Groovy SmartApp Shutdown

@nayelyz

Will the Smartthings Weather report SmartApp over speakers (in my case, Sonos) be updated to the new architecture?

This was part of my wakeup routine, and as expected no longer working after the Groovy SmartApp shutdown this week. Additionally, this wasn’t mentioned as part of the platform update. I don’t believe this was a third party app.

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Background:
I noticed the past few days that many of my Automation Smart Apps are no longer working. When going to check them in the app, they’re all toggled off, and if you try to toggle them on, the toggle disappears. (As others have reported.) If you try to modify & re-save them, I get an error “No Network Connection”. (I’m definitely connected to my home WiFi.) I figured it might have something to do with the transition I read about sometime last year, and found this thread.

Honestly, after setting up S.T. a handful of years ago, I rarely come here unless there’s a problem (usually between S.T. and my Arlo cameras). In my one visit to the community last year, I read something about transitioning away from Groovy apps, but I feel like I’ve been seeing that for years, along with the arguments about classic app vs new app, etc. While I shouldn’t have buried my head in the sand on this… I did notice some Apps (like SmartLighting) slowly transitioning last year. My hub would restart overnight, and I’d lose something for a few days, and then it’d start working again. I figured I’d wait to see what wasn’t working, and deal with it later once the mess stopped. I guess I’m there now.

Question:
So, this brings me to my dumb question: How do I know which of my apps were groovy-based, and which are not and S.T. just temporarily broke to transition them (like they have for a few days over the past few months)? I’ll admit that I didn’t dive too deep into understanding everything, except for several years ago when I first started, but I’ve since forgotten most of that knowledge. I know that’s on me, but are there any simple guides to knowing which of my automation Smart Apps are permanently broken, and which S.T. or developers are still transitioning? If it helps, most of the things that are broken involve a motion sensor triggering an Arlo camera to record, and a virtual device and/or buttons triggering a message to be played on my Sonos speakers. I can’t get into the Groovy IDE anymore to tell you what they are though.

Apologies for my ostrich behavior… sometimes it’s hard to keep up withing everything when life is really busy, and everything was working just fine for several years.

Groovy smartapps would show in the Groovy IDE (while its still available) https://graph.api.smartthings.com)

At this point if you see that toggle Behaviour where it’s toggled off and trying to toggle it on causes the toggle to disappear The odds are very high that it’s a groovy app that is now obsolete.

There are only a very few official groovy smartapps that will automatically transition themselves eventually if they haven’t already

Smart lighting
SmartThings Home Monitor (but not custom monitoring)
Severe Weather Alert
Smart Lock Guest Access

And I think that’s it. :thinking:

Services listed under the Services tab in the smartthings app are also official features.

But anything else that breaks is unlikely to fix itself right now. There may be new versions that come out, like there’s supposed to be a new version of the official Ifttt integration, but there aren’t very many of those.

Thanks. I am aware of that driver. I have four Harmony hubs though.

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Thanks @Automated_House & @JDRoberts . I got into the Groovy IDE and clicked “List SmartApps”, and it’s most everything in the S.T. App → “Automations” → “Smart Apps” on my phone. Well, that’s a bummer, to say the least. I’ve noticed that Samsung S.T. Automations have been getting improved over the years, so I think I’ll be able to accomplish many of these automations by “re-writing” them in the App, but it’ll take some time as I’ve got 30-40+ that are now broken. My fault for not keeping up I guess.

I’ve seen some discussions in other threads about virtual devices. Do those still work, and can you still create those? If not, my system will be crushed. For example, I have a lot of “virtual switches”, which trigger events when turned on… so multiple buttons or actions can trigger that same switch, and the same action happens. I also have “virtual buttons”, so I can click things in the app on my phone and initiate various tasks. I believe I used the Smart App “Virtual Device Creator” from my phone to create those. If that no longer works, how is everyone creating/using virtual switches and such now?

