Hello, we’re considering using Fabman for our membership/device management. I just had a great call with Mo and he recommended I ask a question I had here. Right now we have our own diy rfid access devices (five of them) with a server that we would like to hook up to to Fabman’s API. We like having the local server in case the internet goes down.
My question is, if this server used the API to regularly communicate with Fabman for the other rfid devices, would it count (and be billed) as one integrated device or five?
That depends on what kind of functionality you’d like to use and what kind of information you’d like to see in Fabman.
Normally, you would add all five access devices (or rather the machines they control) to Fabman and create a bridge API key for each, then you can control access to them individually, can book each of them, have individual logs, etc.
This gives you the full functionality of Fabman, but also counts as 5 devices, obviously.
I can think of one scenario where you might be able to get away with pretending that all 5 devices are just one for Fabman. (But then you’re losing a lot of its power.)
If all five control only doors, don’t need to be booked, and you don’t need to distinguish between them wrt. to access control or who used which one and when, then you might just use one API key to manage them all.
We can schedule a short video call, if you want to discuss the nuances of these approaches.
Sorry for my delayed response it’s been a busy week. A video call would be great because I think I’m misunderstanding something looking at the API.
Currently, our server has a database of who is trained for various tools (woodshop, 3d printer, laser) that it uses to allow/disallow users from tools. What would prevent that server from just refreshing that database (say twice a day) by calling different member’s training statuses from fabman’s api?
I realize it’s inelegant but we are just starting out so less change and cost is the best way for us to go.
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