Changing a Zone name

[timlacey]

I recently changed the name of my S5 from the default "Portable" to "SONOS Boombox".

Once I did that, my events which send stop commands to that zone and play playlists command to that zone return the nice little error message. . ."SONOSCONTROLLER~!~Error in TriggerAction with error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

When I reset the name back to Portable, it seems to have started working.

I would expect the plug-in to realize that ZonePlayer names have changed and to update them in the device info. But this is not the case?

How would you recommend renaming a Zoneplayer which already has events and actions created? Is there a way - can I change it on the device list and have it work? Could the plug-in watch for name changes and update device names, if this can prevent the plug-in from otherwise breaking when names are changed?

Thanks,

Tim

[dcorsus]

Tim,

HomeSeer stores events and actions in exact the same syntax as they were created, meaning if they were created with name "Portable" than that's how it goes into the HS database and that's what HS will use to check triggers/actions. If you in the mean time changed the name of the zone from "Portable" to "SONOS Boombox" then you'll have to delete them and re-create them with the new name.

The only way around that is to use the UniqueDeviceIdentifiers (UDN) but they are completely user un-friendly (example uuid:RINCON_000E5859008A01400), it would almost be impossible to figure out what is what when you are creating the events and triggers.

There is to my knowledge no HS command to change the triggers stored in the database.

What is on my list to fix is at least update the sonoscontroller.ini file with appropriate relationship between ZoneName, UDN and HS device code.

I hope that people don't change names too much because today, the only remedy is to delete the HS devices, delete the sonoscontroller.ini file (or set the value "BaseCode=0"), restart HS and all devices will be recreated with their new Zone Names.

The same problem exist with HSTouch, the HS implementation is also based on Zone Names so you may end up having to redo your HSTouch screens if you change names after you created the screens. This is how HS works, not much I can do about that.

Dirk

[timlacey]

That's good to know. I am very used to my ISY Insteon plug-in, which automatically changes device names as they are changed in the ISY interface. As far as I know, those changes also update device triggers and event actions as well. . . but maybe I'm wrong. . .

For now, knowing the limitation is all I need to be careful. . .

Thanks,

Tim

[dcorsus]

That's good to know. I am very used to my ISY Insteon plug-in, which automatically changes device names as they are changed in the ISY interface. As far as I know, those changes also update device triggers and event actions as well. . . but maybe I'm wrong. . .

For now, knowing the limitation is all I need to be careful. . .

Thanks,

Tim

Tim,

don't despair. Had some email back and forth with the HS folks and it is now confirmed there is no way to change event parameters BUT there might be a complicated way around it by storing the UDN in a hidden object. I'm sure I can do that with actions, need to look at whether HS has that option as well for triggers and conditions.

After I make those changes, I anticipate a day, where a user changes the actual physical player (because it broke or decides to move for example some S5 around) and then all the triggers are hosed if they are linked to the UDN and not to the zone name.


It's still on my list

Dirk

[dcorsus]

New beta v.58 posted that allow zone name change

Tim,

I posted a new beta here (http://board.homeseer.com/showpost.p...45&postcount=1) today. Any events/triggers/actions created with this version should survive Zone Name changes.

Good luck and let me know if this does it for you.

Cheers,

Dirk