[quote=“llamas, post:17, topic:10921, full:true”]Meanwhile, what the user can use to control devices are the Device Types, which have the Tile UI, and nothing sounding like “app” in their name.
[/quote]
I think it’s a little different than that, because of the Hello Home Actions, which are limited option scenes. (When X happens, have this device do that. For multiple devices.)
I suspect in the future the most typical homeowner will simply find devices through the pretty automated pairing process. This will use standard device types.
After that, the interaction will be through setting up the Hello Home Actions or using the future Rules Engine through the mobile app, once for each rule set.
And after that, it’s letting the automatic stuff run automatically, and initiating manual actions through either the ST mobile app or a physical controller.
So I think most customers will never touch the IDE, or look at the code for a Device Handler.
( Oh, another weird terminology thing…you’re writing in Groovy, a language which runs in the Java environment. But what the IDE calls MY DEVICES are I think actually device handlers, not device types. The device types are included inline in the groovy code for the smartapp, and are a typical OO interface.)
So most coders will write or borrow device handlers, and work with those through the custom code in a smartapp.
Once the smartapp is written, it has to be associated with some trigger. This could be a timed schedule or a device doing something, often a switch or a sensor.
Also, be very careful when using the word “mode.” It doesn’t just mean a device state in SmartThings, like turning a light On or Off. Those are not considered Modes. Instead, see this explanation: