HTTP Adapter

The HTTP protocol adapter exposes HTTP based endpoints for Eclipse Hono™’s south bound Telemetry, Event and Command & Control APIs.

Device Authentication

The HTTP adapter by default requires clients (devices or gateway components) to authenticate during connection establishment. The adapter supports both the Basic HTTP authentication scheme as well as client certificate based authentication as part of a TLS handshake for that purpose.

The adapter tries to authenticate the device using these mechanisms in the following order

Client Certificate

The HTTP adapter supports authenticating clients based on TLS cipher suites using a digital signature based key exchange algorithm as described in RFC 5246 (TLS 1.2) and RFC 8446 (TLS 1.3). This requires a client to provide an X.509 certificate containing a public key that can be used for digital signature. The adapter uses the information in the client certificate to verify the device’s identity as described in Client Certificate based Authentication.

HTTP Basic Auth

The HTTP adapter supports authenticating clients using the Basic HTTP authentication scheme. This means that clients need to provide a user-id and a password encoded in the authorization HTTP request header as defined in RFC 7617, Section 2 when connecting to the HTTP adapter. The user-id component of the header value must match the pattern auth-id@tenant, e.g. sensor1@DEFAULT_TENANT.

The adapter extracts the auth-id, tenant and password from the request header and verifies them using the credentials that the configured Credentials service has on record for the client as described in Username/Password based Authentication. If the credentials match, the client has been authenticated successfully and the request is being processed.

HTTP Bearer Auth

The HTTP adapter supports authenticating clients using the Bearer HTTP authentication scheme. This requires a client to provide a signed JSON Web Token (JWT) as a Bearer token inside the authentication header. The information about the tenant and the authentication identifier can be presented to the protocol adapter in one of two ways:

1. Either as claims inside the JSON Web Signature (JWS) payload. For more information on this see JSON Web Token based Authentication
2. or inside the URI, in which case the URI must have the format for unauthenticated device even for authenticated devices (see Publish Telemetry Data (unauthenticated Device).

The adapter extracts the auth-id, tenant and JWT from the HTTP request and verifies them using the credentials that the configured Credentials service has on record for the client as described in JSON Web Token based Authentication. If the JWT is verified in combination with the credentials and within its validity period, the client has been authenticated successfully and the connection is being established. The validity period is defined within the JWS payload by the mandatory claims iat (“issued at”) and exp (“expiration time”). Please refer to JSON Web Token based Authentication for more detailed information.

Message Limits

The adapter rejects

• a client’s request to upload data with status code 429 Too Many Requests and
• any AMQP 1.0 message containing a command sent by a north bound application

if the message limit that has been configured for the device’s tenant is exceeded.

Publish Telemetry Data (authenticated Device)

• URI: /telemetry
• Method: POST
• Request Headers:
  • (optional) authorization: The device’s auth-id and plain text password encoded according to the Basic HTTP authentication scheme. If not set, the adapter expects the device to present a client certificate as part of the TLS handshake during connection establishment.
  • (optional) content-type: The type of payload contained in the request body. Required, if the request body is empty. The given content type, if not empty, will be used in the message being forwarded downstream. Otherwise, the content type of the downstream message will be set to application/octet-stream, if the payload is not empty and no default content type has been defined for the origin device or its tenant (see Downstream Meta Data).
  • (optional) hono-ttd: The number of seconds the device will wait for the response. Alternatively, this may be specified using a URI query parameter of the same name.
  • (optional) qos-level: The QoS level for publishing telemetry messages. The adapter supports at most once (0) and at least once (1) QoS levels. The default value of 0 is assumed if this header is omitted.
• Request Body:
  • (optional) Arbitrary payload matching the given content type.
• Response Headers:
  • (optional) content-type: A media type describing the semantics and format of payload contained in the response body. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device which requires input data or if the request failed and the response body contains error details.
  • (optional) hono-command: The name of the command to execute. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device.
  • (optional) hono-cmd-req-id: An identifier that the device must include in its response to a command. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device.
  • (optional) hono-cmd-target-device: The id of the device that shall execute the command. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device and if the response goes to a gateway that acts on behalf of the target device.
• Response Body:
  • (optional) Arbitrary data serving as input to a command to be executed by the device, if status code is 200.
  • (optional) Error details, if status code is >= 400.
• Status Codes:
  • 200 (OK): The telemetry data has been accepted for processing. The response contains a command for the device to execute.
  • 202 (Accepted): The telemetry data has been accepted for processing. Note that if the qos-level request header is omitted (at most once semantics), this status code does not mean that the message has been delivered to any potential consumer. However, if the QoS level header is set to 1 (at least once semantics), then the adapter waits for the message to be delivered and accepted by a downstream consumer before responding with this status code.
  • 400 (Bad Request): The request cannot be processed. Possible reasons for this include:
    • The request body is empty and the content-type header is missing.
    • The content-type header indicates an empty-notification but the request body is not empty.
    • The qos-level header value is invalid.
  • 401 (Unauthorized): The request cannot be processed because the request does not contain valid credentials.
  • 403 (Forbidden): The request cannot be processed because the device’s registration status cannot be asserted. Possible reasons for this include:
    • The given tenant is not allowed to use this protocol adapter.
  • 404 (Not Found): The request cannot be processed because the device is disabled or does not exist.
  • 413 (Request Entity Too Large): The request cannot be processed because the request body exceeds the maximum supported size.
  • 429 (Too Many Requests): The request cannot be processed because the tenant’s message limit for the current period is exceeded.
  • 503 (Service Unavailable): The request cannot be processed. Possible reasons for this include:
    • There is no consumer of telemetry data for the given tenant connected to Hono, or the consumer has not indicated that it may receive further messages (not giving credits).
    • If the QoS level header is set to 1 (at least once semantics), the reason may be:
      • The consumer has indicated that it didn’t process the telemetry data.
      • The consumer failed to indicate in time whether it has processed the telemetry data.

