Wii there be any edge apps

does anyone know if there will be edge apps ?

OPTION 1: WRITE AND HOST YOUR OWN SMARTAPP, CONNECTING THROUGH THE ST API

Edge is not an app platform. There are still smartapps, for people who want to write them, but you have to host it yourself and communicate with smartthings through the API.

Here is the official schematic for the new architecture. You see the smartapp in the lower right? You host it yourself and connect it through the smartthings API.

In contrast, Edge Drivers live on the smartthings hub which is in the upper left.

@taustin has written one of these for his MQTT integration, for example.

Integration Solutions using MQTT

OPTION 2: USE THE OFFICIAL RULES API. NO HOSTING NEEDED. STILL IN BETA

You can also write your own “recipes“ using the rules API and those will not need a separate host. some of them will have functionality similar to old smartapps. But right now the rules API is still in beta and the interface is pretty hard to use if you’re not a programmer. Hopefully they will come up with something more like Webcore for that in the future, but no promises. But that’s the option that will be able to run without providing your own host.

While the schematic diagram above doesn’t show the rules API, we have been told that some of it will be able to run locally, meaning some recipes will run on your own hub also. Others will run in the smartthings cloud.

OPTION 3: USE SHARPTOOLS, A THIRD PARTY RULES ENGINE AND DASHBOARD

Another alternative that some people will find useful is the third-party app, sharptools. There is a free tier if you just need a few rules or it is $30 a year if you want full features. It has a nice rules engine which you can access from a browser and supports more complex rules then basic smartthings routines. They are currently running a beta version which works with the new architecture, so I think it will be ready in time for the cutover. It also provides a dashboard if you like. But for the purposes of this topic we are talking about the rules engine.

It doesn’t run local, of course, but then neither did Groovy smartapps.

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SharpTools is great. Try it out. Rules without variables are free. I use it with Tasker to control some of my devices, although I had to get a subscription for that part to be able to use HTTP requests from Tasker to run rules in SharpTools. Worth it, though. The Rules engine is easy to understand. After my thermostats no longer had a resumeProgram command because of the Edge driver assigned to them, I was able to write an elaborate rule in SharpTools that controls my thermostats depending upon time of day and who’s home.

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all of these are not running fast and 100% locally. Even the Rules don’t.
I have plenty of simple routines that should run locally but they would not.

A simple example is a dimmer that controls a group of lamps.
There is no easy way to sync the lights,
there is no way to increase/decrease brightness.

Rotary dimmer (like 旋钮遥控器智能化方案-Tuya Smart ) is something that blows up the Smartthings architecture.

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Rules pretty much follow the same criteria as routines as far as where they are run from. If there is a service - like weather - included in the rule that is presented from the cloud they will run in the cloud. If all the devices are local to the hub the rule will run locally.

Although you can do things with Rules that you can’t do with routines they are still somewhat limited by lack of access to math or variables. Although you can get around the variables to some degree by using virtual devices.