Glide to communicate with a Windows program?

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I understand that this may seem unconventional, but I’m seeking ideas or suggestions.

I’ve grown quite fond of Glide, and since my current solution logs data to an Excel file viewable within Glide, I’d like to develop the front-end using Glide as well. I’ve created a Windows application to control some machines (behind a firewall), and my goal is to access this system through a mobile app.

Ideally, the Glide app would feature on/off buttons, with the corresponding actions sent to the Windows program, which then would control the machines.

My prototype currently relies on email for the Windows program to receive actions—a rather makeshift approach.
Does anyone have any innovative ideas or know of a e.g. Zapier integration that I may have missed?

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Can you talk more about this? How is your program currently receiving “signals” from external programs?

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For now, its just via IMAP.
But as i’ve made it, i can adjust it to suite various inbound ‘signals’
Any suggestions?

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Hola!

Can you comment what type of machines you are trying to control? There are many options to get what you want, but it depends on the client’s budget, technical skills and the complexity of the process.

E.g,. this is my way to get what you try doing if I understood your scope/idea. It’s an old demo (currently data update is not working as expected) but I think you will understand the steps and software you are going to need if your want to have a Pro solution.

I have a new demo about IIoT and in the next few days I will post it to share and get some feedback to improve it.

Saludos @OttoMan28

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Godaften Gustavo,

Some are controlled by a relay, some by RS485, some by SSH, some by a MFG card in the PC, some by MQTT – it all depends.

So, its needs to be my program (lets name it the: Service program) that receives the input, and from there i ‘distribute’ out the needed action. Not the individual machine.

It could be as simple as 1,0 for machine 1 off, 1,100 full on/100%, 1,50 for % (if it’s a machine that handle more than just on/off), so a string of ‘1,0 2,0, 3,1 4,75’ would be just fine - of cause in JSON format.

It’s a very similar idea, as what you show on https://community.glideapps.com/t/glide-with-iot-iiot-industrial-iot-and-domotic-applications/22698
I see you use Make/Integromat, but you can’t get the time down under 1 min. I was considering investigating them, after Zapier.
But I need to have a response time of about 10-15 sec. however there will only be issued out 20-60 commands/actions a day.

Is GS-script, like a macro/script running on the google sheet?

I was considering a similar approach, where my Service program would be scanning the Excel file for changes, then act accordingly.

I’m not sure what kind of response time I would get, with that approach.

What we truly miss is an official Glideapp IoT gateway / Broker, something you’ll connect directly to your glide application, which then communicated with your ‘Service program’ at the corporate/factory LAN
A Glide-MQTT broker would be brilliant, with a closed proprietary protocol from glide.pages <> my.local.Glide.MQTT broker.
Imagine the stuff you then could make, the sky would be the limit :blush:

Mvh Otto

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Hola Otto!

Good to see another IoT fan here , welcome! :muscle:

Just a curiosity: your “program” is a software developed by you or a comercial one?
There are several ways to get what you want, my first advice to start testing options is this and later, use other complex solutions https://www.instructables.com/Google-Sheets-for-IOT/

In the beginning, I used this technique but I moved to other a little smarter using an IoT Gateway ( KEPServerEX) in the middle. A script running on a GS would ask and log the data via JSON and my Glide app would read this information updating the screens every 4-5 minutes automatically or in 2-4 seconds if I forced a manual update (reading my GS).

My IoT gateway is/was able to talk to most industrial protocols (Modbus, OPC, etc.) and transform it into JSON data working as a REST API from my laptop (I didn’t use Make/Integromat or Zapier for get this, but might be an option if costs are low).

I didn’t use MQTT either. Due to Glide can read that data (from my GS) fast if I fire an update manually in 2-3 sec and update all sessions/users at the same time, I was able to replicate almost the same MQTT job/goal.

My newer IoT demo has another technique and I will explain it better soon when I publish it.

I hope it helps you!

Feliz día!

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Buenos días Gustavo

Yes IoT is cool, it unites my old trade - electronics - with IT. Or as i say, move IT into the real world :slight_smile:

‘Program’ is just some homebrew spaghetti code🍝 of mine .

I have begun to wonder if Glide is the right approach for me in this case. I might have a look at MS Power Apps, as the client is heavy on the MS anyway, so there might be some good tools in the Azure IoT universe.

I the past, couple of years ago, I came across an open-source project where someone tried to create an open modular middleware server/bridge. That might also be worth a look, but I can’t remember who it was, perhaps Andreas Spiess. But that guy is very productive, he has +300 videos on YouTube, so not easy to find.

If we wipeout the drawing board and start from scratch – creating an internal Glide-bridge – what’s your best bet, on communication in and out of Glide?
The features and functions of Glide is ‘as is’ so the only place to make adjustments would be to make the Bridge comply with whatever methods Glide can support.

/Otto

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Hola @OttoMan28

I think you may be interested in my demo and the way how I retrieve and show the data

Saludos!

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Hi Gustavo

Very cool project, and very nice looking as well. Is graph you show at 00:36 native to Glide?
I have begun to make a Glide2MQTT Bridge, but its a side hustle so it’ll take a couple of weeks before its done.

/Otto

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Hola Otto!

This kind of chart isn’t native to Glide unfortunately, I created it using an Experimental Code column

image
image518×543 90.6 KB

I used one of the CanvasJS library to get what you see and a little more

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image1224×629 71.9 KB

Let me know when you have your Glide2MQTT Bridge ready to test it at least :muscle:

Feliz día!

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Hey @OttoMan28 curious if you were able to work out a solution to SSHing into a machine and running a command? I have a similar situation and would like to open an ssh session on a local machine and run the command and terminate the session

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Hi Bobby

Well i got caught up in my bread-and-butter work, and furthermore I was not pleased with the throughput of my solution. I figured if I was to release broker as a commercial product, I needed to improve that.

How many messages a minute do you need to process, at peak time?

I might be able to devote some time to the project in a couple of weeks, if needed.

/Otto