This is the preferred way for devices to publish telemetry data. It is available only if the protocol adapter is configured to require devices to authenticate (which is the default).

Examples

Publish some JSON data for device 4711:

curl -i -u sensor1@DEFAULT_TENANT:hono-secret -H 'content-type: application/json' --data-binary '{"temp": 5}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/telemetry

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 0

Publish some JSON data for device 4711 using at least once QoS:

curl -i -u sensor1@DEFAULT_TENANT:hono-secret -H 'content-type: application/json' -H 'qos-level: 1' --data-binary '{"temp": 5}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/telemetry

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 0

Publish some JSON data for device 4711, indicating that the device will wait for 10 seconds to receive the response:

curl -i -u sensor1@DEFAULT_TENANT:hono-secret -H 'content-type: application/json' -H 'hono-ttd: 10' --data-binary '{"temp": 5}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/telemetry

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
hono-command: set
hono-cmd-req-id: 1010a7249aa5-f742-4376-8458-bbfc88c72d92
content-length: 23

{
  "brightness": 87
}

Publish some JSON data for device 4711 using a client certificate for authentication:

# in base directory of Hono repository:
curl -i --cert demo-certs/certs/device-4711-cert.pem --key demo-certs/certs/device-4711-key.pem --cacert demo-certs/certs/trusted-certs.pem -H 'content-type: application/json' --data-binary '{"temp": 5}' https://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8443/telemetry

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 0

Publish Telemetry Data (unauthenticated Device)

• URI: /telemetry/${tenantId}/${deviceId}
• Method: PUT
• Request Headers:
  • (optional) content-type: The type of payload contained in the request body. Required, if the request body is empty. The given content type, if not empty, will be used in the message being forwarded downstream. Otherwise, the content type of the downstream message will be set to application/octet-stream, if the payload is not empty and no default content type has been defined for the origin device or its tenant (see Downstream Meta Data).
  • (optional) hono-ttd: The number of seconds the device will wait for the response. Alternatively, this may be specified using a URI query parameter of the same name.
  • (optional) qos-level: The QoS level for publishing telemetry messages. The adapter supports at most once (0) and at least once (1) QoS levels. The default value of 0 is assumed if this header is omitted.
• Request Body:
  • (optional) Arbitrary payload matching the given content type.
• Response Headers:
  • (optional) content-type: A media type describing the semantics and format of payload contained in the response body. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device which requires input data or if the request failed and the response body contains error details.
  • (optional) hono-command: The name of the command to execute. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device.
  • (optional) hono-cmd-req-id: An identifier that the device must include in its response to a command. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device.
• Response Body:
  • (optional) Arbitrary data serving as input to a command to be executed by the device, if status code is 200.
  • (optional) Error details, if status code is >= 400.
• Status Codes:
  • 200 (OK): The telemetry data has been accepted for processing. The response contains a command for the device to execute.
  • 202 (Accepted): The telemetry data has been accepted for processing. Note that if the qos-level request header is omitted (at most once semantics), this status code does not mean that the message has been delivered to any potential consumer. However, if the QoS level header is set to 1 (at least once semantics), then the adapter waits for the message to be delivered and accepted by a downstream consumer before responding with this status code.
  • 400 (Bad Request): The request cannot be processed. Possible reasons for this include:
    • The request body is empty and the content-type header is missing.
    • The content-type header indicates an empty-notification but the request body is not empty.
    • The qos-level header value is invalid.
  • 403 (Forbidden): The request cannot be processed because the device’s registration status cannot be asserted. Possible reasons for this include:
    • The given tenant is not allowed to use this protocol adapter.
    • The given device does not belong to the given tenant.
  • 404 (Not Found): The request cannot be processed because the device is disabled or does not exist.
  • 413 (Request Entity Too Large): The request cannot be processed because the request body exceeds the maximum supported size.
  • 429 (Too Many Requests): The request cannot be processed because the tenant’s message limit for the current period is exceeded.
  • 503 (Service Unavailable): The request cannot be processed. Possible reasons for this include:
    • There is no consumer of telemetry data for the given tenant connected to Hono, or the consumer has not indicated that it may receive further messages (not giving credits).
    • If the QoS level header is set to 1 (at least once semantics), the reason may be:
      • The consumer has indicated that it didn’t process the telemetry data.
      • The consumer failed to indicate in time whether it has processed the telemetry data.

