Static JSON file documentation?

Plugins & Plugin Development General Plugin Discussion
1

I’ve been experimenting with how changes to a static JSON file for a device impact how it appears in the UI, specifically UI7. I’ve looked at the WIKI articles and many posts in the forum and have arrived at a few conclusions.

  1. As with most of the documentation, that for the static JSON file is sparse, incomplete, and inconsistent or out of date.
  2. Many forum members have posted results of their experiments on modifications to these files.
  3. There is a real need for complete and concise documentation for the attribute-value pairs that make up the static JSON file used by the Vera UI.
  4. Be leery of wiki articles that haven’t been touched in years.

Developers should not have to experiment to find out how the data in this file works. A good document for the static JSON file should probably look like a table and contain at least:

  • A description of each tag/attribute; its purpose
  • Allowable values for each attribute and the units or meaning of each
  • Whether the attribute is required or optional
  • The UI version that uses the attribute; UI5? UI7? Both?
  • The correct hierarchy of attributes in the file.

If the developers at Vera think of themselves as professionals then they need to do the entire job - not just bang out code. This document should be a living document; updated and corrected as the product evolves.

2

I don’t think there’s much to argue with your statements. You are not the first to express this dissatisfaction. But do not imagine that anything will change.

I’ve never considered UI5 or UI7 to be anything other than a configuration interface - and not a very friendly one - but given that I hardly ever need to use it, then I really don’t care what it looks like. I think that most people who use Vera do so through other interfaces, be it phone apps or whatever.

If you want a more configurable, and MUCH more modern and friendly UI, you could do no better than the excellent AltUI plugin by @amg0. Try it, and thereafter consign UI7 to the bit-bucket of history, where you won’t care whether it improves or not.