Feedback Request: Conditional Actions

[retiredjeff]

I am a new be trying to learn and I have from this thread. I don't see that you have contributed anything to this thread other than asking me to go away. Well I guess you get to add one more post to your 2826 total.

[Uncle Michael]

I am a new be trying to learn and I have from this thread. I don't see that you have contributed anything to this thread other than asking me to go away. Well I guess you get to add one more post to your 2826 total.

I don't think that stefxx intended to be rude.
This board is quite extensive and useful discussion can become buried in the middle of long threads like this one.
Your question is a good one, and really deserves a discussion of its own that can be easily referenced and accessed by others.

[jgreenberg01]

... a true advanced user here!

I do a lot of stuff like that. DM me, would love to share knowledge on it. I have a lot of what you mention in a combination of scripting dozens of virtual devices, and 20+ native events. I have what should be one 'checking event' broken up since HS cant do Case or nesting. It works but a PITA to troubleshoot since HS4 debug mode severely lacking (luckily I rarely need to now - but for the first month OMG my wife hated me!). Plus, a multi-event activities/sequences are a challenge in HS to ensure race conditions don't occur when combining near-real-time occupancy tracking, door locks, multiple house modes, alarm integration (panel, windows, doors, etc), and fail-safe checks and full alerting (visual, phone notifications, audio, etc)

Just FYI - I came from Vera too, and before that X-10 and I kludged together a way to have a URC MX-3000 with custom GUI to control it all.

I moved to HS3 because Vera just did not have the power/flexibility that HS has. More importantly, it has HSTouch which is something that no other system can really provide.

Having said that, while I believe having some sort of "conditional wait before proceeding" function for events would absolutely be useful, I don't see a way to fully control operations like what I described earlier in the thread via an event.

I'll DM you as you suggested, and we can go down the techno rabbit hole without hijacking this thread. Who knows, maybe we'll solve the world's problems?

[Guest]

Hi macromark, I like the new feature but would you consider this simple addition :

• Enable/Disable button for each condition/action

This makes building and troubleshooting events much easier; you don't have to constantly delete/rewrite conditions/actions or create duplicates/dummy events for testing purposes.

Let us know what you think.

Thanks,

[Ltek]

Hi macromark, I like the new feature but would you consider this simple addition :

• Enable/Disable button for each condition/action

This makes building and troubleshooting events much easier; you don't have to constantly delete/rewrite conditions/actions or create duplicates/dummy events for testing purposes.

Let us know what you think.

Thanks,

I suggested this 1000 years ago, and many times since. This and disable devices. Unlikely we'll ever get either one. Enhancements only happen 1 per decade and I think the nest If/Then is that for this decade... we'll see what they decide to add in 2032 (though before then they probably will change the UI twice and HS touch again for the 0.5% of users that use it)

[John245]

I suggested this 1000 years ago, and many times since. This and disable devices. Unlikely we'll ever get either one. Enhancements only happen 1 per decade and I think the nest If/Then is that for this decade... we'll see what they decide to add in 2032 (though before then they probably will change the UI twice and HS touch again for the 0.5% of users that use it)

At least I' very happy with the fixes in HSTouch and iOS client.

---
John

[rmasonjr]

I suggested this 1000 years ago, and many times since. This and disable devices. Unlikely we'll ever get either one. Enhancements only happen 1 per decade and I think the nest If/Then is that for this decade... we'll see what they decide to add in 2032 (though before then they probably will change the UI twice and HS touch again for the 0.5% of users that use it)

Wow dude. Is there anything going right for you in the HS world?

[Ltek]

Wow dude. Is there anything going right for you in the HS world?

Just disappointed knowing what HS could and should be by now... 95% of what is HS4 actually does, works well / as expected. The flip side of that is there has only been a small hand full of additional enhancements since v2 (2004-2009) - including the UI changes. HS is a 20 yr old single focus app. The 'core' of all automation is event engine... HS has with very few changes and no large improvements over the 20 years. Most leaps are from 3Ps and its the only reason HS is even usable for any semi-advanced automations and integrations. I started in software 35 years ago. In that time I've worked for or with over 100 software development companies (and some hardware companies), large and small. I've seen nearly every app type, use case, etc you can imagine. For being 20 years of age, HS's feature maturity is lacking even by pre-cloud standards.