This resource MUST be used by devices that have not authenticated to the protocol adapter. Note that this requires the HONO_HTTP_AUTHENTICATIONREQUIRED configuration property to be explicitly set to false.

Examples

Publish some JSON data for device 4711:

curl -i -X PUT -H 'content-type: application/json' --data-binary '{"temp": 5}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/telemetry/DEFAULT_TENANT/4711

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 0

Publish some JSON data for device 4711 using at least once QoS:

curl -i -X PUT -H 'content-type: application/json' -H 'qos-level: 1' --data-binary '{"temp": 5}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/telemetry/DEFAULT_TENANT/4711

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 0

Publish some JSON data for device 4711, indicating that the device will wait for 10 seconds to receive the response:

curl -i -X PUT -H 'content-type: application/json' -H 'hono-ttd: 10' --data-binary '{"temp": 5}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/telemetry/DEFAULT_TENANT/4711

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
hono-command: set
hono-cmd-req-id: 1010a7249aa5-f742-4376-8458-bbfc88c72d92
content-length: 23

{
  "brightness": 87
}

Publish Telemetry Data (authenticated Gateway)

• URI: /telemetry/${tenantId}/${deviceId} or /telemetry//${deviceId}
• Method: PUT
• Request Headers:
  • (optional) authorization: The gateway’s auth-id and plain text password encoded according to the Basic HTTP authentication scheme. If not set, the adapter expects the gateway to present a client certificate as part of the TLS handshake during connection establishment.
  • (optional) content-type: The type of payload contained in the request body. Required, if the request body is empty. The given content type, if not empty, will be used in the message being forwarded downstream. Otherwise, the content type of the downstream message will be set to application/octet-stream, if the payload is not empty and no default content type has been defined for the origin device or its tenant (see Downstream Meta Data).
  • (optional) hono-ttd: The number of seconds the device will wait for the response. Alternatively, this may be specified using a URI query parameter of the same name.
  • (optional) qos-level: The QoS level for publishing telemetry messages. The adapter supports at most once (0) and at least once (1) QoS levels. The default value of 0 is assumed if this header is omitted.
• Request Body:
  • (optional) Arbitrary payload matching the given content type.
• Response Headers:
  • (optional) content-type: A media type describing the semantics and format of payload contained in the response body. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device which requires input data or if the request failed and the response body contains error details.
  • (optional) hono-command: The name of the command to execute. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device.
  • (optional) hono-cmd-req-id: An identifier that the device must include in its response to a command. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device.
  • (optional) hono-cmd-target-device: The id of the device that shall execute the command. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device.
• Response Body:
  • (optional) Arbitrary data serving as input to a command to be executed by the device, if status code is 200.
  • (optional) Error details, if status code is >= 400.
• Status Codes:
  • 200 (OK): The telemetry data has been accepted for processing. The response contains a command for the device to execute.
  • 202 (Accepted): The telemetry data has been accepted for processing. Note that if the qos-level request header is omitted (at most once semantics), this status code does not mean that the message has been delivered to any potential consumer. However, if the QoS level header is set to 1 (at least once semantics), then the adapter waits for the message to be delivered and accepted by a downstream consumer before responding with this status code.
  • 400 (Bad Request): The request cannot be processed. Possible reasons for this include:
    • The request body is empty and the content-type header is missing.
    • The content-type header indicates an empty-notification but the request body is not empty.
    • The qos-level header value is invalid.
  • 401 (Unauthorized): The request cannot be processed because the request does not contain valid credentials.
  • 403 (Forbidden): The request cannot be processed because the device’s registration status cannot be asserted. Possible reasons for this include:
    • The tenant that the gateway belongs to is not allowed to use this protocol adapter.
    • The device belongs to another tenant than the gateway.
    • The gateway is not authorized to act on behalf of the device.
    • The gateway associated with the device is not registered or disabled.
  • 404 (Not Found): The request cannot be processed because the device is disabled or does not exist.
  • 413 (Request Entity Too Large): The request cannot be processed because the request body exceeds the maximum supported size.
  • 429 (Too Many Requests): The request cannot be processed because the tenant’s message limit for the current period is exceeded.
  • 503 (Service Unavailable): The request cannot be processed. Possible reasons for this include:
    • There is no consumer of telemetry data for the given tenant connected to Hono, or the consumer has not indicated that it may receive further messages (not giving credits).
    • If the QoS level header is set to 1 (at least once semantics), the reason may be:
      • The consumer has indicated that it didn’t process the telemetry data.
      • The consumer failed to indicate in time whether it has processed the telemetry data.

