A simple client program is used to access a webpage and displays it on the serial monitor. Retrieving a web page contents sent by a server, to demonstrate basic client’s functionality. Once you are able to retrieve information from a server, you should be able to phrase it and extract specific data you need.
by using the library
#include "WiFi.h"
We should start by connecting the module to an access point to obtain an access to the internet.
while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) { Serial.println("IP address: "); Serial.println(WiFi.localIP()); }
Once connected to the network we should connect to the specific server. Web address of this server is declared in host character string. You need to get privateKey at https://thingspeak.com/channels/392874/api_keys
const char* host = "api.thingspeak.com"; const char* privateKey = "....................";
Now we should declare a client that will be contacting the host (server)
WiFiClient client;
Then connect to the host and check the connection result. Note that 80 that is the standard port number used for web access.
const int httpPort = 80; if (!client.connect(host, httpPort)) { Serial.println("connection failed"); return; }
If the connection is successful, Then we create a request for URL.
String url = "/update"; url += "?key="; url += privateKey; url += "&field1="; // Thingspeak field1 url += value; // value that need put to field1 url += "&status="; url += count; // Number of count that transmitted to the thingspeak Server Serial.print("Requesting URL: "); Serial.println(url);
and we should send a request to the host to provide specific information we need. This is done using the HTTP GET request as in the following lines:
client.print(String("GET ") + url + " HTTP/1.1\r\n" + "Host: " + host + "\r\n" + "Connection: close\r\n\r\n");
we can read all the lines of the reply from the server and print them to Serial and print out server’s response:
while(client.available()) { String line = client.readStringUntil('\r'); Serial.print(line); }
ThingSpeak requires a user account and a channel to get the private key. Each channel has up to eight data fields, location fields, and a status field. A free account holder can send data every 15 seconds to ThingSpeak.
- Sign up for a new account.
- Create a channel by selecting Channels > My Channels > New Channel.
- Enable Field 1
- Enter the value as the Field 1 name.
- Name the channel. For example, WiFi Client
- Save your channel.
- Note the Write API Key on the API Keys tab.