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Official

[Published] Homekit for Homey

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  • Indeed,a thorny issue.

    On the one hand it does cause confusion, and so each app should differentiate its functionality clearly in the documentation as some people might have a clear need for a particular variant.

    On the other hand restricting similar contributions is not ‘open’ and discourages community submissions . Additionally the first app submitted may not be the most functional or well written and may even have bugs.

     For Athom to regulate which app stays would be very fraught and time consuming so I understand their stance of letting them stand or fall on their merits.

    When a second app is a fork of the first , as in this case, it’s even more awkward,... not to mention any PayPal donation system that each may solicit.
  • It's disgusting, how dare he ! For you free to develop and improve the app, and instead of thank you - one negative! @swttt did not take my PR. One update took and all(https://github.com/swttt/com.swttt.homekit/pull/16/commits)  There are 2 options to keep for themselves or share with you.
    You can use HomeyKit, I don't force you to use my app and the more to pay !
    @xAPPO - Have you seen the amount of work done by me for something like that ? No problem I can delete the app ;) use it...
    90 percent of the work is a library https://github.com/abedinpour/HAS , which it was written https://github.com/abedinpour As @swttt dared to ask money from you ? You need to give all the money https://github.com/abedinpour - And write your code under each Homey ;)
    I have published my app for you ! not asking money from you if my work is not worthy of appreciation - OK
  • For everyone who didn't understand the above:

    A few weeks ago Sprut found my homekit app and did a PR. He did a rewrite of the functions that actually add the devices to homekit, and changed the way how the app would behave in general. He actually made it possible to add any device (supported or unsupported) to homekit where an user could see in the Home app on his iPhone or iPad if it's supported or not. Not very clear for an average user in my opinion, other then that it keeps a TCP connection open for no reason at all. I merged his first PR with the Alpha branch and tested it with a few users and asked their opinion on it. Where i decided not to merge it in the beta branch. At this point Sprut decided to publish his fork of the homekit app to the app store.

    Normally Athom wouldn't allow it, in this case they did for reasons still unknown. 

    Obviously Sprut is right in his post above. The underlying lib used (Has-node) is made by someone else, and is doing most of the work. I indeed didn't mention him in the readme, where he was mentioned in the first post of this topic before it was published to app store. I really just forgot to add it in again.

    But there was a bit more to it then just importing the lib and write around the 1000 lines of code. First off the lib wasn't working for ARM and some depencies had to be recompiled to work with ARM. Honestly i never did this before and took me a few days before i rented a cloud server based on ARM to compile it on there and push it to my git repository. Even then it was still trial and error before i got it compiled and working.

    Other then that, i had to start from scratch using the new web-api and a somehow difficult settings page. I do understand that Sprut feels like his PR is allot of work, but starting from 0 to what it is now was allot more.

    Under all my apps users can find a PayPal donate button, so users can show their appreciation for the spare time i put in the app. This is in no way required to use the app at all! And i never asked any user to donate first before fixing an issue, adding a feature or even use the app.

    I have no problems with a second homekit app in the app store, but to fork an app and change some of the code and put your own PayPal button below it was something i did had problems with. Athom made it clear to me that he had all the rights to fork and redistribute because of the ICS license used in the readme. I will change this in future app updates so it has the right license in there to avoid any of these problems in the future.

    In my opinion the app store should be clear to all users, not just the advanced ones. When having 2 homekit apps that has the potential to be the same some day ( i actually decided not to include all the capabilities just to make it easier to debug since it was still in beta ) is going to confuse allot of people.

    For that reason i decided to pull my app from the app store, just to avoid confusing among users plus Sprut is actively developing his repo. There has been allot of updates the last days, where i just lack spare time to do so. I will maintain my app in my own repo, and continue developing to my own needs. 

    I hope everyone understands. And if someone who donated doesn't agree (i certainly would understand, and would like to refund!) or having any other questions at all you can contact me on Slack or send me a PM on the forum.

    Bas
  • EmileEmile Administrator, Athom
    I would like to share an official update from Athom about why the app made by our community member sprut has been removed, because we value to be clear and transparent above all.

    Due to the submission of a forked app a discussion has happened about whether it was the right choice from us. We believe first and foremost in the openness of Homey and the platform. The approval of this fork was a hard choice, because we would have rather seen one app with combined strength, yet this was not possible.

    The license of the original repository (ISC) stated that the source code may be copied, modified and published, and therefore we approved the fork. Where we have made a mistake, and it was my mistake, was that we allowed donation buttons which did not (originally) credit the original author. This was the main point of discussion between the community because it really did touch a few developer's feeling of justice.

    As a result we have created a new set of guidelines, which you can find here (on the end of the page). Summarised it means that we will respect code licenses whenever a fork is submitted (and we still hope this is rarely necessary), and that donation buttons are not allowed whenever an app is based upon a fork.

    Because the developer of the fork did not want to follow these new guidelines (and he has every reason to do so, as they were created after his submission) we have decided it's best to remove the app from the App Store and let users install the app directly from his GitHub.

    We have tried to play the most neutral role in this, while balancing the needs of the Homey users and Developers at the same time.

    I am always available for questions and discussion, because we have to create and maintain this brilliant community together!

    - Emile
  • Great, so now there are 0 HomeKit apps instead of two.  :(
  • @TonD83
    Emile asked me if i want to continue development. So i will.
  • DaneeDeKruyffDaneeDeKruyff Member
    edited October 2017
    Good to hear @swttt
  • Indeed good to hear. Hopefully you'll find some time, as I quite liked being able to add more device types. Then again, stability first sounds very reasonable, too. Any idea how actively you'll be able to continue development? 
  • edited October 2017
    Great to experience Athom is growing (up) and stabilise contributions of the (devs) community. Can I assume Spruts, initiative, is not diminished and will be part of next steps if needed?
  • What I’m missing from this version are all of my door / window sensors, smoke detectors as well as my Somfy sunscreen. 

