flow/rule editor

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Since a couple of months I have my Pimatic working and it’s working fantastic.
Almost every couple of weeks I order new stuff from china to extend my living / domotica

One feature i’m missing is a proper flow editor where you could define complex rules.
Homey athom has such a editor.

I think it’s based on noflojs but i’m not sure. Would the Pimatic community be interested in such a editor or… ?
If so i’ll try to start coding the coming weeks.

– passie

disclaimer, i’m not a programmer so it could take a while

As far as I know pimatic uses nodered. For nodered there exist editors already.
The question is, if these editors could be adopted to pimatic.
If I remember correctly, there is also a nodered pimatic plugin.

Hi,

this is more or less the only real flaw pimatic currently still has. The huge amout of “flat” (no else) rules in a somewhat unsorted (no hirarchic) appearance makes it really difficult to find and administrate rules correctly

So such an editor would mean a great benefit!

br
Mike

@passie My dad owns a Homey, so I get to play with it sometimes. I’ve got to say… The rule editor is pretty good but I still think Pimatic’s rule editor has more features. Besides the rule editor Homey is very unstable… I have to reconfigure my hyperion device every week because it doesn’t work for some reason. Also the build in sensors don’t really work as good as you’d expect (speech recognition etc).

The things they really aced is the development proces, It’s super easy to create a Homey app and to test it. Also the user interface looks pretty cool. But they still have a lot of work to do.

@Tim said in flow/rule editor:

@passie My dad owns a Homey, so I get to play with it sometimes. I’ve got to say… The rule editor is pretty good but I still think Pimatic’s rule editor has more features. Besides the rule editor Homey is very unstable… I have to reconfigure my hyperion device every week because it doesn’t work for some reason. Also the build in sensors don’t really work as good as you’d expect (speech recognition etc).

The things they really aced is the development proces, It’s super easy to create a Homey app and to test it. Also the user interface looks pretty cool. But they still have a lot of work to do.

Thank you for your reply, I also have the change to play around with the homey. I have a guest account on a homey from a
colleague.
Personally i stick to Pimatic, although i really like there flow interface. I’ll have a look at node-red as well.
do you know which type of flow homey currently is using, I tried to find it by going over there code but couldn’t tell?

regardind node-red, there’s a plugin available. this can be misunderstood.
pimatic is not “using” node-red.

well, if you ask me, personally, i would like to see such an editor for “our” purposes.
if this editor is functional and easy to operate why not. go ahead

I think i have figured it out how they are doing it ( what else should I do on second Christmas day ).
Looks easier then i thought. Will start coding proof-of-concept tomorrow.

to be continued.

You can use the ‘GUI’ editor to make it a bit more visual. For me personally I trully hope we don;t switch to those fancy puzzle pieces for rules. I really would like to keep the flat rules

@passie said in flow/rule editor:

One feature i’m missing is a proper flow editor where you could define complex rules.

I am not yet convinced. Can you please give some examples on how a flow editor can simplify the definition of complex rules?

Anyhow, contributions on the matter are always appreciated, highly. I am looking forward to the outcome of your prototyping excercise!

@mwittig said in flow/rule editor:

@passie said in flow/rule editor:

One feature i’m missing is a proper flow editor where you could define complex rules.

I am not yet convinced. Can you please give on how a flow editor can simplify the definition of complex rules?

Anyhow, contributions on the matter are always appreciated, highly. I am looking forward to the outcome of your prototyping excercise!

Of course the above is my personal opinion on pimatic. I don’t say the current rules editor isn’t sufficient to me. Though i truly believe that if pimatic wants to accommodate a wider audience a more user friendly rule editor is a must.
more vars should be available within the rule editor.
Maybe my idea will fail maybe it will not. at least i’ll learn from it

well, go ahead! i am sure there are users who could benefit.
am curious about it

Hi,

I dont know if a flow editor will ease the rule administration but just a few examples from my side:

Currently I have far over 100 rules in place, mainly because there is no else function. The only option I know to get some structure in my rules is to have them applied into a group.

• That means every time I rename a device: I have possibly to check my rules and rename the device there too (if its not called by id but the device name)

• As there is no else or case available I have to create a separate rule for each discrete action (e.g. various outdoor temperatures)

• To find and edit all rules correctly which depend on each other is a real huge thing to do.

I would love it to have rules applied in more than one group and to have a tool making rule management (finding depecies, sorting and searching) easier!

Br
Mike

It’s far from finished but i thought to give you guys/girls a sneak peek.
Since the whole concept/code is new me it’s taking some time.

the html part with drag and drop is working. the devices are getting populated from my own Pimatic installation.
Next is the rule set to send back to pimatic.

for now I which everybody a happy new year
see you next year…

really nice so far!