diff --git a/atom.xml b/atom.xml index be48c61fe8..c765488cb4 100644 --- a/atom.xml +++ b/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ @@ -13,6 +13,36 @@ Octopress + + <![CDATA[Why we use web components and Polymer]]> + + 2016-05-18T00:09:00+00:00 + https://home-assistant.io/blog/2016/05/18/why-we-use-polymer + I’ve been planning to write this post for a while now as we get questions like this a lot: “Why does Home Assistant use Polymer? Why not React, Redux and what not?”

+ +

It’s understandable, Polymer is quite the underdog in the world of web frameworks. A corporate backer does not guarantee popularity or an active community and this shows in the number of projects using Polymer.

+ +

Still, we use Polymer and it’s awesome. To explain why, I’ll be referencing the React workflow quite a bit, as they do a lot of things right, and show how it is done in Polymer.

+ +

Polymer gives us components for the web, just like React, but based on web standards: web components, CSS variables. These standards don’t have wide browser support yet but it’s being implemented by every major browser: It’s the future. For now they are being polyfilled and that works just fine but in the future the Home Assistant web app will be able to run native in the browsers == fast.

+ + + +

Polymer does not have the nice developer experience that one can have with React and the React Dev Tools but that’s a matter of time. The developer tools in every browser have seen a lot of improvements recently and each improvement helps support for web components.

+ +

Another major benefit of Polymer for Home Assistant is that we get material design for free. The material design components that come with Polymer have a very high quality. Google is using these components themselves and make sure that performance and accessibility using screen readers/keyboards are great. As an open source project, the more we can outsource, the better - so our contributors can focus on the core product: home automation.

+ +

What about Flux, data management and interaction between components? It’s actually pretty similar to React or any other component based framework. Flux-like architectures work with Polymer just like with React: whenever data changes it will update the attributes of a component which will propagate to the children. For Home Assistant we use NuclearJS with our own Polymer bindings. For data moving from child to parent the Polymer pattern is using DOM events instead of callbacks but the end result is the same. It is so similar in fact, that it took me only two hours to make a React Native frontend for on top of our core.

+ +

So what about Babel and ES2015? Also this is covered. Each web component exists of a HTML template and a JavaScript class to back it. Think of the HTML template as the render method in React. In Home Assistant we have the HTML templates import one another and have a separate chain for the JavaScript classes backing each component. This allows us to use Babel and NPM modules for the JavaScript part (more info here). This does however come with the downside of other JS based frameworks: the browser blocks any painting while the JavaScript is being parsed instead of upgrading the website incrementally. This, however, is something we take for granted right now and hope that module bundlers will be able to solve this for us eventually. Tree shaking is a very promising improvement in this space.

+ +

Most of this blog post has been comparing Polymer to React. In many ways Polymer is similar to React but it is not as far evolved yet. I like React but I do not see it as a technology that will be around forever. Given the trend of previous popular JS frameworks, React will probably get replaced by another framework that works even better. Web components however will be here forever as they are part of the HTML standard. And this gives us peace of mind at the virtual Home Assistant headquarters: we do not have to be afraid of having to rewrite our frontend just to stay relevant or because people don’t want to include another dependency just to run this legacy piece.

+ +

So there it is, the reason why we use Polymer.

+ +]]> + + <![CDATA[Video: How To Configure Home Assistant]]> @@ -1373,52 +1403,6 @@ Example of the new views in the frontend. Nest component.
  • Entity IDs for Z-Wave devices are now generated in a deterministic way causing all IDs to change starting this release. This is a one time change.
    • -]]> -     - - - <![CDATA[Perfect Home Automation]]> - - 2016-01-19T08:20:00+00:00 - https://home-assistant.io/blog/2016/01/19/perfect-home-automation - People often ask me about my vision for Home Assistant. Before I can describe where I want to go with Home Assistant, I should first talk about how home automation would look in my ideal world. This will be the aim of this post. I’m not going to focus on protocols, networks or specific hubs. That’s all implementation details. Instead, this post will focus on what is most important: the interaction between the users and their home.

