Capability externalAlarm / tri-state switch

[tgauchat (ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)]

@fgorodishter

The ask here is whether it would be worth creating a new Capability that maps to what seems most alarms define as their primary 3 states (at the controller level).

My instinct is “yes”, but the problem is that SmartThings hasn’t created any new official Capabilities based on Community recommendations yet. So we don’t know what level of granularity, etc., will become customary or best practices.

If you would like to think about the Capability topic in theory, please feel welcome to read my long post…

DRAFT: Guidelines for Capabilities (under construction...)

Continuing the discussion from About the New Capability Types category: Disclaimer: This should probably be written by an official SmartThings Architect (or authorized technical writer), but I’m outlining my understanding of what makes for “good” Capability Definitions. This is based on my analysis of the existing Capabilities Taxonomy, and the SmartApp Developer’s Guide (particularly the section on device selection via preferences { input() }, and, most importantly, the Anatomy of a Device Type (Device Type Developer’s Guide), partially extracted here: Capabilities are the interactions that a device allows. We have a reference document that lists all available capabilities. When you define a capability, you are stating that your device supports the given capability. Commands are …