SmartApp is generating multiple copies of the same child Device, why?

Developer Programs Writing Device Types
1

Okay, trying to learn a bit about childDevices and I’m getting there. I’ve figured out how to create a childDevice, but unfortunately when I install the app on my phone it ends up generating two copies of the same device. Same device ID.

Worse, when I run the app it seems to generate another occasionally. I now have four copies of the device.

Here’s the command I’m using to generate the childDevice:

def newTrigger = addChildDevice("sirhcb", "Momentary Button Tile", app.id+"/gnsh", null, [name:buttonLabel.value, label:buttonLabel.value])

This is the initialize() procedure, which should only run when it’s installed, updated, right?

Do I need to somehow check if the childDevice already exists before generating it? How would I do this?

Do I need to somehow remove the childDevice before recalling initialize() when the app is updated?

2

you might want to consider checking for the existence of the child device first before executing that addChildDevice().

initialize(){
    settings.devices.each {deviceId ->
        try {
            def existingDevice = getChildDevice(deviceId)
            if(!existingDevice) {
                def childDevice = addChildDevice("smartthings", "Device Name", deviceId, null, [name: "Device.${deviceId}", label: device.name, completedSetup: true])
            }
        } catch (e) {
            log.error "Error creating device: ${e}"
        }
    }
}

Examples taken from here:
http://docs.smartthings.com/en/latest/cloud-and-lan-connected-device-types-developers-guide/building-cloud-connected-device-types/building-the-service-manager.html#handling-adds-changes-deletes

3

That’s… I’m trying to play with this, but it isn’t helping a lot. I might be missing something here.

In the line:

settings.devices.each {deviceId ->

Do I use the device ID that I’m creating or do I type in exactly “deviceId”? Same question for the line:

def existingDevice = getChildDevice(deviceId)
4

Well I fiddled around with things a bit… because I’m only generating one childDevice and I know what the device ID is, I just hard coded that in, so I did this:

def DeviceID = app.id+"/gnsh"
log.debug "did = ${DeviceID}"
def existingDevice = getChildDevice(DeviceID)
log.debug "EXD = ${existingDevice}"
if(!existingDevice) {
            def newTrigger = addChildDevice("sirhcb", "Momentary Button Tile", app.id+"/gnsh", null, [name:buttonLabel.value, label:buttonLabel.value])
}

Seems like it should work, but I’m still getting four devices when I install my app. For what it’s worth, it works great in the simulator. Only generates one device.