    - -

    You should not have to adapt to technology.

    - -

    When people start using home automation, they always experience home control first: being able to control devices in new ways using a phone or computer. They believe the future is now and their app will be their remote for their lives. They only focus on what they are getting, not on what they are losing. You install some light bulbs and all of a sudden you are no longer able to use the light switches. You’ll arrive at home at night and have to pull out your phone, open the app, let it connect and finally you’ll be able to turn on the light. All while turning the light on could have been a switch away.

    - -

    Yes, you can solve this with presence detection. What if your phone runs out of battery? You’ll have to resort to the switch again.

    - -

    If you find that using your new home devices is cumbersome, the promise of home automation technology has failed you. Your lights should work with both a switch (or button) at the entrance of your room and via presence detection. Honestly, there are hardly any valid use cases for being able to control lights from your phone except for showing off.
    -

    - -

    You are not the only user of your home automation.

    - -

    People tend to forget that they are not the only ones in their home. As the developer of your house you’re enthusiastic about the possibilities and are willing to overlook flaws. Chances are very high that the other people in your household have different hobbies and just want to mind their own business.

    - -

    This means that everything you automate has to work flawlessly. If you successfully manage to cause a response to some stimulus 90% of the time, you’re going to have a disproportionately poor experience 10% of the time. A common automation that fits this pattern is to fade the lights when you start watching a movie or series in the living room. It only works if everyone is watching.

    - -

    Limit the impact of false positives and negatives.

    - -

    With every automation, you always have to think: what will be the impact if it doesn’t work? Home automation is composed of many different systems by many different vendors that speak many different protocols: things will go wrong. It’s up to you to make sure that they have a limited impact when they fail. Ideally, devices should fall back to a pre-smart home experience. A Philips Hue bulb will act like a standard white light if turned on/off using a normal switch or when not connected to a hub. If things get worse when your system is out of order, your users will revolt. Take for example the Nest thermostat that had a bug in the beginning of January which caused it to stop heating the house, yikes!

    - -

    The perfect app is no app.

    - -

    Home automation should blend with your current workflow, not replace it. For most devices, there is no faster way to control most devices than how you are already doing it today. Most of the time, the best app is no app. The only interface that can be more convenient, and is accessible for visitors of your home of all ages is a voice interface. The industry has realized this too and there are some major players focussing on voice interaction. Take Apple for example: the only way to control your HomeKit devices is with Siri. Amazon has taken it one step further with the Amazon Echo, providing an always-listening connected speaker/microphone for the living room. I expect a lot more companies to join this segment in 2016.

    - -

    Voice interfaces are not perfect either. The speed at which you can issue commands is low because you have to wait for a response. There are also issues with the discoverability of commands, recognition of accents and dependency on the cloud for processing your voice. I believe that all but the first one are problems that are going to be solved eventually.

    - -

    This however doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for apps, there definitely is. They are perfectly well-suited for checking in while you’re away, browsing the state changes of your house or making the lights go all funky when there are kids visiting.

    - -

    Your system should run at home, not in the cloud.

    - -

    The cloud is a magical thing. Somewhere in the world there are computers collecting the data that your house generates, testing them against your automation rules and sending commands back when needed. The cloud will receive updates and improve itself over time so it is able to serve you better. Until it’s not. There are many reasons why your home might lose its connection to the cloud. The internet can stop working, an update might have gone wrong or the servers running the cloud crash.

    - -

    When this happens, your house should be able to keep functioning. The cloud should be treated as an extension to your smart home instead of running it. That way you’ll avoid awkward situations like when Amazon AWS was down and the Amazon Echo stopped working.

    - -

    Good home automation never annoys but is missed when it is not working.

    - -

    Thanks to Chris LaRose for this feedback and comments.

