Smarttiles + Blink

I don’t think so. SmartThings uses an internal non-public API to reference the S3 stored images for display in the Mobile App (@slagle @jody.albritton can confirm?).

That’s why @RBoy came up with a clever solution to add an a new Attribute that encodes the image as a string that can be used by other SmartApps (like SmartTiles). The problem is that only his DTHs use this Attribute, it is not a standard Capability.

Is there a specific SmartTile that accepts a string encoded image instead of a url?

No. This is on our feature request list. If a “string encoded image” were a common attribute in SmartThings DTHs, then we’d be much more inclined to raise the priority. But this is “only” in RBoy’s DTHs, which are not shared source.

Sounds like it might end up being a de facto standard. Reminds me of Twitter coming out with OAuth. Everyone started using it before it really became a standard because there was such a need.

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Yup… Well… perhaps if someone would do a Pull Request against the SmartThings Camera DTHs, then this Attribute could be added to a Published Device Type and get more usage…

Problem is: SmartThings has only public-source Camera DTH? (I can’t find any more in the repo).

The alternative, then, is for camera device type developers to submit their DTHs for publication.

If rboy encoded the image as a string attribute to make it work with SmartTiles, but SmartTiles doesn’t support that functionality, does that mean you did something special in SmartTiles just for his DH?

We just hacked a quick test to see if we could read and render the image. Yup… Proof-Of-Concept = Proven!

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So the people that purchase his DH have access to some type of “special tile” in SmartTiles that no one else can have access to?

No, Kevin, sorry I’m not more clear… No version of SmartTiles currently has the ability to display image capture snapshots using RBoy’s ad hoc attribute. We just tested it with a dummy/stub app; it was never put in SmartTiles.

That makes more sense, Thanks for clarifying.

Does SmartTiles allow you to specify a header AUTH_TOKEN in the url for the Video Streams?

If the token is static and can go on the URL only, then yes; but usually tokens expire or have to be passed in the headers.

We know SmartTiles has a lot of opportunities for enhancements in video stream support.

It has to go in the header so I didn’t think it would work, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something. Thanks for responding to all of my questions, I appreciate it.

Enhancements are always an ongoing process, but what you’ve already accomplished with this SmartApp is impressive.

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It’s actually started being used by other DTH’s also, here’ another one for Amcrest written by @Belgarion

This is how it’s done if you’re interested @krlaframboise

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Thanks for the info. Have you found any SmartApps that have started using it?

I’m only aware of the the PoC I did @tgauchat for SmartTiles, but if enough folks start using it I may actually help become a standard.

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What’s the large image you’ve tried storing in the attribute?

I"m actually working on a set of SmartApps to use that data but I’ll share more information when I’m closer to finishing them up. Essentially filling a few gaps within ST’s current (lack of) abilities. (although I really wish ST didn’t have those gaps, it’s a real pain some of these like eMail).

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Depends upon the camera’s compression ratio but anywhere between 300kb to 700kb

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Giving you full credit in the DTH, of course.

And for the record, I did not scrape that from any of RBoy’s private stock. I grabbed it from the forum post he made and did give him the heads up before releasing it.

Thank you again RBoy! :smiley:

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sub’d… a subscriber to @RBoy apps, finally bought the Blink cams after bad outcomes with foscam/arlo cams. So far happy with Blink and would love to see integration with SmartTiles even if it is a snapshot per n interval of sec/min

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