Sparkster Tech Tuesday - How software can run on Sparkster decentralised cloud.

Let’s begin by taking a look at the basics of software development. With software development there are two major components:

• Data - sometimes called Objects or Entities
• Functions - these are also called methods or services. In Sparkster’s Platform, these have an API.

Let’s take both concepts to put together an example to show how software could run on Sparkster’s decentralised cloud.

Let’s use a washing machine as an example, inside a washing machine you have components such as:

• A motor that controls the drum
• Water pump
• Heater - a component that blows hot air used for drying.
• Water heater for warm water.

Each of these physical devices would be connected via a control wire to a device called a microcontroller. As the name suggests, Microcontrollers allow us to control devices such as a heater or a motor. Using Sparkster’s IOT platform, you can code the logic of how microcontrollers like this behave and programme them without any code, this is what we built for ARM.

A microcontroller in a washing machine is connected through different pins, you can state what each pin is called and connect the physical hardware to the microcontroller. The next stage is to create functions, we can name our function “drying” this would turn the dryer on and rotate the motor at a certain speed. You would simply instruct the pin to pulsate, turning it on and off. This would cause the motor to spin at a certain number of revolutions per second.

By definition, this is what a function does, it’s a type of procedure or routine. A delicate wash also uses functions to operate, this involves turning the hot water on for say 20 seconds, then turning if off and then with a spin in each direction for 10 minutes. This procedure or routine is what a Function in Sparkster’s platform does. The data that is generated by the functions is stored in a Document, for example, we can calculate the time that the cycle will end, allowing people to know when the washing machine will be available to the next person to use.

In a very simple way, you can codelssy build a washing machine on the Sparkster platform, the functions would be run on our compute node with the data stored online to give you information as and when required.

In just a few simple concepts, the functions control what should happen and when, and generate data about the current status and the IOT device that is controlling the physical motor. You can build something that looks sophisticated but in reality, it really is not, when you consider how it is functioning behind the scenes. This is the case with all software, it looks complicated but in fact it is often quite simple.

Questions

How can someone who does not know about databases and entity relationships build software?

Please go to Sparkster.me/try and go through Sparkster’s walkthrough programme. You create a document in Sparkster, a data structure for persisting data, by creating a field on a page, you don’t need to define a database. We’re able to infer the design of the database from your design, and we automatically generate it.

In the case of where you do need entity relationships, a document template can be seen as an entity. In the example above, you can in fact build relationships and specify in plain English that you know who the parent and the child in that relationship are.

You are able to specify that there is a relationship between a customer and an order, and the order belongs to the customer. If you are able to describe relationships in this sort of language, the order entity belongs to customers, you are then able to specify relationship. We turn this into a virtualized database representation, without you ever having to think about or look at databases.

Sparkster’s walkthroughs are designed to help you get a taste and understanding of what you can produce without getting lost in unnecessary complexity. This is like a training environment.

Announcements

We are launching Sparkster innovation fund! We invite you to prepare a proposal for what you might build using Sparkster decentralised cloud. If you had the tools to build software, what businesses or tools would you create.

Please submit your proposals at hello@sparkster.me the deadline is: September 15th.

We will review your proposals and let the community vote for which project we will fund and provide development support.