Program/Notification Question

[az1324]

If
       Time is Last Run Time for 'Away' + 10 minutes
    Or Time is Last Run Time for 'Security Check' + 10 minutes

Then
       Run Program 'Check Double Garage' (If)
       Run Program 'Check Single Garage' (If)

Else
  - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

 

If
       Status  'Double Garage Status' is Off

Then
       Send Notification to All

Else
  - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

 

From these programs the notification I get is "Sched has changed to Met." instead of the Status. I thought by breaking it up into invidividual programs like this I would be able to get the status in the notification. Is there a way to get the correct notification?

[Sub-Routine]

That's a bug.

 

Rand

[Chris Jahn]

Actually this is not a bug, but does suggest the need for an enhancement for notifications. The reason the programs ran was because the schedule was met (although indirectly through 'Run If' for the second program).

 

To make notifications more powerful, what we really need is the ability to specify what data is to be sent in a notification, and how it should be formatted.

 

eg.

 

Send 'Double Garage' Status to Family Using 'Device Status Template'

 

This would send an e-mail containing the 'Double Garage' Status to all recipients in the Family list using a customized template called 'Device Status Template' to format the message.

 

 

Send Current Event to All

 

Same as current 'Send Notification to All', but would use a default (customizable) template based on the type of event that occurred.

 

This is on the requirements list, but not sure when it will be implemented.

[az1324]

An easier intermediate fix might be to send all the conditions in the if (of the program containing the notification command) that evaluate to true. Although I am not sure when I would need to be notified that a "schedule has been met" so its usefulness is in question.

 

In that case if I had a program such as:

 

If
            Status  'Double Garage Status' is Off
        Or  Status  'Single Garage Status' is Off
        Or  Control  'Doorbell' is switched On

Then
       Send Notification to All

Else
  - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') 

 

and even if both doors were off then I would get a notification that said "Status 'Double Garage Status' is Off; Status 'Single Garage Status' is Off" because both conditions evaluated to true and the text is already there and formatted to be readable unlike the way notifications are currently worded.

 

Alternatively the option to send user defined text would also be a good intermediate fix even if there was no "templated" way to pull dynamic information out of the event. One could just have separate programs the way I attempted to do originally.

 

As a side note, something else that I wish I was able to do is to be able to alias the status of the garage devices to 'Open' and 'Closed' in stead of 'On' and 'Off' which I'm sure would come in handy for other situations.

 

I think it also might be nice to have automatic nightly builds available and a formal bug tracking system.

[Chris Jahn]

Yes, I think we are in agreement that the content in notifications needs to be more customizable. Its on the requirements list.

[az1324]

Yeah I know its planned but I just wanted to bring up the possibility of something easier to implement that could be pushed out as a stopgap solution before the full notifications 2.0 implementation.

[Chris Jahn]

az1324,

 

Although not yet customizable, we have implemented a stopgap solution for notifications in the next drop.

 

All notifications will include the Program Name, some additional information based on the event that occurred and improved formatting.

[az1324]

Excellent! Thanks for letting me know.