[IMP] doc: Add reference for IoT

Add documentation for development of new Drivers for the IoT Box.

closes odoo/odoo#45990

Taskid: 2092878
X-original-commit: 246060c0757b52725ebd93164c8151fa8db2c6b9
Signed-off-by: Antoine Prieëls <aprieels@users.noreply.github.com>

2 files changed, 135 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/reference.rst b/doc/reference.rst
index 4e9496c2d31..0ff1f80b184 100644
--- a/doc/reference.rst
+++ b/doc/reference.rst
@@ -25,3 +25,4 @@ Reference
     reference/mixins
     reference/guidelines
     reference/mobile
+    reference/iot
diff --git a/doc/reference/iot.rst b/doc/reference/iot.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c09bbbb870e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/reference/iot.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,134 @@
+
+==================
+Internet of Things
+==================
+
+IoT Drivers allow any Odoo module to communicate in real-time with any device
+connected to the IoT Box. Communication with the IoT Box goes both ways, so the
+Odoo client can send commands to and receive information from any of the
+supported devices. To add support for a device, all we need is a `Driver`.
+
+At each boot, the IoT Box will load all of the Drivers that can
+be located on the connected Odoo instance. Each module can contain a
+`drivers` directory, whose content will be copied to the IoT Box.
+
+Detect Devices
+==============
+
+The `addons/hw_drivers/controllers/driver.py` file contains a Manager that is
+in charge of the devices. The Manager maintains a list of connected devices
+and associates them with the right Driver.
+
+Supported devices will appear both on the IoT Box Homepage that you can access
+through its IP address and in the IoT module of the connected Odoo instance.
+
+Driver
+------
+
+Once the Manager has retrieved the list of detected devices, it will loop
+through all of the Drivers that have the same connection type and test their
+respective `supported` method on all detected devices. If the supported method
+of a Driver returns `True`, an instance of this Driver will be created for the
+corresponding device.
+
+Creating a new Driver requires:
+
+- Extending `Driver`
+- Setting the `connection_type` class attribute.
+- Setting the `device_type`, `device_connection` and `device_name` attributes.
+- Defining the `supported` method
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    from odoo.addons.hw_drivers.controllers.driver import Driver
+
+    class DriverName(Driver):
+        connection_type = 'ConnectionType'
+
+        def __init__(self, device):
+            super(NewDriver, self).__init__(device)
+            self._device_type = 'DeviceType'
+            self._device_connection = 'DeviceConnection'
+            self._device_name = 'DeviceName'
+
+        @classmethod
+        def supported(cls, device):
+            ...
+
+Communicate With Devices
+========================
+
+Once your new device is detected and appears in the IoT module, the next step
+is to communicate with it. Since the box only has a local IP address, it can
+only be reached from the same local network. Communication, therefore, needs to
+happen on the browser-side, in JavaScript.
+
+The process depends on the direction of the communication:
+- From the browser to the box, through `Actions`_
+- From the box to the browser, through `Longpolling`_
+
+Both channels are accessed from the same JS object, the `DeviceProxy`, which is
+instantiated using the IP of the IoT Box and the device identifier.
+
+.. code-block:: javascript
+
+    var DeviceProxy = require('iot.widgets').DeviceProxy;
+
+    var iot_device = new DeviceProxy({
+        iot_ip: iot_ip,
+        identifier: device_identifier
+    });
+
+Actions
+-------
+
+Actions are used to tell a selected device to execute a specific action,
+such as taking a picture, printing a receipt, etc.
+
+.. note::
+    It must be noted that no “answer” will be sent by the box on this route,
+    only the request status. The answer to the action, if any, has to be
+    retrieved via the longpolling.
+
+An action can be performed on the DeviceProxy Object.
+
+.. code-block:: javascript
+
+    iot_device.action(data);
+
+In your driver, define an `action` method that will be executed when called
+from an Odoo module. It takes the data given during the call as argument.
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    def action(self, data):
+        ...
+
+Longpolling
+-----------
+
+When any module in Odoo wants to read data from a specific device, it creates a
+listener identified by the IP/domain of the box and the device identifier and
+passes it a callback function to be called every time the device status
+changes. The callback is called with the new data as argument.
+
+.. code-block:: javascript
+
+    iot_device.add_listener(this._onValueChange.bind(this));
+
+    _onValueChange: function (result) {
+        ...
+    }
+
+In the Driver, an event is released by calling the `device_changed` function
+from the `event_manager`. All callbacks set on the listener will then be called
+with `self.data` as argument.
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    from odoo.addons.hw_drivers.controllers.driver import event_manager
+
+    self.data = {
+        'value': 0.5
+    }
+    event_manager.device_changed(self)