[claude]

Ltek I understand your frustration. Your point has been brought up so many times in past posts already. Nothing in what you say is bad or wrong, but you're beating a dead horse. Dead horse in the sense that HS moves at its pace, yes slowly, but HS isn't listed on Nasdaq, it's an SMB. Still, it has survived all this time. Why? It does what the median user base is looking for. If there was a better alternative, right now, you would be the first to jump ship, right?

So, why not enjoy the ride, still propose enhancements, but keep your expectations at a reasonable level.

Think of the dead horse: people get tired of it quickly.

[ewkearns]

Ltek <snips> Nothing in what you say is bad or wrong, but you're beating a dead horse. Dead horse in the sense that HS moves at its pace, yes slowly, but HS isn't listed on Nasdaq, it's an SMB. Still, it has survived all this time. Why? It does what the median user base is looking for. If there was a better alternative, right now, you would be the first to jump ship, right?

Frankly, I'm not sure that this is a dead horse (perhaps one out of sight), though I do see your point. I have just begun leaving the argument at, "let's just wait and see what HST wants us to have".

Looking at the bigger picture and the direction that HST has taken HS4, how far can some sort of simpler, yet much more powerful and configurable scripting language be for the newer HS4 audience? They have their mobile-friendly GUI, how far can they be from demanding some highly customizable, powerful, and easy-to-use scripting tool that just simply works using their phone/tablet/whatever? I just wonder how far ahead that crossroad is.

I guess I'll just wait and see what HST wants us to have, once they realize they are in the intersection.

[macromark]

A few weeks back we posted a poll to see what features the community at large would like us to add to HS4. The poll included feature requests and improvements that were submitted via our service desk. The most requested feature on that poll was conditional actions and this thread was posted to gather feedback to help us implement that feature as intuitively as possible. To that end, I think we're moving in the right direction and I think this process has been very helpful. Thanks to everyone who's contributed positively so far. Our goal is to add this to the next release.

[John245]

A few weeks back we posted a poll to see what features the community at large would like us to add to HS4. The poll included feature requests and improvements that were submitted via our service desk. The most requested feature on that poll was conditional actions and this thread was posted to gather feedback to help us implement that feature as intuitively as possible. To that end, I think we're moving in the right direction and I think this process has been very helpful. Thanks to everyone who's contributed positively so far. Our goal is to add this to the next release.

I really like this way of working. May I suggest to have a poll on a regular basis (quarterly) as requirement and priorities of users can change.

Business related I'm involved in monthly meetings were we discuss requirements and priorities of our feature requests with the SaaS provider.

---
John

[macromark]

I really like this way of working. May I suggest to have a poll on a regular basis (quarterly) as requirement and priorities of users can change.

---
John

Same here and we intend to do this!

[John245]

Same here and we intend to do this!

Great

[wpiman]

IMO, the above examples can be done in one event each without wait/do loops, etc. I think you're trying too hard to make the Event graphical feature of HS into a programming language. The beauty of HS is that if you want a programming language approach then have a ball and write a script in VB, C#, etc.

WHEN Front Door Opens
THEN
WAIT 3 minutes
IF Front Door Open
THEN Send Alert.

WHEN Alarm changes to Leaving mode
THEN
WAIT 30 seconds
IF Door Open and Alarm = Leaving Mode
THEN do not set alarm (stop any delayed events) and send phone alerts, blink house lights, etc

Am I missing something here?

With this event, I open your front door. I close it for 2 minutes and 58 seconds. I open it for 4 seconds-- the event still fires.

You really want something like....

WHEN Front Door Opens
THEN
FORK
WAIT 3 minutes
IF Front Door closes: EXIT EVENT
JOIN
//IF Front Door Open-- redundant
THEN Send Alert.

Maybe what the event engine really needs is a forking function with this exit function? I could see that being SUPER useful. For example, if my porch door is open for 5 minutes, the heat is shut off. I have a handful of events that do this.