This resource can be used by gateway components to publish data on behalf of other devices which do not connect to a protocol adapter directly but instead are connected to the gateway, e.g. using some low-bandwidth radio based technology like SigFox or LoRa. In this case the credentials provided by the gateway during connection establishment with the protocol adapter are used to authenticate the gateway whereas the parameters from the URI are used to identify the device that the gateway publishes data for.

The protocol adapter checks the gateway’s authority to publish data on behalf of the device implicitly by means of retrieving a registration assertion for the device from the configured Device Registration service.

Examples

Publish some JSON data on behalf of device 4712:

curl -i -X PUT -u gw@DEFAULT_TENANT:gw-secret -H 'content-type: application/json' --data-binary '{"temp": 5}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/telemetry//4712

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 0

Publish some JSON data on behalf of device 4712 using at least once QoS:

curl -i -X PUT -u gw@DEFAULT_TENANT:gw-secret -H 'content-type: application/json' -H 'qos-level: 1' --data-binary '{"temp": 5}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/telemetry//4712

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 0

Publish some JSON data on behalf of device 4712, indicating that the gateway will wait for 10 seconds to receive the response:

curl -i -X PUT -u gw@DEFAULT_TENANT:gw-secret -H 'content-type: application/json' -H 'hono-ttd: 10' --data-binary '{"temp": 5}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/telemetry//4712

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
hono-command: set
hono-cmd-req-id: 1010a7249aa5-f742-4376-8458-bbfc88c72d92
content-length: 23

{
  "brightness": 87
}

Publish an Event (authenticated Device)

• URI: /event
• Method: POST
• Request Headers:
  • (optional) authorization: The device’s auth-id and plain text password encoded according to the Basic HTTP authentication scheme. If not set, the adapter expects the device to present a client certificate as part of the TLS handshake during connection establishment.
  • (optional) content-type: The type of payload contained in the request body. Required, if the request body is empty. The given content type, if not empty, will be used in the message being forwarded downstream. Otherwise, the content type of the downstream message will be set to application/octet-stream, if the payload is not empty and no default content type has been defined for the origin device or its tenant (see Downstream Meta Data).
  • (optional) hono-ttd: The number of seconds the device will wait for the response. Alternatively, this may be specified using a URI query parameter of the same name.
  • (optional) hono-ttl: The message’s time-to-live in number of seconds. Alternatively, this may be specified using a URI query parameter of the same name.
• Request Body:
  • (optional) Arbitrary payload matching the given content type.
• Response Headers:
  • (optional) content-type: A media type describing the semantics and format of payload contained in the response body. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device which requires input data or if the request failed and the response body contains error details.
  • (optional) hono-command: The name of the command to execute. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device.
  • (optional) hono-cmd-req-id: An identifier that the device must include in its response to a command. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device.
  • (optional) hono-cmd-target-device: The id of the device that shall execute the command. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device and if the response goes to a gateway that acts on behalf of the target device.
• Response Body:
  • (optional) Arbitrary data serving as input to a command to be executed by the device, if status code is 200.
  • (optional) Error details, if status code is >= 400.
• Status Codes:
  • 200 (OK): The event has been accepted for processing. The response contains a command for the device to execute.
  • 202 (Accepted): The event has been accepted for processing.
  • 400 (Bad Request): The request cannot be processed. Possible reasons for this include:
    • The request body is empty and the content-type header is missing.
    • The content-type header indicates an empty-notification but the request body is not empty.
  • 401 (Unauthorized): The request cannot be processed because the request does not contain valid credentials.
  • 403 (Forbidden): The request cannot be processed because the device’s registration status cannot be asserted. Possible reasons for this include:
    • The given tenant is not allowed to use this protocol adapter.
  • 404 (Not Found): The request cannot be processed because the device is disabled or does not exist.
  • 413 (Request Entity Too Large): The request cannot be processed because the request body exceeds the maximum supported size.
  • 429 (Too Many Requests): The request cannot be processed because the tenant’s message limit for the current period is exceeded.
  • 503 (Service Unavailable): The request cannot be processed because there is no consumer of events for the given tenant connected to Hono, or the consumer didn’t process the event.

