**** Update, I have started to work on v3.1.x adding features.  

My plan is to push to production v3.0.1 (no new features, just rewrite) and use the beta channel for testing the new features.

I am not hearing of any continuing v3.01 issues so we shouldn't break anything with this.

Beta now has v3.1.0 with some doc changes, will update as features are added

Just be aware for those who continue to follow the beta path!

As I do this there may be some one-time disruption to the crowd requiring delete and reinstall rather than update.

Has to do with the UID numbers are currently different from production & (beta / my local) due to when I got control of the production.

Apologies for this, but I need to rip the bandaid off at some point or it will make switching between them a pain forever.

 

Hi users of Virtual I have been using this plugin for a number of years and appreciated the 'glue' it has provided to some of by automations.

A few weeks ago I asked for & received permission to take on stewardship of it from @bpwwer , thanks Bob for all you do!

I have done a rewrite, putting it in the 'standard' template ; this will make it easier to maintain, add new devices and features.

It is published it in the beta store starting with version 3.0.1 , no new features as of yet.

So with this message, I am asking for the brave to test the beta & also to put into this thread any past, or current bugs in the plugin, as well as feature requests.  I will fix the quickies & the others can kick around & prioritise development.

My current list:

• bug-list will take priority (I don't have any but looking at the forum there may be some past complaints)
• In addition to current node method, allow a JSON list and/or YAML files (makes it easier to re-install or back-up)
• I re-name my nodes in ISY from the way they are defined in the plugin.  A name should be able to be defined from the node & updated if changed in the ISY (again easier to maintain)
• may use Discover button to force re-examination of the above two.  Not sure in this plugin if any other 'true' discovery as parameter changes should update on their own unless from file
• new device for garage door opener (I want this)
• documentation improvements

- Temp device improvements

• The average calculation is a bit rudimentary, just high-low / 2 not hearing any great demand for change here
• cleaning up the code ; it has some relics hanging around
• adding the ability to handle variables with precision other than zero would be good too strike for now based on feedback

- HERE IS WHERE YOU ADD IDEAS

Stephen

Edited May 11, 20242 yr by sjenkins
update to prepare for production.

Thanks for adopting and supporting the community, it's appreciated. 

I've watched this plugin from afar, and I'm still a little cloudy on scenarios, use cases for it beyond screen shots

(It's a problem I have with the store and other plugins: nothing necessarily describes the "what" that it does or why I would use it... I just have to know. Which suggests maybe I should just move along which is ok)

I did click through, now and in the past, to GitHub and there are images that kind of suggest this, but it's not really clear. If possible, could you bullet (at 10,000ft) a few things this helps with, how you use it. Not details, just functions, the kind of things you do and are the used in programs, by the plugin, etc. Thanks.

3 hours ago, paulbates said:

Thanks for adopting and supporting the community, it's appreciated. 

I've watched this plugin from afar, and I'm still a little cloudy on scenarios, use cases for it beyond screen shots

(It's a problem I have with the store and other plugins: nothing necessarily describes the "what" that it does or why I would use it... I just have to know. Which suggests maybe I should just move along which is ok)

I did click through, now and in the past, to GitHub and there are images that kind of suggest this, but it's not really clear. If possible, could you bullet (at 10,000ft) a few things this helps with, how you use it. Not details, just functions, the kind of things you do and are the used in programs, by the plugin, etc. Thanks.

@paulbates , I do agree, some plugins are obvious ; my other plugin is an interface to HunterDouglas shades, pretty obvious ; this one on the other hand may be at the other end of the scale as I think of it more like a basic tool.

So here I my attempt at at a 10k ft description of the Virtual plugin:

The Virtual plugin is one way to take data from external sources and in turn use these nodes of data more effectively.  The nodes become devices from which status and control are possible in programs & as an included device in scenes.  It as well as cleaner display in the AC and Remote tools.

• I use REST to switch a virtual device from an 8266 device.  My Awning controller & heartbeat
• from Alexa I switch a virtual device.  The status of my daughter's goodnight routine.
• the above devices can be part of scenes or programs both status and control
• these devices are one way to provide scene status if you make them part of a scene
• virtual devices can be used to consolidate data.  The temp devices, & I am looking to add a garage device.

Hopefully this helps.  Appreciate the question as it made me think and articulate a few things.  I will likely add the above to improve the docs.  Remember the above is only from my view of this generic tool plugin.  I would appreciate for others to chirp in their thoughts and use cases.

 

 

Ok.. I think I got it, thank you. In the case of your awning, there's no plugin, but it has a published rest API and this can act like a network resource++, as an eisy device that can be consumed and controlled by programs (?)

