How goes Harmony Hub implementations?

We will be releasing the update to Harmony driver tomorrow. Everything has been tested as much as possible with our test hub. This update is a radical departure from the initial release.

The how to documentation has been updated and I urge all Harmony users to read through the updated documents to understand how the driver has changed.

Updated Documentation Is Here.

A brief summary of changes are as follows.

The driver will no longer use the old xmpp protocol. It now uses the Harmony web sockets api.
That means we will talk directly to the hubs and not rely on cloud xmpp servers.

Instead of creating a source for every Harmony activity and device we will now only create one activity per hub. See the updated documentation.

New harmony web pages have been created for the SmartRemote and Moonlight tablets and phone templates.

The updated pages treat the Harmony like the multi-purpose remote it is. This will make it easier to customize your harmony pages to your liking.

The driver now supports a normalized set of commands that mimic the most common used buttons on the various harmony remotes.

Feedback is provided on the user interface to show when a button has an active Harmony command tied to it. See the updated documentation.

The SmartRemote sample template and the Moonlight templates will be released at the same time.

After you have reviewed the new documentation please chime in here on your thoughts.




 

That sounds great

When I get some time I will review and revert and give it a good test when released. Sounds like a lot of work has gone into this, many thanks indeed.

The new Harmony driver has been released. We do recommend that you place your existing hubs into the Unknown Room and then issue a RemoveDevices command prior to upgrading the driver. This will remove your old and no longer needed activation macros for the Activities and Devices. It will clean things up.

Install the updated driver and then place your hubs back into the appropriate rooms. This will then trigger the new sync with your hubs.

Make sure you also install today's server update along with the driver.

The SmartRemote template will have the new Harmony pages. Make sure the latest Designer is also installed and click on the Update Project button to make sure your project templates are up to date with the JavaScript and css.

No great success so far.

My feedback / experience:

- Install of driver worked as per new documentation: hub was discovered.  I added the hub to the appropriate room and all the devices and activities auto-populated exactly as per documentation.

- However, neither the command tester nor the remote (pointed to smartremote-template) works properly.

To confirm, everything is updated - server side and client side.  All updated performed on Dashboard.  All templates downloaded.  All templates updated in My Designer and My Designer on today's latest update.

Dashboard experience
- In the dashboard/Harmony driver/Command testing  : Per the documentation 'select device' should only list the hub in 'Target Device'.  For me it lists the hub plus every Harmony Device and every Harmony Activity (I again think that all the old devices and activities are still lurking around somehow).    

- Clicking the 'Activities' soft button in the large new panel to the left opens an empty window.  No activities listed.

- Clicking the 'Devices' soft button in the large new panel to the left opens a window listing devices AND activities (ie everything appears in the devices menu)

- Selecting items in that list causes various of the soft buttons to activate (ie white text).  When a device is selected the buttons operate the device as expected.

- Different story with 'activities'.  There seems to be no way to start an activity.

Remote
- Pointed to the 'smartremote-template' (not my half baked customised version).

- As expected there is a new icon for the hub (blue icon, Harmony in text in white) (as per image in documentation)

- However.... and oddly, all the 'old' Harmony iconms (devices and activities) are still there.  I had expected these all to disappear with this new driver.

- Clicking the new icon take me to a new scene.  'Activities' and 'Devices' soft buttons are at the top.  What is NOT there is the list of commands.  No command buttons at all (whether grayed out or active).  Just a blank screen (save for standard blue wallpaper).

- Clicking on 'Activities' provides the list of activities.  Clicking on any of the activities does nothing (button highlights and then nothing - screen doesn't alter - the list of activities remains on screen, Harmony doesn't do anything)

- Clicking on 'Devices' provides the list of devices.  Clicking on any of the devices does nothing.  - screen doesn't alter - the list of activities remains on screen, Harmony doesn't do anything.

And that's as far as I can get.  Sorry.

I do wonder whether my profile and data has become corrupted somehow - it is extremely odd that it still provides icons for the old previous driver.  There are other examples of this - I installed the Samsung IP driver for my TV, discovered my TV was too old for IP control and uninstalled it.  Yet the icon remains.

