How to Install ThingSpeak Server Standalone

Posted by: Alvin Jin , February 16, 2016

ThingSpeak is an open source “Internet of Things” application and API to store and retrieve data from things using HTTP over the Internet or via a Local Area Network. With ThingSpeak, you can create sensor logging applications, location tracking applications, and a social network of things with status updates.

Below is the full steps of a ThingSpeak Server installation process on Ubuntu14.04(x86_64) which is finished about 30 min.

INSTALL Required packages:

sudo apt-get -y install build-essential git mysql-server mysql-client libmysqlclient-dev libxml2-dev libxslt-dev libssl-dev libsqlite3-dev

MySQL Database configuration

mysql --user=root mysql -p useyourpasswd
mysql> CREATE USER 'thing'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'speak';
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'thing'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;
mysql> commit;
mysql> exit;

Ruby / Rails install

Download and compile

wget http://cache.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/2.1/ruby-2.1.5.tar.gz
tar xvzf ruby-2.1.5.tar.gz
cd ruby-2.1.5
./configure
make

MAKE RESULT:
Files: 962

Classes: 1414 ( 566 undocumented)
Modules: 268 ( 87 undocumented)
Constants: 2098 ( 624 undocumented)
Attributes: 1146 ( 272 undocumented)
Methods: 10652 (2229 undocumented)
Total: 15578 (3778 undocumented)
75.75% documented
Elapsed: 469.0s

Install ruby

sudo make install
cd ..
echo "gem: --no-rdoc --no-ri" >> ${HOME}/.gemrc
sudo gem install rails

Note: If you get some error when you install rails, please check the following note. Hope it is helpful.

When you run
```
gem install rails
```

if you get the following error:

ERROR: Could not find a valid gem 'rails' (>= 0), here is why:
Unable to download data from https://rubygems.org/ - Errno::ECONNRESET: Connection reset by peer - SSL_connect (https://api.rubygems.org/latest_specs.4.8.gz)

You need to change another source using the following commands:

gem sources --add https://ruby.taobao.org/ --remove https://rubygems.org/
gem sources -l
*** CURRENT SOURCES ***
https://ruby.taobao.org
# So make sure ruby.taobao.org
$ gem install rails

ThingSpeak Server install

Download the ThingSpeak source code

git clone https://github.com/iobridge/thingspeak.git
cp thingspeak/config/database.yml.example thingspeak/config/database.yml
cd thingspeak
bundle install
bundle exec rake db:create

Note: 1. If you get error when you install sqlite3 , try the following commands:

<code>sudo gem install sqlite3 -v '1.3.9'</code>

sudo gem install sqlite3 -v '1.3.9'

If you get an error when you install libv8, take the following commands:

sudo gem install libv8 -v '3.16.14.7' -- --with-system-v8

Check MYSQL DB

mysql --user=root mysql -p
mysql> show databases;

#+----------------------------  +
#| Database                        |
#+----------------------------  +
#| information_schema        |
#| mysql                              |
#| performance_schema      |
#| thingspeak_development |
#| thingspeak_test               |
#+------------------------------+
mysql> exit;

If MYSQL DB is OK, then run:

bundle exec rake db:schema:load

Run the ThingSpeak Server

rails server webrick.

Open a browser and enter <your PC's IP addres>:3000 and you will get the website shown in the following picture.

Quick Start

Sign Up for a ThingSpeak account
Create a new Channel by going to your Channels page and clicking Create New Channel

Update your Channel via URL: http://192.168.1.100:3000/update?api_key=YOUR_CHANNEL_API_KEY&field1=7
View your Channel feed: http://192.168.1.100:3000/channels/YOUR_CHANNEL_ID/feeds.json

More Details please check the Support website.

ESP8266/NodeMCU Programming for ThingSpeak

If you want to use ESP8266 communicating with ThingSpeak server, you can reference this website:http://www.arduinesp.com/thingspeak

This demo will plot DTH11 data on thingspeak server using an ESP8266. Download source code here: ThingspeakESP8266DHT library (from adafruit) can be downloaded here.