node-vw-carnet

A client that can be used to call the Volkswagen Car-Net API via the We Connect portal. Since Volkswagen does not yet provide an open API, this module can be used as a workaround.

NOTE: This library will break when Volkswagen changes their We Connect/Car-Net portal.

To login and get valid session cookies, puppeteer is used. The library can be used with either puppeteer or puppeteer-core.

Example

Here is an example where this library is used in a REST API on a AWS Lambda.

Installation

# install puppeteer 
npm i puppeteer -S
 
# (or puppeteer-core) 
# npm i puppeteer-core -S 
 
npm i node-vw-carnet -S

Usage

The main function in all examples below are called like this:

main()
.then(() => process.exit(0))
.catch(err => {
  console.log('ERROR!', err);
  process.exit(1);
});

Login

It takes a long time to log in (normally around 5-20 seconds). The reason is that the We-Connect portal takes some time to respond. Once the login is complete, you can save the CarnetAPIClient instance (or information) and call the Car-Net API directly (this is done with node-fetch) and the responses from these calls are usually quick.

With puppeteer

import puppeteer from 'puppeteer';
import CarnetLoginHandler from 'node-vw-carnet';
 
async function main() {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();
 
  // Create the puppeteer login client by sending in
  // the puppeteer.Page (and a optional logger, can be skipped).
  const handler = new CarnetLoginHandler(page, console);
 
  // Try to login with your username and password.
  // The login will take ~10 seconds... 
  const client = await handler.createClient({
    email: process.env.EMAIL, // your carnet email
    password: process.env.PASS // your carnet password
  });
 
  // Close chrome browser since it's not needed anymore.
  await browser.close();
 
  // Successful login, now use the client.
  // Get car details.
  const details = await client.loadCarDetails();
  console.log('car details:', details);
 
  // Start the climate heater.
  const response = await client.triggerClimatisation(true);
  console.log('response:', response);
}

With puppeteer-core

import puppeteer from 'puppeteer-core';
import CarnetLoginHandler from 'node-vw-carnet';
 
async function main() {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({  
    executablePath: '<path to chrome>' // /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome
  });
 
  // ...
}

Available client methods

The following methods are available on the CarnetAPIClient. All methods returns Promise<CarNetJSONResponse>

interface CarNetJSONRespose {
  [x: string]: any;
  // If errorCode is '0' the request was successfull
  errorCode: string;
}

getLocation()
getFullyLoadedCars()
getCompleteVehicleJson()
loadCarDetails()
triggerClimatisation(on: boolean)
triggerWindowheating()
getPSPStatus()
getVehicleDetails()
getVehicleStatusReport()
getLatestReport()
getEmanager()
getLatestTripStatistics()
// Can be used if this library have missed a certain method.
triggerAction(url, body = null)

Building

# clone this repo 
git clone https://github.com/nekman/node-vw-carnet.git
 
# install dependencies 
npm i
 
# lint 
npm run eslint
 
# manual test 
EMAIL=<your carnet email> PASS=<your carnet pass> npm run manual:test

Q: Why puppeteer?

A: Easier to login to the We Connect Portal. I can of course do like other libraries and perform all required login steps, but next time Volkswagen changes their We Connect portal a new time consuming login procedure needs to be implemented. Changes will be easier to handle with Puppeteer.