IFTTT and SmartThings (UK accounts)

General Discussion
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@Twisticles & @109matt appreciate that it may work for you, but with all due respect this thread is about IFTTT and Oauth not working. If it isn’t critical for your setup then that’s all good and it meets your needs. It sounds like you were early adopters if you have a V1 hub from the US, so when you bought it, you knew some things would be a little less than ideal and that was factored in with your purchasing decision.

There are lots of solutions available, ranging from very nice and complete solutions like the Fibaro Home Centre 2 all the way down to home-brew but few offering the ‘Connect your world’ solution ST are, if I was content with the limited functionality currently offered i may have bought something else.

Incidentally, I’m not inexperienced in home automation, with my previous house having a complete solution from Cytech (The Comfort System) which was amazing powerful but not extensible in the same way ST claim to be (the main reason I am even looking at it). I had previously home-brewed connectivity from Comfort to external devices and services but wanted to use ST to provide something more out of the box [appreciating i will need to create the device interface from Comfort to ST] in my new house.

Your logic of ‘it works for me, therefore it works’ isn’t fair on all those people for whom it doesn’t work. There was an analogy earlier about a TV. If you bought a Samsung TV and it only tuned into BBC, that would be fine if all you wanted to watch was BBC. But for a lot of people, if not most of them, the TV would be broken if it couldn’t receive the other channels and few would argue that therefore the TV is not fit for purpose.

TLDR: It’s not doing what it claims to be able to do, hasn’t done so since it was officially launched in the market and therefore as it stands at the moment, the marketing is misleading and it isn’t fit for purpose.

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@Twisticles Well if you managed to get SmartTiles to work on a v2 box with a UK account without OAuth you are indeed a fortunate man

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It is possible if you have the SmartTiles code. Create a smartapp and replace https://graph.api.smartthings.com with https://graph-eu01-euwest1.api.smartthings.com

It’s also possible to get the api endpoints to work. ( Tutorial: Creating a REST SmartApp Endpoint )
Just replace all links the same way.
Sure, if it all worked out of the box it would be better, but this “workaround” is good enough for me at least.

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Thanks very much basheater. That is excellent

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As i understand it @basheater, the code for SmartTiles is not to be distributed and is no longer publicly available. This is a great solution for early users who may already have the code… but not an option for newer V2 adopters unless i am wrong?

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Yup just discovered that :frowning:

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@625alex - Alex - is there any chance new users in the UK who cannot use OAuth yet could obtain the required code as an interim solution to get SmartTiles up and running?

Thanks,
Ant

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Yeah, sorry to get your hopes up…
Maybe it isn’t that much work for 625alex to redirect us to the right url? Probably is, but one can hope!

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@adgwill indeed that is the case with Smarttiles code.

@Matt_Brain I’m not claiming that “it works for me therefore it works”, I fully acknowledge the shortcomings with the lack of OAuth/IFTTT. However, if you buy the Smartthings starter kit and download the app, it works as a self-contained system. In addition, I have found that all the “works with” devices that I have also work with Smartthings. I can’t say one way or another if that means it works for anything else you are trying to achieve - the possibilities for addons are endless.
Please note - I was a user of IFTTT on V1 - what I am trying to get at is that on V2 and with new smartapps I have discovered that I now no longer IFTTT for the same functionality.

Let me give you my example:
I used Smarttiles to give me an interface for quick access to lighting states and to change mode. With SmartLighting, SuperState and Android Widgets I can do all that (just as simply, to my mind) as I could with Smarttiles. And with the bonus that my system is not dependent on an internet connection any longer.

Yes, I expected IFTTT support when I bought the V2 hub - but having gone back through the UK Smartthings site as well as Currys and PC world website, I can’t see anything at a casual glance promising IFTTT integration :eyes:

So, back to the last point in my last post…if anyone is waiting on OAuth, post in this thread what you are trying to achieve and let’s see if the collective knowledge here can propose workarounds to achieve what you’re trying to do. Let’s do what we can in the meantime to make this work for you too.