    They were all all working well in the forked version. 
  • Its a shame you too weren't able to work together on the homeykit app

    that sure would benefit all

    thx for the homeykit app
    It’s the only way my wife is able to do light things with her phone ;)
  • Agree with you, Spurts initiative needs follow up. 
  • @Emile - homeykit not fork libraries https://github.com/abedinpour/HAS ? Where a donation to the author of the library ? He did 95 percent of the work - and you just ignore it ! it's great. You forbid people to develop apps and develop your product. There is a rating system and people themselves can all be solved.

    In README all is described in detail. I thanked everyone and put the links to donations to all developers. https://github.com/sprut666666/com.sprut.homekit

    I have to rewrite the interface and recompile the libraries - this will not be a fork ?

    The more popularity with Homey - the more chaos ;) I defend the position for the future. My proposal was to make the following rules: if you post a fork or an analogue of the main application - you must provide a link to the main application, if you want to insert the donation be sure to specify the main author. I think this is true, then you decide to pay or not and how many stars to put....
  • @hnijveen
    It's totally up to Sprut, he actually HAD a few options:
    1. Change the PR. I am still confident i made the right choice. You don't want to confuse people to be able to add devices that aren't supported. It's a waste of resources as well.
    2. He had the option to remove the PayPal buttons (where Athom doesn't allow PayPal buttons on forks) but he didn't want to.

    @sprut
    I would you to continue this discussion in another topic if you really need to.
  • lubbertkramerlubbertkramer Member
    edited October 2017
    sprut said:

    You can start your own official @Sprut Homekit topic on this forum, don't argue in @Swttt about that you don't want to follow the guidelines Athom has set. Future posts that have nothing to do with @swttt his Homekit topic/app will be removed. If you want to discuss something with Athom you know how to contact them, this topic is not the place for that! 

    Edit:
    @sprut if you want to discuss with @swttt you know how to find him, in the end it's @swttt his app with his choice for stability and the guidelines of Athom. 
  • Come on guys, it's not up to me, but grow a pair & get to an agreement. They two of you are amazingly gifted and valuable to the app dev. Reach out and enjoy the joined effort.
  • sprut said:

    You can start your own official @Sprut Homekit topic on this forum, don't argue in @Swttt his topic. Future posts that have nothing to do with @swttt his Homekit topic/app will be removed. If you want to discuss something with Athom you know how to contact them, this topic is not the place for that! 
    ок
  • sapadisapadi Member
    edited October 2017

    Modbreak:
    Warning is also for you @sapadi discussion about wich version of Homekit is better or why only one is in the app store can be done in a topic opened by @sprut or yourself but not in this topic. That's why your post is removed because the warning above is clear and you also tagged me in it, don't know how you think that will help. If you want to discuss this further you can contact Athom.

    Future posts about this discussion will be removed without modbreak



    EDIT:


    Submission guidelines can be found here

  • @swttt A PR can ofcourse also be modified to work the way you want it to.... that means you can profit from the work @sprut did, but remove or change the parts that you don't like?

    Anyways, I still really love to be able to connect Homeys devices to Siri and am looking forward to all improvements. Keep up the good work!
  • yes indeed, great work. i like it very much. but hey guys please don't fight. you are the community developers here and we all are very thankful for your work. keep on going. both of you  :)
  • Everything is fine ) the Question is not in this app ;) It is a problem of the further evolution of the Homey and the rules and nothing more =)
    @swttt is a great guy we just had a different vision for its development ;)
    We never fight ;) I just want to change the rules - what would the future had no such problems.
    If you agree with me write to the creators of Homey support@athom.com

    It propose to close this issue and to communicate on the subject HomeyKit.
  • The current published version should fix all the crashes, and might be a candidate for stable.
    If anyone still is having issues, let me know.

    Currently adding some new capabilities, but need some users who would like to test before publishing it as beta since i don't own all device types.

    First up are window blinds. Second up is the thermostat.

    You can contact me on Slack or PM me on the forum :)
  • Decided to publish the current beta as stable to the appstore.
    This means everyone still on beta will get the window blinds in there that has dim support.
    Couldn't test this device myself, so i could made errors :)
  • @swtt are you also planning on adding support for windows blinds that don't have the dim capability such as the somfy roller shutter?
  • dd3ukdd3uk Member
    edited October 2017
    Just want to say thanks to both for the home kit app... combined with virtual device I can create switches in home kit that trigger flows and automation. (in addition to all my devices now accessible to home kit automations too) really cool and something I just wanted to thank you both....... as a user I actually don't mind the integration pointing out that home kit can't support a device ... if homey can it just means apples failng not the integration (imo) :)
  • A virtual device will only be available within Homekit if the type is light isn't it?
  • hnijveen said:
    A virtual device will only be available within Homekit if the type is light isn't it?
    No, there are more virtual devices available in Homekit, like the socket/plug (stopcontact in Dutch). Works great in Homeykit.  :)


  • besides switch, lights which devices will be available within Homekit?
  • well apart from lights Ive added a virtual tv which was basically an on off switch which is used to trigger flows i.e. tv on = setup tv , sound, and dim lights if its the right time of day.... and TV off means turn it all off and raise lights (if needed)

  • I actually managed to compile hap-nodejs with some changes to work on Homey.
    This is the same library as used in homebridge, openhab and other projects. (In theory i could run homebridge now on Homey :) )

    Going to run some tests with that (performance wise), and see if it's worth replacing the current lib.
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