Include a device for Rule Machine use

[relayman357]

I can't for the life of me remember how to do this. If I add a new device, e.g. "Switch A", I have to somehow toll RM that is available before I can use it in a rule. Where do I do that??

thanks,
russ

[ogiewon]

It is immediately available in Rule Machine, as long as the device is working properly. Make sure your “Switch A” works properly when used in its device details page. Does it turn on and off correctly? Is the “switch” attribute updating correctly?

It is apps like the Amazon Echo Skill, Dashboard, and MakerAPI that require the device to be “checked” in order for it to be used by those apps.

[sburke781]

To add to what @ogiewon described, the premise behind this, from what I understand, is that an App is only meant to have access to a device that is either created by the App or an existing device that a user has selected through an input in the App. This is intended as a security mechanism to guard against Apps being able to act on existing devices in particular, without the authority of the administrator of the hub.

In the case of Apps like Hubitat Dashboards, Maker API and others, these Apps are primarily making the devices available for use in a downstream system or interface, like the dashboard interface, external systems in the case of Maker API, etc, which is why you have a very general list of selected devices that those downstream systems can act on. In Apps like Rule Machine and other automation Apps in particular, you are interactively selecting the devices as you construct the automation, so this fulfils the requirement of a user selecting to include the device in the Apps setup.