Remove some things from the floorplan

[chas_iot (Charles JC)]

As a user, I would like to remove Things from the Floorplan to reduce clutter.

For me, Things such as notifiers and timers are just clutter on the Floorplan. However I can see that in some circumstances, I would want to place a particular instance. Similarly, if I have paired a physical device, generally I would want to see it on the Floorplan but occasionally if, say it is unused, I’d want to remove it. Given the variation of needs, I’d suggest the default should be all things should be placed on the Floorplan and with a Boolean flag in the Thing detail to remove and/or re-add

[benfrancis]

I’d suggest the best solution to this is not to represent notifiers and timers as “things” in the first place, because they’re not.

We have built-in support for basic timers and notifier add-ons in the rules engine. It would be good to know what else is currently missing which is forcing add-on developers to use the hack of creating dummy “things” to work around platform limitations.

[chas_iot (Charles JC)]

@benfrancis I suggest that this should be analysed a bit further?

• What are the criteria to automatically include or exclude Things from the Floorplan?
• What are the criteria to include or exclude from the Things page?
  • Are those criteria the same for the Things page and the Floorplan?
• Should only real physical things qualify?
  • For a counter-example, I have a lampstand containing two physical bulbs, so I set up a virtual light to control both and I want it on the Floorplan beside the two actual things.
• For the developers of existing Add-ons, what will they have to do?
  • What if they don’t agree with your chosen direction?
  • What if they can’t be bothered to update their Add-on?
• If some current Things are excluded from the Things page, then what new page will be there to control them?
• What if I, as a user, want a timer on the Floorplan?

I believe that in the medium to long term, the Floorplan should become the primary control surface for home automation and therefore, with some possible future smart defaults, the user should control what appears there.

In the long term, I suggest a concept of folders similar to iPhones (i.e. one level only, folders can not contain folders) that work the same way in Floorplan, Things and Rules pages will possibly work better than an include/exclude facility.

[benfrancis]

Should only real physical things qualify?

In my opinion, yes.

For a counter-example, I have a lampstand containing two physical bulbs, so I set up a virtual light to control both and I want it on the Floorplan beside the two actual things.

This might be a use case for a groups feature.

What if they don’t agree with your chosen direction?

Extension add-ons now make it possible to modify the gateway UI, e.g. to create a custom Things or Floorplan view.

I believe that in the medium to long term, the Floorplan should become the primary control surface for home automation and therefore, with some possible future smart defaults, the user should control what appears there.

I quite like that idea too, though not everyone prefers the Floorplan view to the current Things view. I think this requires some more extensive user testing and design.

In the long term, I suggest a concept of folders similar to iPhones (i.e. one level only, folders can not contain folders) that work the same way in Floorplan, Things and Rules pages will possibly work better than an include/exclude facility.

I agree this sounds like the best solution.