This is the preferred way for devices to publish events. It is available only if the protocol adapter is configured to require devices to authenticate (which is the default).

Example

Publish some JSON data for device 4711:

curl -i -u sensor1@DEFAULT_TENANT:hono-secret -H 'content-type: application/json' --data-binary '{"alarm": true}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/event

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 0

Publish an Event (unauthenticated Device)

• URI: /event/${tenantId}/${deviceId}
• Method: PUT
• Request Headers:
  • (optional) content-type: The type of payload contained in the request body. Required, if the request body is empty. The given content type, if not empty, will be used in the message being forwarded downstream. Otherwise, the content type of the downstream message will be set to application/octet-stream, if the payload is not empty and no default content type has been defined for the origin device or its tenant (see Downstream Meta Data).
  • (optional) hono-ttd: The number of seconds the device will wait for the response. Alternatively, this may be specified using a URI query parameter of the same name.
  • (optional) hono-ttl: The message’s time-to-live in number of seconds. Alternatively, this may be specified using a URI query parameter of the same name.
• Request Body:
  • (optional) Arbitrary payload matching the given content type.
• Response Headers:
  • (optional) content-type: A media type describing the semantics and format of payload contained in the response body. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device which requires input data or if the request failed and the response body contains error details.
  • (optional) hono-command: The name of the command to execute. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device.
  • (optional) hono-cmd-req-id: An identifier that the device must include in its response to a command. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device.
• Response Body:
  • (optional) Arbitrary data serving as input to a command to be executed by the device, if status code is 200.
  • (optional) Error details, if status code is >= 400.
• Status Codes:
  • 200 (OK): The event has been accepted and put to a persistent store for delivery to consumers. The response contains a command for the device to execute.
  • 202 (Accepted): The event has been accepted and put to a persistent store for delivery to consumers.
  • 400 (Bad Request): The request cannot be processed. Possible reasons for this include:
    • The request body is empty and the content-type header is missing.
    • The content-type header indicates an empty-notification but the request body is not empty.
  • 403 (Forbidden): The request cannot be processed because the device’s registration status cannot be asserted. Possible reasons for this include:
    • The given tenant is not allowed to use this protocol adapter.
    • The given device does not belong to the given tenant.
  • 404 (Not Found): The request cannot be processed because the device is disabled or does not exist.
  • 413 (Request Entity Too Large): The request cannot be processed because the request body exceeds the maximum supported size.
  • 429 (Too Many Requests): The request cannot be processed because the tenant’s message limit for the current period is exceeded.
  • 503 (Service Unavailable): The request cannot be processed because there is no consumer of events for the given tenant connected to Hono, or the consumer didn’t process the event.

This resource MUST be used by devices that have not authenticated to the protocol adapter. Note that this requires the HONO_HTTP_AUTHENTICATIONREQUIRED configuration property to be explicitly set to false.

Examples

Publish some JSON data for device 4711:

curl -i -X PUT -H 'content-type: application/json' --data-binary '{"alarm": true}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/event/DEFAULT_TENANT/4711

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 0

Publish an Event (authenticated Gateway)

