General security question about community provided edge drivers

[veonua (Andrew Me)]

I highly doubt there is a market that can cover my expenses . to cover my $ rate the driver access should cost hundreds of euros , nobody is going to pay that much

[Mariano_Colmenarejo]

@Davec

Anyone else apart from @veonua want to comment? I’d really love to know. Is it because -:

1. You are going to monetize your work?
2. You might monetize your work?
3. It’s extra work is not likely to benefit you?

I’m surprised by your insistence, I don’t know what that question is about, nor why I’m answering.

What is your real interest in publishing all the driver codes?

As you told me, it was a matter of learning and seeing how to build the drivers.

If that is so, I already answered in my long post, I repeat the same, the current situation is not the same now as when all this change started:

@Mariano_Colmenarejo

Now there is a whole library of stock edge drivers available to everyone in github, which together with the edge libraries and documentation cover almost 90% of the example needs to make any new driver to any developer or advanced user who knows Lua and how devices work.

[Davec (David)]

Sorry if my insistence is surprising and it seems irritating.

@Mariano_Colmenarejo

What is your real interest in publishing all the driver codes?

3 Things -:

1. I will NEVER install community supplied code (For anything, smartthings aside) if I cannot see the code (I have security concerns, whatever is promised by the hub)
2. I like to learn and see how things are done. Your point re the whole stock of edge drivers isn’t really relevant, the documentation is still a mess and hard to consume
3. If someone is planning to monetise their work, I would rather know BEFORE I use it.

Whatever, you do you,

I just asked a question,if it was inappropriate, I apologise, although I am not sure I see why.

[csstup (Corey Stup)]

@Davec

Anyone else apart from @veonua want to comment?

I personally would never bother with going thru a certification process. My Edge work is for fun, not for work. Ever submitted apps to the Apple App Store? F that. Pain in the butt.

If Edge offered a certification process I would not use it.
If Edge required a certification process for sharing drivers I wouldnt share my work.
If Edge required a certification process for any drivers I would find a new platform.

[nayelyz (SmartThings Developer Support)]

@Davec

the documentation is still a mess and hard to consume

We welcome any feedback you can provide about the documentation. You can create a new post mentioning what’s difficult to understand about it or why is it hard to consume.
Thanks!

[Davec (David)]

@csstup

My Edge work is for fun, not for work

I suspect this is kinda of a key point.

[csstup (Corey Stup)]

@Davec

I suspect this is kinda of a key point

Fun can still create high quality supported work. It’s just that once you add the bureaucracy and tedium of certification it sucks the fun out.

What I enjoy:

• writing software that interacts with devices at A low level
• helping people solve their home automation problems
• learning new environments and languages

Paperwork and resubmitting work to a governing body over and over is not part of that equation.

[scottinpollock (Scott)]

I have spent the better part of few hours reviewing the docs and don’t recall seeing a single real world example of anything.

[nayelyz (SmartThings Developer Support)]

@scottinpollock

I have spent the better part of few hours reviewing the docs and don’t recall seeing a single real world example of anything.

Ok, maybe the reference is missing but here in the Community there’s a section of Developer Programs called “tutorials” where you can find LAN, Zigbee and Z-Wave samples (and for other things as well):

Tutorials

[scottinpollock (Scott)]

@nayelyz

maybe the reference is missing but here in the Community there’s a section of Developer Programs called “tutorials” where you can find LAN, Zigbee and Z-Wave samples

If you have a Mac, I’d be happy to send you our help app for the high level authoring tool we developed. It includes MULTIPLE syntax templates AND real world examples for every token in the language… plus search facilities based on tokens, concepts, and text available in syntax, examples, and definitions (for over 1300 tokens). We accomplished this with two individuals that make up the company.

Documentation is important, and ST has never excelled here. Link to link to link… go here for this, go there for that, see samples somewhere else ad infinitem… it’s a huge waste of your prospective devs’ time, and just seems a really lazy/unfocused attempt at documenting your APIs.

[csstup (Corey Stup)]

@scottinpollock

Documentation is important,

Agreed.

@scottinpollock

ST has never excelled here.

Disagree, especially compared to other HA platforms. SmartThings developer documentation has always been very good and complete. Lots of working examples in GitHub and the IDE. In fact, old DTH ST documentation is still better than Hubitat’s developer documentation. Home Assistant documentation is way more “link to link to link”…

[scottinpollock (Scott)]

@csstup

Disagree

So you’re happy with the docs on Edge, Rules, and API?

[csstup (Corey Stup)]

@scottinpollock

you’re happy with the docs on Edge, Rules, and API?

I’ve only looked at Edge and API. Happy? Its not something I’m happy or sad about. Of course the more the better. I’m just saying its better than others. And Edge/API are still a moving target.

[Mariano_Colmenarejo]

@scottinpollock

I’d be happy to send you our help app for the high level authoring tool we developed. It includes MULTIPLE syntax templates AND real world examples for every token in the language… plus search facilities based on tokens, concepts, and text available in syntax, examples, and definitions (for over 1300 tokens). We accomplished this with two individuals that make up the company.
Documentation is important, and ST has never excelled here. Link to link to link… go here for this, go there for that, see samples somewhere else ad infinitem… it’s a huge waste of your prospective devs’ time, and just seems a really lazy/unfocused attempt at documenting your APIs

Said with all due respect

This is part of the problem, we want to make everything so easy that we are becoming totally dependent zombies.

We don’t even know our children’s phone numbers anymore because we only use the agenda
We don’t know how to divide or add because without a calculator we don’t know
We get lost in any town with 4 houses because the GPS is not updated
We have the best kitchens that any cook would have dreamed of and we don’t know how to cook
We have to look at the phone every minute and if the battery dies we panic.
I could go on like this until tomorrow…

We have become dependent on everything of our own free will and when something does not work we enter into despair and permanent and deep depression instead of looking for solutions.

We are creating the generation best prepared in knowledge and the worst prepared to use it without someone telling you how to do it.

I’m not a developer, I like programming and always have since I had my first 8086 with basic 1.0.
I had never heard of groovy or lua in my life, I stuck to visual basic many years ago, lol…
Until 2 years ago, I didn’t even know that zigbee or zwave devices existed and that they were used to automate things.
I don’t consider myself stupid or smart, I’m normal like many people of my generation who learned since child to resolve life and seek solutions because no one was going to come and do it for me.
We all need help, but have to ask for it when really need it and not out of routine or convenience.

For any developer this is one more change and learning process, with its difficulties, yes, but nothing more. That is, have to make an effort and read a lot and when encounter a difficulty there are two options: complain and wait for it to resolve itself, sometimes it works, or find a solution.

[eric182 (Eman ym)]

@Mariano_Colmenarejo

For any developer this is one more change and learning process, with its difficulties, yes, but nothing more. That is, have to make an effort and read a lot and when encounter a difficulty there are two options: complain and wait for it to resolve its

This is probably the best post I’ve read in the ST forum. Ever.

[Waidljm (Joseph Waidl)]

I was reading through the general thread and as a newer member I was hoping to gain some clarification as to how smart things developers and the community functioned. To give backstory I started my smart home with alexa and aqara. I have since ventured into the territories of smart things with the announcement of aqara’s intagration. However I have yet to see any full integration so I searched and found edge drivers for the short term. My main concern was safety and possible risk to me smart home related and every thing else monitory wise ssn etc. Can anyone shed light on the potential risks.