9 features I'd like to see in Apilio

[Anna]

Hello @teknofilo

These sound great, I think some of them we already support, so we might be able to help improve your home logic already!:

Allow two sets of actions after a logicblock: Positive and Negative (IF… THEN… ELSE)

We currently support this: you will see in your Logicblock that you have the positive and negative action chains. When the Logicblock is evaluated, the condition (or conditions involved) are checked and if the result is true, then the positive chain of actions is executed. If the result is false, then the negative chain of actions is executed.

Allow more complex logic operators for conditions (for example, NOT operator)

This is currently not in the complex conditions as it is very easy to setup the opposite condition to the one you currently have. If you need to use the condition twice I agree is not very elegant to have to duplicate them, but definitely you can get around this with a second condition that matches the other one but is true when the variable is false for example.

Update a variable from a logicblock

Yes, this is a big request I’m analysing the ideas at the moment, so it would be really helpful if you could share your specific use today: can you give me an example where you are updating a variable in a Logicblock (going through IFTTT today, of course)

Add ability to update Variables within a Logicblock action chain

Question asked here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/apilio/mRjsSPlrcQA and https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/apilio/M7-v4_T_0c0

Updating an Apilio variable without using IFTTT

Hi Folks, I have read posts from 2017 requesting this, and understand the issues with never ending loops but wondered if there had been any more recent thoughts on this. Basically it would be great to be able to update an apilio variable as a result of an apilio logic block. I am becoming ever more frustrated with IFTTT, as on one hand they have started charging me money, whilst on the over they continue to drop the services I use; such as recently announcing the loss of Life360. A good porti…

Invoke a logicblock from a logicblock

Please if you can, add your example for this case to this thread as well:

Call a logicblock from a logicblock

I found that I sometimes want to call a logicblock from a logicblock. To do that now, I have to do a webhooks to IFTTT that calls the logic block. There’s an example of what I’m talking about buried in here: iused2besmart DOT wordpress DOT com/2019/09/04/using-ifttt-and-apilio-v2/ I could be using apilio wrong and there might be a better way to do what I did (suggestions welcome).

Allow Smart Life actions to switch on/off a specific switch within a device (conditions allow selecting the switch, actions do not allow selecting the switch)

Thanks for raising! Yes, this is indeed something that we’ll look into a bit further, we’ll keep you posted. Some devices also don’t allow specific actions, it depends on how the hardware vendor has done their integration with Tuya, so we have already found cases where devices could not be controlled properly simply because the vendor didn’t have the actions enabled.

Allow longer names for variables, conditions, logicblocks, etc. for clarity purposes

I think this request complements the next one beautifully: I think a little description would help keep variable names smaller actually Would you agree?

Allow adding a custom description text to an element (variable, logicblock, etc.)

I like this idea We just need to convince @DanT and @pebneter

New type of variable (date) and conditions (comparing two variable dates, comparing NOW vs. variable date)

Could you give me an example of how you would use this? You can create time conditions in Apilio already, and they will only be true at the specific time you have setup.

Have a look here:

How to setup and use time conditions

In Apilio, you can setup time conditions to control when your actions are allowed to run. Conditions are the rules in your Logicblocks (your routines). Time Conditions are particularly handy as they allow you to reliably schedule automated activities at home or at work. Let’s see how you can set these Conditions up: What’s a Time Condition? Time Conditions relate to times of the day, the week, the month or the year, so they restrict the times when a specific logic can be run. Time events an…

And maybe here:

Cron time conditions - Intro and how to set them up

With our release of time conditions, we wanted to stay true to our tinkering roots and add an advanced time condition configuration through cron expressions. If you are familiar with these: this is exciting, right ? And if you have never heard about them, don’t worry, as you can read more about them below and you’ll be using them in no time! What’s a cron expression? [image] A cron expression is a string that represents a schedule when you want to execute a routine. For example i…

See historical values of variables for debug purposes

Have you tried downloading your logs as a CSV? You can then filter out any data that you are not interested in to have a look at the events that have changed it.

We do have some ideas to keep improving logs, so thanks for mentioning this. Let me know if you give the CSV download a go and if it helps you with the debuggin!

Let me know if I understood all the features correctly, thanks so much! This is fantastic feedback