute, just let me know

wmaker · October 30, 2018, 12:19am

I think this is useful even if Amazon changes the layouts. I suspect the information that needs to be entered will remain the same. The user should be able to figure out where in the new layout that same information goes.

garvarma · November 3, 2018, 7:46pm

Hi,

Someone installed haaska using HA in a synology docker?

I’m trying this guide, https://github.com/mike-grant/haaska/wiki/Setup#config-values

But when i register and create my own skill, ask me for a default endoint… which data i need o put in this section?

Thanks

wmaker · November 4, 2018, 10:30pm

See if this helps:
https://developer.amazon.com/docs/smarthome/steps-to-build-a-smart-home-skill.html#configure-the-smart-home-service-endpoint

In short, you’ll need to jump ahead and create the AWS Lambda function. Along the way an ARN is created for your AWS Lambda function, and it is this ARN that is used as the Skill’s endpoint.

anthonylavado · November 5, 2018, 6:56am

Another heads up to anyone in this thread paying attention to Haaska. As promised, I’ve got a new set of instructions currently “cooking”. I’ve re-setup everything from scratch, so I could go through the process from start to finish (with the exception of making an AWS and Amazon Developer account).

Just going through some final changes, and then proofreading before pushing it to the master branch.

In the meanwhile to help with any questions or concerns, I’ve created The Haaska Super Thread. Please feel free to hop over there, so we can keep this thread clear for everything else.

garvarma · November 5, 2018, 9:16pm

Hi,

At the end i have my skill on Alexa. I active, but when i search devices, don’t find anything…

I’m using HA in docker with synology

I dunno if i mistake in moment to create my sample.json or what. The zipfile that i created, to upload on my lambda function contents these files:

It’s correct?

inside config folder i have the sample.json file

imagen

The content of json file is this, where http_api_pass mean the password that i have to acces to my HA

{
  "url": "http://192.168.1.100:8123/api",
  "password": "http_api_pass",
  "debug": false,
  "ssl_verify": true,
  "ssl_client": []
}

I make any mistake in this file or zip file?

thanks

wmaker · November 5, 2018, 9:23pm

If you are using the latest Haaska (v0.5), then you have to use the new authentication scheme in HA by getting a long lived access token, and in the json file instead of “password” use “bearer_token”

{
  "url": "http://localhost:8123/api",
  "bearer_token": "",
  "debug": false,
  "ssl_verify": true,
  "ssl_client": []
}

garvarma · November 5, 2018, 9:53pm

Ooohh i modified this bearer_token to password.

tomorrow i will do and inform!

thanks!

garvarma · November 7, 2018, 9:50pm

in the url data, i need to put internal lan url or external where i connet to HA by outside of my home?

because when i do it in lan url, i have this:

imagen

but when i do it from external address (outside of my lan) i have this error:

imagen

I dunno why this happends, i’m using nginx proxy reverse in my synology nas

wmaker · November 8, 2018, 2:36pm

AWS Lambda is of course external and is trying to reach your Home Assistant, so you would use the URL that allows you to reach your Home Assistant from the external network.

garvarma · November 8, 2018, 8:46pm

I solved the problem i mistake “/” in the external config.

One question more, in the sample.json url i need to put:

https://external_url:port/api

or

https://external_url:port/api/

wmaker · November 8, 2018, 9:26pm

https://external_url:port/api

garvarma · November 8, 2018, 9:33pm

If i put this, when i try using chrome or firefox give me the error 404 not found, then using this url in lambda must work?

thanks

garvarma · November 8, 2018, 10:44pm

Hi @anthonylavado,

Sorry i write you because i’m desespareted implementing haaska to use with mi skill.

I followed all steps that you said in this url:

[http://collingwood.me.uk/blog/index.php/hass-io-and-alexa/](http://collingwood.me.uk/blog/index.php/hass-io-
and-alexa/)

I created the test with exacly these data:

in token option i need to put my token that i generated from HA?

Then i make the test here…

And i have this result:

What’s happening? why appears this error?

thanks

wmaker · November 8, 2018, 11:25pm

Looks like you’re missing “requests” module.
Is there a “requests” folder inside your “haaska” folder on AWS Lambda?
If not, did you do a Make on haaska-master to generate a haaska-zip and then upload it to AWS?

garvarma · November 9, 2018, 8:38pm

Hi @wmaker,

Thanks for reply.

No i don’t have any “request” folder in my haaska folder.

imagen

I didn’t do it make :), sorry i will try do it now with my docker.

garvarma · November 10, 2018, 12:11am

@wmaker,

Now has other vision

imagen

hope will work!

test now says ok!

imagen