I’m not following the other thread (I rely on text to speech these days, so I can’t read code), so I’m not quite sure what your question about virtual switches means, or if it’s something specific to a particular integration.
For others who might Find this thread in the future since it has a general topic title, I’ll just mention that one of the most powerful features of smart things in terms of integration is that it does have the ability to very easily create virtual devices, including several different kinds of switches. Community members often use these for integration with IFTTT or Echo or Google Home. Virtual switches can also be used to create virtual timers.
I have a feeling that what you’re asking is something much more technical, but just as a general comment, it’s easy to create virtual switches through the cloud platform which are then treated like any other device on your account. Here’s the FAQ for that.
And here’s a common example, where a virtual switch is used to allow echo to change the mode or run a routine.
And since I brought it up, here’s the how to article in the community – created wiki on creating a virtual timer:
http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=How_to_create_a_virtual_timer_for_a_light
However, all of these examples are creating virtual switches in the cloud which will be accessed through the cloud.
As I said, I have a feeling that you were asking about something which could be created without the cloud, and that’s a whole different concept.