Introduce External API, enhance timestamps, and update documentation

[chvvkumar]

📋 Overview

This pull request introduces a new external REST API for retrieving system status and client information, significantly expanding the system's external integration capabilities. It also enhances existing functionality by adding dates to all timestamps and updating the 'Last Updated' field to display known upcoming device state changes. These new features are accompanied by comprehensive documentation updates, including a dedicated guide for the new external API.

🔄 Changes by Category

• Features:
  • Added a new external REST API (alpaca/routes/external_api.py) with routes for system status and client information.
  • Implemented date inclusion for all timestamps across the system, affecting alpaca/device.py and other relevant files.
  • Enhanced the 'Last Updated' field in alpaca/device.py to display known upcoming device state changes, with corresponding updates to templates/setup.html for display.
  • Minor adjustments to existing API routes (alpaca/routes/api.py, alpaca/routes/management.py) to support new functionality.
• Documentation:
  • Created docs/EXTERNAL_API.md with detailed descriptions, endpoint specifications, and usage examples for the new external REST API.
  • Refactored the documentation structure by moving the ASCOM Alpaca SafetyMonitor guide to docs/ALPACA_README.md.
  • Updated the main readme.md to reflect the new documentation structure and include references to the new external API documentation.
• Configuration:
  • Updated alpaca/__init__.py to register and make the new external API routes accessible.
  • Modified templates/setup.html to integrate and display the enhanced 'Last Updated' information.

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_{📊 Analyzed 5 commit(s) | 🕐 Updated: 2026-02-05T03:39:38.960Z | Generated by GitHub Actions}

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