    ]]>         diff --git a/blog/2014/12/18/website-launched/index.html b/blog/2014/12/18/website-launched/index.html index 688fe46cc5..4d554e1070 100644 --- a/blog/2014/12/18/website-launched/index.html +++ b/blog/2014/12/18/website-launched/index.html @@ -179,6 +179,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2014/12/26/home-control-home-automation-and-the-smart-home/index.html b/blog/2014/12/26/home-control-home-automation-and-the-smart-home/index.html index fbc681fabf..47c8948866 100644 --- a/blog/2014/12/26/home-control-home-automation-and-the-smart-home/index.html +++ b/blog/2014/12/26/home-control-home-automation-and-the-smart-home/index.html @@ -234,6 +234,12 @@ This article will try to explain how they all relate.

    diff --git a/blog/2015/01/04/hey-pushbullet-nice-talking-to-you/index.html b/blog/2015/01/04/hey-pushbullet-nice-talking-to-you/index.html index f82edc33df..128fe91b10 100644 --- a/blog/2015/01/04/hey-pushbullet-nice-talking-to-you/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/01/04/hey-pushbullet-nice-talking-to-you/index.html @@ -218,6 +218,12 @@ api_key=ABCDEFGHJKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZ diff --git a/blog/2015/01/11/bootstrapping-your-setup-with-discovery/index.html b/blog/2015/01/11/bootstrapping-your-setup-with-discovery/index.html index eb8bccfc58..0fffe0a30c 100644 --- a/blog/2015/01/11/bootstrapping-your-setup-with-discovery/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/01/11/bootstrapping-your-setup-with-discovery/index.html @@ -193,6 +193,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2015/01/13/nest-in-da-house/index.html b/blog/2015/01/13/nest-in-da-house/index.html index b9c1ca38b5..862c1a3303 100644 --- a/blog/2015/01/13/nest-in-da-house/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/01/13/nest-in-da-house/index.html @@ -196,6 +196,12 @@ password=YOUR_PASSWORD diff --git a/blog/2015/01/24/release-notes/index.html b/blog/2015/01/24/release-notes/index.html index 83e9746886..9e2916301b 100644 --- a/blog/2015/01/24/release-notes/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/01/24/release-notes/index.html @@ -202,6 +202,12 @@ Home Assistant now supports --open-ui and --demo-mode diff --git a/blog/2015/02/08/looking-at-the-past/index.html b/blog/2015/02/08/looking-at-the-past/index.html index 83b8cd654b..a363a50b54 100644 --- a/blog/2015/02/08/looking-at-the-past/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/02/08/looking-at-the-past/index.html @@ -210,6 +210,12 @@ Events are saved in a local database. Google Graphs is used to draw the graph. D diff --git a/blog/2015/02/24/streaming-updates/index.html b/blog/2015/02/24/streaming-updates/index.html index 64b5f44893..07d2833b2b 100644 --- a/blog/2015/02/24/streaming-updates/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/02/24/streaming-updates/index.html @@ -195,6 +195,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2015/03/01/home-assistant-migrating-to-yaml/index.html b/blog/2015/03/01/home-assistant-migrating-to-yaml/index.html index 0cc0b1733c..afa36554a0 100644 --- a/blog/2015/03/01/home-assistant-migrating-to-yaml/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/03/01/home-assistant-migrating-to-yaml/index.html @@ -185,6 +185,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2015/03/08/new-logo/index.html b/blog/2015/03/08/new-logo/index.html index 537bdc19ee..13e39a3942 100644 --- a/blog/2015/03/08/new-logo/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/03/08/new-logo/index.html @@ -186,6 +186,12 @@ The old logo, the new detailed logo and the new simple logo. diff --git a/blog/2015/03/11/release-notes/index.html b/blog/2015/03/11/release-notes/index.html index b88e2a76f1..ac0dd26270 100644 --- a/blog/2015/03/11/release-notes/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/03/11/release-notes/index.html @@ -225,6 +225,12 @@ An initial version of voice control for Home Assistant has landed. The current i diff --git a/blog/2015/03/22/release-notes/index.html b/blog/2015/03/22/release-notes/index.html index e91e7562c9..282c8f53fe 100644 --- a/blog/2015/03/22/release-notes/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/03/22/release-notes/index.html @@ -262,6 +262,12 @@ I (Paulus) have contributed a scene component. A user can create scenes that cap diff --git a/blog/2015/04/25/release-notes/index.html b/blog/2015/04/25/release-notes/index.html index 8192eaff7d..938ca21ec0 100644 --- a/blog/2015/04/25/release-notes/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/04/25/release-notes/index.html @@ -273,6 +273,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2015/05/09/utc-time-zone-awareness/index.html b/blog/2015/05/09/utc-time-zone-awareness/index.html index 32fa49ad64..46c31b97ad 100644 --- a/blog/2015/05/09/utc-time-zone-awareness/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/05/09/utc-time-zone-awareness/index.html @@ -208,6 +208,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2015/05/14/release-notes/index.html b/blog/2015/05/14/release-notes/index.html index b51d0c0429..adf6b11515 100644 --- a/blog/2015/05/14/release-notes/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/05/14/release-notes/index.html @@ -300,6 +300,12 @@ Before diving into the newly supported devices and services, I want to highlight diff --git a/blog/2015/06/10/release-notes/index.html b/blog/2015/06/10/release-notes/index.html index a6a2216ad6..5f39c210d6 100644 --- a/blog/2015/06/10/release-notes/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/06/10/release-notes/index.html @@ -353,6 +353,12 @@ This switch platform allows you to control your motion detection setting on your diff --git a/blog/2015/07/11/ip-cameras-arduino-kodi-efergy-support/index.html b/blog/2015/07/11/ip-cameras-arduino-kodi-efergy-support/index.html index 3c960b90f9..47fc90ca93 100644 --- a/blog/2015/07/11/ip-cameras-arduino-kodi-efergy-support/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/07/11/ip-cameras-arduino-kodi-efergy-support/index.html @@ -305,6 +305,12 @@ Fabian has added support for Forecast.io to g diff --git a/blog/2015/08/09/mqtt-raspberry-pi-squeezebox-asuswrt-support/index.html b/blog/2015/08/09/mqtt-raspberry-pi-squeezebox-asuswrt-support/index.html index e83dee1392..8547b4d559 100644 --- a/blog/2015/08/09/mqtt-raspberry-pi-squeezebox-asuswrt-support/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/08/09/mqtt-raspberry-pi-squeezebox-asuswrt-support/index.html @@ -294,6 +294,12 @@ Support for Temper temperature sensors has been contributed by +
  • + Why we use web components and Polymer +
    • + + +
  • Video: How To Configure Home Assistant
    • @@ -317,12 +323,6 @@ Support for Temper temperature sensors has been contributed by - 0.18: Bluetooth, LG WebOS TVs and Roombas. - - - diff --git a/blog/2015/08/17/verisure-and-modern-tp-link-router-support/index.html b/blog/2015/08/17/verisure-and-modern-tp-link-router-support/index.html index 78cb45ec5c..083262370d 100644 --- a/blog/2015/08/17/verisure-and-modern-tp-link-router-support/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/08/17/verisure-and-modern-tp-link-router-support/index.html @@ -204,6 +204,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2015/08/26/laundry-automation-with-moteino-mqtt-and-home-assistant/index.html b/blog/2015/08/26/laundry-automation-with-moteino-mqtt-and-home-assistant/index.html index 974d895232..fdb49db887 100644 --- a/blog/2015/08/26/laundry-automation-with-moteino-mqtt-and-home-assistant/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/08/26/laundry-automation-with-moteino-mqtt-and-home-assistant/index.html @@ -317,6 +317,12 @@ The automation and script syntax here is using a deprecated