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I would like a dashboard on a few tablets dotted around the house, which can control the Hue lights I have. As well as display the outside temperature from my Netatmo and the indoor temperature from another Netatmo sensor. I would like to control my Nest from the same dashboard, now is that all possible, without OAuth?

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Almost identical to one of the last things I’d like to nail.

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@Twisticles, i really do appreciate the can do attitude - i’m not trying to be negative - believe it or not i really want this stuff to work - but my expectation were far higher than the reality.

I summary I have a bunch of things which are currently running in isolation, and I see the SmartThings platform being the conductor of this rag tag orchestra make the the whole far greater than the sum of its parts. Things I expected to work ‘out of the box(ish)’ include the Honeywell EvoHome, Netatmo and IFTTT. Things I expected I would have to write device handlers and/or abstraction layers for include the Bosch Indego Connect, Cytech Comfort, ZoneMinder and a graphing platform such as plot.ly (or similar).

I’m sure, given enough time, I could get the EvoHome and Netatmo and even IFTTT working using a combination of a local web service on a device and code mediates the comms to and from those services but quite frankly I don’t have the time to do that and the other stuff - by way of a bit of background I have spent the last 10 or so years [in our previous house] maintaining a home-brew solution and was hoping ST would take me aware from the maintenance effort and ‘wife acceptance’ challenges that introduces.

Anyway, still waiting on something more from @Aaron on dates for this stuff to be fixed before I end up rolling my sleeves up or putting it all back in the box and taking it on the ‘return of shame’…

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Its still possible to get round the issue using http requests to the IFTTT maker channel by creating a simple ST app. See my original post on this earlier in the thread - IFTTT and SmartThings (UK accounts)

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Hi @onlynik,
Firstly, I am no expert. But I will tell you that even if OAuth was working for UK users, Smartthings was never going to give you the dashboard you are hoping for.
The only “dashboard” I am familiar with is Smarttiles.click. Easy to use an app to set up superstate switches for your Hue bulb and have them appear as tiles. I guess as Netatmo is supported it would work with that too. Not sure about Nest but there are a couple of community device types (I am not sure if this is Nest/Dropcam camera or thermostat you’re talking about either). But yeah, until OAuth comes online, smarttiles isn’t going to work for you either.

In the meantime…
TL;DR Use Android tablets with widgets on the home screen.

Hue Pro (App on Play Store) does nice/easy Hue widgets to control your lights. About $1 paid app.
Alternatively, you can write Hello Home states for each lighting state you want, or use superstate app to tag your lighting states to your existing Hello Home actions - either way, the android smartthings widget will get them on to your home screen. That is more work, but free.

For your Netatmo, get the Netatmo Simple Widget, put on home screen. Free on Play Store.

For your Nest…thermostat? Widget for Nest Thermostat. Another $1. There is also Calida but it’s pretty expensive.

There you go…its not particularly elegant, but that will populate an android homescreen with widgets that will accomplish what you want to do…at least until OAuth and smarttiles becomes your friend :wink:

One more thing I would add - the kind of dashboard you want is where I started too. We’re of a mind-set that we want phone/tablet control for what used to be a switch or bit of hardware you used to have to physically visit. Nest and Netatmo are prime examples of this - they are designed to operate on their own eco-system: the Remote Control approach.

Smartthings (and Home Automation in general) is not about aggregating a load of disparate phone/tablet remote control apps. It’s about automating those things. Let’s take a thermostat as an example. I only need to see the temperature if I manually want to adjust it. In fact, I don’t even need the temperature, I just need to know I am too hot or cold! The Home Automation approach is to write rules so you don’t have to manually adjust it, it just happens. i.e. I want my thermostat to turn on my heating if the temperature drops below 16 degrees, but only when someone is home and it’s a Saturday or Sunday.
Many of us starting out in Home Automation try and re-create a digital version of the switches we are used to, but it takes a shift in thinking, and this can be hard for spouses/kids.

