An app driver website

One item that I feel is missing - a website where you can 'see' all the community apps and drivers.

HPM has a useful search feature - but it also assumes you have HPM installed. As well, many users don't have the ability or desire to dig into HPM to find apps they need.

Finding apps on the Community isn't really that powerful or friendly. Wouldn't it be great if HPM tied into an external site, which allowed for app storage, download source, images...

I could envision it as a place with Icons sources, dashboard layout sharing... all sorts of goodies. It'd be nice place for a final resting place for abandoned projects coffins too...

3 Likes

That's pretty much github. That said you have to be looking for HPM anyway so not sure what an external site would matter anyway. Hubitat themselves aren't going to start doing that because then it would be expected that they would have to support it (not that most would think that but new people would be under that impression). I do know they would support a wiki on the board if you want to volunteer to maintain it, but they won't as that would be a full time job and take away from what they already do.

4 Likes

It's been tried....

I created a repository in GitHub so that all the community code could be found by new users... it got very low uptake. It came at a time when there was a lot of churn so I have no disappointment. (github.com/HubitatCommunity)

Brian (@bptworld ) also created a Wiki for this... similar results.

I created HubitatCommunity.com to do something else along this line but the crickets just got too loud. :slight_smile:

HPM continues to be the closest there is in the community.

9 Likes

Hunh?

It could be, I suppose.

Who would host it?

2 Likes

It's called github and it's "tied" already... but not limited. The manifest for HPM uses URLs and thus files are hosted any/every where the developer desires.

4 Likes

It seems like OP is wishing for a single GitHub repository for community apps and drivers to live in?

But as you pointed out, you built it and yet they didn’t come.

4 Likes

I waited to read the community responses... quite disappointed me.
Github as a website. well. sucks. the idea that it is useful for a novice user to locate and read about community apps for Hubitat is simply a farce. as a storage dump - sure. thats what it's for. but as a method to promote something? uh. no.
I have never heard of any external website related to Hubitat apps besides cobras. so if there was something previously... it went unnoticed.
but. I bow to the community. if you all think its a bad idea. I guess it is. The whole idea came from my girlfriend who asked 'how do you find addons for the hubitat?' (what she meant was pre-canned apps/drivers - she's new to the whole DIY world).
I guess therein lies the problem. Since Hubitat is just a bunch of home developers playing and having fun, the POV is from a developers perspective.
When you bring in outside users who are not devs - the POV is from a novice / general population perspective and Hubitat isn't for them. So why build a website for them?
I think of the way rPi developed and evolved. Now when I look at rPI and it's .org and .com websites, and their sub-areas... it really makes it clear just how early in the cycle Hubitat is. It's a fun toy and I enjoy playing around with it as it is. I'm leaving this alone as I see there isn't support from the community for it to go any further. thanks for your responses!

1 Like

You are welcome to do the work necessary to create an attractive and easy-to-navigate app store for community-developed apps and drivers, convince community devs to add their code to it, keep the site updated/maintained, pay hosting fees, etc.

6 Likes

I had such a wiki up and running for over a year. Only had about 5 developers create a page for their apps/drivers. Never gained the traction that it needed. I haven't touched it in a looong time now. You can still reach it here: Hubitat Apps

8 Likes

This was the one thing I really liked about Homeseer: They made it easy to find apps/plugins that would work with their system. I do wish that existed for Hubitat, but the financial model is different. FWIW, many people don't want to go searching on Github for anything. Many would just prefer to log in to a site maintained by Hubitat where they could rather easily find and download an app to do whatever it is they wanted to do. After a short trial period, paying for that app (with Hubitat taking a cut for their hosting) would be fine as far as I'm concerned. But as I think we've learned, Hubitat has no interest in that. So be it. But I still wish it existed.

2 Likes

Have you tried using HPM? A very large fraction of Hubitat developers (majority?) have chosen to make their apps/drivers searchable/installable via HPM.

1 Like

@marktheknife building and maintaining isn't much of an issue. No need to convince devs about code, that's already public and the interface would be direct to HPM's repo as the source (in my mind anyway).
@bptworld wiki pages are hard to get traction. they're great for long haul but not very glitzy and hard to organize IMHO. Still - maybe thats all thats needed. a nice wiki with an interface.... an interesting idea!
@aaiyar of course I've used HPM. not to speak down at you, sorry - there was an app that allowed a person to 'see' all the available stuff - but some reference call it 'broken' or dead... or something I can't recall... as in 'stay away - this may cause problems' - I've also used that myself...

It all really revolves around HPM for the most part. the only thing I can see that might improve are a few items like 'icon' and 'image' that would be used IF DESIRED in the page app....

really sounds like an interesting project for someone with a AMP background... I'm going to think about this a bit this weekend and see if I get any ideas that might promote hubitat community apps better/easier without causing trouble for anyone...

Bottom line. If you want a repository with everyone's contributions, two things will have to happen:

  1. You'll have the create it.
  2. You'll have to convince community developers to archive their work in your new repository.

As @bptworld and @csteele have indicated, previous attempts to do so have not succeeded.

But you might succeed - so give it a shot.

10 Likes

It would be nice for Hubitat to create a marketplace that authors could post their apps and drivers, much like VMware or other vendors do where there could be free or paid versions with the license.


2 Likes

There would be benefits to it, I agree. And I certainly wouldn’t mind if it existed.

But staff have pointed out the downsides (from their perspective at least) and have made it pretty clear that they don’t have plans to open that can of worms.

2 Likes

That was also one of my apps, Package Explorer. I've made a few changes to it and it's almost ready to re-release. Maybe ever today.

2 Likes

It's BAAAAAAAACK! :grin:

7 Likes

I think you may be fixated on some idea that devs would have to store their code differently. au contraire. just leave it all right where it is and scan the repository results and pump a dynamic website from it. really easy stuff.

the others who've walked the path before may have approached this differently than I see it... we'll see if maybe I get lucky and fare better if I walk this path BUT ... as I said before, once I thought it through maybe there really isn't a point to promoting apps for Hubitat as its' more a dev's playground than a public consumption thing - I had missed that point initially. I'm on the fence. Something like this might take me a week or more to do it justice.

Sounds like you have a project .... have at it!

3 Likes