Support for ActionTiles

Added my last +2

1 Like

I saw that post before I saw this post. When I saw it I instantly added +3.

2 Likes

Thanks. I forgot to do that there. Too focused on this new hub…

1 Like

Just put in my +3

1 Like

Great news! They were impressed by the upvotes and the similarities to ST. They will need some answers that need t come from the Hubitat developers…

Please see here https://support.actiontiles.com/communities/12/topics/3345-support-for-hubitat#comment-14599

I am excited to read an official response from Hubitat. Even with the web based nature of ActionTiles, I and others need this missing component.

5 Likes

The last we heard from ActionTiles, they had no interest in adopting ActionTiles for Hubitat. Nor were they willing to allow us to distribute SmartTiles, even though it works well with Hubitat. We had requested this as we knew it would be desired by many of our customers. Community members have made SmartTiles work with Hubitat (see here: How to setup SmartTiles on Hubitat). We also offered to help them with the technical information they needed to accomplish making ActionTiles work, an offer they declined.

So, the “official response” from Hubitat is that the ball is in ActionTile’s court.

We plan to offer our own dashboard functionality in the not distant future.

4 Likes

That was the last time when you guys were just started and they were not sure. Hopefully they are changing their minds since then. There's a high interest in this App and hopefully things will work out. It's good for both Actiontiles and Hubitat and a major win for the users. Either way, it's not the end of the world since SmartTiles is working locally and it's more than my dashboard expectation. Can't wait to see what kind of dashboard you guys have in store.

1 Like

When I asked ActionTiles, they converted my inquiry into an online vote, and after we got around 100 votes (if i am remembering the number right) they closed voting and tue owner issued a statement, which I forwarded the link to the subject in my email to support@hubitat. I guess what I was not clear about is that they recognize the growth momentum and are open to the idea. They have some concerns and hubitat would be a second class citizen to the platform, and that they apparently have some partnership with samsung that may affect their ability to support hubitat.

1 Like

Any update on this? I know that hubitat has dashboards now, but am still interested in whether or not this will materialize.

1 Like

Don't hold your breath! So far they have decided not to work with us.

Are there specific features of ActionTiles that we don't support yet?

1 Like

I'm surprised folks aren't piling on after that question. Here are a few of the things keeping me using Active Tiles, mostly UX stuff, but I understand some of it is non-trivial to implement:

  • Relabeling of tiles (some of my devices have quite long names or codes that the wife would never understand)

  • Media tiles, tap to enlarge/shrink (eg a weather map, or security cam @ 3x2 tile normally, but sometimes i want to see it BIG for a moment)

  • Structure ... In AT, the tiles auto-reorganize when the resolution or aspect ratio of the browser window changes, if stuff doesn't fit you just scroll down the page for some of it. Whereas Hubitat Dashboards seem to focus on tiles keeping their relative positions, instead of rearranging themselves fluidly, they resize ... but at the same time the tile contents don't resize. So what looks ok on my computer, leads to an overlapping mess on my phone. It's not practical to make a different dashboard for every different resolution I might need.

All I can do is laugh! You should understand that Dashboard is in its infancy, implemented only weeks ago, ActionTiles is about 4 years old. I remember when ActionTiles was called ActiON, and it was a few weeks old.

Having said that, Terry and Alex have shown no interest in porting ActionTiles to Hubitat, having hitched their wagon to Samsung SmartThings evidently. We tried to talk them into it, but to no avail. We and others ported SmartTiles over with minimal effort, but that has distribution restrictions.

We will take your comments as good suggestions for improvement going forward! Thanks.

3 Likes

Oh I totally get it ... but, you know, technically ... you did ask, and if folks don't say how else would you know? :smiley:

I can understand them wanting to back a horse and just be done with it, the install-base for ST is quite large. It's a pity they can't see what I see ... although everything is relative I guess and they'd say the same thing right back at me probably.

Bruce,
Where could I find information on the API to interact with hubitat from another system? I will be working on an iOS app by end of year to provide a kiosk type interface like actionTiles for my newly remodeled home. I want something clean, and easy on the eyes which there is no current solition.

There is no special API per se. I would suggest you take a look at the source code for Other Hub SmartThings integration for examples of how to do this sort of thing.

1 Like

You can also look at the following solution, at least as a starting point for building a UI...

Thanks Dan

I have been working on improving the install process to lower the barrier of entry for HousePanel (aka HP). Today the complex manual install process has kept many people from using it. Another barrier was it used to require coexistence with SmartThings buy HP now has a Hubitat only mode so that barrier is now gone. Once you have it installed users enjoy having an open source local solution in the spirit of Hubitat and a fully customizable panel via CSS or a GUI editor - plus an API mode that works across both HP and ST platforms. I have hub #3 and have been working on this off and on ever since I talked with @patrick to discuss the possibilities, leveraging his old OpenDash brand. I am open to working with Hubitat to improve HP further and make it more of a standard for the platform but they have shown no interest. Without further help, progress will continue but only at the rate that my weekend hobby coding pace will enable.

The source is all out there as usual for anyone to jump in and help. I will consider any seriously offered and well conceived pull requests. The next release will come later today that will hopefully lower the install barrier further but I still haven’t figured out how to implement the OAUTH flow in the Hubitat ecosystem, and I haven’t added Hubitat support for some of the newer device types yet, so these areas would be a great place where my Hubitat friends could help out.

2 Likes

It's a shame you direct to third party code when Hubitat themselves have a similar app 'Hub Link' that would be of great use in controller to controller integration . I would love to look at that for a bidirectional Hubitat to Hubitat Hub adaption. However Hubitat are not making any of their apps source code available - or their device drivers.

I find this very strange given their online documentation is so sparse. Everyone could learn from these example and be producing new apps. In fact it's one of my main worries about Hubitat currently (cf SmartThings) .... that they are now evolving this into a closed rather than open system. Couldn't you release some of your app code Hubitat, and inparticular for me the HubLink code which I guess is fairly compact ?

similar thread

I moved the release that I posted over to the HousePanel original thread where it belongs. Sorry about that folks. Here is the link. Please check it out.

I’m most interested in having a system that works.

ST made a lot of their device handler and smartapp code available to community developers, but then they never created a marketplace that actually works, so community devs had no workable platform for sharing their work product with others (either for a fee or free of charge).

And their cloud architecture has always been like two seconds away from total failure.