and no longer suppor diff --git a/blog/2015/08/31/version-7-revamped-ui-and-improved-distribution/index.html b/blog/2015/08/31/version-7-revamped-ui-and-improved-distribution/index.html index 955bd9599f..ca6eb3a453 100644 --- a/blog/2015/08/31/version-7-revamped-ui-and-improved-distribution/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/08/31/version-7-revamped-ui-and-improved-distribution/index.html @@ -291,6 +291,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2015/09/11/different-ways-to-use-mqtt-with-home-assistant/index.html b/blog/2015/09/11/different-ways-to-use-mqtt-with-home-assistant/index.html index be66183f65..9eb666d3a3 100644 --- a/blog/2015/09/11/different-ways-to-use-mqtt-with-home-assistant/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/09/11/different-ways-to-use-mqtt-with-home-assistant/index.html @@ -494,6 +494,12 @@ PubSubClient client(ethClient); diff --git a/blog/2015/09/13/home-assistant-meets-ifttt/index.html b/blog/2015/09/13/home-assistant-meets-ifttt/index.html index b6f102db49..9092683f0b 100644 --- a/blog/2015/09/13/home-assistant-meets-ifttt/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/09/13/home-assistant-meets-ifttt/index.html @@ -353,6 +353,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2015/09/18/monitoring-with-glances-and-home-assistant/index.html b/blog/2015/09/18/monitoring-with-glances-and-home-assistant/index.html index 12761647a7..18cfb8d54a 100644 --- a/blog/2015/09/18/monitoring-with-glances-and-home-assistant/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/09/18/monitoring-with-glances-and-home-assistant/index.html @@ -254,6 +254,12 @@ Glances web server started on http://0.0.0.0:61208/ diff --git a/blog/2015/09/19/alarm-sonos-and-itunes-support/index.html b/blog/2015/09/19/alarm-sonos-and-itunes-support/index.html index 7ea4dffc5a..ab94b17815 100644 --- a/blog/2015/09/19/alarm-sonos-and-itunes-support/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/09/19/alarm-sonos-and-itunes-support/index.html @@ -233,6 +233,12 @@ Automation has gotten a lot of love. It now supports conditions, multiple trigge diff --git a/blog/2015/10/05/home-assistant-goes-geo-with-owntracks/index.html b/blog/2015/10/05/home-assistant-goes-geo-with-owntracks/index.html index 0dbb1d0283..00be19d7f9 100644 --- a/blog/2015/10/05/home-assistant-goes-geo-with-owntracks/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/10/05/home-assistant-goes-geo-with-owntracks/index.html @@ -209,6 +209,12 @@ Map in Home Assistant showing two people and three zones (home, school, work) diff --git a/blog/2015/10/11/measure-temperature-with-esp8266-and-report-to-mqtt/index.html b/blog/2015/10/11/measure-temperature-with-esp8266-and-report-to-mqtt/index.html index a4e3fd9fe7..be18ea1d2e 100644 --- a/blog/2015/10/11/measure-temperature-with-esp8266-and-report-to-mqtt/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/10/11/measure-temperature-with-esp8266-and-report-to-mqtt/index.html @@ -540,6 +540,12 @@ Adafruit_HDC1000 hdc = Adafruit_HDC1000(); diff --git a/blog/2015/10/11/rfxtrx-blinkstick-and-snmp-support/index.html b/blog/2015/10/11/rfxtrx-blinkstick-and-snmp-support/index.html index 98424634a2..5cdc74c96c 100644 --- a/blog/2015/10/11/rfxtrx-blinkstick-and-snmp-support/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/10/11/rfxtrx-blinkstick-and-snmp-support/index.html @@ -198,6 +198,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2015/10/26/firetv-and-radiotherm-now-supported/index.html b/blog/2015/10/26/firetv-and-radiotherm-now-supported/index.html index fea11f8fb6..3b98a712ea 100644 --- a/blog/2015/10/26/firetv-and-radiotherm-now-supported/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/10/26/firetv-and-radiotherm-now-supported/index.html @@ -220,6 +220,12 @@ This makes more sense as most people run Home Assistant as a daemon

