REST API

Expert Topic for experienced builders.

Big idea

Enable REST API control to automate or control Bottango from your own scripts and code.

Here is the major functionality available to you currently in the Bottango REST API:

• Get whether Bottango is currently able to start playing an Animation
• Get information on the animations available in your project, and which animation is currently selected
• Get information on the current playback state of Bottango, including the signal and movement of all effectors in the project
• Start / stop playing an animation
• Start / stop recording live controller input (if a control scheme is selected)
• Set playback time
• Change the selected animation
• Call “STOP” in Bottango (the same as pressing the escape key on the keyboard)
• Drive input into the input recording features of Bottango

Enabling REST API control

You can enable API Access in a project by toggling the “API Access” toggle in the hardware menu:

Once it is enabled, you will see an “API” notification in the top bar as well:

API control works as a local server, responding to GET and PUT requests in a REST API. You can change the port of the local server in this same menu.

Note

Using the REST API to stream input into control schemes still relies on the overhead of HTTP, so it can be bottlenecked depending on your use case. A socket-based option is planned for a future version.

More Information and API Documentation

The full REST API reference is available in this docs site at APIs and Comms / REST API.

Included in the Bottango download folder is /AdvancedFeatures/Bottango REST API. In that folder you’ll find an example Python script for each supported Bottango REST API call.

See the Bottango docs site for updates: docs.bottango.com.