Hello World
Let's get started by creating a "Hello World" service that runs on your local machine and communicates with IFTTT.
Sign in or sign up before following this tutorial.
This tutorial and code sample will help get you up and running on the IFTTT Platform quickly and show you how to verify that your service is working correctly using the IFTTT endpoint tests. If you'd prefer, feel free to skim over this section or dive right into the Service API Reference!
Download the Rails app
To get started, copy the following to a file named "hello_world.rb" in your home directory:
IFTTT_SERVICE_KEY = "REPLACE_ME"
require "bundler/inline"
gemfile do
source "https://rubygems.org"
gem "rails", "~> 5.0"
end
require "action_controller/railtie"
require "active_model/railtie"
class HelloWorld < Rails::Application
routes.append do
root to: "hello#world"
get "/ifttt/v1/status", to: "ifttt#status"
post "/ifttt/v1/test/setup", to: "ifttt#setup"
post "/ifttt/v1/triggers/new_thing_created", to: "ifttt#new_thing_created"
post "/ifttt/v1/actions/create_new_thing", to: "ifttt#create_new_thing"
end
config.cache_store = :memory_store
config.eager_load = false
config.logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)
config.secret_key_base = SecureRandom.hex(30)
end
class Thing
include ActiveModel::Model
attr_accessor :created_at
def self.all
Rails.cache.fetch("things") do
[
Thing.new(created_at: Time.parse("Jan 1")),
Thing.new(created_at: Time.parse("Jan 2")),
Thing.new(created_at: Time.parse("Jan 3")),
]
end
end
def self.create
Thing.new.tap do |new_thing|
new_thing.created_at = all.last.created_at + 1.day
Rails.cache.write("things", all.push(new_thing))
end
end
def id
created_at.to_i
end
def to_json
{
created_at: created_at.iso8601,
meta: { id: id, timestamp: created_at.to_i }
}
end
def to_limited_json
{ id: id }
end
end
class HelloController < ActionController::Base
def world
render plain: "Hello, World!" + "\n" + Thing.all.map(&:to_json).join("\n")
end
end
class IftttController < ActionController::Base
before_action :return_errors_unless_valid_service_key
before_action :return_errors_unless_valid_action_fields, only: :create_new_thing
def status
head :ok
end
def setup
data = {
samples: {
actionRecordSkipping: {
create_new_thing: { invalid: "true" }
}
}
}
render plain: { data: data }.to_json
end
def new_thing_created
data = Thing.all.sort_by(&:created_at).reverse.map(&:to_json).first(params[:limit] || 50)
render plain: { data: data }.to_json
end
def create_new_thing
data = [ Thing.create.to_limited_json ]
render plain: { data: data }.to_json
end
private
def return_errors_unless_valid_service_key
unless request.headers["HTTP_IFTTT_SERVICE_KEY"] == IFTTT_SERVICE_KEY
return render plain: { errors: [ { message: "401" } ] }.to_json, status: 401
end
end
def return_errors_unless_valid_action_fields
if params[:actionFields] && params[:actionFields][:invalid] == "true"
return render plain: { errors: [ { status: "SKIP", message: "400" } ] }.to_json, status: 400
end
end
end
if IFTTT_SERVICE_KEY == "REPLACE_ME"
raise "⚠️ Copy your service key (find yours at https://ift.tt/your-service-key) into the first line of this file, then try again."
end
HelloWorld.initialize!
Rack::Server.start app: HelloWorld, Port: 3000
Install Ruby version 2.2.2 or greater
In order to run the Rails app you'll need version 2.2.2 or greater of the Ruby programming language installed. You can see which version of Ruby you have installed by running:
ruby -v
If you need to install a new version of Ruby, you can follow the installation instructions on the Ruby website.
Add your service key to your Rails app
Your service key is a secret key that is shared between your app and IFTTT. You'll need to copy and paste this key into your Rails app so IFTTT can correctly identify your service.
To get your key, visit the API page for your service and copy the service key. Then, open your local Rails app and set "IFTTT_SERVICE_KEY" to that value. You'll need to restart the Rails app for the change to take effect.
Run the Rails app
You'll need to open your Terminal and install the bundler Ruby gem:
gem install bundler
And then you'll be able to run the application:
ruby hello_world.rb
Now, you can view the Rails app running at http://localhost:3000/ in your browser. You should see a "Hello, World!" message.
You'll need to keep your Terminal window open so the application keeps running.
Install ngrok
Since the application is running on your local machine, you'll need to install something to forward IFTTT's request to your local development environment. We recommend ngrok for this because it's easy to install and free for our simple use case.
Open a new Terminal window and follow the ngrok installation instructions. Once you have ngrok installed, you can expose the app running on your local machine to the internet. Just tell ngrok what port your web server is listening on. In this case, it should be port 3000:
ngrok http 3000
You'll see some output which will include "Forwarding" URLs for http and https. These are the URLs where your application is accessible on the internet.
We'll be using the secure https URL, which will look something like this: https://130fd810.ngrok.io (where the "130fd810" will be some other random identifier.)
Visit the forwarding URL in your browser and you should see that "Hello, World!" message again.
Give IFTTT your API URL
Now that your app is up and running on the internet, you can give IFTTT the ngrok URL. Visit the Partner Platform and select the "Hello World" service that we pre-configured in your account. Then, click the "API" tab and put the ngrok Forwarding URL into the "IFTTT API URL" field and click Save.
Run the endpoint tests
IFTTT provides endpoint tests that you can use to verify that your service is configured and running correctly. From the "API" page, click the "Endpoint tests" link on the sidebar. Then, click "Begin test" in the upper right and wait a moment for the test results to come in.
If all goes well, you'll see that you have a valid service configured in the Partner Platform and running on your local machine!
Build your own service
Now you can review the service configuration on the Partner Platform and compare it to the Rails app you have running locally, make changes, and re-run the test suite to see what happens.
Try experimenting by adding new actions and triggers until you get the hang of things, and then get started building your own service using the full Service API Reference docs!