JSON interface

The JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) interface exists to provide methods for remote administration of your Blue Iris system.  It will be the gateway used by new client apps including those for iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android mobile devices.  It will also be used by the next generation of web pages used to access Blue Iris via browser in order to provide more secure authentication.

For a description of JSON, see http://www.json.org/.  It's simply a block of text which is sent by HTTP-POST to the Blue Iris web server page /json.  Blue Iris will respond with a JSON formatted response (content-type application/json).

Each JSON object sent to Blue Iris should have a "cmd" value, for example, "cmd":"login".  Additional values will depend upon the type of command sent.  Here's an example command and response in full JSON format:

{"cmd":"login"}

{"result":"fail","session":"182c8a04f7d4ab042ff8e4a2"}

Following are the available commands:

Get (and optionally set) the state of many camera properties:

reset:true reset the camera

enable:true or false enable or disable the camera

pause:n sends a pause command, and returns a value in seconds

-1: pause indefinitely

0: un-pause

1..3: add 30 seconds, 1 minute, 1 hour to the pause time

motion:true or false enable or disable the motion detector

schedule:true or false enable or disable the camera's custom schedule

ptzcycle:true or false enable or disable the preset-cycle feature

ptzevents:true or false enable or disable the PTZ event schedule

alerts:n sets the corresponding alert function

record:n sets the corresponding record function

camlist

Returns a list of cameras on the system ordered by group.  Cameras not belonging to any group are shown beneath the "all cameras" group.  Disabled cameras are placed at the end of the list.

reset: send a value of true for this argument to reset the statistics for the cameras.

data is an array of objects (note the [] surrounding a JSON array), each describing a camera or a camera group.  For each of these objects, the following values are defined:

optionsDisplay: the camera or group name

optionsValue: the camera or group short name, used for other requests and commands requiring a camera short name

FPS: the current number of frames/second delivered from the camera

color: 24-bit RGB value (red least significant) representing the camera's display color

clipsCreated: the number of clips created since the camera stats were last reset

isAlerting: true or false; currently sending an alert

isEnabled: true or false

isOnline true or false

isMotion: true or false

isNoSignal: true or false

isPaused: true or false

isTriggered: true or false

isRecording: true or false

isYellow: true or false; the yellow caution icon

profile: the camera's currently active profile, or as overridden by the global schedule or the UI profile buttons.

ptz: is PTZ supported, true or false

audio: is audio supported, true or false

width: width of the standard video frame

height: height of the standard video frame

nTriggers: number of trigger events since last reset

nNoSignal: number of no signal events since last reset

nClips: number of no recording events since last reset

cliplist

Get a list of clips from the New folder

camera: a camera's short name or a group name; "index" will return clips from all cameras

startdate: expressed as the integer number of seconds since January 1, 1970

enddate: expressed as the integer number of seconds since January 1, 1970

tiles: true or false; true to send only 1 entry per day in order to mark tiles on the calendar

The returned data value is an array of JSON objects each describing a camera or a camera group.  For each of these objects, the following values are defined:

camera: the camera or group name

path: the part of the absolute file path that follows the New clips folder path; if there are no subfolders, this is simply \ and the filename.

date: file creation date, expressed as the integer number of seconds since January 1, 1970

color: 24-bit RGB value (red least significant) representing the camera's display color

log

Get a list of the status log entries, an array of objects:

date: expressed as the integer number of seconds since January 1, 1970

level: severity, 0=info, 1=warn, 2=error

obj: object name

msg: the text of the log entry

login

Blue Iris will respond with a "result" value of "fail' and a "session" value.  Respond with this session value combined with a userid and password and MD5 hash encoded as follows:

response = MD5( "userid:session:password" )

{"cmd":"login","session":"182c8a04f7d4ab042ff8e4a2","response":"response"}

There are additional login values supported in order to identify a mobile device:

uuid: a unique identifier

token: a code used to send push notifications

devicename: a description of the device

devicetype: for example, "iOS"

if a correct response is received, Blue Iris will respond:

{"result":"success","data":{"system name":"your system name"}}

For all other commands, you must supply a valid "session" value as supplied by the login command.

logout

If you were successfully logged-in, you will receive

{"result":"success"}

ptz

Operate a camera's PTZ functionality

camera: a camera's short name

button: this value determines the PTZ operation performed:

0: Pan left

1: Pan right

2: Tilt up

3: Tilt down

4: Center or home (if supported by camera)

5: Zoom in

6: Zoom out

8..10: Power mode, 50, 60, or outdoor

11..26: Brightness 0-15

27..33: Contrast 0-6

34..35: IR on, off

101..120: Go to preset position 1..20

updown: send a value of 1 to indicate that a complementary "stop" event will follow; send 0 otherwise and the camera will be moved for a preset duration

status

Get (and optionally set) the state of the traffic signal icon, active global profile as well as the schedule's hold/run state:

signal: a single digit 0 for red, 1 for green, 2 for yellow.

profile: a single digit 0-7 for the profile number to set; or -1 to change the hold/run state.  This functions the same it does on the local UI, so sending a profile change a second time will set the schedule to it's "hold" state.

dio: the state of a DIO output.  An array of 0's and 1's is returned, or you may set a particular value by sending an object with:

output: an output number 0-7

force: true or false

msec: the number of milliseconds to hold the output enabled if force is not specified.

play: play a sound file from the application Sounds folder.

The follow values are also returned:

lock: the state of the schedule run/hold button: 0 for run, 2 for temp, 1 for hold

clips: a text value describing the number of clips in the New and Stored folders along with disc usage statistics

warnings: the number of new warnings since the log command was last used

alerts: the number of new alerts since the alerts command was last used

cpu: the server's CPU usage overall (not just Blue Iris) expressed as a percentage.

mem: a string representation of the Blue Iris process memory usage

uptime: a string representation of the time in days:hours:minutes:seconds that Blue Iris has been running

sysconfig

Get and set system configuration settings.  Admin access required.

archive (output and optionally input): enable web archival

schedule (output and optionally input): enable the global schedule

trigger

Trigger the motion sensor on a specific camera.  Admin access required.  Additional required values:

camera: a valid and enabled camera short name.