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Hi @Matt_Brain,
I totally see why OAuth would make the difference to your integration of the Netatmo and IFTTT. EvoHome is still being promoted as Coming Soon I think.

To be honest, your collection of gadgets is obviously not at the beginner’s end of the market :smiley: I guess with patience and big mallet you might get it all integrated through Smartthings, but I wouldn’t be up to the task :fearful: (And I have done a variety of major AMX and Crestron installs!) There is still going to be an element of Home Brew about it I would think.

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@adgwill, I’m sorry, but keeping the source closed is absolutely necessary for the eventual ( and hopefully soon) migration to SmartTiles V6. It will not be desirable to leave legacy installations running because they would create unnecessary strain on the SmartThings cloud.

@basheater, there is no known way to redirect or work around this issue. I’m checking for announcements daily and will implement a fix as soon as I have something to work with.

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“Your use case is not my use case.”

Different things work for different people. Adding IFTTT and Oauth opens up a whole world of possibilities. Whether any one person needs any of those is just going to vary.

My Most Essential Need is Irrelevant to Most People. And Doesn’t Come in the Box.

In my case, I am quadriparetic, use a wheelchair with limited hand control. Voice control is absolutely essential for me. It’s the main reason I have stayed with SmartThings as a U.S. user. There are similar “environmental control” systems available for people in wheelchairs, but they cost literally 20 times as much.

Although I now use Amazon echo, which is not available in the UK yet, last year I had a quite workable voice control system using SmartThings, voice text, and IFTTT. It added zero extra cost to my budget, because I already had unlimited texting on my mobile plan. Then I added a harmony remote, for about €100, and I had full hands free granular control of my television, everything from “turn on Netflix” to pause and rewind. Although some televisions have “voice remote,” the televisions are expensive and the remotes require holding down the microphone button while speaking, which is exactly the thing I can’t do.

Although HomeKit is coming from Apple, its voice controls are limited at present to the individual devices. I could turn on the lights, but not rewind Netflix.

It is extremely frustrating for me after months of discussions with online friends in the UK in similar situations to mine to find that at present, without OAuth SmartThings offers them no more than the competing inexpensive systems.

Yes, a light will go on from a motion sensor. That’s not why I bought SmartThings.

“All home automation is local.”

This community is one of the absolute best things about SmartThings. People are helpful, friendly, knowledgeable, and always willing to tackle new and interesting problems. And the SmartThings platform offers many different ways of solving different issues.

The core tenet, however, has to be respect for the fact that different people have different needs, different budgets, different energy use philosophies, different levels of interest in tinkering, and different family acceptance issues to address.

It’s always interesting to hear how different people have solved different problems. Or the same problem in different ways.

Yet it always comes down to the basic “your use case is not my use case.” And that includes the amount of time and energy someone is willing to invest in both finding and implementing a workaround solution.

Creating Detailed Solution Discussion Topics

May I suggest that you start a new individual topic for each individual integration where there may be a specific workaround to the oauth problem? Many of these get very technical, and some of them may have multiple very technical alternatives, and it will keep from flooding this particular general thread (which is the one that people are tracking for the overall solution).

So if you have a solution to, say, TCP integration then start a topic for that called “TCP integration without OAuth.” Then just drop a one line post to this topic with a link to the detailed discussion.

That should make things easier to follow for everyone, and that those who like to run their own servers or jump deep into code or add a third controller dig as deep as they like.

Submitted with respect.

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Thanks for the reply @625alex - SmartTiles V6 sounds intriguing and I haven’t yet been able to use the previous version! :slight_smile:

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Anyone got SmartTiles http://www.smarttiles.click/install-now/ working with UK graph-eu01-euwest1 oauth? https://graph-eu01-euwest1.api.smartthings.com

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Let this be a lesson to everyone (including SmartThings tech support) to never make or trust estimated resolution timelines.

Why make such an optimistic promise about a problem of unknown proportions?

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