Fedecks: A New Tool for Nerves-Phoenix Communication

Paul Wilson shared insights into his latest project, Fedecks. As an enthusiast for embedded Elixir on single-board computers, Wilson found himself repeatedly writing similar code to connect his Nerves devices with a cloud-based system for remote monitoring and control. To address this, he created Fedecks, essentially a bridge for two-way communication between Nerves and a Phoenix server. The presentation covered the implementation details of Fedecks, including server setup with a custom Handler behavior for authentication and message handling, and client setup with a User macro, device ID configuration, and callbacks. The solution also features automatic reconnection using signed tokens, communication in Elixir terms, and safe decoding practices for atom security. Wilson's demonstration showed how Fedecks could be used for a home security system, and he emphasized the convenience it adds to managing devices connected via WebSockets, all while maintaining secure and efficient system resources.