IF YOU HAVE A SMARTTHINGS/AEOTEC HUB

Then life is easy. Several community members have created edge drivers (which run on your hub), and create virtual devices of many different types. There are regular simple on/off switches, momentary switches, virtual sensors of all types, virtual thermostats, even some other specialty devices. And there are virtual switches combined with virtual sensors which can be used to trigger Alexa routines. So lots of choices. There’s even one that lets you combine two physical devices, typically a tilt sensor and a garage door relay, into one virtual device that will look like a garage door, functionality that we used to have to do with a smartapp.

Different drivers have different features so you may want to look at several before deciding which to use, or use different ones for different use cases, but there are many community members now using each of the ones on offer.

To find them, go to the quick browse lists in the community-created wiki, and look for the virtual devices list.

https://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Quick_Browse_Lists_for_Edge_Drivers

  1. IF YOU DON’T HAVE A SMARTTHINGS/AEOTEC HUB

of course, the vast majority of smartthings users don’t have a hub, and this is where things get a little complicated. Many of them do still use virtual devices, particularly to trigger Alexa routines or to integrate with other third-party systems. We used to be able to create these just through the IDE whether we had a hub or not, but now that option is gone.

Officially, smartthings says they are still looking into possibilities for this, but there is no easy official feature at this time.

You can create a simple virtual on/off switch using the CLI which is a programmer’s tool for the new architecture, but that requires that you have a laptop, and are willing to get elbow deep into some code. And it won’t trigger Alexa Routines. :thinking:

Fortunately, a community member has created a webpage utility that, while more complex than using the IDE, is way simpler than using the CLI on its own and does not require that you have anything other than a mobile device. This option, called API plus, will let you create simple on/off virtual switches or a virtual lock. And the virtual lock can be used to trigger an Alexa routine.

(And if you hate having to make the lock unlock when you’re in fact trying to turn something on, you can use a virtual switch with a routine so that when the virtual switch comes on, the virtual lock locks, so that the lock command gets hidden from the humans. )

SmartThings API Browser+ ... Now Available to All

So… There are some virtual device options for people who don’t have a hub, but there aren’t as many as there used to be in the old architecture, and they are more complicated to set up.

Hopefully, we will eventually get an official feature for creating virtual devices, which is easy to use and has more functionality. But we will just have to wait and see.

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Assuming you have a hub it is easy to create Edge based Virtual Switches and other virtual devices. There are several community created ways to do this.

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I also have a CT101 and used RBOYs smart app. To be fair mine was a few simple temperate changes. I was able to create routines based on time to duplicate what I had working with RBOYs program. I dont like the fact that I have to create multi routines, but it does work.

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On this page, it was mentioned which SmartApps were going to be transitioned: https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/9339624925204#h_01GCZRZ4J25BX19926NGS04HHT

These are SmartLighting and Severe-Weather Alert.

How are the apps in the Labs section going to be treated @nayelyz ? Are they staying or going

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My webcore has stopped working. In the IDE, every || pause button greyed, and it’s not click-able. From my pistons, look like they stopped receiving events 2 days ago. I hadn’t changed anything. Webcore itself is able to create/edit pistons, and I can see them change in the IDE – just no real-time comms to the service.

Is “hobbling” SmartApps like webcore how we’re expecting this to all to start shutting down?

It’s been stated for over a year, and intensely for several months, that Webcore would stop working completely.

They’re not “hobbling” it. It’s being removed permanently. Along with every single custom SmartApp that’s ever existed. And that fact has been shouted far and wide. Via emails. Via forum posts. Via press releases. Via news articles. Via Reddit. On and on.

I’ll never understand why people don’t pay attention to things relating to their intricately set up/critical smart home systems…

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Sorry, I don’t have information about that, I’ll let the team know that you’re interested in getting more details related to that section to see if they can share something.

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Apparently not. So unhelpful. Just ready to pounce, looking for some n00b, eh?

