FIRST: One method of copying multiple rows in RM is to use the left-side check boxes to select rows, then clicking on the copy icon at the bottom left of the table.
Why isn't the same process used for deleting or cutting multiple rows? Instead, a completely different set of check boxes has to be dropped down and actions selected. Moreover, the drop-down list has no indenting of actions, which makes selection more difficult than necessary.
So I'm asking for a re-think: let the existing left-side check boxes be used for selection of actions to be cut or deleted, then click on a cut or delete icon (preferably with an "are you sure" type of warning that must be dismissed before the a delete action is performed).
Note: I do realize the selecting check boxes in the drop down lists is much faster than selecting left-side check boxes (or the right-side check boxes for enable/disable), but isn't there some way to speed up the "standard" check boxes rather than use the drop-down check boxes? (But even if a speed-up is not feasible, I'm still asking for a re-think on the use of the left-side check boxes for cutting and deleting.)
SECOND: Regarding copying multiple rows using the left-side check boxes to select rows, then clicking on the copy icon at the bottom left of the table: as the documentation notes, the rows are "copied to the clipboard in the order they are selected (not necessarily the order they appear in the actions list)."
This is incredibly non-intuitive! The situations where somebody wants to copy a bunch of rules in a non-sequential order has to be absolutely dwarfed by the situations when a bunch of rules are to copied as they appear in the actions list. Before I realized that non-sequential copying occurred, I many times started clicking check boxes, missed one or two (because checking left-side boxes is slow for long rules for whatever reason), and then went back and clicked on the missing boxes. Result: pasting in the copied actions elsewhere (including into other rules) often leads to significant errors.
Maybe a good reason to check out Webcore if you have not. It is easy to copy and paste blocks, works much more like a text editor to see everything you are doing. As someone who has used Webcore for many years, I find Rule Machine to be a pain.
Yeah, I started with Webcore on SmartThings like eight years ago, and then moved all my pistons over to Hubitat and continued using it. Actually, that was the reason I moved to Hubitat, as SmartThings killed Webcore.
There is a learning curve, but I wouldn't say it is any worse than the learning curve for Rule Machine, just that you have to start a new learning curve all over again.
Note that you have to turn on copy paste in one of the controls in the upper left to use it.
Nice thing is that not every piston needs to be a single rule, you can add several rules to a single piston. A piston is just like a container to write your rules in. Generally though, pistons should be kept small focused on doing one thing. Each piston has its own local variables, so you may want to put more than one rule in a piston if it is going to share the local variables.
If you do start using it, there is a lot of power in the ability to call a piston from another piston, and send data to it as arguments.
Quick question: I wrote a Rule Machine rule this morning to disable selected Zigbee plugin outlets that I only use during Christmas season, so that they don't appear in some reports (e.g., the app "Device Health Status"). A companion rule enables the same outlets. Both rules are triggered annually: enable rule runs Nov. 15, disable rule runs Jan. 15.
I just tried to recreate those rules in WC. I see how to select the 11 devices that I want to DO something with, but I'm not seeing how to invoke the disable function that RM provides. Any hints would be greatly appreciated!
The disable device thing is fairly recent in Hubitat. I don't think Webcore has integrated that feature yet. I also have Christmas devices I pause for the rest of the year, I just do it manually on the device page.
You can pause a piston, which is more like pausing a rule. The other thing you can do is call your Rule Machine Rule from Webcore that pauses the devices. Sorry, I guess that is as good as it gets unless Webcore adds a way to do that with a device. In the Do dropdown there is an Execute Rule option, and it will pull in your Rule Machine rules that are available to execute.
Not a use case I ever thought about, but it would be handy.
