Custom Thing UI

[benfrancis]

As a thing developer I want to provide a custom web interface for my webthing so that I can provide a better user experience than the automatically generated default UI

[benfrancis]

UI specification added.

UI mockup below:

[flatsiedatsie]

I've tried almost all open source controllers, and while the Mozilla Gateway probably ranks highest for usability for beginners (kudos!), the current UX and it's underlying structure may become limiting in the future.

If you want to support many use cases, and want the community to do some of the work. The add-on/plugin architecture should probably allow users to..

• Add continuously running code. Domoticz' plugin architecture does not allow for this, and this makes it impossible to create plugins that continuously listen for signals, or even do a bluetooth scan reliably. Jeedom has a pretty impressive system to install new things. As far as I can tell the Mozilla Gateway has this covered.
• Add custom UX (including JS) for setting up the add-on. Add-ons are all different, and not all of them are simply about being a gateway. Some have their own UX requirements for setting it up. For example, a 433Mhz signal cloner would need actions or wizards like "press the button on the remote now".
• Add custom UX (including JS) for creating thing displays. For example, Homegenie allows for gorgeous custom UX elements to be included.

[mrstegeman]

@flatsiedatsie

1. Add-ons can already have continuously running code. For example, the HomeKit adapter is constantly doing Bluetooth scans and communication in the background.
2. Add-ons can add a custom UI. If they run a web server, they can serve up whatever they want. The UI can be added to the thing by setting its uiHref property.
3. I assume you mean custom components for the stock UI. This would definitely be useful.

[benfrancis]

Add custom UX (including JS) for creating thing displays. For example, Homegenie allows for gorgeous custom UX elements to be included.

I filed #1505 to discuss this.