New integration: Stringify (iOS only) UPDATE: Now in beta on Android!

Hi klwdallas, we are debugging this now, I’ll reply when you should re-try.

I think we’ve got it - go ahead and re-try.

Thanks for responding!

First, I should point out that instead of “Stringify” there was some sort of GUID shown after using credentials. So it said “Authorize f1bc61bc-… to access…” instead of “Authorize Stringify to access…”

Next, I was able to see the list of ‘things’. (Annoyingly, it’s a list of every Thing and every capability, so it’s pretty long. I guess this is SmartThings “issue”.)

I selected everything but unfortunately, got an error:

(-)
We encountered a problem
connecting the Thing to Stringify. No
things were added to your Things library.

Please try again later.

[Done]

It doesn’t indicate which Thing is the problem, but if you think it will work, I could keep trying with less and less Things until it succeeds. I’ve tried paring it down already a few times. I guess it was about ~19:15-19:20 CST.

No luck.

Tried

Without Logitech
Without Logitech, WeMo
Without Logitech, WeMo, other non ST-brand devices

Now there is only the ST Hub and ST brand devices selected - Same issue

Just noticed in SmartThings app that there is a SmartApp called Stringify.

It includes everything selected from my first auth attempt, which is every Thing I have.

However, Stringify app does not have any references to my SmartThings.

I think we’ve got it solved! Please try one more time through our app, make sure to check every box.

Thanks!

Yes, it works now. Thanks!

I just discovered this, installed it, and am trying it out. Really nice work and promising for creating some interesting new automations in my home. Thank you. I will share any examples that I create. I am frustrated with IFTTT because of the limited logic and the long lag. I will be looking for how this performs lag-wise.

Glad to hear it Ken. Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions!

To test lag myself, I created two flows - one “if my light turns on turn it off” and another “if my light turns off, turn it on.”

I think we performed very well, as soon as I touched my light switch it began to cycle at about 1hz :).

-Kris@Stringify

Ken,

if you get it working I would love to see some examples. I installed it a while back but just could not get it to work the way I thought it should … or at all.
However I am not a Coder or Programmer so I think I just did not understand the logic. I am hoping some examples will help explain things a little better. I tried follow examples from the website but just struggled :frowning:

Dawn,

We’re here and happy to help. If you describe what you’d like to do, I’d be happy to give you screen shots and step-by-step directions. Email us at support@stringify.com.

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Kris,

thank you I will defiantly take you up on that.

Dawn

Here’s my first report. I found the interface to be ambitiously simple and elegant, but I could see how it would confuse some people. Anyway, I was able to add my things and my flows. My first attempt to add the ST hub failed because it said I had to select something even though I had a bunch selected. I started over and the second time it worked - the only thing I did different was to select the actual hub in the list too. So I guess that is required. This is same error reported earlier by @klwdallas. I also selected fewer items because I was being lazy - hope that didn’t matter. And it also gave me a long string instead of a name as noted before.

I was able to configure a simple flow - if a light turns on, send me a notification. I am away on business so I did this and when my wife turned on the light at various random times tonight I was notified, so it worked. I tried a more complex flow using news feeds and the user interface got in the way. I added three sources in “or” form like the example and configured them with my own keywords. I closed it, and then reopened it to edit the term and the interface failed to load. I tried again and the icons appeared with blank insides. I ended up deleting it and starting over. On my second attempt it worked but I didn’t do the repeat edit move so there may be a bug in there somewhere.

The performance lag appears to be quite low - as expected since you guys are just starting so I assume the load on your servers is still quite low. I hope you are prepared to expand and scale as you gain customers.

My next task is to build some more complex flows, but I will wait until I get home for that so I don’t freak my wife out while I am gone.

One question - I was hoping to find a native Sonos thing in your list but didn’t. So if I had a wish list Sonos and Harmony remotes would be on the top of my list. Thanks again and keep up the great work.

Have you given any thought yet to how you will monetize your service?

{Edit… and one more thing - a native iPad app that works in landscape mode would be nice too. Can’t be too hard to put that together.}

Hi Ken!

Thanks for the feedback! When you talk about performance/lag, I assume you are talking about the client experience. We have not (yet) spent a lot of time optimizing there - we’ve spent most of our time focused on the back end working on our complex flow processing, since that is our true differentiator. That said, we do already have a solid client API - it just needs some performance tweaks.

I just ran some tests and saw that from a source “thing” receiving an event to a destination “thing” acting on an event (going through our flow engine) was in the neighborhood of 40 milliseconds. Of course if you are measuring lag with SmartThings integrations, there are many more things to consider - protocol level latency to your hub, hub to ST cloud, ST cloud to Stringify cloud, etc.

We don’t have a native Sonos thing (since they don’t currently have a cloud api), but we do support Sonos via SmartThings! I will admit it’s limited right now, but we do support play/pause, text to speech, and a few sound effects.

We have lots of thoughts on how to monetize, but I probably shouldn’t discuss them on a public forum. I am confident that whatever we offer in our app now will always be free to the consumer.

-Kris

Ken,

Yesterday I went home and took another look at the app. It looks a bit upgraded from the last time I went into it. I decided to give it another shot after the offer from @klinquist. Well I can happily say I am delighted. However I was making the same mistake that you were- not selecting the ST hub. Once I did that, I was good to go. I was able to set up 3 small,very simple flows (press button= play Sonos message, open door= turn on light, arrive home= turn on light) simple but effective. At least it gave me the hope to try something a little more complex…

I have been using IFTTT and Yonomi to this point. I really do like Yonomi because of it’s easy to use interface and app. Amazing, how behind IFTTT is becoming b/c they lack a rules engine. They do have all of the partners though. What kind of things are you guys all doing with Stringify that you cannot do in the native ST app?

PS: Yonomi directly integrates with Sonos which is nice!

@dfairbro1 Glad to hear it!

@Mbhforum Control wise, we’re not looking to replace all functionality of the native ST app - of course the ST app will always be faster because you are interacting with them directly instead of going through another cloud first… but I do think that it’s easier to build more complex flows in Stringify (turn the light on at sunset, but only if I’m home) is as simple as dragging date/time, location, and your light on a canvas and connecting them up. Our biggest differentiator is being able to connect SmartThings with other services, both digital and physical. “Don’t unlock my front door unless I’ve met my Fitbit step goal” “Flash my light when I get a new Twitter follower.” I personally have a flow that says “When I turn off my bedroom main light, turn on my bedside lamp (with a LIFX bulb in it) and then fade it off over a period of 5 minutes”

Yonomi does integrate directly with Sonos - the reason we can’t is that we are cloud based, which means that all of your flows will run regardless of the location or state of your phone. Yonomi can’t interact with your Sonos unless you are at home and your phone is on the same wifi network!

-Kris

1 Like

Great description, thanks @klinquist. You would have been a lot more popular around here before Rule Machine! Although, I have a feeling if that app never gets revived/supported, this could become more of a mainstay. Good luck to you!

This is very cool App…Any plans for Wink integration?

Wink integration is on our roadmap!