Add custom device names in bulk

When activating tens, hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of devices at once its always good to give them a specific name to make sure you can keep track of what device is what. This is especially true if you have a data management system that gives your hardware a specific name. In this guide we will use the Hologram REST API and Python 3 to upload a CSV and automatically rename our devices.

Note: If you are interested in adding sequential names to your devices please visit this guide instead.

First we need to make the CSV. This is a simple document with two columns one for the Name we want to give the SIMs and the other with the SIM number (the ICCID) of the SIM we want to receive this new name.

Note: It is important to name this CSV document hologram_renamer.csv, and to make sure the top row is used as a header and does not include data as our program skips it. You will also want to make sure that the program and the CSV file are on the same path to make your life easier.
Now we move on to the code. Use the code pictured below (full copy/paste-able text is at the bottom of this guide) in your favorite text editor or Python's IDLE.
Run the program.
When prompted enter your API Key.

Code example

import csv
import requests
import base64

encoded_api=str(base64.b64encode((("apikey:"+input("Enter your API Key: ")).encode("utf-8"))),"utf-8") # Ask and Encode API Key

head ={"Authorization":"Basic "+encoded_api} #header
filename = 'hologram_renamer.csv' #CSV file

names=[] #List where we will store the device names we pull from the CSV
iccids=[] #List where we will store the device iccids we pull from the CSV
deviceids=[] #List where we will store the device IDs we look up
orgid=[] #List where we will store the id of the Orgs where the devices are

with open (filename,'r') as file: #Open the CSV with the new names and SIMs to rename.
 reader = csv.reader(file,delimiter=',')
 lineCount=0 #Counter to be used to get specific list values
 for line in reader: #Iterate through all the rows in the CSV
 if lineCount==0:#Skip header row
 lineCount = lineCount + 1
 else:
 #Populate list of names
 names.append(line[0])
 #Populate list of iccids
 iccids.append(line[1])

#Populate list of deviceids
 get_device_url ="https://dashboard.hologram.io/api/1/links/cellular?sim="+iccids[lineCount-1] # set up query
 r= requests.get(get_device_url,headers=head) #get query to get current device information
 if str(r) == "<Response [200]>": #Pass if successful 
 pass
 else:
 print ("Record Failed ") #Flag if Failed and print failure
 print(r)
 print(r.text)
 
 jdata = r.json() #format JSON
 deviceids.append(jdata['data'][0]['deviceid']) #Add device id to list of device IDs
 orgid.append(jdata['data'][0]['orgid']) #Add org to list of orgids

#Rename
 rename_device_url = "https://dashboard.hologram.io/api/1/devices/" + str(deviceids[lineCount-1]) +"?orgid=" +str(orgid[lineCount-1]) # set up query 2
 r2 = requests.put(rename_device_url, data = {'name': names[lineCount-1]}, headers=head) #put query to modify the device name

if str(r) == "<Response [200]>": # Success status
 print ("Finished Record " + str(lineCount-1) +" SIM " + iccids[lineCount-1] + " is now called: "+ names[lineCount-1])#Print out progress
 else: #Fail status
 print ("Record Failed " + str(lineCount-1) +" SIM " + iccids[lineCount-1] + " is NOT called: "+ names[lineCount-1])#Print out progress
 print(r)
 print(r.text)


 lineCount = lineCount + 1 #Increase counter

print("Renaming Complete") #Let us know the program ran to completion