Alternate Text on Android?

[Demusman]

Does anyone have alttext working on an Android client??
I can't get it working no matter what I do.

I have it tracking the light.


And have the AltText set as "On" but i only get he 255 instead, but it is in the right font color so something is working, just not the text.


It works as expected on the Windows client, I get the AltText of "On" and even the other element (not shown here) of "Off".

[Uncle Michael]

Does anyone have alttext working on an Android client??

I use it routinely. Here's one example.
I find it works best to use status text, and then match status as assigned on the Status/Graphics tab for the device, although I have used value in a few cases, I think.

[Demusman]

Every time I ask a question like this one, I get an answer of "I find it works best..." or "that doesn't work as you think it should" and similar.
The way I have it 'should' work but it clearly doesn't, so does Homeseer ever fix their stuff out of it always gonna be "workarounds"?
Do they even monitor this forum?

I'll try the status text but I don't think I can use it for my purpose. Maybe I'll find a workaround

[Uncle Michael]

Every time I ask a question like this one, I get an answer of "I find it works best..." or "that doesn't work as you think it should" and similar.

Yes, preconceptions of how HS "should" work are often misleading. I found that as I gained more experience, my intuition of how HS works improved significantly.

[Demusman]

So you're saying they don't fix anything and we have to adapt to it?

[Demusman]

How about this. Again, it doesn't do what I think it should so...
What should this do?

Line 0, I think it should show the word "off" in white text if the light is on. It does work that way.


Line 1, It should show the word "Off" in red text if the light is Off. It does.


Line 2, It should show the word "Off" in white text if the light is NOT Off. It doesn't show any text.


What am I doing wrong in this instance?

BTW, I did get the original issue fixed by using the status text as you said. Thanks.

[Uncle Michael]

My reading of the help file leads me to believe that if you want to use alternate text, you need to choose 'Status Text' and have status/value pairs defined.
From the Help file:

If an element has a status text association set (using StatusTracking...) then this property will be available. Use this to assign a different background color, font color, or alternate text to an element. For example, you can assign a different background color to the element if a HomeSeer device is ON or OFF or DIM, or change the displayed text to "Light On" when the devices's status is set to ON.

I think you can use the value instead of status text, as long as a status text has been assigned to that value, but I'm not an expert.
I have never tried assigning an alternate text to a value range, but I can find nothing in the help file that suggests that's supported.

[Demusman]

I'm getting even more confused as we go....

So that quote says
:For example, you can assign a different background color to the element if a HomeSeer device is ON or OFF or DIM, or change the displayed text to "Light On" when the devices's status is set to ON."

Which is exactly what I'm trying to do. It even says DIM.
So how would you use the DIM ranges then?
What exactly does "status/value pairs defined" mean?

And why would the value say this:


Are you saying that maybe all of the options listed there are not always available?

[Uncle Michael]

Line 2, It should show the word "Off" in white text if the light is NOT Off. It doesn't show any text.
What am I doing wrong in this instance?

It looks like you've selected white text on a white background. Can you see the text if you change the color?

BTW, I did get the original issue fixed by using the status text as you said. Thanks.

Glad it worked.

[Uncle Michael]

I'm getting even more confused as we go....

So that quote says
:For example, you can assign a different background color to the element if a HomeSeer device is ON or OFF or DIM, or change the displayed text to "Light On" when the devices's status is set to ON."

Which is exactly what I'm trying to do. It even says DIM.
So how would you use the DIM ranges then?
What exactly does "status/value pairs defined" mean?

Are you saying that maybe all of the options listed there are not always available?

Sorry, I didn't understand that you'd assigned a range on the value/status page. (I'm also not an expert in this, so my knowledge gaps are significant.) Did you try changing the color of the background or text?

[Uncle Michael]

So you're saying they don't fix anything and we have to adapt to it?

Missed this. I have no way to control what HST chooses to do. I can control how I respond, and I find adapting is the more productive alternative.