JFrog Connect REST API – a versatile, multi-purpose toolset to manage Linux devices remotely

JFrog Connect REST API is an extremely useful set of commands which can be used to automate a number of tasks on Linux edge device(s) which would otherwise request manual user intervention through the dashboard. This enables us to work on multiple devices at a time and work in a more organized, distributed manner to manage Linux edge IoT devices.

An API for both the Linux edge devices and the developers

At JFrog Connect, we focus on providing our customers the best possible, easily accessible solutions to manage their embedded edge Linux IoT devices. Therefore, we have made the underlying system that runs the dashboard, available to you through a set of REST API calls to allow you to monitor and control the edge devices remotely.

Use cases

In case you need to enroll a few dozen or a few hundred devices at once to your dashboard. Configuring each of these devices manually through the dashboard (i.e. enrolling, adding names, permissions etc.) would be quite time-consuming. Instead, you can create a simple Python script to execute at the first boot of your edge devices to automatically be enrolled, provide their own device name (i.e. based on their hardware ID or some other parameter), and do the configuration automatically. All this can be easily done through a simple HTTP POST request with the necessary information in JSON format.

Another usage of the REST API would be to allow the edge Linux devices to let the dashboard know if it’s ready to accept remote updates or not. This is particularly useful since if a device update starts while the user is using the device or the device is too busy to process the update, the dashboard can delay the update deployment. By issuing a single POST request, a device can let the dashboard know that it’s not ready for an update at the moment.

Overview of JFrog Connect REST API subsystem

• JFrog Connect REST API consists of multiple API options, both HTTP GET and POST request types, all of which are of JSON format (both the requests and the responses).
• Each API call requires the account <user_token> for pulling information, and for updating information to a specific device, the <device_token> is also necessary. Both can be found at /etc/upswift/service/settings.json file after successful enrollment of a device.
• The <user_token> is a static key per JFrog Connect account while the <device_token> is generated and unique per device.

With these API calls, JFrog Connect offers complete control over the dashboard and its features.

The official documentation for the JFrog Connect REST API contains a comprehensive set of information to have a better understanding of the features the API offers, and the parameters the commands accept, and the types of responses they return. After adding devices, make sure to give the REST API a try to ensure that you can make maximum use out of the platform.

Here at JFrog Connect, we provide you a Secure, Reliable, and Scalable platform for IoT device management, that can be used to manage the edge Linux IoT devices remotely from anywhere in the world. Our platform gets more and more sophisticated and feature-rich by the day, and we guarantee the highest reliability and functionality of our service with our 24/7 customer service.