The online service for connecting online services and automating tasks has opened a channel whereby DIYers, Makers and hardware hackers can add its facilities to their projects.

IFTTT, which stands for "if this, then that", started out as a way to connect online tools and services, triggering one from the other. For instance, here is a typical “recipe”: 

If this (I post a picture on Instagram) Then that (save the photo in Dropbox).

IFTTT started its move towards "remote control for the internet" earlier this year when it introduced a new set of Do Apps including Do Button which sends controls to connected devices including the Nest Thermostat and WeMo switches.

Now the new Maker Channel allows you to connect IFTTT to your personal DIY projects. With Maker, you can connect a Recipe to any device or service that can make or receive a web request. This means that The new Maker Channel allows you to connect IFTTT to your personal DIY projects. With Maker, you can connect a Recipe to any device or service that can make or receive a web request ans so allows hardware hackers to write recipes that can be triggered by a network connected Arduino or a Raspberry Pi. 

All you need to get started is a secret key, which is assigned once you sign up for an account and connect to the Maker Channel. The Actions specified in your recipe can make a web request to a publicly accessible URL, so you'll also need a cloud service or a fixed IP address if you are planning to get data back from IFTTT. 

To trigger an Event your device has to do a POST or GET web request such as:

 https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/{event}/with/key/{key value}

You can specify an optional JSON body of up to three values or strings to be passed on to the Action in your Recipe. The event can be triggered with a command line curl, making it both simple and powerful. Any web connected device should be capable of triggering an event. 

This makes it possible for one-off devices to make use of IFTTT to build a cloud-based system with one device triggering an event and others being involved in the response as specified in the recipe. So you could, for example, trigger an event to say that someone has arrived home and the recipe could send a POST request to your public URL which triggers all the lights to come on - and all without programming.

Of course if you have built the devices that do all of this the chances are you can program very well indeed.

It will be interesting to see if this approach catches on. 

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