Robot Code

A monorepo hosting python scripts for updating and maintaining my Robot FeatureScript projects as well as hosting and deploying the Robot Manager Onshape library app.

This repo is set up to work directly with my FeatureScript backend document which can be found here: Alex's FeatureScript Backend

Note: This repo is equipped to run with VSCode on Linux (specifically, WSL Ubuntu).

Onshape API

A generic library for connecting with and using the Onshape API.

API credentials are set by creating a file in the root named .env.

Two API variants are available, KeyApi and OauthApi. Each variant extends Api, which is the generic interface. They are explained in more detail below.

Besides the environment variables required for each API variant, you can also set the variables:

API_LOGGING=true # Enable logging
API_BASE_PATH=https://cad.onshape.com # Use a different base path
API_VERSION=6 # Use a different version of the API

Key API

This allows you to use the Onshape API with API keys.

1. Get an API key from the Onshape developer portal.
2. Add your access key and secret key to .env:

API_ACCESS_KEY=<Your access key>
API_SECRET_KEY=<Your secret key>

You can then call make_key_api() to get an Api instance you can pass to endpoints or invoke directly.

OAuth API

This allows you to use the Onshape API with an OAuth flow via the requests_oauthlib library.

1. Create an OAuth application on the Onshape developer portal.

You can then call make_oauth_api() to get an Api instance you can pass to endpoints or invoke directly.

First Time Python Setup

Install python:

sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3.12

Note you may need to restart your terminal after installing software-properties-common.

Install pipx:

sudo apt install pipx
pipx ensurepath

The use pipx to install poetry and install the project:

pipx install poetry
poetry install

Scripts

Several scripts for pulling code from Onshape and pushing new versions of Robot FeatureScripts are included in scripts. Scripts can be invoked as follows:

./scripts/onshape.sh

The following scripts are available:

• deploy - Deploys the Robot manager app to google cloud.
• onshape - Can be used to push and pull code from Onshape via the API.
• robot - Can be used to release new versions of Robot FeatureScripts.

Robot Manager

The Robot manager app lives in the frontend and backend folders. The app uses Python and flask as the backend and API and Vite and React for the frontend. The app is deployed using Google Cloud App Engine, with Google Cloud Firestore as the database.

Robot Manager Setup

Use the Launch servers VSCode task to launch the dev servers necessary to view the app. You should set up Onshape to connect to:

https://localhost:3000/app

Flask Credentials Setup

Onshape requires all apps, even temporary test apps, to use https. This creates a headache for local development. In order to solve this issue, you'll need to generate a certificate and add it to a folder named credentials in the root of this project:

/credentials/cert.pem
/credentials/key.pem

This can be done automatically by running the script make_credentials.sh:

./scripts/make_credentials.sh

You'll then need to add a security exception to your browser to avoid getting blocked by a security exception. On Firefox, the procedure is:

1. Start the development servers using the Launch servers VSCode task.
2. Open Firefox and go to Settings > Certificates > View Certificates... > Servers > Add Exception...
3. Enter https://localhost:3000 as the Location and click Get Certificate.
4. Check Permanently store this exception and then click Confirm Security Exception.

You should now be able to view the app in Onshape.

Frontend Setup

Install Node.js, then use npm to install the dependencies in frontend:

cd frontend
npm install

Google Cloud Dev Setup

To emulate the google cloud database locally, you'll need to install the Google Cloud CLI.

You should also install the firestore emulator and a Java JRE:

sudo apt install google-cloud-cli-firestore-emulator default-jre

Then start up the google cloud emulator:

gcloud emulators firestore start

To enable python to connect to the emulator, add the variable FIRESTORE_EMULATOR_HOST to .env with the value 127.0.0.1:8080.

Note: this project uses Google Cloud Firestore as it's database. This is not to be confused with Google Firebase's Firestore, as Firebase is a separate project from Google Cloud.

Deploying in Google Cloud

The app can be deployed using the google cloud CLI - gcloud app deploy.

Some notes:

• To allow the App deployed in the App Engine to connect to Firestore, the App Engine service account must be given the Firestore user role in IAM.
• You'll need to create an app.yaml file to deploy. Make sure to add the necessary ENV authentication variables. The entrypoint can be:

entrypoint: gunicorn -b :$PORT -w 2 "backend.server:create_app()"