    diff --git a/blog/2015/11/16/zwave-switches-lights-and-honeywell-thermostats-now-supported/index.html b/blog/2015/11/16/zwave-switches-lights-and-honeywell-thermostats-now-supported/index.html index c7cc14c9bd..4b87fc9e09 100644 --- a/blog/2015/11/16/zwave-switches-lights-and-honeywell-thermostats-now-supported/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/11/16/zwave-switches-lights-and-honeywell-thermostats-now-supported/index.html @@ -216,6 +216,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2015/11/22/survey-november-2015/index.html b/blog/2015/11/22/survey-november-2015/index.html index 985d3b475c..0c885f950a 100644 --- a/blog/2015/11/22/survey-november-2015/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/11/22/survey-november-2015/index.html @@ -256,6 +256,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2015/12/05/community-highlights/index.html b/blog/2015/12/05/community-highlights/index.html index 131e021e1a..07f94c4e05 100644 --- a/blog/2015/12/05/community-highlights/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/12/05/community-highlights/index.html @@ -189,6 +189,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2015/12/06/locks-rollershutters-binary-sensors-and-influxdb-support/index.html b/blog/2015/12/06/locks-rollershutters-binary-sensors-and-influxdb-support/index.html index bc4658ee1b..f237d23a95 100644 --- a/blog/2015/12/06/locks-rollershutters-binary-sensors-and-influxdb-support/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/12/06/locks-rollershutters-binary-sensors-and-influxdb-support/index.html @@ -198,6 +198,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2015/12/07/influxdb-and-grafana/index.html b/blog/2015/12/07/influxdb-and-grafana/index.html index a329ce9bcc..93ebed2d75 100644 --- a/blog/2015/12/07/influxdb-and-grafana/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/12/07/influxdb-and-grafana/index.html @@ -289,6 +289,12 @@ $ sudo systemctl status grafana-server diff --git a/blog/2015/12/10/activating-tasker-tasks-from-home-assistant-using-command-line-switches/index.html b/blog/2015/12/10/activating-tasker-tasks-from-home-assistant-using-command-line-switches/index.html index 08e9889e87..200fae73f7 100644 --- a/blog/2015/12/10/activating-tasker-tasks-from-home-assistant-using-command-line-switches/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/12/10/activating-tasker-tasks-from-home-assistant-using-command-line-switches/index.html @@ -239,6 +239,12 @@ requests.get(' +
  • + Why we use web components and Polymer +
    • + + +
  • Video: How To Configure Home Assistant
    • @@ -262,12 +268,6 @@ requests.get(' - 0.18: Bluetooth, LG WebOS TVs and Roombas. - - - diff --git a/blog/2015/12/12/philips-hue-blocks-3rd-party-bulbs/index.html b/blog/2015/12/12/philips-hue-blocks-3rd-party-bulbs/index.html index 701766f04a..ee6cf52e5c 100644 --- a/blog/2015/12/12/philips-hue-blocks-3rd-party-bulbs/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/12/12/philips-hue-blocks-3rd-party-bulbs/index.html @@ -211,6 +211,12 @@ Philips Hue FAQ entries regarding 3rd party light bulbs. diff --git a/blog/2015/12/13/setup-encryption-using-lets-encrypt/index.html b/blog/2015/12/13/setup-encryption-using-lets-encrypt/index.html index b809b4f141..3104780e9f 100644 --- a/blog/2015/12/13/setup-encryption-using-lets-encrypt/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/12/13/setup-encryption-using-lets-encrypt/index.html @@ -276,6 +276,12 @@ sudo docker run -it --rm -p 443:443 -p 80:80 --name letsencrypt \ diff --git a/blog/2015/12/22/amazon-echo-icloud-and-templates/index.html b/blog/2015/12/22/amazon-echo-icloud-and-templates/index.html index 06a5cb7ed5..80435cb718 100644 --- a/blog/2015/12/22/amazon-echo-icloud-and-templates/index.html +++ b/blog/2015/12/22/amazon-echo-icloud-and-templates/index.html @@ -232,6 +232,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/01/17/extended-support-for-diy-solutions/index.html b/blog/2016/01/17/extended-support-for-diy-solutions/index.html index 7e2175ef01..762a841b90 100644 --- a/blog/2016/01/17/extended-support-for-diy-solutions/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/01/17/extended-support-for-diy-solutions/index.html @@ -212,6 +212,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/01/19/perfect-home-automation/index.html b/blog/2016/01/19/perfect-home-automation/index.html index c9727326e7..816cb1ac8d 100644 --- a/blog/2016/01/19/perfect-home-automation/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/01/19/perfect-home-automation/index.html @@ -216,6 +216,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/01/30/insteon-lifx-twitter-and-zigbee/index.html b/blog/2016/01/30/insteon-lifx-twitter-and-zigbee/index.html index 82a732d212..bbcab6e751 100644 --- a/blog/2016/01/30/insteon-lifx-twitter-and-zigbee/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/01/30/insteon-lifx-twitter-and-zigbee/index.html @@ -218,6 +218,12 @@ Example of the new views in the frontend. Learn mor diff --git a/blog/2016/02/09/smarter-smart-things-with-mqtt-and-home-assistant/index.html b/blog/2016/02/09/smarter-smart-things-with-mqtt-and-home-assistant/index.html index 8d79dd943a..c3434db939 100644 --- a/blog/2016/02/09/smarter-smart-things-with-mqtt-and-home-assistant/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/02/09/smarter-smart-things-with-mqtt-and-home-assistant/index.html @@ -405,6 +405,12 @@ Z-Wave light bulb | diff --git a/blog/2016/02/12/classifying-the-internet-of-things/index.html b/blog/2016/02/12/classifying-the-internet-of-things/index.html index 985c9b9572..741e34a81d 100644 --- a/blog/2016/02/12/classifying-the-internet-of-things/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/02/12/classifying-the-internet-of-things/index.html @@ -355,6 +355,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/02/13/speedtest-bloomsky-splunk-and-garage-doors/index.html b/blog/2016/02/13/speedtest-bloomsky-splunk-and-garage-doors/index.html index 82169e4c55..d16910f7f5 100644 --- a/blog/2016/02/13/speedtest-bloomsky-splunk-and-garage-doors/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/02/13/speedtest-bloomsky-splunk-and-garage-doors/index.html @@ -221,6 +221,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/02/18/multi-room-audio-with-snapcast/index.html b/blog/2016/02/18/multi-room-audio-with-snapcast/index.html index f2ee88bcef..daeac673a4 100644 --- a/blog/2016/02/18/multi-room-audio-with-snapcast/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/02/18/multi-room-audio-with-snapcast/index.html @@ -323,6 +323,12 @@ output = audioresample ! audio/x-raw,rate=48000,channels=2,format=S16LE ! audioc diff --git a/blog/2016/02/20/community-highlights/index.html b/blog/2016/02/20/community-highlights/index.html index ec4b353d23..8b9c635d05 100644 --- a/blog/2016/02/20/community-highlights/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/02/20/community-highlights/index.html @@ -229,6 +229,12 @@ Hold your NFC tag against the belly of Garfield to unlock the alarm. diff --git a/blog/2016/02/27/steam-d-link-smart-plugs-and-neurio-energy-sensors/index.html b/blog/2016/02/27/steam-d-link-smart-plugs-and-neurio-energy-sensors/index.html index d9fe57356d..4094c3375b 100644 --- a/blog/2016/02/27/steam-d-link-smart-plugs-and-neurio-energy-sensors/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/02/27/steam-d-link-smart-plugs-and-neurio-energy-sensors/index.html @@ -220,6 +220,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/03/12/z-wave-pep257-templated-service-calls/index.html b/blog/2016/03/12/z-wave-pep257-templated-service-calls/index.html index 52de367800..4320ba0fda 100644 --- a/blog/2016/03/12/z-wave-pep257-templated-service-calls/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/03/12/z-wave-pep257-templated-service-calls/index.html @@ -226,6 +226,12 @@ player state attributes. This change affects automations, scripts and scenes. +
