Device Handler: Which value to show on main tile

[orangebucket (Graham)]

@nickolasemp

In the past, you could just copy and paste the DTH from someone’s github.

Nothing has changed in that regard.

When it comes to changing the status and action of dashboard tiles, once you have the CLI installed (which takes five to ten minutes), it is a less than five minute job to make the required changes to a DTH, and only one person needs to do it.

The terminology is being made more appropriate and consistent at the moment, as stuff that has been around for a long time in the new environment is being made more accessible.

A device profile is largely the equivalent of the metadata in a device handler for new style integrations. Instead of the bizarre idea of defining the UI inside the handler, in the new environment the UI is specified in device presentation files - typically around 100kb of JSON - which describe how the device should be presented in the dashboard, on device detail cards, and in automations. This same presentation is being retrofitted into device handlers.

All capabilities already have their own capability presentations, so building a device presentation involves creating an intermediate file that describes the device in terms of capabilities. This is called a device config.

So to change what is displayed on a tile you generate a default device config from an existing DTH (one line in the CLI), edit that file (YAML or JSON) to change the order of a couple of arrays, generate a presentation from the config (one line in the CLI) and extract a UUID to use in the DTH.

Here is a real example illustrating the process:

Another question for developers. Code for default tile/value

Capabilities have their own presentations that define how they look when they are used as the status on the dashboard tile, as the action on the dashboard tile, as tiles on the detail pages, and in automations. You don’t need to worry about that here as that is already defined. What you need to work with is the device config, which says which capabilities are to be used in the dashboard, details page and automations for anything using your device handler, and sometimes in what order. This device config is combined with the info in the capability presentations, and probably some other fluff, to create a device presentation. Prerequisites: The UUID for your device handler as installed in your IDE. It is in the URL. The CLI installed. Let’s call it ‘st’. First you need to generate a de…