• URI: /event/${tenantId}/${deviceId} or /event//${deviceId}
• Method: PUT
• Request Headers:
  • (optional) authorization: The gateway’s auth-id and plain text password encoded according to the Basic HTTP authentication scheme. If not set, the adapter expects the gateway to present a client certificate as part of the TLS handshake during connection establishment.
  • (optional) content-type: The type of payload contained in the request body. Required, if the request body is empty. The given content type, if not empty, will be used in the message being forwarded downstream. Otherwise, the content type of the downstream message will be set to application/octet-stream, if the payload is not empty and no default content type has been defined for the origin device or its tenant (see Downstream Meta Data).
  • (optional) hono-ttd: The number of seconds the device will wait for the response. Alternatively, this may be specified using a URI query parameter of the same name.
  • (optional) hono-ttl: The message’s time-to-live in number of seconds. Alternatively, this may be specified using a URI query parameter of the same name.
• Request Body:
  • (optional) Arbitrary payload matching the given content type.
• Response Headers:
  • (optional) content-type: A media type describing the semantics and format of payload contained in the response body. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device which requires input data or if the request failed and the response body contains error details.
  • (optional) hono-command: The name of the command to execute. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device.
  • (optional) hono-cmd-req-id: An identifier that the device must include in its response to a command. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device.
  • (optional) hono-cmd-target-device: The id of the device that shall execute the command. This header will only be present if the response contains a command to be executed by the device.
• Response Body:
  • (optional) Arbitrary data serving as input to a command to be executed by the device, if status code is 200.
  • (optional) Error details, if status code is >= 400.
• Status Codes:
  • 200 (OK): The event has been accepted and put to a persistent store for delivery to consumers. The response contains a command for the device to execute.
  • 202 (Accepted): The event has been accepted and put to a persistent store for delivery to consumers.
  • 400 (Bad Request): The request cannot be processed. Possible reasons for this include:
    • The request body is empty and the content-type header is missing.
    • The content-type header indicates an empty-notification but the request body is not empty.
  • 401 (Unauthorized): The request cannot be processed because the request does not contain valid credentials.
  • 403 (Forbidden): The request cannot be processed because the device’s registration status cannot be asserted. Possible reasons for this include:
    • The tenant that the gateway belongs to is not allowed to use this protocol adapter.
    • The device belongs to another tenant than the gateway.
    • The gateway is not authorized to act on behalf of the device.
    • The gateway associated with the device is not registered or disabled.
  • 404 (Not Found): The request cannot be processed because the device is disabled or does not exist.
  • 413 (Request Entity Too Large): The request cannot be processed because the request body exceeds the maximum supported size.
  • 429 (Too Many Requests): The request cannot be processed because the tenant’s message limit for the current period is exceeded.
  • 503 (Service Unavailable): The request cannot be processed because there is no consumer of events for the given tenant connected to Hono, or the consumer didn’t process the event.

This resource can be used by gateway components to publish data on behalf of other devices which do not connect to a protocol adapter directly but instead are connected to the gateway, e.g. using some low-bandwidth radio based technology like SigFox or LoRa. In this case the credentials provided by the gateway during connection establishment with the protocol adapter are used to authenticate the gateway whereas the parameters from the URI are used to identify the device that the gateway publishes data for.

The protocol adapter checks the gateway’s authority to publish data on behalf of the device implicitly by means of retrieving a registration assertion for the device from the configured Device Registration service.

Examples

Publish some JSON data on behalf of device 4712:

curl -i -X PUT -u gw@DEFAULT_TENANT:gw-secret -H 'content-type: application/json' --data-binary '{"temp": 5}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/event//4712

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 0

Command & Control

The HTTP adapter enables devices to receive commands that have been sent by business applications. Commands are delivered to the device by means of an HTTP response message. That means a device first has to send a request, indicating how long it will wait for the response. That request can either be a telemetry or event message, with a hono-ttd header or query parameter (ttd for time till disconnect) specifying the number of seconds the device will wait for the response. The business application can react on that message by sending a command message, targeted at the device. The HTTP adapter will then send the command message as part of the HTTP response message with status 200 (OK) to the device. If the HTTP adapter receives no command message in the given time period, a 202 (Accepted) response will be sent to the device (provided the request was valid).

Specifying the Time a Device will wait for a Response

The adapter lets devices indicate the number of seconds they will wait for a response by setting a header or a query parameter.

curl -i -u sensor1@DEFAULT_TENANT:hono-secret -H 'content-type: application/json' -H 'hono-ttd: 60' --data-binary '{"temp": 5}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/telemetry

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 0

curl -i -u sensor1@DEFAULT_TENANT:hono-secret -H 'content-type: application/json' --data-binary '{"temp": 5}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/telemetry?hono-ttd=60

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 0

Commands handled by gateways

Authenticated gateways will receive commands for devices which do not connect to a protocol adapter directly but instead are connected to the gateway. Corresponding devices have to be configured so that they can be used with a gateway. See Connecting via a Device Gateway for details.

A gateway can send a request with the hono-ttd header or query parameter on the /event or /telemetry URI, indicating its readiness to receive a command for any device it acts on behalf of. Note that in this case, the business application will be notified with the gateway id in the device_id property of the downstream message.

An authenticated gateway can also indicate its readiness to receive a command targeted at a specific device. For that, the /event/${tenantId}/${deviceId} or /telemetry/${tenantId}/${deviceId} URI is to be used, containing the id of the device to receive a command for. The business application will receive a notification with that device id.

