LIFXKit is the LIFX SDK for Objective-C. LIFXKit supports iOS and OS X.

Installation

Various installation methods are available. Choose the method that best suits your project:

• CocoaPods Installation
• Framework Installation
• Xcode Sub-Project Installation

Framework Installation

1. Download LIFXKit.Framework for your project's platform (iOS or OS X).
2. Add LIFXKit.Framework to your project.
3. Configure your App Target to link against the following Frameworks and Libraries:
   • LIFXKit.framework
   • SystemConfiguration.framework
   • libz.dylib
4. iOS only:
   • Ensure that your target is configured to link against categories from static libraries correctly. To do this, ensure that the Other Linker Flags Build Settings for your app target contains -ObjC.
5. OS X only:
   • Open "Build Phases" for your target and add a "Copy Files" build phase (via menu Editor/Add Build Phase/Add Copy Files Build Phase)
   • Expand the newly added "Copy Files" build phase and change the Destination to Frameworks.
   • Add LIFXKit.framework to the "Copy Files" build phase.

Xcode Sub-Project Installation

1. Drag LIFXKit.xcodeproj into your Xcode project as a sub-project.
2. Go to the Products source group within the LIFXKit sub-project then drag libLIFXKit.a for iOS (or libLIFXKitMac.a for OS X) into your App Target's Linked Frameworks and Libraries list.
3. Configure your App Target to link against the following system Frameworks and Libraries:
   • SystemConfiguration.framework
   • libz.dylib
4. Ensure that your target is configured to link against categories from static libraries correctly. To do this, ensure that the Other Linker Flags Build Settings for your app target contains -ObjC.
5. On OS X the Release configuration of your project may need an extra Header Search Path of $(OBJROOT)/UninstalledProducts/include to produce Archive builds.

Once you've configured your Xcode project with any of the above methods, add #import <LIFXKit/LIFXKit.h> to your source files and start hacking away!

Quick Examples

Turn off all lights:

LFXNetworkContext *localNetworkContext = [[LFXClient sharedClient] localNetworkContext];
[localNetworkContext.allLightsCollection setPowerState:LFXPowerStateOff];

Turn on the light named "Hallway":

LFXNetworkContext *localNetworkContext = [[LFXClient sharedClient] localNetworkContext];
LFXLight *hallway = [localNetworkContext.allLightsCollection firstLightForLabel:@"Hallway"];
[hallway setPowerState:LFXPowerStateOn];

Turn on all lights that are tagged "Kitchen":

LFXNetworkContext *localNetworkContext = [[LFXClient sharedClient] localNetworkContext];
LFXTaggedLightCollection *kitchen = [localNetworkContext taggedLightCollectionForTag:@"Kitchen"];
[kitchen setPowerState:LFXPowerStateOn];

Set every light to a random color:

LFXNetworkContext *localNetworkContext = [[LFXClient sharedClient] localNetworkContext];
for (LFXLight *aLight in localNetworkContext.allLightsCollection)
{
    LFXHSBKColor *color = [LFXHSBKColor colorWithHue:arc4random()%360 saturation:1.0 brightness:1.0];
    [aLight setColor:color];
}

Sample Code

Sample code can be found in /Examples.

LIFX Browser

The LIFX Browser sample code project gives a very simple demonstration of discovery, lights, tagged light collections, light state and light control. It also shows how to integrate with the observer-callback APIs used throught LIFXKit. This is the best starting point for writing your own LIFX-compatible app.

Public vs Private Headers and Classes

Any source in a group named "Private" in the Xcode source list should be considered non-public API, and may be changed at any time, without warning.

Quick overview of LIFX SDK terminology

Network Context

A Network Context (LFXNetworkContext) denotes a context within which you will be accessing LIFX devices. The SDK currently only has support for a "Local Network Context", which refers to devices accessible on your LAN. We plan on adding Network Contexts for accessing LIFX devices via the upcoming cloud service.

Lights, Light Collections and Addressing

The underlying LIFX system has three types of internal address: device, tag and broadcast. Device addressing will target an individual device, tag addressing will target all devices that have a particular tag, and broadcast addressing addressing will target all devices. Due to the way the underlying LIFX Binary Protocol works, you'll see much faster performance by targetting a tag (using a Tagged Light Collection) rather than targetting every device within that tag individually. The same applies to targetting all lights in a Network Context - if you want to change the state on all lights, you'll see much faster performance targetting -[LFXNetworkContext allLightsCollection] than you would by targetting each device individually.

Lights

A LFXLight object represents an individual LIFX Light, and there will be only one LFXLight corresponding to each device per Network Context.

Light Collections

Light Collections (LFXLightCollection) are classes that encapsulate a group of LIFX lights. They can have their light state manipulated in the same way that an individual light can. You can access the lights within a Light Collection through the .lights property. LFXLightCollection conforms to NSFastEnumeration, so you can enumerate the Lights in a Light Collection using for (LFXLight *aLight in lightCollection) {…}.

The All Lights Collection

Each LFXNetworkContext has an .allLightsCollection property, which is how you get the list of lights. If you want to manipulate every light in the same way (e.g. to turn every light off), you should use the All Lights Collection property directly, instead of targetting each device individually.

Tagged Light Collections

A Tagged Light Collection (LFXTaggedLightCollection) represents the lights contained within a particular tag. If you want to manipulate every device within a tag, you should always use the Tagged Light Collection instead of dealing with each Light individually. Tagged Light Collections are unique within a Network Context.

HSBK Color

LIFX makes use of a "HSBK" color representation. The "HSB" part refers to the HSB color space, and the "K" part refers to the Color Temperature of the white point, in Kelvin. At full saturation, HSBK colors will correspond to the edge of the realisable color gamut, and at zero saturation, HSBK colors will correspond to the color described by the Color Temperature in the K component.