Hey guys, I’m just starting out with Sharptools, and while I’m loving the web dashboard, I’m far more interested in the Android app, specifically the widgets. Will we ever have access to the Rules we created in the Rules engine in the android app? I don’t really need all the functionality of Tasker but the Rules engine is far more robust than routines/things I wanna do (I’m able to set up more detailed thermostat toggles using the Rules Engine, for example)
Thanks for the post and I’m glad you are enjoying the Rule Engine. How do you want to be able to use the Rule Engine on your Android device? Configuring rules? Triggering rules? Something else?
I’m primarily using Sharptools on Android via widgets to create easy-to-access shortcuts on my smartphone.
Currently it’s great if/when I’m just trying to turn individual switches on/off, but some things I’m trying to do can’t be run as a thing or a routine. For example, I have the following rules set up as a button on the web dashboard:
Ecobee Cool/Heat/Off
Tapping on the button will cycle the thermostatmode from Cool/Heat/Off (done in the rule engine with a simple if-then-else flow.
Ecobee Fast Cool
Sets Ecobee to cool, turns fan on, setcoolingpoint to 65 degrees (its minimum), delays for 600 seconds, then resumeProgram.
I’m also using the Rule Engine to toggle multiple lights in a room, since Smartthings routines don’t allow for toggling routines.
Being able to use the Rule Engine allows me to minimize the number of widgets on my Android screen.
(as far as configuring rules in the android app, of course that would be fantastic, but as a starter I’d be satisfied with just being able to access them in the android app, and create/edit them on a browser)
As a final request I’d love to just be able to have a dashboard accessible as one large “full screen” widget.
Thanks for the feedback. The Android app was originally designed to work directly with SmartThings, so it doesn’t really have a concept of the SharpTools.io platform. We have plans to rework the Android app to take advantage of the SharpTools.io platform so it can be used with other supported hubs (like Hubitat) and once that’s done, I can definitely see the use case for being able to trigger rules from widgets.
That being said, in the meantime you can trigger rules from the existing SharpTools app by creating virtual devices in the SmartThings IDE and then using those as triggers in your rules. Since you can use those devices in the existing SharpTools for Android App, you can use them to trigger your rules.
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Yeah, that’s what I eventually gathered. I look forward to following/supporting the project and can’t wait to see what it eventually evolves to!
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