Google Home - Actions (API) now available!

Hardware Home Automation
21

hi @geworfener

yes this was the plan, I am checking all needed stuff at the moment and I would add it to myopenhab to have google home skill. This skill can than be activated by Google assistant.
Ok sounds great ! Are you familiar with opehab-cloud (if you re the Florian I assume, than yes :slight_smile: )?
There is no official direct API as far as I found…it is cloud based, similar to Alexa.

BR Mehmet

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22

Hi,

no I am not the Florian and I have not developed anything for openhab yet, sorry! :slight_smile:

Concerning “offline support”, I found this interesting link: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41052273/can-i-develop-a-private-action-only-accessible-via-my-google-home-or-linked-acco

So, there is obviously no official “offline support” yet…

23

Hi @MARZIMA,

Do you need help with that? Are you working on a branch ? (I’m the one who opened the issue on github)

Regards
Fábio

24

Hi @fabito,
I will let you know! Thanks alot. I am actually doing a WIP PR .
I will contact you for help if I have finished a certain state…
BR Mehmet

2 Likes
25

So short Update:
I learned really well how this needs to be done. I managed to run and test the example cloud project of google also.
Some parts are little strange. For smarthome apps the fullfillment wont go over API.AI and Google App Engine, which would be some kinda symmetric to what we developed with dan for Alexa as node app on AWS Lambda. But for smarthome action apps Google states that it is only working with Actions SDK (a CLI based tool gactions).
Since Response Timing, Stability and Latency are really important, and to avoid additional hosting, my current approach is to add our IntentHandlers directly to the cloud in new submodules. In some ways similiar to the end-to-end example of Google at github.

So currently my state is this and Iam continuing to implement the fullfillment (our openhab-cloud cloud backend logic for incoming intents):

The general steps in creating a Smart Home app are:

  • Setup an OAuth 2.0 server for account linking. DONE
  • Create a Actions on Google developer project.
    DONE
  • Create an action package, declaring support for Smart Home intents.
    DONE
  • Provide fulfillment of Smart Home intents.
    WIP
    Test and submit your app for approval.
    WIP

I need a little more time, since I dev mainly in the night during Ramadan :slight_smile:

BR Mehmet

11 Likes
26

Thanks for the update! It’s not related to this subject but I’m curious about what you had to do to setup the Oauth 2.0 server? I might have to do something like this for my Wink bindings, do you have some code that I could look at?

[1] https://community.openhab.org/t/offering-to-implement-the-wink-hub-2-bindings/

27

hi,
oAuth Support is a feature of oh cloud. There was a discussion at ESH about authentication possibilities for OH2. But I dont know the current state.
So adding oAuth Support would be sth. for the whole project running on gateway. For the backend side, we use it already.

2 Likes
28

Any news on the binding?
Perhaps you need some testers?

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29

Hi, yes any feedback on progress will be much appreciated. I’m also quite keen on helping with tests or whatever. (Nodejs and python background)

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30

Hi all,

here a short feedback:
The smarthome app setup on actions on google console is done. It was easy in the beginning and just made me go crazy at the end.
At the moment I am implementing all the intents (for which I need little more time) as a Google Cloud Function, a Serverless-Architecture feature of Google. This is Googles answer to AWS Lambda and is only in beta status, but usable and the better architectural way from my point of view.
The nodejs example from Google at github takes another way and puts all logic on the smarthome provider backend. I started that way and switched to Google Cloud Functions because this will be similiar like we did with the Alexa Skill which runs the openHAB Skill Business Logic on AWS Lambda.

Last but not least, I need to say that Alexa Skill development is much better documented, concepts are easier realized, complexity-wise and dont have “baby bugs”.
For Actions on Google I found already 2 problems/bugs. The most painfull one is, that the created AoG openHAB skill cant be tested with my Google account. There are two options:

  • A smartphone running Google Assistant, where you “activate” and do account linking
  • Device web simulator in Actions console, where you fire voice commands to test your backend and the skill logic.
    -> Both are not working for me. This problem (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42153333/why-i-cant-use-google-action-in-web-simulator)
    occured also to other devs, where the only solution is to pair a real Google device to your Google mail account. Than the web simulator starts working and the skill occurs in the smartphone Google Assistant app for account linkage.
    So as german I need to order a real Google Home from US, since it is not released here yet. Thats really frustrating!
    I will go on with the mock assistant platform to test the Google Cloud Function with the openHAB logic and let you know if you can start and help with testing.

Sorry for not having it finished but it is more difficult as expected and I had others stuffs to finish, too.

PS: I was also quite busy privately and ramadan was crazy hot this year.

Hope to finish the rest soon!

9 Likes
31

Thanks for the update!

32

Hi,

Google Home may be released in August in Germany, so you don’t have to order it in the US.

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33

Hi Marzima. I was also having a go at implementing the intents in cloud engine for the REST API.

If it’s any help the google home is available in the UK which is much closer.

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34

@fourthwall
Thanks!
Atm I test with mock assistant plattform. For ginal testing I will need the device or you guys van help to test…
Iam almost done and finishing last things. Hope to share it soon and will need testers for this one.
If ok I would contact you as soon I got it?

Are you fine to test? Do you have a Google Home?

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35

I don’t have one yet but I am thinking about it - I wanted it to have a go with the implementation stuff but you beat me to it :slight_smile:

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36

The Google Home will arrive in few new countries (Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Japan) in less than one month. You will have a larger public very soon.

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37

A slight advisory - it’s actually very cheap from google’s ebay store - $100 USD with a chromecast

Whether or not you’d get strung up on import taxes is another matter

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38

Hi I’m available for testing. I have a Google Home device (I live in Italy but I had got one from the USA)

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39

I have one and happy to test.

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40

I have two, and super keen to test :grinning::grinning:

1 Like