Frustrated with Device Names without Root in Name

[Ltek]

The first screen shot I believe is your device list. It is showing the root name for each device (garage 1 and garage 2). Are you saying you want the root name to appear in the features also? That seems a bit redundant since it is displayed in the heading. I have seen some user configs with really long root names so including it everywhere could cause a big mess.

The second shows the root name missing for the delayed action and I have a request in to fix that in the next update. Randy pointed that out also.

I was providing the Device list as the baseline, its fine of course. My post was redundant, sorry... I didnt see until after that you already replied saying you'd fix the Event display. much appreciated!

[ksum]

This an issue with the devices as they display in HomeSeer Mobile. I recognize there may be updates coming to the mobile app, but right now I have lights which are assigned to the same Floor and Room and just have Power as the name. I will be fine once this is resolved. Just pointing out one place where it is currently a problem.

[rjh]

The first screen shot I believe is your device list. It is showing the root name for each device (garage 1 and garage 2). Are you saying you want the root name to appear in the features also? That seems a bit redundant since it is displayed in the heading. I have seen some user configs with really long root names so including it everywhere could cause a big mess.

The second shows the root name missing for the delayed action and I have a request in to fix that in the next update. Randy pointed that out also.

I provided these (attached) screenshots to Matt in the bug report. HS4's Event screens do not show Parent device name in some cases. This is not a Plugin's option, its native HS4. This makes it impossible to distinguish which actual devices are added in those cases. Look at the difference between the event's 3 actions.

[kenm]

Your initial post is a bit generic. If you are talking about programming, all the info is available from the device object so you can grab it and format it any way you like. If you have 2 child devices with the same location and name under different root devices, you can use the relationship property to find the root and use the root name to distinguish between them. Is it programming that you are having an issue with? Or is it inconsistency with how devices are displayed? The HS4 UI has attempted to display devices in the same manner throughout the program. If plugins present devices to the user, we don't have control over how they display them, but we can certainly recommend a method.

I am trying to see if there is an action item here?

Yes, sorry it was a bit generic since I was trying to address multiple issues at once. The biggest one was figuring out the fullname of a device including its root name, if it's a feature. Using association information, I've been able to work that out in scripts. The next area is similar to what LTek is showing above, but, in my case, was related to plugins not supporting root and feature selections. I've contacted the individual plugin developers asking for them to consider an update for this.

[Ltek]

I am trying to see if there is an action item here?

I provided these (attached) screenshots to Matt in the bug report. HS4's Event screens do not show Parent device name in some cases. This is not a Plugin's option, its native HS4. This makes it impossible to distinguish which actual devices are added in those cases. Look at the difference between the event's 3 actions.

[rjh]

Your initial post is a bit generic. If you are talking about programming, all the info is available from the device object so you can grab it and format it any way you like. If you have 2 child devices with the same location and name under different root devices, you can use the relationship property to find the root and use the root name to distinguish between them. Is it programming that you are having an issue with? Or is it inconsistency with how devices are displayed? The HS4 UI has attempted to display devices in the same manner throughout the program. If plugins present devices to the user, we don't have control over how they display them, but we can certainly recommend a method.

I am trying to see if there is an action item here?

My issue is not with the Events page, but with the device model itself. If you read my initial post, it talks about the name of feature or child devices specifically. The issue I have with events is that not all plugins support the parent/child (root/feature) model.

Ltek's issue can be better understood here: https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...-on-name-shown

[rjh]

I will get the delayed actions page fixed, it needs to present the devices in the same manner as the other device lists.

I think it might be the legacy Event page that presents the problem. The devices are identifiable on the HS4 Event page



In another thread an HS4 screenshot shows the issue, but on delayed device actions.



The problem seems to be an inconsistency of how devices are presented. Here are three switches all with different root names as presented in delayed device actions.



On the legacy page the root name is left out. This makes it impossible to identify which of the 7 “switches” I have in the Media Room, all of which have different root or parent names.

[kenm]

My issue is not with the Events page, but with the device model itself. If you read my initial post, it talks about the name of feature or child devices specifically. The issue I have with events is that not all plugins support the parent/child (root/feature) model.

Ltek's issue can be better understood here: https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...-on-name-shown

[randy]

I think it might be the legacy Event page that presents the problem. The devices are identifiable on the HS4 Event page



In another thread an HS4 screenshot shows the issue, but on delayed device actions.



The problem seems to be an inconsistency of how devices are presented. Here are three switches all with different root names as presented in delayed device actions.



On the legacy page the root name is left out. This makes it impossible to identify which of the 7 “switches” I have in the Media Room, all of which have different root or parent names.

[rjh]

I am not understanding the issue. We recently changed how devices appear in events, in response to HS3 users. First it lists the root device then under that it lists all the features (child devices) with the root.

If a device root name is kitchen lights and location2 is "first floor" and location1 is "kitchen" and the device name is "switch", you will see it in the events as:

first floor-kitchen-kitchen lights-switch

(location2-location1-root device name-child device name)

Is that not what you are seeing?

[Ltek]

opened ticket and Matt Cave answered that we need to "rename every device to a unique name"... its clear he's not understanding the scope of the problem. So I asked him to bring in rjh
for input on this.

Rich, I finally today decided to update HS3 to HS4... and HS3 does not have this problem. I really hope we don't need to beat this to death and beg for a year to have you fix this. A

In short its simple...

Asking people to modify each and every device (which was Matts "solution") with a custom name 100% defeats the purpose of having Floors and Rooms, which is always the differentiated identity of each device when those properties are coupled with the Name itself. This is why HS3 NEVER had this problem.

Please fix this so Events display Location 1 & 2 when we add a device.

[kenm]

Thanks Ed. Misery loves company. I like your approach. In my case I need to go the other way. I started working on the code yesterday to determine if a DevRef is a "Child" and if so, get the DevRef of the Parent from the associatedDevices, and then the name of that DevRef, which is the Parent name. Somewhat painful, but it appears to be working. I'll publish the code once it's cleaned up, in case you want to add it to your extensions.

[tenholde]

I have same complaint. Since reinstalling a plugin assigns different DevRefs, I use the DeviceName for my script references. With HS4, this is wholely unreliable because of MANY duplicate names for Features. I developed a series of scripting extensions that help significantly. One of them, GetFeatureRefByFullname, takes the Root and Feature names (including Location and Location1 for each) as parameters and returns the DevRef. I call these at the beginning of my scripts to get DevRefs for any device/feature I will reference and then use the returned references.

Take a look.

[kenm]

Since the HS device model shifted to parent/child (late HS3) or root/feature (HS4), I've become more and more frustrated with getting a complete device name out of the device model. I have 18 root devices that all have a feature of "switch". dv.Name returns "switch" for all of them, So, if I have more than one of these devices in the same Location and Location2, they all come up as Location Location2 Switch. IMHO, they should be Location Location2 RootName Switch. Some plugins have addressed this while others have not. This is particularly frustrating in scripts and events when trying to report a FULL device name. Similar problem with Root devices that have a "battery" feature.

Sorry for the /rant but I think this is something that needs to be addressed but I'm not sure how to go about it.