"Protected"-mode action widgets

Ideas
#1

Hi Igor,
I used Rotini for a long time and now I have been successfully using Home Habit for several months and I am very pleased. Will buy soon the license.

In Rotini there was a feature (Protected mode switch) that required you to keep pressing the push button to activate the action in order to avoid unwanted operations. This feature is essential in case you use Home Habit with an always-on tablet. Infact last night my wife cleaned the tablet screen with a cloth and messed up all the roller-shutters and heating setpoint!!

So I would like to ask you to restore the PROTECTED mode for all type of action widgets in order to avoid unwanted actions (even dangerous).

Thanks

#2

I only use switches for boosting the heating, but Iā€™ve still done this a few times by accident. I like this idea.

Iā€™d wonder if performing a second different gesture might be better than just long press. For example a confirm box popping up that needs a tap. Guests could use it then without being told how. Plus itā€™s more tactile than just holding a touch screen for a second. I guess some animation should show you have to touch for longerā€¦

#3

@igor
Yesterday my wife again messed up the heating during the cleaning of the tablet display. And I realized the mess 12 hours later.

I am really sorry that you havenā€™t commented my requested after 10 days.

A form of security in a commercial ā€œout-of-betaā€ application is mandatory.

#4

Legacy version only had protection for some widgets, like switches, so it probably wouldnā€™t be full-proof from something like display cleaning if there are dimmer or thermostat widgets on the screen.
Most likely something like transparent mask on display that protects from all touches, until a swipe or similar, would work as a solution for this.

@hooh1967h Lack of comment on an idea does not mean it is being ignored. I personally read through all posted ideas and then want to let community put their votes without me saying yay or nay (unless this is something that just not possible to do).

1 Like
#5

Hi @igor
I didnā€™t want to sound rude, but really I had to reconfigure the whole heating setpoints. In a beta application this could easily be accepted, but in a production app itā€™s very risky and cannot be accepted. I could accidentally move a garage door or a water pump and have injuries or damagesā€¦ If I am testing the app ok, but if I purchased the app is not ok.
Also during the swipes to move from one screen to another sometimes the switches are accidentally activated.

The transparent mask is not an option as itā€™s difficult to attach to the unit on the wall and to remove when you have to adjust settings.
The easiest is to give the option to activate the widget with a long press and then for a certain time (few seconds) it remains actionable, then it becomes read only. And this for all the widgets.
Or to have a master swipe switch that makes the interface actionable for a limited period of time, but this is less intuitive.

thanks for your attention

1 Like
#6

@hooh1967h yes, I did mean to have something like master swipe that masks all the screen to prevent accidentals actions.

I do understand the frustration with accidental changes, and appreciate you posting this idea.

I think there are two use cases here to solve:

  • prevent accidentals taps on actions with higher impact, like opening a garage door
  • prevent accidentals taps on anything on the screen

For the first case, it works great with switch-type widgets, but might be harder to make something as user-friendly for all widgets, like media/thermostat.
So I can see some need for both of those use cases.

I will see whatā€™s possible in the near term and update after.

By the way, if I understood correctly, in your setup it is not possible to turn tablet screen on/off?

#7

Hi @igor
Thanks for your reply.

I agree. Both solutions should coexist.

I would suggest this idea for the following widgets:

  • action
  • light
  • room
  • scene
  • shutter
  • switch

In this case user should be able to move among screens without making accidental taps.
Maybe the swipe protection should be per page: example: I have a page with all the lights and a page with the heating settings. The protection for light page could be managed with tap preventing widgets, while the heating page could be protected with the page-swipe.

I am using HomeHabit as the Home App and set my tablet to be always on (with the ā€œstay awakeā€ and ā€œscreen saver=neverā€). So itā€™s always on.

See picture

image
image.jpg4032Ɨ3024 1.72 MB

1 Like
#8

If its of interest, I have just started using scenes to achieve exactly this (plus some nice bonus capabilities). To describe a simplified version of what Iā€™ve done, Iā€™ve created a ha input selector including ā€˜boost upstairs heatingā€™ and ā€˜offā€™. I have ha automations that spot the input selector state being changed and perform the required action. In homehabit the input selector is bound to a scene. Now when i press the boost heating widget (the scene) Iā€™m presented with a popup in which I can select ā€˜boost upstairs heatingā€™ or click anywhere else to go back to the dashboard.

Really happy with this. Iā€™m actually using it for a boost upstairs|downstairs|both|stop boost capability, and also elsewhere to select which harmony activity to start. This latter use case gives me a more user friendly interface, which also only takes up one tile now, and which has the accidental click protection.

Hope this helps

1 Like
#9

@hooh1967h quick note: there might be something will be ready for this soon. Will post update if anything changes.

#10

hi @igor
thanks for your reply.

I have purchased two licenses in the meantimeā€¦

#11

Hi Igor,
do you have in your roadmap the development of the ā€œprotected-modeā€ widget as we discussed some time ago?

#12

Hello I follow this topic 'cause I have the same needā€¦ accidentally turning on heater, fireplace, whatever could be expensive and annoyingā€¦ in fact I suggested the ā€œlong pressā€ option in other topic

#13

Hello any idea to prevent switching on/off devices accidentally?