Goodbye Smart?things! Without a robust Rule machine, it doesn’t make sense. I’m just going to sell the hub and migrate back to wink
4 Likes
I’m glad to see that this action by @bravenel has got the attention it deserves… But to be honest he should never have had to resort to this and it’s pretty disgraceful that it clearly was the only way to get it.
Whilst you are at it, it is only right that when you fix this state issue and approve his app, that you also ensure that it can run offline properly.
One of the main reasons that I bought hub v2 was because it was advertised as working offline… The smart lighting app alone does not come anywhere near fulfilling this criteria.
If you allowed Rule Machine to work offline, I think you’ll find that for many people they’d feel significantly less bitter about the omission of this important feature in the hub, and it would be a nice gesture by Smartthings to put this whole issue to bed.
6 Likes
Bad PR for sure for ST. all though i’m not going to criticise @slagle and @jody.albritton personally as they do a lot to communicate issues where they can, allthough whats happening at the backend god only knows especially as the new TV’s are starting to become available for sale…i think theres a lot more pain before things improve
@slagle said on Feb 3 that it was next on the publication review list. 
5 Likes
We literally just today finished the last app in a round of apps for the impending OAuth Change today (Took much longer than I would have liked). I would like to start a new round in the next week or two.
1 Like
With all this crazy stuff going on, I have a question:
How do I make a backup copy of my rules in rule machine?
You know…just in case I lose them and need to reload them.
I know how to copy groovy code and save it off line and in github.
But I can’t seem to figure out how to backup and restore copies of rules.
Anybody have a clue for me?
What we create takes time and is valuable, and recreating it is no fun.
I painfully learned to make backups 40 years ago…and I do it with
everything…always!
Errrm, at the risk of sounding pathetic… Backup, what dat? Only backup is old-school: screenshots, and/or writing it down. I do believe somebody made an XLS file available to this end to help make it a little less painless.
J
1 Like
There is no way to make backup configurations of rules/child parent apps, or really anything on the ST platform for that matter. It’s an architectural flaw that I hope ST is working on. This has been brought up several times in other threads and is a major thorn in the migration from v1 to v2.
1 Like
Of course there is a way. 
There is always a way with computers. Saving something outside the system for backup is totally possible. Even if it’s simply displaying a json of the state variables so you can cut and paste it…and parsing a json back into state variables for recovery. Lots of folks have made connections to google drive for saving things in spreadsheets, even my favorite, the GCAL thing that flips a switch based on your google calendar. Another guy was talking about using firebase to save and retrieve stuff. SmartThings is FULLY capable of connecting to any web API…and there are plenty of places to pigeonhole data.
1 Like
Well, if you figure it out, I’d love to hear about it, because I dread re-configuring 47 rules 
2 Likes
I would dread that too!
Hey. First I want to thank you for taking the heat here. I know being flamed is not cool and no one forces you to be here.
@Tyler Second, looking forward… who can follow-up the publication? Only bravenel or anyone can continue?
Third what is the status of the publication? Is it closed, still being followed. Should someone else open a new request or should bravenel do this.
@bravenel, Please at least leave this up while SmartThings says they are working on the fix for it. It would be so terrible to see this disappear. I wouldn’t even know how to automate things anymore.
The code you already have loaded in your ide isn’t going anywhere. You can keep using Rule Machine
Unfortunately I suspect there are many users with older versions, especially in the UK where ST have yet to get the GitHub integration working !
Even though I’ve not kept up to date (1.71) I’m supportive of the withdrawal though as it seems to be getting a productive reaction. New purchasers wont have the install option and it is simply unsupportable as an application with the current platform issues. I know ST have got a lot on currently but the lack of attention they appear to have given Bruce as perhaps the most significant Smart App developer and for providing a Band-Aid for the current wounds seems woeful - even negligent.
Hopefully it will end up with a happy reunion once ST get things fixed.
3 Likes
I agree, RM not functional is a big deal.
The single purpose apps do work, if you have no expectations, and the bare minimum requirements. However, having said even this, take SHM as as example, the single purpose apps all have “deficiencies”… Who has ever heard of an alarm (SHM) that doesn’t have an entry delay…It is little things like this that make the single purpose apps, while functional, barely useful in an automated home.
J
2 Likes
The issue is not RM but ST. I trigger mode manually and nothing is triggered in SHM. No RM involved.
I agree, the single purpose apps do work, do a degree. Unfortunately they are severely lacking in several areas. First and foremost, they DO not work together. Second, they are capable of only the most basic of automatons.
For example, smart lighting.
I have a simple scenario, this is what I want.
-
Open front door and the foyer lights come on. Close the door and the lights go off after the minutes (Smart lighting can do this).
-
Open front door, foyer lights come on. Leave door open AND lights go off after five minutes (smart lighting can do this but it takes two instances). You have to use the power allowance feature which turns the lights off streafter five minutes.
-
open front door after 9pm, foyer lights come on and front porch lights come on. Porch Lights go off after ten minutes. (also uses power allowance and requires multiple instances)
-
physically turn on foyer lights and front porch lights, and the lights stay on until I turn them off.
If I have set up the multiple instances shown in one thru three, number four is not possible. No matter what, the foyer lights will turn off after five minutes and the porch lights will turn off after ten minutes. To make my porch lights come on at sunset and stay on until nine I have to delete or change the above instances, every day.
Rule machine could do all of this in only two rules.
The individual smart apps are good, but they only take us 80% of the way. It’s that 20% that rule machine bridged. It gave this platform the ability to reach its potential. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening any time soon.
1 Like
What a total bummer. Rule Machine is what I have almost everything set up with. You know, because nothing Smarrthings has implemented is reliable. So here you have a developer who created something better than what Smartthings could and now even he is fed up it. The snide remarks when emailing support, the lack of urgency in getting anything fixed is just sad. The only positive spot for Samsung is they didn’t waste as much money buyiug Smartthings as Google did for buying Nest. With Samsung adding Smartthings into their new tv line, how much longer are they going to allow this basement startup ran company to continue to fail? I want to be able to recommend Smartthings to people, but there is no way a normal person is going to put up with all of the issues that this product brings along with it. This is not some cheap hobby. A lot of people have spent a lot of money building out their systems based on the potential of what this platform could offer. Sadly everyone was duped. If they were a true basement ran startup, i think that people would be a little more understanding. But with the money received from Samsung and their resources as well, there is no way there should be so many headaches with a released product. This platform is nothing more than a beta and should be treated and marketed as such. It’s bad enough that us who have bough V1 and V2 have been duped, to continue to sell and market this product to new customers as a stable working product should be considered fraud.
3 Likes
Just adding my voice/vote as someone that has found RM to have made my ST installation usable. And conditionals are all the talk in home automation right now, it’s the only way to get agents to be able to act more than one level deep. Otherwise it’s just call and response. I didn’t deploy home automation because I’m too lazy to hit a light switch. Did it because I want “the home of the future”. RM added rich conditionals and the ability to do more complex automation.
ST would be wise to work with @bravenel - publish it, tweak it, buy it, w/e - but absent that flexibility, uncomfortable collar tugging ensues…
6 Likes