MSR UI on a mobile browser

[gwp1]

@black-cat Interesting, I guess I missed that it's available as a paid download for install on whatever platform.

[toggledbits]

@black-cat said in Quality of Life Request: Update Button:

Realistically, I'm not going to see it happen which is a shame as Patrick has put a lot of time into development for the 2%.

I completely understand this position and I want you (all of you) to understand where I currently stand on this (boy, that's a lot of standing)...

First, I agree that the upgrade issue is important. My long missive wasn't meant to say "not doing it," it was meant to communicate that it's not a simple issue, and isn't one of those features that suddenly appears in the next build after a couple of posts. There are some real issues with usability and stability that have to be taken into account. What I definitely don't want is to have it be a feature that bricks users when they've gotten small parts of the installation wrong, or their system is set up in some weird way. It's a nightmare for the user, obviously, to have their automation suddenly not working, and it's also a nightmare for me to remote-troubleshoot a system where I have no idea what's been done to it, how it got to where it is, what flailing may have happened since it went down, etc. Troubleshooting inside Reactor is hard enough; troubleshooting the rest of the universe around it is not a business I want to be in. I am confident that I can sufficiently engineer, at least for Linux users, a sufficiently robust pre-flight check of the system to reduce the risk of an upgrade going wrong, and that is where a lot of time will be spent. As I said, I already have a running upgrade facility in the recent builds. It does not have the depth of pre-flight that I feel it needs to make me confident that you can be confident in using it... yet.

Backup and restore is a similar issue, although a slightly more contained problem. I already have a running backup facility in the system. What is not there is a UI for restore, and I've mentioned before, very often the UI for things is as much or more code than the feature itself. It's also a lot harder to test, not just because there are multiple browsers that have to be considered, but because the core features of the product are easy to write automated test tools for, while UI testing tends more toward spending screen time.

The real usability issue for me, about which I am most concerned, is none of these, though. The real usability issue for me is settings. I don't want you to have to spend time learning or editing YAML (or JSON). I have long had a plan to write a settings subsystem for the UI. This is an incredibly complex problem to solve, and I've prototyped several approaches and, so far, not been satisfied with the results — it's very easy to back yourself into a corner. It cannot be done without changes in core as well, many of which will have to be evolved into the system over time. Evidence of this complexity can be seen in the Home Assistant world, where their team has literally spent years making the transition from YAML configuration of entities and integrations to UI-based.

I've already read between the lines on this thread, and the backup thread. My current engineering plan is to focus entirely on these three usability issues for the foreseeable future. You will, for some time to come, see a minimum of new core features. I will continue bug-fix and device support updates, but I would guess at this point that you won't see any new major feature upgrades until late Q1 or early Q2 2023. It's going to be a long road. But I believe that the settings issue, in particular, is the real big mover in terms of getting me out of @Black-Cat 's "2%". Adding backup/restore and upgrade will put me on track to an appliance-ready product, which is really my long-term goal.

Core functionality has been the focus for over two years. I agree it's time to make "expert mode" an option, not a requirement.

[therealdb]

@toggledbits I have a small script running in background to update msr via docker, at my command, when I'm outside and I don't want to ssh into the machine. I for one will love a flag or similar to know a new version is available and do my own thing. I've not looked at the entities, to be honest.

Semplification (such as automatic device discovery and a click to add to the engine) is what will make a huge difference for the average brother in-law trying to lightly automate stuff - I agree.

[toggledbits]

@therealdb said in Quality of Life Request: Update Button:

I for one will love a flag or similar to know a new version is available and do my own thing. I've not looked at the entities, to be honest.

Check out the reactor_system.update_available attribute on the Reactor System (reactor_system>system) entity.

[gwp1]

@toggledbits @therealdb I've used this to create a Pushover notification to my watch. This also surfaces in the Current Alerts pane.

[CatmanV2]

@gwp1 said in Quality of Life Request: Update Button:

@toggledbits @therealdb I've used this to create a Pushover notification to my watch. This also surfaces in the Current Alerts pane.

I'm getting Telegram.....

I'd have Alexa tell me, but I have no idea what time of day updates might be made available

C

[Black Cat]

@gwp1 said in Quality of Life Request: Update Button:

I guess I missed that it's available as a paid download for install on whatever platform.

So, there is no misconception about paid or free software, Homeseer is available as a 30-day free trial for anyone to test, it often comes up on special as well .
Just to ease any further concerns it has also been around for over 20 years - try the freebie you might be surprised how good it is as an OS for HA.

[Black Cat]

@toggledbits , thank you for your in-depth reply, there is no need to rush as there are no Raspberrys available (in our region) until mid-March (if we are lucky).