How to Beat the Rise of the Machines. Octoblu to the Rescue

I spent a lot of time playing with Octoblu while I was creating my Twitter Management System. For a while, it looked like I would build the full system on their platform.

It’s powerful enough to do that, but Twitter doesn’t allow full automation.

Octoblu is all about automation.

Disclosure: Octoblu is not a client. I wish they were, but they're not. I write this post because I believe in what they do.

I also promised to show you the easy way to auto-delete those annoying Twitter DMs we all hate. (tweet)

There are many productivity helpers out there. IFTTT and Zapier are hugely popular. They're pretty darned useful too. 

And then there's Octoblu.

It isn't fair to compare Octoblu against IFTTT or Zapier. That would be like comparing the Heavyweight Champion of the World to Hello Kitty. (tweet)

They just aren't the same thing.

I still think of Octoblu as IFTTT on steroids.

Octoblu calls themselves, “A full-stack Internet of Things messaging and automation platform that enables companies to create IoT services with secure real-time exchange of data.”

That’s quite the mouthful.

Let’s just say that they have a platform that makes your IoT stuff sit-up, roll-over, and bark. They make all IoT things play nice with all other IoT things. (tweet)

They do that very well. There will be no “Rise of the Machines” as long as Octoblu is in the picture.

It also does other stuff. IoT is “Internet of Things.” Twitter is a thing. So are Facebook and Instagram. So are your laptop, tablet, smartphone, fitness tracker, etc.

If it lives online or can get online, Octoblu can automate it. (tweet)

Chris Matthieu, Geir Ramleth, and Bill Rinehart founded Octoblu in February of 2014. Within a year, Citrix bought the company.

Say what?!?

That fact speaks volumes. 

So, how does it work? Easily, it turns out.

Remember how I said I’d show you the easy way to get rid of Twitter DMs? Here it is. The image is a link to the Bluprint. No, that's not a typo. There is no "e." Sign up at Octoblu, import, and enjoy. 

Sign up at Octoblu, import, and enjoy. 

Doesn’t look scary does it? Octoblu calls this a "flowgram." It's a love-child between a program and a flowchart.

With Octoblu, you take “Things” and connect “Tools” to them. Then they do something. Let me explain.

The Twitter logos are Octoblu “Things.” The other things aren’t “Things” at all. They’re “Tools.” As a group, they form a “Design.” Once published, they become a “Bluprint" with no "e.”

That’s the extent of the terminology.

Bluprints can be either private or public. You can share either with a link, but only public bluprints will show up in a search.

You draw the interconnecting lines by clicking on the grey blocks and dragging. They represent the flow of data. 

Cool thing. When a “Design” runs, a heartbeat animation shows you where/when the data flows. That's not just for cuteness. You get visual feedback of faulty data flow. That makes fixing things much easier.

Here is a link to the Bluprint. Sign up at Octoblu, import, and enjoy. 

I left in a manual trigger if you want to control when it erases DMs. Click on the blue triangle next to the button to go. Octoblu also has a phone app to trigger Designs on the go. It’s called Blu and is available for Android and iOS.

Right now, the Bluprint is set up to delete DMs at 8:00 AM GMT. You can change the time if you want.

The "Schedule" Tool uses CRON syntax. Don’t panic. It looks complicated but isn't.

CRON syntax looks like this.

minute <space> hour <space> day <space>month <space>day-of-week

An asterisk means “every.” So, * * * * * means every minute, of every hour, of every day, of every month, of every day of the week.

My Blueprint runs at 0 8 * * * . So it runs at 0 minutes (top of the hour), of the eighth hour, of every day, of every month, of every day of the week.

Since Octoblu "Schedules" run on Greenwich Mean Time, my Bluprint runs every day at 4:00 AM my time.

Want it to run only every second day? Change the CRON to 0 8 */2 * * .

Want it to run only on Sundays? Use 0 8 * * 0 .

You're on the West Coast? Change the 8 to 11, otherwise it will run at midnight.

Easy Peasy.

Making a Design

Making a Design is all drag-and-drop from the Tools Drawer or the Things Drawer. Drag onto the workspace. Connect the flow. And that’s about it.

If you want greater functionality, there’s a Function tool to add JavaScript. That opens up a whole other world of stuff to do.

It ain’t all Sunshine and Roses

There are some issues with Octoblu.

Complexity

Creating an Octoblu Design is more complicated than making an IFTTT recipe. We have to expect that. 

Your Designs will themselves be more complex than a simple if-this-then-that scenario. Not to mention that once you see how easy it is, you will start complicating your designs with more features.

Andriod & iOS APIs

I wish they would add support for native Android and iOS APIs. You would think they would already exist. Everyone carries a smartphone at all times. We suffer separation anxiety if we misplace them. 

I suspect it’s a question of where Bluprints actually run. Maybe Chris Matthieu can chime in on this. If anyone knows why, or how to work around it, Chris does.

Still, it would be fun to use my phone's location to do stuff, or to send texts directly, or to turn Wi-Fi on and off. You get the picture.  UPDATE: I recently got a message that they are working on it.

Documentation

To be fair, we are not Octoblu’s primary market. It’s meant for a more tech-knowledgeable group that was interested in industrial automation.

Maybe I’m being too harsh. But, I was often more befuddled after reading the documentation than before.

That would be disastrous if it weren’t for the fact that there's an IM system built right into the platform. You can ask questions and get answers in a reasonable amount of time.

Also, I’ve taken it upon myself to re-write some of the documentation. Don’t hold your breath, mind. It will be a spare time type of thing.

Next Steps

I think I feel another series coming on. Why not build an application together using Octoblu’s platform?

We can document the process in blog form à la "Blog Cabin". We’ll start slowly and build from there.

The next post will deal with creating an account. We’ll also put a quickie little application together. Once you see just how easy it can be, you just might want to go a little further.

And further, and further…

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