Button Platform for Homebridge

This Homebridge platform plugin creates virtual buttons that can be triggered using HTTP requests. It was designed to provide HomeKit support for Flic smart buttons which don't have native HomeKit support yet but can be leveraged by anything that can send HTTP requests.

Install

The simplest method to install and configure this plugin is via homebridge-config-ui-x.

To install manually, run the following command in your Homebridge directory. Depending on how you installed Homebridge, you may need to add the -g and/or the --unsafe-perms parameters:

$ npm install homebridge-button-platform
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Configuration

The plugin can be configured via the homebridge-config-ui-x admin interface.

To configure the plugin manually, add the following configuration to the platforms block of your Homebridge config.json file:

"platforms": [
    {
        "platform": "button-platform",
        "port": 3001,
        "buttons": [
            "My Button",
            "Your Button",
            "Their Button"
        ]
    }
  ]

You can add as many buttons to the array as you need. Each button will get its own URI on which the server will listen for events. You can determine the URI for each button by checking the Homebridge logs for The Event URI for <button name> is: /button-button-name strings.

Sending events

To trigger a button event, send an HTTP POST request to your Homebridge IP address and the port specified in the configuration of the platform, plus the URI for the button.

You must set the Content-Type header to either application/json or application/x-www-form-urlencoded.

The body of the request needs a field named event with a value of one of the following:

• click or single-press
• double-click or double-press
• hold or long-press

For example, to send a double press event to a button using curl:

$ curl -X POST \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
  -d 'event=double-click' \
  http://<homebridge>:<port>/<uri>

The plugin also accepts application/json payloads:

$ curl -X POST \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"event": "double-click"}' \
  http://<homebridge>:<port>/<uri>

Example Flic button configuration

Here’s a screenshot of what an Internet Request action should look like in the Flic app if your Homebridge server’s IP address was 192.168.0.100 and the plugin was listening on port 3001:

The values are as follows:

Field	Value
Hub Action	Internet Request
URL	http://homebridge_ip:3001/button_uri
Content Type	application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Body	event=click or event=double-click or event=hold

Troubleshooting

Check the Homebridge logs for any warnings as the plugin will log any attempts to trigger an invalid event or any invalid URIs.