I also like making programs more readable. I have a set of programs to control my master bath fan (i3 paddle) from a yolink 8003 based on calcing the change in humidity. It works as designed and no functional problems, but looking at the programs makes my head hurt in terms of taking sensor data, massaging as variables to determine action.

Based on seeing the screenshots for temp, I'm thinking about loading Virtual and using the features I saw for temp for my humidity programs. Guessing that's possible by not doing f/c conversions. It's the current and previous that I'm interested.....but at this point it's up to me at this point to give it a shot.

Thank you

I would say the best is to play around a bit with it. Put a virtual in a scene too. 
agree you can do it all with programs; this does simplify & make more readable. 
And we can add more devices if their behaviours are stable. 

@sjenkinsthank you for your interest in keeping these abounded plugins going and your continued support! I use a couple of virtual switches for scenes and Alexa to keep everything in sync and give control over items. I also use a temperature node to help keep track of highs and lows for the day. I see a lot errors in my ISY log for this plugin that I sometimes see the same errors for other plugins like Vue but this one is almost constant even though it works fine for me. I'm not sure what more could be added to this plugin but I look forward your ideas and others suggestions.

Sun 2024/04/07 08:08:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:09:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:11:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:12:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:13:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:14:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:15:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:16:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:18:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:19:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:20:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:21:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:22:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:23:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:24:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:25:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:26:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:27:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:28:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:29:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:30:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:31:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:32:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:33:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:34:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:36:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:37:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:38:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:40:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:41:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:42:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:43:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:44:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:46:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:48:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:49:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:50:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:51:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:53:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:54:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:57:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:58:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 08:59:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:00:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:01:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:02:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:03:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:04:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:05:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:06:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:08:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:09:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:10:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:11:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:12:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:13:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:16:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:17:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:18:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:19:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:20:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:21:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:23:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:27:48 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:32:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:34:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:35:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:36:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual
Sun 2024/04/07 09:37:47 AM  System    -140005	NS-2-Virtual

 

Like others have said, thank you.  I've been using the plugin since moving to eISY.  I mostly use switches to act as binary variables.  I turn them on or off to set behavior/events.  For instance, I set a virtual switch on to signal an irrigation program to run that night and its sets switch off.  Also, use them to control motion detection for Ring lights.  I set the switch on (as a favorite in UD mobile or Alexa) to block motion detection so program will not run with motion and light stays on at whatever level it has been set to manually.  Some may be set as devices for Alexa to trigger announcements for leak detected or something else -- can't recall.  I'll look if anyone is interested.

 

I'll install and test in next week.

Paul

Edited May 4, 20242 yr by hart2hart

I installed virtual from the non-production store in a different slot for testing I was surprised to see a bunch of nodes installed automatically but that saved me from having to create them. The main thing I noticed is the switches are showing true and false instead of on and off. With the configuration that installed from the store there was an ip address that was not for my eisy but the nodes still populated in the AC panel for me. If there is anything specific you need done along the way for testing just let me know.

I installed virtual from the non-production store in a different slot for testing I was surprised to see a bunch of nodes installed automatically but that saved me from having to create them. The main thing I noticed is the switches are showing true and false instead of on and off. With the configuration that installed from the store there was an ip address that was not for my eisy but the nodes still populated in the AC panel for me. If there is anything specific you need done along the way for testing just let me know.

Great. Were the nodes created by the beta the same nodes from v2 production?

57 minutes ago, hart2hart said:

Great. Were the nodes created by the beta the same nodes from v2 production?

No there were more created then what I have. 

4 hours ago, tazman said:

I installed virtual from the non-production store in a different slot for testing I was surprised to see a bunch of nodes installed automatically but that saved me from having to create them. The main thing I noticed is the switches are showing true and false instead of on and off. With the configuration that installed from the store there was an ip address that was not for my eisy but the nodes still populated in the AC panel for me. If there is anything specific you need done along the way for testing just let me know.

@tazman , I must apologise, I was testing things out with a number of different starting settings in my local version.  It must have been late when I pushed the Beta.  Cleaned that up now.

As the only changes that I was 'attempting' to make was refactoring, the only testing requested is that it works the same as the old version.

Next step will be to start making modifications. 

Appreciate the feedback & if anyone has any old bugs or new feature requests.

 

Already stumbling a little. I got to the nonprod store and installed, isy,user and pw working....

I'm not getting what to do with this:

Key (var ID)    Value (device type)
78              switch
79              dimmer or generic
82              temperature     (will be displayed as farenheit)
85              temperaturec or temperaturecr
                (will be displayed as celsius)
                (the r can be used to note raw data if you prefer)

• If I pick a state variable I do have, 15, and type temperature as the value, I get a switch showing up in the ISY
• I tried literally putting 82 as the variable as a long shot, I know that makes no sense... I don't have a variable 82 so it didn't help.

It's not clear to me how to map the virtual device into my ISY variables (all are state).

