Over the years i've set up many HE / RM, and Developer Custom apps on a couple of (non-meshed) hubs where multiple Cell Phones are notified of an event or sent an advisory. This creates a modest to not-so-modest number of notifications through any given week depending on the status of things in the installed environment.
In setting each of these apps up I never factored NOT being within reach of cell tower infrastructure for more than a few days so catching up on notifications wasn't a concern.
Along comes an outdoor opportunity where cell tower connectivity is going to be nil. The last thing I want is to be on the side of a mountain, sipping battery power, at the edge of a distant cell tower's range, trying to connect only to be deluged with "catch up" notifications when the connection is finally made after days of being "off grid".
So.... is this simply a matter of DISABLING that one cell phone in the Device List? Is this the best way to affect the desired outcome? Is there another option in the Mobile App itself I'm not considering? I really want the least impactful "switch to flip" as once back-on-the-grid, I want things to return to as they are now.
If I disable the phone device, will any and all apps that have notifications configured to go to this phone cope without a crippling error, follow through with notifications to other cells in the respective command (if there are any), and all operations will continue gracefully?
Thanks in advance for the replies.
EDIT ADD: Thinking about this more, it would be a nice and handy add to the Mobile App to have a "Pause Notifications to this device" switch and solve this at the Mobile App level.
I hear ya, it's just that I'm not going to be able to easily test all the places these notifications are triggered (by my construct or otherwise) so I was hoping for some comfort from those who've been-there-done-that or otherwise have BUILT this thing and know.
Disabling the device stops any driver code from running, which would include the command that sends the notification. I don't see any reason this wouldn't work (though it would also prevent geofence and other data from updating). You could easily test this with a single Rule Machine rule with no triggers and a single action, one that send a notification, using the "Run Actions" button, if you're curious -- no need to trigger any or all of your actual apps (it would work the same).
Personally, I funnel all my notifications through a "proxy" device I created that uses an app to send them out to the "real" devices, which allows me to choose multiple devices or easily swap them if I change devicces, add a new one, etc., without needing to go into all apps to do the same. Too late to help you now, but maybe somethign to consider if you have a similar need in the future.
Yeah, that's EXACTLY what I should have done from the start. Would love to see a snippet of that for a "go by".
I haven't seen a thread discussing this before; if there isn't one this would be good captured as an HE Best Practice for New Users ! It's one of those Pgmr Wisdom things easily overlooked when you start banging away building things.
This is a custom app and driver which I've never officially "released" but just brought up from time to time as I've seen people ask about it in the Community. Here is one such time where I linked to the code:
Minimal (no?) documentation, but basically add the app and driver, create a virtual device using the driver, then configure the app with your real devices and the virtual/proxy device as necessary. Then, use the virtual/proxy device in your apps instead of the real device(s), at least in apps where you want this functionality.
