Sticky on How to Install New Smartapps from GitHub?

SmartApps & Automations
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Hi - New user looking for simple ‘How To’ to incorporate new Smartapps developed by others on GitHub. Can’t seem to find any ‘How To’ stickies that spell things out in simple terms. As a new user much of this environment is still not intuitive. Any help appreciated!

texaszman
Dallas

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I completely agree. If we are pushing people to the IDE, we need two things:

  • A simple, step-by-step how-to for installing SmartApps, from both GtHub and from the Browse Apps section.
  • Instructions on how to add device types for new devices
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Personally, I would love to see the process simplified a bit. Having to create a “dummy smart app” first and then loading the code to then have it change all the settings is confusing to non-technical users.

A wizard might be nice… :smile:

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Thanks Brian. I am very experienced with hacking things - just have not come across a post or thread that lays out how to take someone’s interesting code and install it into my SmartApps environment. Any pointer to info is appreciated!

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Trying to create a new device type but get a ‘not authorized’ error when going here? Anyone know what I need to do?

https://graph.api.smartthings.com/ide/devices

Very frustrating as a new user - very limited information as to how to get started. SmartThings needs to step up it’s focus on the average home user if they want to stay out in front of this exploding market. I am always a new adopter but have seen many companies fall by the wayside because of their lack of focus on those that want it to ‘just work’ vs. those have extra hours to spend tweaking things. The older I get, the less interest I have in ‘doing it myself’ :slight_smile:

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@texaszman This should help out.

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@scottinpollock - That’s great. Although, I copy all the code over and just put in dummy text for the fields initially that will get overwritten by the entire block of code I copy over. I look at it this way - if I don’t copy over the top part of the code, how will I know who to go back to to tell them how awesome it is! :smile:

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Thanks Scott. Although I think Mr Average Joe would freak out at having to do this. SHOULD be automated IMHO.

Thanks again!

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This would not be all that necessary if folks writing apps could get them published to the SmartThings catalog in a timely manner, but this has not been my experience.

I can only assume they don’t want to clutter the interface with apps that may not be all that mainstream. That’s fine so long as there is an alternative process for folks looking for more specialized apps… which there is, but as you pointed out, is pretty clunky for the average user.

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Thanks that helps a lot!