This feature is used to allow hardware plugins to create things automatically and place them on the already configured environment map just like an auto discovering system. The things will be created and added to the loaded environment the first time their state changes.
Suppose you have some bulbs connected to a relay board. The first time you turn on one of them, Freedomotic generates a new light object and adds it to the map.
In order to do this you only need to send a state change notification for a thing. If the thing doesn’t exist(checking is done on protocol+address values in the event), it is generated, configured and placed on the frontend map.
All the following examples are based on an X10 plugin, demonstrating the change in state from OFF to ON of the x10 device with address A01. Remember to change the values according to your needs.
ProtocolRead event = new ProtocolRead(this, "X10", "A01");
event.addProperty("x10.function", "ON"); // this is plugin related; your plugin will have different properties
event.addProperty("object.class", "Light");
event.addProperty("object.name", "My X10 Light");
event.addProperty("object.protocol", "X10");
event.addProperty("object.address", "A01");
notifyEvent(event);
More information about these properties:
| Property | Example Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| object.class | Light | The type of the thing that will be created. It must be a string containing a thing type as you see in the things list menu of java frontend (when you press F6) |
| object.name | My Light | The name of the new thing. If the name already exists, a numeric ID will be added at the end of the name. For example: My Light 1 |
| object.protocol | ProtocolName | (OPTIONAL) The name of the protocol used to manage this thing (eg: ZWave) |
| object.address | 1234 | (OPTIONAL) The address string (it is protocol dependent) |
Note
Omitting object.class and object.name properties makes the ProtocolRead event to be discarded if no such thing exists. If thing exists the state change described in the event is applied.