Role Based Access

Apps & Clients Features & Feedback
1

Hi there!
Maybe I didn’t understand something about the concept, but I can’t find an option for an RBAC.
So the children can also change rules in the app or delete them by mistake.
Is there a solution for this?
I have only found a very old post from 2016 on this.
Thanks
Christian

1 Like
2

Quite a few people use a thirdparty “dashboard” for this situation. You can limit these so that a particular phone/tablet only has control Of a specific set of devices. That way one kid can’t turn off the lights in the other kid’s room, for example. :wink: or, as you note, delete or edit the routines you’ve set up.

These typically have a free trial or a limited free tier so you can check them out and see if you like them.

The two most popular are ActionTiles and SharpTools. Both allow you to customize multiple dashboards and have different features and functions.

You will still use the smartthings app yourself for administrative functions, but many people like the dashboards for day-to-day control.

Both of these are browser-based, so they will work on any device that has Internet access.

ActionTiles:

SharpTools:

You can find lots of discussion in the forum about both of these, as well as some of the ones that community members have built for themselves. Here’s one thread from last year that compared a number of the options. (The topic title is a clickable link.)

It would be great if smartthings would offer rolebased access controls in the official features, but so far they just haven’t. :thinking:

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3

The ideal solution would probably be finer contol of access privilege, whether it be role based or function based. A less robust solution would be to be able to disable app functionality, either with an admin password or based on trust. The only reason the app is even on anybody’s phone but mine is to manage presence, Find, and SmartTags. Even I only use it for ‘admin’ purposes. On one phone the app is just there unremarked upon. On another I’ve hidden it from the launcher just to remove the temptation to delete it.

The actual current solution is probably to avoid the issue. Simply don’t use the app for day to day control.

4

Okay. Thank you very much. This is all super helpful for a newbie like me.
I will implement this with Action Tiles.
But just as Orangebucket described, I need the Smartthings app to determine if someone is home.
Maybe someone has another concept. But I switch the location to “absent” when all smartphones are in a different place than my house.
Cheers!
Christian

1 Like