10 KiB
ESPUI
ESPUI is a simple library to make a web user interface for your projects using the ESP8266 or the ESP32 It uses web sockets and lets you create, control, and update elements on your GUI through multiple devices like phones and tablets.
ESPUI uses simple Arduino-style syntax for creating a solid, functioning user interface without too much boilerplate code.
So if you either don't know how or just don't want to waste time: this is your simple solution user interface without the need of internet connectivity or any additional servers.
The Library runs fine on any kind of ESP8266 and ESP32 (NodeMCU Boards, usw)
Important notes
THIS IS THE 2.0.0 DEVELOPMENT BRANCH, NOT GUARANTIED TO WORK
Roadmap for 2.0.0:
- ArduinoJSON 6.10.0 Support ✅
- Tabs by @eringerli ISSUE #45 ✅
- remove black line without tabs ✅
- API changes by @eringerli ✅
- less updateControl functions ✅
- proper wrappers for all create/update actions ✅
- OptionList by @eringerli
- Min Max on slider by @eringerli ✅
- Public Access to ESPAsyncServer
- Accelerometer Widget
- Graph Widget
- Cleanup Example, DNS and autojoin
- Cleanup and extend Documentation
- Number field ✅
- Text field ✅
- Data directory ✅
- Graph Usage
- Accelerometer
- Slider
- OptionList
- Tab usage
- Verbosity setting
OLD Roadmap :
- Datagraph output -> WIP
- Number min and max value
- proper return value (as int and not as string) for slider
Changelog for functions:
- split pad into pad and padWithCenter
- Cleaned order or parameters on switch
- cleaned order of parameters on pad
- Changes all numbers to actually be numbers (slider value, number value, min and max)
Dependencies
This library is dependent on the following libraries to function properly.
-
ArduinoJson (Last tested with version 6.10.0) Plus for ESP8266
Additionally necessary for ESP32
How to Install
Make sure all the dependencies are installed, then install like so:
Directly Through Arduino IDE (recommended)
You can find this Library in the Arduino IDE library manager Go to Sketch > Include Library > Library Manager > Search for "ESPUI" > Install
Manual Install
For Windows: Download the Repository and extract the .zip in Documents>Arduino>Libraries>{Place "ESPUI" folder Here}
For Linux: Download the Repository and extract the .zip in Sketchbook/Libraries/{Place "ESPUI" folder Here}
For macOs: Download the Repository and extract the .zip in ~/Documents/Arduino/libraries/{Place "ESPUI" folder Here}
Manually through IDE
Download the Repository, Go to Sketch>Include Library>Add .zip Library> Select the Downloaded .zip File.
Getting started
ESPUI serves several files to the browser to build up its web interface. This can be achieved in 2 ways: PROGMEM or SPIFFS
When ESPUI.begin()
is called the default is serving files from Memory and
ESPUI should work out of the box!
OPTIONAL: But if this causes your program to use too much memory you can
burn the files into the SPIFFS filesystem on the ESP. There are now two ways to
do this: you can either use the ESP file upload tool or you use the library
function ESPUI.prepareFileSystem()
Simple filesystem preparation (recommended)
Just open the example sketch prepareFileSystem and run it on the ESP, (give
it up to 30 seconds, you can see the status on the Serial Monitor), The library
will create all needed files. Congratulations, you are done, from now on you
just need to to this again when there is a library update, or when you want to
use another chip :-) Now you can upload your normal sketch, when you do not call
the ESPUI.prepareFileSystem()
function the compiler will strip out all the
unnecessary strings that are already saved in the chip's filesystem and you have
more program memory to work with.
User interface Elements
- Label (updateable)
- Button
- Switch (updateable)
- Control pad
- Control pad with center button
- Slider
- Text Input (updateable)
- Numberinput (updateable)
Checkout the example for the usage
Available colors:
- COLOR_TURQUOISE
- COLOR_EMERALD
- COLOR_PETERRIVER
- COLOR_WETASPHALT
- COLOR_SUNFLOWER
- COLOR_CARROT
- COLOR_ALIZARIN
- COLOR_NONE
Documentation
The heart of ESPUI is ESPAsyncWebserver. ESPUI's frontend is based on Skeleton CSS and jQuery-like lightweight zepto.js for Handling Click Events Etc. The communication between the ESP32 and the client browser works using web sockets. ESPUI does not need network access and can be used in standalone access point mode. All assets are loaded from the internal SPIFFS filesystem of the ESP32.
