Where do plugins come from?

[Ristin]

How do plugins come to be? I just bought two wifi Ultraloq Pro's before I discovered the z-wave versions. I'd like to control the locks from UD Mobile, but not bad enough to return the wifi versions for the z-wave versions.

And also, I'm just curious how plugins are made.

 

Thanks

[paulbates]

So a 2 part answer. 

1. How it's done: UDI created the polyglot pg3x environment for creating plugins that provide functionality and equally share access to the polisy / eisy controller. IMO you'll want to be a more advanced developer and plan on a learning curve and time to get there.
    
2. Why it's done / how individual plugins are decided: UDI's success depends on community developers to create and sell their plugins. Typically developers are advanced and have the need to integrate the specific product(s) in question. They'll create it, usually, because they needed it and doing it as a plugin helps others.

If you have a product like the Ultralogs, want a plugin and not a developer, you start by expressing interest - like you just did. Sometimes developers might take it on if a version of the product is shipped to them for development.

 

[Guy Lavoie]

10 minutes ago, paulbates said:

So a 2 part answer. 

1. How it's done: UDI created the polyglot pg3x environment for creating plugins that provide functionality and equally share access to the polisy / eisy controller. IMO you'll want to be a more advanced developer and plan on a learning curve and time to get there.

 

Yes, and the learning curve is quite steep. There is little or no tutorial information, it's mostly just reference material. The way to learn for most (including myself) is to install a simple plugin, and reverse engineer it to try and understand what does what. So far I've done two simple plug ins, mostly as an exercise to eventually make a more complex one. I'm also learning python at the same time. It's rewarding, but consider it mostly as a hobby, if you're counting the time you're putting into it. 

[bpwwer]

Mostly, plug-in come to be because someone has a need for it.

In many cases, the person with the need also has enough of a programming background (or is willing to take the time to learn enough) to create it themselves and then make it available for others.

There are also cases where an existing plug-in developer will create a plug-in for others.  In some cases this may be a work-for-hire (I.E someone pays them $500 to create the plug-in) or they may think it will be popular enough to make it worth their while.  For this to work, there are typically some requirements:

1. The developer needs access to the hardware that the plug-in is for.  This may be that someone sends them hardware or someone with the hardware is willing to do a lot of testing for the developer.
2. The developer needs access to documentation on how to talk to the hardware.

Apparently, u-tec just released an API for local control of the locks and more, like just released in the past month or so.

https://developer.uhomelabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/39731959004057-What-is-U-home-OpenAPI

Looks like there might be enough there to develop a plug-in for it.

[Ristin]

Thanks for the replies. Very informative and way outside my wheelhouse. Last time I tried programming was high school computer class on an IBM XT/286