managing pin access codes for vacation homes by calendar

[smartbusinesstools.be]

I need your opinion:

We need to create a system for multiple vacation homes so guests can receive a personal pin code when they book their stay. The pin code is only valid during the time of their stay to open the apartment and main entrance doors, but also to track access and know whether and when guest have arrived.

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Ideally, we would want to enter apartment number, arrival and departure date in the Loxone app, and Loxone should associate and show a pin number for the stay. The activation, deactivation and validation of the pin code should be done automatically by Loxone. Unfortunately, there is no such calendar function in Loxone where you can enter events via the app.

What would be the best and simplest way to get this dynamic scheduling function to trigger actions in Loxone?

Some possible solutions:

- build a UI using Loxone standard building blocks, and save/get the information in a file via a PicoC script. The advantage would be that you don't need anything else, but the UI would not be easy to work with.

- use a Google Calendar and let a Google Script create and push the pin code and deactivation to Loxone

- we would prefer that Loxone asks the Google Calendar for the current valid pin code, but I think Loxone can not handle accessing the Google Apps Script API.

- create some tool with a webservice for Loxone to query. This requires a webserver, like a NAS or RPi.

Which way would you go, or any other ideas?

[David]

Hi, good challenge.

I have used HTTP commands from Loxone to trigger RPi running a simple web server (Python  with Flask). This works very well. 

Not used it to retrieve data yet.

I have read about Virtual HTTP inputs which appears to poll an XML file or a web service at defined intervals for a data value. 

Google scripts could create the XML file from Google calendar

This would mean having an accessible server, but Google docs, Dropbox, or One drive may work for this. 

Interested to see which way you go - keep us informed please

regards David

[smartbusinesstools.be]

I have used HTTP commands from Loxone to trigger RPi running a simple web server (Python  with Flask). This works very well. 
Not used it to retrieve data yet.

Sending HTTP commands to a webserver works, but not to Google because it requires SSL and redirection support, which Loxone does not do.

 

I have read about Virtual HTTP inputs which appears to poll an XML file or a web service at defined intervals for a data value.

I'm using that with other non-SSL services, like a weather service, but again it won't work with any of the Google services. It's also unfortunate that you can not trigger it other than on defined intervals.

 

Google scripts could create the XML file from Google calendar

This would mean having an accessible server, but Google docs, Dropbox, or One drive may work for this. 

There seems to be no way to publish the generated file to a (non-SSL) webserver of ftp server, so Loxone would still not be able to access the file. 

The only direct communication between Google and Loxone would be a Google Script using it's URL Fetch class to call a URL on the Miniserver.

This way, the valid pin code from the calendar event could be sent to the Miniserver at the start of the event, and overwritten at the end.

However, there is no secure way to do this, so anyone who know the URL could overwrite the pin.

So it seems that we will always need a 3rd service, either a local proxy to talk SSL to Google, or a something to do the scheduling and validation locally.

I'll first give it a try to create something in Loxone only, using PicoC and storing the information in a file on the Miniserver.

[Zbigniew Zahradnik]

Hi, I have the same problem: I need to generate a PIN that will be valid for the duration of the guests' stay at the hotel. PIN code generation and arrival time are best entered using the google calendar.
Were you able to accomplish this task?

Dne neděle 10. dubna 2016 11:20:06 UTC+2 smartbusinesstools.be napsal(a):

[Christopher Bové]

Hi, I'm not very technical but I came across the Cal-dav-4-lox plugin for loxberry. Maybe this can be any help for your problem?
https://www.loxwiki.eu/plugins/servlet/mobile?contentId=12092065#content/view/12092065