This section will explain in detail how the Library is to be used from the
Arduino code side. As of now the Facilino blocks are not implemented. In the
arduino setup() routine the interface can be customised by adding UI Elements.
This is done by calling the corresponding library methods on the Library object
ESPUI. Eg: ESPUI.button(“button”, &myCallback);
creates a button in the
interface that calls the “myCallback” function when changed. All buttons and
items call their callback whenever there is a state change from them. This means
the button will call the callback when it is pressed and also again when it is
released. To separate different events an integer number with the event name is
passed to the callback function that can be handled in a switch(){}case{}
statement. Here is an overview of the currently implemented different elements
of the UI library:
Button
Buttons have a name and a callback value. They have one event for press and one for release.
Switch
Switches sync their state on all connected devices. This means when you change their value they change visibly on all tablets or computers that currently display the interface. They also have two types of events: one for turning on and one for turning off.
Buttonpad
Button pads come in two flavours: with or without a center button. They are very useful for con-trolling all kinds of movements of vehicles or also of course our walking robots. They use a single callback per pad and have 8 or 10 different event types to differentiate the button actions.
Labels
Labels are a nice tool to get information from the robot to the user interface.
This can be done to show states, values of sensors and configuration parameters.
To send data from the code use ESP.print(labelId, “Text”);
. Labels get a name
on creation and a initial value. The name is not changeable once the UI
initialised.
Labels automatically wrap your text. If you want them to have multiple lines use
the normal <br>
tag in the string you print to the label
Slider
The Slider can be used to slide through a value from 1 to 100. Slides provide realtime data, are touch compatible and can be used to for example control a Servo. The current value is shown while the slider is dragged in a little bubble over the handle. In the Callback the slider does not return an int but a String. Use the .toInt
Number Input
TODO: Add image
The numberinput can be used to directly input numbers to your program. You can enter a Value into it and when you are done with your change it is sent to the ESP.
Text Input
TODO: Add image
The textinput works very similar like the number input but with a string. You can enter a String into it and when you are done with your change it is sent to the ESP.
Using Tabs
TODO: Add image
// TODO: add Text for tabs
Initialisation of the UI
After all the elements are configured you can use ESPUI.begin(“Some Title”);
to start the UI interface. (Or ESPUI.beginSPIFFS(“Some Title”);
respectively)
Make sure you setup a working network connection or AccesPoint before (See
example). The web interface can then be used from multiple devices at once and
also shows an connection status in the top bar. The library is designed to be
easy to use and can still be extended with a lot of more functionality.
Log output
ESPUI has several different log levels. You can set them using the
ESPUI.setVerbosity(Verbosity::VerboseJSON)
function.
Loglevels are:
- Verbosity::Quiet (default)
- Verbosity::Verbose
- Verbosity::VerboseJSON
// TODO: Add some more notes here
Notes for Development
If you want to work on the HTML/CSS/JS files, do make changes in the data
directory. When you need to transfer that code to the ESP, run
tools/prepare_static_ui_sources.py -a
(this script needs python3 with the
modules htmlmin, jsmin and csscompressor). This will generate a) minified files
next to the original files to be uploaded with the ESP32 sketch data uploader
mentioned above and b) the C header files in src
that contain the minified and
gzipped HTML/CSS/JS data (which are used by the prepareFileSystem example
sketch or when they are served from PROGMEM; see above in the section "Getting
started"). Alternatively, you can duplicate the examples/gui
directory and
work on the copy. Then specify the --source
and --target
arguments to the
prepare_static_ui_sources.py
script (run the script without arguments for
help).
If you don't have a python environment, you need to minify and gzip the HTML/CSS/JS files manually. I wrote a little useful jsfiddle for this, see here.
If you change something in HTML/CSS/JS and want to create a pull request, please do include the minified versions and corresponding C header files in your commits.
Contribute
Liked this Library? You can support me by sending me a ☕ Coffee.
Otherwise I really welcome Pull Requests.