If there are multiple concurrent requests with a hono-ttd header or query parameter, sent by the command target device and/or one or more of its potential gateways, the HTTP adapter will choose the device or gateway to send the command to as follows:

• A request done by the command target device or by a gateway specifically done for that device, has precedence. If there are multiple, concurrent such requests, the last one will get the command message (if received) in its response. Note that the other requests won’t be answered with a command message in their response event if the business application sent multiple command messages. That means commands for a single device can only be requested sequentially, not in parallel.
• If the above doesn’t apply, a single hono-ttd request on the /event or /telemetry URI, sent by a gateway that the command target device is configured for, will get the command message in its response.
• If there are multiple, concurrent such requests by different gateways, all configured for the command target device, the request by the gateway will be chosen, through which the target device has last sent a telemetry or event message. If the target device hasn’t sent a message yet and it is thereby unknown via which gateway the device communicates, then one of the requests will be chosen randomly to set the command in its response.

Sending a Response to a Command (authenticated Device)

• URI: /command/res/${commandRequestId} or /command/res/${commandRequestId}?hono-cmd-status=${status}
• Method: POST
• Request Headers:
  • (optional) authorization: The device’s auth-id and plain text password encoded according to the Basic HTTP authentication scheme. If not set, the adapter expects the device to present a client certificate as part of the TLS handshake during connection establishment.
  • (optional) content-type: A media type describing the semantics and format of the payload contained in the request body. This header may be set if the result of processing the command on the device is non-empty. In this case the result data is contained in the request body.
  • (optional) hono-cmd-status: The status of the command execution. If not set, the adapter expects that the URI contains it as a query parameter.
• Request Body:
  • (optional) Arbitrary data representing the result of processing the command on the device.
• Response Headers:
  • (optional) content-type: A media type describing the semantics and format of payload contained in the response body. This header will only be present if the request failed and the response body contains error details.
• Response Body:
  • (optional) Error details, if status code is >= 400.
• Status Codes:
  • 202 (Accepted): The response has been successfully delivered to the application that has sent the command.
  • 400 (Bad Request): The request cannot be processed because the command status is missing.
  • 401 (Unauthorized): The request cannot be processed because the request does not contain valid credentials.
  • 403 (Forbidden): The request cannot be processed because the device’s registration status cannot be asserted. Possible reasons for this include:
    • The given tenant is not allowed to use this protocol adapter.
  • 404 (Not Found): The request cannot be processed because the device is disabled or does not exist.
  • 413 (Request Entity Too Large): The request cannot be processed because the request body exceeds the maximum supported size.
  • 429 (Too Many Requests): The request cannot be processed because the tenant’s message limit for the current period is exceeded.
  • 503 (Service Unavailable): The request cannot be processed. Possible reasons for this include:
    • There is no application listening for a reply to the given commandRequestId.
    • The application has already given up on waiting for a response.

This is the preferred way for devices to respond to commands. It is available only if the protocol adapter is configured to require devices to authenticate (which is the default).

Example

Send a response to a previously received command with the command-request-id req-id-uuid for device 4711:

curl -i -u sensor1@DEFAULT_TENANT:hono-secret -H 'content-type: application/json' --data-binary '{"brightness-changed": true}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/command/res/req-id-uuid?hono-cmd-status=200

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 0

Sending a Response to a Command (unauthenticated Device)

• URI: /command/res/${tenantId}/${deviceId}/${commandRequestId} or /command/res/${tenantId}/${deviceId}/${commandRequestId}?hono-cmd-status=${status}
• Method: PUT
• Request Headers:
  • (optional) content-type: A media type describing the semantics and format of the payload contained in the request body (the outcome of processing the command).
  • (optional) hono-cmd-status: The status of the command execution. If not set, the adapter expects that the URI contains it as a query parameter.
• Request Body:
  • (optional) Arbitrary data representing the result of processing the command on the device.
• Response Headers:
  • (optional) content-type: A media type describing the semantics and format of payload contained in the response body. This header will only be present if the request failed and the response body contains error details.
• Response Body:
  • (optional) Error details, if status code is >= 400.
• Status Codes:
  • 202 (Accepted): The response has been successfully delivered to the application that has sent the command.
  • 400 (Bad Request): The request cannot be processed because the command status is missing.
  • 403 (Forbidden): The request cannot be processed because the device’s registration status cannot be asserted. Possible reasons for this might be:
    • The given tenant is not allowed to use this protocol adapter.
    • The given device does not belong to the given tenant.
  • 404 (Not Found): The request cannot be processed because the device is disabled or does not exist.
  • 413 (Request Entity Too Large): The request cannot be processed because the request body exceeds the maximum supported size.
  • 429 (Too Many Requests): The request cannot be processed because the tenant’s message limit for the current period is exceeded.
  • 503 (Service Unavailable): The request cannot be processed. Possible reasons for this include:
    • There is no application listening for a reply to the given commandRequestId.
    • The application has already given up on waiting for a response.

This resource MUST be used by devices that have not authenticated to the protocol adapter. Note that this requires the HONO_HTTP_AUTHENTICATIONREQUIRED configuration property to be explicitly set to false.

