In ST, device types currently don’t have the ability to generate an alert directly. You’ll need a smart app to monitor the device and create an alert or text
Here are some threads where this type of issue is discussed
To answer your question, just read this thread. The biggest problem, as I see it right now, is that ST isn’t helping or guiding in any way. As far as I can tell, we’re just amusing ourselves debating about all of this.
It’s shame, really, because I can’t seriously recommend ST to anyone because of the large shortcomings right now and what appears to be complete apathy on the part of ST to fix them.
Great recommended new Capability, thanks!
The problem with ST’s current architecture is there is no way to have parent-child or any sort of grouping of Capabilities with inherited or polymorphically compatible properties / characteristics.
Tamper is likely a good example case of an Urgent Alert , per @garyd9 ’s Topic:
But ST only lets you be one or the other, not both.
I’m guessing that even if the code of the Platform would make this easy enough to squeeze in (i.e., some form of inheritance, grouping, polymorphism), the overall impact makes that a long-term feature request at best.
In the meantime, if we want a single SmartApp to catch all important alerts, it should allow input of Devices with capability.urgentAlert, and a separate input of those with capability.tamper (two Device pr…
(There’s actually a proposed solution in the latter half of this post - the first half is just describing a problem, and then trying to emphasize how serious it is.)
If it’s not obvious from my recent postings, I’m playing around with device type code. One issue I see over and over is that a device might experience a serious problem that a human being REALLY needs to be informed about, but there doesn’t seem to be any way for a device type to send a notification or alarm.
For example, let’s say you get this new wiz-bang auto-magic does everything ESP enabled door lock. This thing can detect if a burglar is even THINKING about breaking into your house!
So, you add it as a new z-wave device, see that ST can lock/unlock it, and you go off to work. Then, while you’re at work, a burglar j…
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