I’m not a n00b, and of course I’ve been paying attention. I wasn’t shouting in surprise that my “intricately set up/critical smart home systems” have stopped working (I have been migrating everything, and remain with a few pistons on WC that just can’t be replicated in Routines, and as long as I can have them, I’d like to have them).

I’ll never understand why (some) people feel the need to post … and worse, Like, dumb a55 remarks like this.

I was just letting everyone know that the shutdown hit my WC, and it seems like it’s still “running” but yet not running at the same time – which, to me, is “hobbled.” and not an “elegant” way to start deprecating SmartApps, or a way to let the people who use the App but don’t participate in the community understand what is going on

IMO – in case others have another genius remark to contribute.

The hosting service in the SmartThings cloud has now been shut down for almost all groovy smartapps, including Webcore. So depending on how the UI was designed you might be able to get a few steps in, but it won’t run to completion. :disappointed_relieved:

I personally think it’s more confusing to people that they left the toggle switch there, but that’s how they did it.

You may have already seen the following thread, but this is a discussion of what people are using as replacements:

Replace Groovy with Automations—what’s your plan?

They allow the SmartApp entries to still exist so that you can get any parameters or settings out of them, rather than just out and out deleting them from your account. The grey’ed out / won’t start sorta indicates that they are no longer functioning, although I agree that could be more obvious if you didn’t already know Groovy was due to be shut down. OTOH how much time do you spend on an app UI change when its for a transitional state that doesn’t affect all that many of your SmartThings app users (99% of who have no hub, no groovy and no custom apps).

As for letting people know, they did send out email notifications. I know not every one reads email, but I’m not sure how else to notify. If they added something to the app itself, people would say, “I never use the app - I always use Alexa”. So its catch-22 on how you’re supposed to notify everyone of everything that is important.

Amazon recently shutdown the Cloud Cam devices. They send out an email several months in advance, then a reminder email a few weeks before. Nothing in the app, nothing on the support page or FAQ for the devices on amazon.com. I’m not sure how companies reach everyone above the internet noise of daily life.

Let us know if we can assist with your migration. Some people have moved their WebCoRE logic into routines or Smart lighting. Others with large WebCoRE debt bought into Hubitat to use it natively there (export piston from ST, import into HE).

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I think there was a significant difference in that the email that Amazon sent to customers detailed each individual device for them to tell them what was being shut down and also gave them instructions for how to get a free replacement that would work.

The email thanks customers for their support and informs them that, for every active Cloud Cam device they own, Amazon will offer users a complimentary Blink Mini and a one-year Blink Subscription Plus Plan, which covers all the devices under a Blink account.
.
The email then details which Cloud Cam products Amazon identified as active on the user’s account and explains how to make the purchase using a promo code. The company says customers have until January 26, 2023, to redeem their code. Each order only allows for one promo code, so customers with larger Cloud Cam setups will have to check out separately for each device they intend to replace.

emphasis added

A lot of the questions we’ve seen in the forum, even from very experienced users, have been “how do I know if I am affected by these changes?” And Samsung has not really been helpful there.

I’ve talked with a number of people who have no idea whether they have Groovy custom code or not. When they bought a new device or signed up for a new integration, three or four years ago, they were given instructions for how to make that work. But many of them just assumed that was part of the official SmartThings platform. So although they got the emails, they didn’t know it applied to them, they thought it was just for people who wrote code. :thinking:

Yeah I follow, but at the same time Samsung didn’t want to take responsibility for third party stuff (I wouldn’t either if I was them). So even mentioning “If you are using WebCoRE, this means you” acknowledges they are semi responsible for at least helping people transition off it to something else.

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Understood, but it does seem like the email could include a list of the custom code The person has on their account. And a note to contact the author to see if a version will be available that works with the new architecture. I don’t think that’s the same as taking responsibility for the code. :man_shrugging:t2: