I have to agree, despite my belly-aching, slowing things down is smart. But it should never have gotten to this point.
I’m almost wondering if they threw out the shutdown notice just in the community initially to gauge response and fish out what they have perhaps not thought about. But we also know that generally the power users are not who they care about. So who knows.
I received an email notification today.
Yes, I just got it myself.
I did, too, except I wish it had listed the specific DTH‘s and smartapps that triggered my getting the email. Obviously they know that information: that’s why they sent it to me.
It’s neither childish nor silly. Samsung has had two years to formulate a solid, well-documented plan, communicate that plan to their end user community and provide regular, substantive updates as to their progress. They’ve done none of that. The entire Groovy EOL demonstrates that we’re dealing with a poorly-run IT shop that is devoid of discipline, rigor and leadership. While it’s been a tremendous amount of work migrating to another solution, I’m glad my relationship with ST is finally coming to a close.
I’m thinking you give them too much credit and this is a boilerplate email to anyone with an account. I received the email too tonight and had completely deleted everything in 2020. Apps, devices, etc. when I finished my transition to another platform and turned off my V1 hub.
Why does Samsung continue to insist upon breaking stuff that works just fine? The is the second time now Samsung team has “transitioned” to a new platform in the name of betterment only to leave behind a bunch of perfectly good working apps and drivers.
It would appear that the expectation for many groovy based smartapps is replacement via lua Hub Devices.
It sure would be nice if the lua API exited beta status before the deprecation announcement. What is the expected duration between general availability of the lua API and the destruction of groovy smartaps? I hope the answer isn’t negative.
Just as Smartapps are different from Device Type Handlers, Automations are different from edge drivers.
Edge drivers are the replacement for device type handlers (DTHs).
Some smartapps will be replaced by automations written in Lua and running on your own hub. Those automations could be routines, the new smartlighting, or “recipes“ written through the Rules API. None of those are “edge drivers” even though they are also written in Lua.
The new platform will also still support custom automations called “smartapps“ but those will be hosted elsewhere. Not run in a Samsung-provided cloud and not run on your own hub. Just as one example, Ifttt has said that they are rewriting their current groovy smart app integration to be a new integration using the SmartThings API.
Note that there are two different APIs in the new architecture. The REST API is a public API, also called the “Smartthings API,” which allows external programs to make requests of a smartthings account. It’s not written in Lua.
Then there is the “rules API.“ This is something like a scripting language which allows you to write rules for your own account. Some of these will run on your own hub, so presumably they do end up being written in Lua, although you wouldn’t know that directly. It’s intended for power users who want to create more complicated rules than the basic automations available in the smartthings app. You can read more about that one in the following section of this forum:
Here’s the official schematic for the new platform
So the email I just got from SmartThings is the first I’m hearing about this. Lovely. >.<
Now I’m a ball of anxiety trying to figure all this out. Looks like I have 9 custom device handlers, and 6 SmartApps, not to mention a bunch of stuff in WebCore that provides essential functionality I couldn’t do elsewhere. I’m certainly glad they “slowed things down” because I’d be very likely to ditch SmartThings completely based on the original timeline. If enough things break I might do it anyway. People like me are the biggest reason SmartThings needs to be careful about stuff like this, because I’m not a developer, and have just patched my system together over time to meet individual needs. Stuff like this is overwhelming.
So from what I can gather, I need to contact the people who made all my custom device handlers and see if they have ones for the new system? And any SmartApp stuff will just need to be replaced via SmartThings new automation options (or not at all)?
And then I need to see if I can do what I’m doing in WebCore in the new Rules API? (Whatever that is; I know nothing at present.)
I saw some folks talking about migrating to Hubitat? How does that work? Is it seamless and easy to do? At this point in my life I just want things to work and minimize difficulty
I feel pretty lost, and don’t have time to deal with any of this stuff. Super frustrating this is even happening.
My device handlers that I’m still actively using and are:
Enhanced SmartPower Outlet (ady624)
Inovelli Switch NXZW30 w/Scene (erocm123)
Universal Z-Wave Lock with Alarms (rboy)
Zooz 4 in 1 Motion, Humidity, Illuminance and Temperature Sensor (Enhanced) (rboy)
3 Button Remote (ZBWS3) (thegilbertchan)
cast-web-api / device (vervallsweg) – nbd if this breaks
SmartApps that matter are:
Webcore obv.
Garage Door Manager (rboy)
LUM (rbot)
Advanced Button Controller (stephack)
Smartweather Station (rboy) – nbd if this breaks
Cast web service manager (vervallsweg) – nbd if this breaks
Anyone have any clues on any of this stuff let me know.
Also, I have about 18 virtual switches… did anyone figure out what the deal is with those? Many of them I could live without, but some are quite important.
Oh, and ActionTiles… will this impact that at all? I haven’t touched that in a long time. It just works for me.
Sorry for the long post, I just feel like I’ve been dropped in the deep end of the pool while I was having a pleasant dream. Feels like that’s a thing SmartThings does every few years for fun.
The following thread might help a little:
What do I need to do to get ready for Sept 30?
But mostly it’s just going to be a lot of individual research to figure out what you want to do for each aspect of what you have. Nothing is exactly “seamless and easy,“ unfortunately. One option is just to sit and wait and see what breaks, because some things will be automatically migrated for you. And then one by one fix whatever got broken. i’m not saying that’s a good option, I’m just saying that’s what some people are choosing to do.
If you want to be more proactive, again see the link I just gave you.
Thanks! Will take a look.
Also, if there isn’t already an existing thread in the forum, feel free to start one for any specific device handler/smartapp that you aren’t sure how to replace in the new architecture. Make the topic title as specific as you can. That way it will be of the most value to other people and you should get the quickest responses. And hopefully we’ll avoid too many duplicates. Keep it to one item per thread, again, just to keep the forum of the most value to the most people and make it easy for people with the same question to find the answers. 
I don’t see the delineation between the hub and the cloud in the attached diagram; I think that would help.
Where can I find documentation on writing SmartApps using lua?
My one and only groovy SmartApp simply hits an HTTP endpoint periodically and controls a selected switch based on the response. Seems the JSON rules don’t support polling HTTP endpoints so the JSON Rules are ruled out sort-of-speak. I think polling a public REST endpoint from the Hub makes a lot more sense than hosting in an AWS Lambda.
We as customers are not given the option to write smartapps that will run on the hub. And there will no longer be a publicly available Samsung smartthings cloud where they can run either.
So you can write a smartapp in any language you want, JavaScript, python, LUA, even groovy: but you are going to have to host it yourself. Either through a hosting service or on a local server device. That smartapp will then call the rest API to send requests or get information from smartthings.
(Lua is really only significant if you want to write a custom edge driver, which would be the replacement for a custom DTH. Those need to be written in Lua. )
Here’s the original getting started tutorial: I don’t know if there’s something newer or better. Hopefully someone else will be able to comment on that.
And here’s an example that sounds like it might be somewhat similar to your use case. But again, I don’t know if there’s any newer or better documentation now, hopefully someone else will know.
Hey folks, I personally have over 50 smart apps and custom device handlers helping power my smart home. Are all of these going to stop working in a month? If so, I might as well chuck my SmartThings hub in the trash.
In the midst of celebrations your house goes into meltdown… Happy New Year !
Yup… im one… kind of annoying !!
Reinstalled SL recently just in case it becomes unavailable if you did not have it installed at switch over… it happened before so no chances taken
Simple answer - yes, all gone
Luckily Smartthings are making things easier… you can now do some of those smart app automations using the Smartthings routines, some you cannot and you will need to contact the developer for advice, some will never be available unless some form of edge smart app becomes available and some is just unknown
See… much easier !
