Custom Command - Select cabability... what's the point?

[bikesquid]

After having made a half dozen custom commands, (and loving the idea!) I'm not sure how to think about/use the first screen. It asks for 'select capability for test device'... but if I'm working on a command for an Amp, that's not a listed capability, so I just chose switch as a guess and worked my way through and it all seems to work fine... so I'm not clear on the reason for that first drop down in the UI. Does it in fact have any bearing on what happens next? I realize that some specialty devices have limited options but it feels like just selecting the device as step #1 would clear it up to the back end. i.e. select the device for the custom command, then the options available would be those available for that device, as the next screen tells me anyway. Maybe it just feels like an unnecessary step because I don't understand the behind the scenes logic....

In my test device I happen to be working with input and power, which I suppose are switches... does that make volume a dimmer? I ask because the available commands seem identical after selecting dimmer or switch.

Feature request: it would be really cool if I could name it something other than Command: bd(), which is more or less meaningless to me after a week focused elsewhere in life.

[SmartHomePrimer]

I don’t really personally care what they’re called. If I don’t remember what one of them is for, I just tap it and I know in a second. What I would really like is to have them somewhere else, not in my list of rules.

[aaron]

The testing is just to ensure the command you want to execute will work. I use this extensively for the SmartLifeRGB devices for On6(), Blue(41), etc. Since HE doesn’t recognize some of the additional attributes in the custom switch this is the only way to accomplish a custom task.

My ask for Commands would be to allow me to add multiple options into a single command and also NAME it.

That way for my lighting custom colors I could call Kitchen-Upper-Cabinet-basecolor which would execute whiteOff(), Blue(14), red(76), greenOff. Instead I have a command for each of those.

@bravenel never asked so can this be a feature request? Add mutilple commands into a single command that can be named?

[bravenel]

@aaron

Add mutilple commands into a single command that can be named?

You can add multiple commands in a single Command instance. As for naming of commands, they are given a made up name to keep them separate. Their name isn't really important, and they are intentionally segregated in your list of rules. Adding a naming feature is pretty low priority. Request noted.

[aaron]

@bravenel

Ok I do not see a way to save multiple parameters into a single command. See screenshots below:

As you can see I can only select one parameter and sets its value. Aka Green() can only be selected and then saved as that command. What I need is a group of parameters within that switch to execute together as a single command.

Unless I am being daft (which is very possible) I don’t see how to do this.

[csteele]

In one go.. pick a command, Save a Command Now, Done; then straight back in and add another.

All of the commands are under one name.

Or,
Click on a custom command and then: pick a command, Save a Command Now, Done; then straight back in and add another.

The purpose of the first dialog is to pick the device that has the custom command you want. If you pick a Presence Sensor, for example, the available custom commands are Arrived, Departed. Pick a Music Player, you get:
beep, both, configure, mute, nextTrack, off, off, on, pause, ping, play, playRepeatTrack, playRepeatTrackAtVolume, playSoundAndTrack, playText, playText, playText, playTextAndRestore, playTextAndResume, playTrack, playTrack, playTrackAndRestore, playTrackAndResume, playTrackAtVolume, poll, previousTrack, refresh, restoreTrack, resumeTrack, setLevel, setTrack, setVolume, siren, speak, stop, strobe, unmute

[aaron]

@bravenel

Ok so I figured out what I was doing wrong. It would be really nice to have the ability to name the custom command.