Meet Drouse: As if you really need Drupal in your home

A buzzword that has gained some traction over the last year, as almost anyone in the technology space knows, is the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is the latest and largest projected growth topic in the industry with a market estimated to reach $267B by 2020.

The idea of IoT is focused on interacting with the physical world through a digital means in the most efficient way possible. Then there is Drupal: Its main focus is storing and moving data in the software world. Storing mass amounts of user data and its content versus your fridge telling you when you are out of milk are two very different ideologies and practices. Or are they?

This session simplifies and analyzes exactly what IoT is and how it's used while also exploring how developers can use Drupal to interact with other devices. Some highlights of this session include an in-depth look at:

• Some of the technologies and programming associated with IoT devices.

• How the MQ Telemetry Transport (MQTT) IoT sensors/switches are built and programmed.

• How to use Drupal 8 and MQTT to interact with enabled switches and sensors.

• An example system and how Drupal is being used as a “logic layer” between devices and I/O events.

• Drouse, a project geared towards making Drupal take a step outside its community-perceived box and allow it to connect to a whole new ecosystem of physical devices.

Attendees of this session should have a good understanding of the Drupal 8 back-end including extending Drupal core and custom module development. Other languages/libraries such as the MQTT protocol and Arduino are used in this demonstration as well. Knowledge of these technologies is helpful, but not required to learn something from this session.