Examples

Send a response to a previously received command with the command-request-id req-id-uuid for the unauthenticated device 4711:

curl -i -X PUT -H 'content-type: application/json' --data-binary '{"brightness-changed": true}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/command/res/DEFAULT_TENANT/4711/req-id-uuid?hono-cmd-status=200

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 0

Sending a Response to a Command (authenticated Gateway)

• URI: /command/res/${tenantId}/${deviceId}/${commandRequestId} or /command/res/${tenantId}/${deviceId}/${commandRequestId}?hono-cmd-status=${status} or /command/res//${deviceId}/${commandRequestId} or /command/res//${deviceId}/${commandRequestId}?hono-cmd-status=${status}
• Method: PUT
• Request Headers:
  • (optional) authorization: The gateway’s auth-id and plain text password encoded according to the Basic HTTP authentication scheme. If not set, the adapter expects the gateway to present a client certificate as part of the TLS handshake during connection establishment.
  • (optional) content-type: A media type describing the semantics and format of the payload contained in the request body (the outcome of processing the command).
  • (optional) hono-cmd-status: The status of the command execution. If not set, the adapter expects that the URI contains it as a query parameter.
• Request Body:
  • (optional) Arbitrary data representing the result of processing the command on the device.
• Response Headers:
  • (optional) content-type: A media type describing the semantics and format of payload contained in the response body. This header will only be present if the request failed and the response body contains error details.
• Response Body:
  • (optional) Error details, if status code is >= 400.
• Status Codes:
  • 202 (Accepted): The response has been successfully delivered to the application that has sent the command.
  • 400 (Bad Request): The request cannot be processed because the command status is missing.
  • 403 (Forbidden): The request cannot be processed because the device’s registration status cannot be asserted. Possible reasons for this might be:
    • The given tenant is not allowed to use this protocol adapter.
    • The given device does not belong to the given tenant.
    • The gateway is not authorized to act on behalf of the device.
    • The gateway associated with the device is not registered or disabled.
  • 404 (Not Found): The request cannot be processed because the device is disabled or does not exist.
  • 413 (Request Entity Too Large): The request cannot be processed because the request body exceeds the maximum supported size.
  • 429 (Too Many Requests): The request cannot be processed because the tenant’s message limit for the current period is exceeded.
  • 503 (Service Unavailable): The request cannot be processed. Possible reasons for this include:
    • There is no application listening for a reply to the given commandRequestId.
    • The application has already given up on waiting for a response.

This resource can be used by gateway components to send the response to a command on behalf of other devices which do not connect to a protocol adapter directly but instead are connected to the gateway, e.g. using some low-bandwidth radio based technology like SigFox or LoRa. In this case the credentials provided by the gateway during connection establishment with the protocol adapter are used to authenticate the gateway whereas the parameters from the URI are used to identify the device that the gateway publishes data for.

The protocol adapter checks the gateway’s authority to send responses to a command on behalf of the device implicitly by means of retrieving a registration assertion for the device from the configured Device Registration service.

Examples

Send a response to a previously received command with the command-request-id req-id-uuid on behalf of device 4712:

curl -i -X PUT -u gw@DEFAULT_TENANT:gw-secret -H 'content-type: application/json' --data-binary '{"brightness-changed": true}' http://hono.eclipseprojects.io:8080/command/res//4712/req-id-uuid?hono-cmd-status=200

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
content-length: 0

Downstream Meta Data

The adapter includes the following meta data in messages being sent downstream:

The adapter also considers defaults registered for the device at either the tenant or the device level. The values of the default properties are determined as follows:

1. If the message already contains a non-empty property of the same name, its value remains unchanged.
2. Otherwise, if a default property of the same name is defined in the device’s registration information, that value is used.
3. Otherwise, if a default property of the same name is defined for the tenant that the device belongs to, that value is used.

Note that of the standard AMQP 1.0 message properties only the content-type and ttl can be set this way to a default value.

Event Message Time-to-live

Events published by devices will usually be persisted by the messaging infrastructure in order to support deferred delivery to downstream consumers.

In most cases, the messaging infrastructure can be configured with a maximum time-to-live to apply to the events so that the events will be removed from the persistent store if no consumer has attached to receive the event before the message expires.

In order to support environments where the messaging infrastructure cannot be configured accordingly, the protocol adapter supports setting a downstream event message’s ttl property based on the default ttl and max-ttl values configured for a tenant/device as described in the Tenant API.

Tenant specific Configuration

The adapter uses the Tenant API to retrieve tenant specific configuration for adapter type hono-http. The following properties are (currently) supported: