WHY???
I’m looking at building an android based touchscreen controller, and my thought was to use widgets on the home screen to build the interface since my Sonos and some other things have widgets. But, it seems that HomeBuddy, ImperiHome, and AuthomationHD do NOT have widgets I can use for lighting control. Some have shortcuts to do things, but not full widgets.
Are there any options to get widgets on my homescreen that have sliders for dimmers and buttons and stuff for other devices?
Someone asked the Garret (AuthomationHD) about this and I agree with this stance (for now). In order for a widget to be really useful, it would have to have realtime information on what is happening with the Vera. This can be a huge pain to accomplish. Basically you are looking at a push type service (Which isn’t always free) to update all the changes to the client (android device). Then you’d also have to have an app on the Vera to push these changes. This is basically how VeraAlerts works.
I personally believe it would be easier if you were only talking within the same network (no remote updating on widgets outside your home network) since you wouldn’t need the push service. Now, apps like AuthomationHD to try and keep a live connection between the app and the service while it’s open, but I think you’d find that you’d get a lot of unnecessary traffic and network usage to do this for a widget (I could be wrong though). I think I remember Garett saying that the connection will stay open for 2 minutes or so, then it has to be established for real time updates from the server.
Personally, for my android based touchscreens, I am using Imperihome and while it’s open it automatically updates. You can even use their “dashboard” mode to set up pages that meet your needs. I think if you are looking for something that will do this and the only intention for the Android device is to be a controller any app just left “open” on the android device would work. You could even use VeraAlerts and Tasker to turn the screen on as part of scene/PLEG actions in Vera (turn on the bathroom light and the Bathroom tablet turns on and opens [app]). I already do all of this. I personally am waiting for Imperihome to make the app a “launcher” so that it is my home screen.
*Note, I use Imperihome for my scene controllers and AuthomationHD for my phone and tablets that aren’t dedicated scene controllers.
I’m only going to be using this on the local network, since they are for mounted or floating tablets that will stay in the house. So, no push service required.
The problem is, none of these apps support everything I want to do, so I can’t use any built in favorites lists or dashboards. Vera and none of the apps support Sonos. The ones that have IP Camera support don’t support any of the cameras that I have, so I use IP Cam Viewer with those (which has awesome widgets). Is there a way to build widgets with tasker that will pass data to HomeBuddy via intents? It’s a pain in the butt because I have 48 lighting loads, but at least it would be possible.
Widgets can be implemented with a background service that POLLS Vera as opposed to going through the overhead of doing a push service.
There are multiple ways to retrieve data for the widgets. Each has their pros and cons. Also remember that the controls offered for widgets is limited. There is no slider controls available for widgets among a few other UI controls.
I’ve been playing about with AutoVera (A tasker plug in), Zooper and AuthomationHD. Using all three in harmony to create widgets.
AutoVera pushes vera device changes to the android device. As well as also being able to retrieve device status + info on command.
It can also control devices, but mostly I use AuthomationHD for that. As it too plugs into tasker 
Also, Zooper can dynamically change a widget based on variables from Tasker.
So for example I use these like this:
AutoVera sends my phone device status info on my lights as they change.
I use this to store a variable in tasker and import that variable to zooper. I have a custom Zooper widget on my homescreen where the bulb icon changes both colour and opacity depending on both its status and load level.
Directly under this bulb icon I have a slider icon. Which once pressed pops up a Tasker Scene with a slider to control the dim of that light without opening the full AuthomationHD app.
The slider button/icon has 5 images which are dynamically used depending on current load level state. Gives a rough indication of current dim level.
Takes a bit of time to pull together but works nicely
[quote=“gdeboos, post:6, topic:179752”]I’ve been playing about with AutoVera (A tasker plug in), Zooper and AuthomationHD. Using all three in harmony to create widgets.
AutoVera pushes vera device changes to the android device. As well as also being able to retrieve device status + info on command.
It can also control devices, but mostly I use AuthomationHD for that. As it too plugs into tasker
Also, Zooper can dynamically change a widget based on variables from Tasker.
So for example I use these like this:
AutoVera sends my phone device status info on my lights as they change.
I use this to store a variable in tasker and import that variable to zooper. I have a custom Zooper widget on my homescreen where the bulb icon changes both colour and opacity depending on both its status and load level.
Directly under this bulb icon I have a slider icon. Which once pressed pops up a Tasker Scene with a slider to control the dim of that light without opening the full AuthomationHD app.
The slider button/icon has 5 images which are dynamically used depending on current load level state. Gives a rough indication of current dim level.
Takes a bit of time to pull together but works nicely[/quote]
This is perfect. Do you have any code/images you can post so I can replicate this?
I will post instructions of what I have done when I get time, hope thats ok. Pretty busy at the moment.
Until then join the foolowing google plus community:
https://plus.google.com/communities/110193399489813640793
Then you will have access to download the AutoVera app (which is still in Beta)
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.joaomgcd.autovera
As it is in Beta expect bugs. I have had to clear the apps data a couple of times and re-add my Vera and devices but thats not too much hastle.
Download Zooper Widget (i think you will need the pro version). This allows you to create custom widgets. The bitmaps can be dynamically changed based on tasker variables. Here is some details:
http://www.jagwar.de/show-icons-for-variable-states-in-zooper/
Hope that helps for now
couple of my pop up widgets / menus I have so far
These are both Tasker scenes.
The alarm buttons have AuthomationHD Tasker shortcuts asigned to them.
The slider uses AutoVera to send the comand and uses a Tasker variable to pass in dim level
[quote=“gdeboos, post:9, topic:179752”]couple of my pop up widgets / menus I have so far
These are both Tasker scenes.
The alarm buttons have AuthomationHD Tasker shortcuts asigned to them.
The slider uses AutoVera to send the comand and uses a Tasker variable to pass in dim level[/quote]
I’ve been playing around with this. Is there a faster way to create the tasker scenes? I have to manually create each scene, and then I have to manually create a task to launch the scene, then create the widget that launches the task. I’ve got 104 devices in my vera. This is going to take some time…
You can clone scenes and tasks but apart from that I have not found an easier way. Takes ages 
I only use this for a handful of devices. For further control I use the AuthomeationHD App.
How hard would it be to make a widget for AuthomationHD/Imperihome/Homebuddy that would allow the user to choose the dimensions, add a title, and then just select the devices that they wanted shown in it? I just want to create multiple widgets, one for each room, and have the device name with an indicator next to it that tells me if it’s on or off. And when I tap on one of them, it opens an overlay filled with sliders (ala Tasker scene).
A guide like this would be aesome
[quote=“gdeboos, post:6, topic:179752”]I’ve been playing about with AutoVera (A tasker plug in), Zooper and AuthomationHD. Using all three in harmony to create widgets.
AutoVera pushes vera device changes to the android device. As well as also being able to retrieve device status + info on command.
It can also control devices, but mostly I use AuthomationHD for that. As it too plugs into tasker
Also, Zooper can dynamically change a widget based on variables from Tasker.
So for example I use these like this:
AutoVera sends my phone device status info on my lights as they change.
I use this to store a variable in tasker and import that variable to zooper. I have a custom Zooper widget on my homescreen where the bulb icon changes both colour and opacity depending on both its status and load level.
Directly under this bulb icon I have a slider icon. Which once pressed pops up a Tasker Scene with a slider to control the dim of that light without opening the full AuthomationHD app.
The slider button/icon has 5 images which are dynamically used depending on current load level state. Gives a rough indication of current dim level.
Takes a bit of time to pull together but works nicely[/quote]
Could someone post up some more details on achieving this?
Hi Ikrowni,
In fact it’s what stated in the post before. Please see my example in the attached image.
That is a screenshot of my home screen. Hereby a brief description of how it works. The whole home screen is 1 Zooper widget with every image being a separate module.
In the upper rectangle all my controllable lights have their own icon. When I press one of the icons it triggers his tasker task. First it shows a tasker scene (other screenshot) with a on/off/dim slider and after I selected what I want it sends the command via autovera to my Vera Edge.
Then, when autovera receives a device update from one of the lamps it triggers another task to set the color (grey if light off/yellow if light on) and opacity (simulating brightness of the lamp) of the icon.
Icons in other rectangles are static and triggering preset light scenes.
Hope this explains a bit how it works.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
This is the wall I’ve run into also. I can make an updating icon based on a dimmer for fan/light control, but I can’t seem to make a widget pop up a color picker to set a Hue light. I’m still having to open Authomation or the Hue app, or set a scene with REST commands. I am trying to set up icons with dynamic variables, based on a color picker, but I can’t connect THOSE dots. I am trying with OpenIntent color picker, but I’d like to be able to control the look of the scene. (And I haven’t gotten the math right for converting RGB to HSx yet) I’ve also tried with the 3-color slider version scene, but… uggg. A color wheel is perfect. Anyone gotten a color updating icon widget to work for setting Hue lights?
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