The Virtual Device Controller and my 2 defined devices all look like this:

 

@paulbatesare you sure you have your ISY set properly with the port number? I use localhost:8080 Your AC picture looks like something is not setup properly the controller should not have all the extra items and your temperature should have a different icon.

And I just set my temperature value with programs. I don't remember if I did that because it wasn't working right for me or what.

@paulbates , I think the instructions have opportunities, as you have found out. 
think of the variable name just as a key field. Just needs to be a unique number, has nothing to do with your variables in your ISY. No mapping there. 
 

unfortunately the name is just the device type. I would like to add better naming from the plugin. You can rename it to anything you want in the ISY. I keep the number id in the name so I can keep the link. 
 

hope this helps. 
 

7 minutes ago, tazman said:

And I just set my temperature value with programs. I don't remember if I did that because it wasn't working right for me or what.

When I had an ISY and nodeservers on a pi that was important. I'm on an eisy; \ 8080 for http, and 8443 for https. Wasn't anticipating that level of config change for a plugin install.

@sjenkinsI tried setting up a temperature to pull directly from a variable without success so there is a bug for you unless I'm doing something wrong and someone else is able to make it work.

@paulbates , I think the instructions have opportunities, as you have found out. 
think of the variable name just as a key field. Just needs to be a unique number, has nothing to do with your variables in your ISY. No mapping there. 
 
unfortunately the name is just the device type. I would like to add better naming from the plugin. You can rename it to anything you want in the ISY. I keep the number id in the name so I can keep the link. 
 
hope this helps. 
 

Thanks for picking virtual up. It was not intuitive a year ago on how to set up as names of fields overlapped. I’d suggest something like 3 fields to define a virtual device:

Virtual Device Number (01)
Virtual Device Type (switch)
Virtual Device Name (Front Porch Motion Enabled)

2 minutes ago, hart2hart said:

Thanks for picking virtual up. It was not intuitive a year ago on how to set up as names of fields overlapped. I’d suggest something like 3 fields to define a virtual device:

Virtual Device Number (01)
Virtual Device Type (switch)
Virtual Device Name (Front Porch Motion Enabled)

I will likely move to a json string holding those variables. 

 

btw: : ip, login, and password are holdovers from pg2. They should not be required & looking at the program are not used. 

18 minutes ago, sjenkins said:

btw: : ip, login, and password are holdovers from pg2. They should not be required & looking at the program are not used. 

That makes sense from what I was seeing but makes me wonder why @paulbateshas the odd fields in the Virtual Devise Controller unless the AC was not restarted after installing the plugin.

27 minutes ago, tazman said:

That makes sense from what I was seeing but makes me wonder why @paulbateshas the odd fields in the Virtual Devise Controller unless the AC was not restarted after installing the plugin.

I would be curious what it looks like after an ac reboot. 

I did the latest iox updated prior to experimenting with virtual and restarted. I then installed the virtual and restarted.

Based on the above posts, I restarted again, and now the virtual device controller node has one value of "connected" which sounds right. The 2 things I defined didn't show up, and I want to remove my isy ip, user and password. I should remove the plugin, delete the nodes and start again.

27 minutes ago, paulbates said:

I did the latest iox updated prior to experimenting with virtual and restarted. I then installed the virtual and restarted.

Based on the above posts, I restarted again, and now the virtual device controller node has one value of "connected" which sounds right. The 2 things I defined didn't show up, and I want to remove my isy ip, user and password. I should remove the plugin, delete the nodes and start again.

Shouldn’t need to delete to remove those things. Just click the x beside the variable in the configuration tab. 
save configuration. Restart the plugin. 

ok I pushed an update to the beta 3.0.1

This fixes the temp and tempc devices as far as the pull and push.

So you know, it doesn't pull/push immediately, but on the short poll timeframe.

This was a bit of a quick one, so give me feedback; also, I have not been much of a user of these devices until now.

 

opportunities:

The average calculation is a bit rudimentary, just high-low / 2

cleaning up the code ; it has some relics hanging around

Adding the ability to handle variables with precision other than zero would be good too.

 

Busy week for me so the improvements will not be fast but I should be able to do bug fix.

If anyone feels so motivated to update the docs & put up in a thread for peer review, that will speed up the process a bit.

 

Edited May 7, 20242 yr by sjenkins
clarity

@sjenkinsnice job I can confirm I can send to and pull from a state variable. I only use the current, high and low values from the temperature plugin then I reset it with a program in the morning to track my high and low temperature for the day. 

I'm not sure what you mean by

Adding the ability to handle variables with precision other than zero would be good too.

When I set "Current Raw to Prec On" I see values of 77.2 but state variable 77.26 shows 772.6 so I think it can handle a precision of 1 but nothing higher.