When in RM, every time I select a new condition, trigger, action… it refreshes back to the top. It’s not so bad if I’m at the bottom but if working in the middle of something long, it’s tough to find my way back.
Seems like there has to be a more friendly way to walk through the options and a more user friendly way to display the current results, maybe beside the rule creator, show it dynamically?
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not a programmer so the whole UI is confusing. I’ve spent almost 2 hours trying to get a simple rule to work. If switch 1 is on and presence A is present and door 1 opens, turn on a light
This has to do with the submitOnChange option in each field that allows the page to dynamically update based on what your enter. I admit it's annoying and ST handled it better, but it is a necessary evil at this point. Hopefully when we get a mobile app interface it works more like ST. In the meantime, I think you will get used to it eventually.
With regard to the rule UI, it still confuses me as a bit as well because I'm used to building my logic with the Core structure. As @bravenel gives us more examples, it is becoming less and less confusing for me. Hopefully we will have a thread soon with sample "pistons" that will tie everything together.
In the meantime, just ask for help and I'm sure someone (not me, I'm pretty useless) will jump in with guidance.
For something this complex, any smartphone app should be about a quick review, update when away from a computer… NOT for building full on rules, the web is where the focus should be, IMHO
I remember using RM in ST 1-2 years ago and the app then was terrible. If that is what we have to look forward here… i’m screwed
WebCore is way ahead in terms of ease of use, not saying copy it but maybe learn from it and build a better UI here
I’m sure the app framework and feature set will improve over time and in it’s current state there’s no doubt I prefer it over ST. It’s great being able to set up apps, rules, ect on a decent size monitor with a keyboard!
The refreshing could be improved by either scrolling to the last input field or better yet using ajax calls to dynamically load them. I’m sure improving this is the Hubitat team’s list. But they have bigger fish to fry right now I’d still like the web interface to be the main focus, with the mobile app used for presence, notifications and quick access to device controls.
Haha, they're called "rules". You guys should know the history: Rule Machine was introduced in November, 2015, and I withdrew Rule Machine from ST the following year for the simple reason that ST was so broken that rules would literally lose their state variables and become zombies that would do unpredictable things. ST blamed this on Rule Machine at first, although it was abundantly clear that wasn't true.
After that, to fill the void left, Ady developed CoRE (Community's own Rule Engine), with the explicit idea that the author would not "withdraw" it from being available. From that evolved WebCoRE.
No doubt that Ady did a heck of a job with CoRE/WebCoRE. There are lots of differences between RM and WebCoRE, including the UI.
BTW, we plan to fix that annoying scrolling that happens from submitOnChange. Also, do not expect our mobile app to be anything at all like ST's mobile app.
To each his own as to what works for you. Choice is good.
As a new user to Habitat, I came here to echo the same thing about the refresh per field entry. It drives me bonkers.
So is the AND/OR logic page. It feels really difficult to follow to me. Maybe I'm just used to code laid out, but I feel lost trying to nest things properly.
I’d still like the web interface to be the main focus, with the mobile app used for presence, notifications and quick access to device controls.
