"capabilities"?

I am new to smartthings and am attempting to write my first smart app. I am struggling with the capabilities function! I wish to use the same selection as used in the smart lighting app which gives various option for triggering an event. These include open/close and several other options and also sunset/sunrise, but cannot find the correct value for the capabilities object. Can anyone please help. Sorry if the terminology is incorrect. Many thanks.
Dave Bailey

I found the documentation to be very helpful when starting: http://docs.smartthings.com/en/latest/

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Capabilities are just one type of input and only user to offer a filtered selection of the user’s Devices so the SmartApp knows what Commands and Attributes/Events they can expect.

Capability Switch, for example, will be claimed by devices that offer on/off Commands and on/off events/currentState.

A single Device can claim several Capabilities (eg., SmartSense Multi has Contact, Temperature, Acceleration).

By filtering on Capability, your SmartApp doesn’t need to know the brand, model, radio-network protocol of the users devices. Your SmartApp can trust the standard Commands and Attributes will be available.

http://docs.smartthings.com/en/latest/capabilities-reference.html

But SmartApps can have other inputs that are less structured. Mode, Time, true/false, …

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