Hi. First, thanks for MQTT + Shims. Works, so far, without issues.
My issue is trying to get devices "normalized" within Indigo. I have three different types of temperature sensors, each arriving via a different plugin (NOAA, native Indigo Aeotec Z-Wave, MQTT/Shims). As might be expected, each is represented somewhat differently in the Indigo state database. My goal is to try and normalize them enough so that as they are being pushed to a database for graphing that each type of device doesn't have to be individually known. (This actually falls into a general Indigo defect: they need to have some abstract device types so that developers have guidance on representing things in the internal database. But they don't, so, OK, here we go...)
So, I found the concept of "templates" in MQTT, and my question is "how can I build templates that control which values go into which fields?" For example, I would like to specify a string for "subModel" for my shim'ed device.
Similarly, although the shim GUI gives me the option to describe something as "Temperature (F)," it puts the data into sensorValue and not, for example, state.sensorValue state.temperatureF (like the NOAA plugin does). I'm actually not sure why it's asking what type of data I'm providing, actually.
I guess what I'm asking for is just a few words on how Templates work. Can I create arbitrary data elements and make them static? Can I send values from the MQTT->Shim-> particular values in the data structure?
With a little boost, I think I can figure all this out. I can fix it later "in the mix" (by handling things in the database), but if I can normalize to make a Shim'ed device look more like an Aeotec sensor (code written by Indigo-land!) then things will be simpler going in.
As data scientists always say, "data cleaning early saves headaches later."
Thanks again all...