I don't know if the above feedback is useful, but the driver is just not working for me.


Postscript:
- I have now pointed the remote to 'smartremote-sample' (rather than smartremote-template) and do have the list of commands.  This looks far more promising (although I am still having some odd behaviours)

 

CrabbyPatties wrote:

No great success so far.

My feedback / experience:

- Install of driver worked as per new documentation: hub was discovered.  I added the hub to the appropriate room and all the devices and activities auto-populated exactly as per documentation.

- However, neither the command tester nor the remote (pointed to smartremote-template) works properly.

To confirm, everything is updated - server side and client side.  All updated performed on Dashboard.  All templates downloaded.  All templates updated in My Designer and My Designer on today's latest update.

Dashboard experience
- In the dashboard/Harmony driver/Command testing  : Per the documentation 'select device' should only list the hub in 'Target Device'.  For me it lists the hub plus every Harmony Device and every Harmony Activity (I again think that all the old devices and activities are still lurking around somehow).    

- Clicking the 'Activities' soft button in the large new panel to the left opens an empty window.  No activities listed.

- Clicking the 'Devices' soft button in the large new panel to the left opens a window listing devices AND activities (ie everything appears in the devices menu)

- Selecting items in that list causes various of the soft buttons to activate (ie white text).  When a device is selected the buttons operate the device as expected.

- Different story with 'activities'.  There seems to be no way to start an activity.

Remote
- Pointed to the 'smartremote-template' (not my half baked customised version).

- As expected there is a new icon for the hub (blue icon, Harmony in text in white) (as per image in documentation)

- However.... and oddly, all the 'old' Harmony iconms (devices and activities) are still there.  I had expected these all to disappear with this new driver.

- Clicking the new icon take me to a new scene.  'Activities' and 'Devices' soft buttons are at the top.  What is NOT there is the list of commands.  No command buttons at all (whether grayed out or active).  Just a blank screen (save for standard blue wallpaper).

- Clicking on 'Activities' provides the list of activities.  Clicking on any of the activities does nothing (button highlights and then nothing - screen doesn't alter - the list of activities remains on screen, Harmony doesn't do anything)

- Clicking on 'Devices' provides the list of devices.  Clicking on any of the devices does nothing.  - screen doesn't alter - the list of activities remains on screen, Harmony doesn't do anything.

And that's as far as I can get.  Sorry.

I do wonder whether my profile and data has become corrupted somehow - it is extremely odd that it still provides icons for the old previous driver.  There are other examples of this - I installed the Samsung IP driver for my TV, discovered my TV was too old for IP control and uninstalled it.  Yet the icon remains.

I don't know if the above feedback is useful, but the driver is just not working for me.


Postscript:
- I have now pointed the remote to 'smartremote-sample' (rather than smartremote-template) and do have the list of commands.  This looks far more promising (although I am still having some odd behaviours)


 

When you update a template, you "should" backup your old "smartremote" folder to the "wwwroot/backups" directory (that you create).  Then, rename the smartremote-sample latest you downloaded.  Then, shutdown the smartremote.apk, start the apk back up, ensure you are pointed to the smartremote project folder.
Looks like at least initially you weren't pointed to the right folder.  Want to ensure your testing IS with the latest.

I experienced a similar issue of the blank activities panel etc.
I followed the update instruction provided - moved the hub to the Unknown room, updated both myServer and Harmony driver. Do the Select Device->Hub
and then click Activities - blank

I rebooted the Rpi4 running myServer. Tried again and it worked! click Activites showed all my stored activities on the hub.

I used the remote to move around and select things.

So far, so good.

Today though, the Smart Remote doesn't seem to be communicating with myServer. I click on the Harmony Icon, brings me to the screen with Activities and Devices. Select Activities - shows the list - but when I select an actvity it's doesn't go to the next screen. Cursor keys etc don't do anything.
The log shows activity so I know SmartRemote is talking to myServer.
When I do the same command using Harmony Command Testing - the command work fine...