  • + Why we use web components and Polymer +
    • + + +
  • Video: How To Configure Home Assistant
    • @@ -249,12 +255,6 @@ player state attributes. This change affects automations, scripts and scenes. - -
  • - 0.18: Bluetooth, LG WebOS TVs and Roombas. -
    • - - diff --git a/blog/2016/03/26/embedded-mqtt-broker-uber-yamaha-growl/index.html b/blog/2016/03/26/embedded-mqtt-broker-uber-yamaha-growl/index.html index cc5298fc48..82e64ca388 100644 --- a/blog/2016/03/26/embedded-mqtt-broker-uber-yamaha-growl/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/03/26/embedded-mqtt-broker-uber-yamaha-growl/index.html @@ -237,6 +237,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/04/05/your-hub-should-be-local-and-open/index.html b/blog/2016/04/05/your-hub-should-be-local-and-open/index.html index 3c392ae92f..f9f25e1ad2 100644 --- a/blog/2016/04/05/your-hub-should-be-local-and-open/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/04/05/your-hub-should-be-local-and-open/index.html @@ -189,6 +189,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/04/07/static-website/index.html b/blog/2016/04/07/static-website/index.html index cf06787ff2..8c520a8593 100644 --- a/blog/2016/04/07/static-website/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/04/07/static-website/index.html @@ -195,6 +195,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/04/09/onkyo-panasonic-gtfs-and-config-validation/index.html b/blog/2016/04/09/onkyo-panasonic-gtfs-and-config-validation/index.html index 876b334a06..f36b527024 100644 --- a/blog/2016/04/09/onkyo-panasonic-gtfs-and-config-validation/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/04/09/onkyo-panasonic-gtfs-and-config-validation/index.html @@ -203,6 +203,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/04/17/updated-documentation/index.html b/blog/2016/04/17/updated-documentation/index.html index c516a06bad..b1cc678079 100644 --- a/blog/2016/04/17/updated-documentation/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/04/17/updated-documentation/index.html @@ -187,6 +187,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/04/19/to-infinity-and-beyond/index.html b/blog/2016/04/19/to-infinity-and-beyond/index.html index b193ea0277..b3cb95cd2f 100644 --- a/blog/2016/04/19/to-infinity-and-beyond/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/04/19/to-infinity-and-beyond/index.html @@ -204,6 +204,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/04/20/bluetooth-lg-webos-tvs-and-roombas/index.html b/blog/2016/04/20/bluetooth-lg-webos-tvs-and-roombas/index.html index c6a01a0eed..c1966fbbe0 100644 --- a/blog/2016/04/20/bluetooth-lg-webos-tvs-and-roombas/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/04/20/bluetooth-lg-webos-tvs-and-roombas/index.html @@ -222,6 +222,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/04/30/ibeacons-part-1-making-presence-detection-work-better/index.html b/blog/2016/04/30/ibeacons-part-1-making-presence-detection-work-better/index.html index cc2fdcfdb3..bb11506963 100644 --- a/blog/2016/04/30/ibeacons-part-1-making-presence-detection-work-better/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/04/30/ibeacons-part-1-making-presence-detection-work-better/index.html @@ -313,6 +313,12 @@ For example, my wife works next door - and I couldn’t detect whether she’s a diff --git a/blog/2016/05/06/open-iot-summit-talk/index.html b/blog/2016/05/06/open-iot-summit-talk/index.html index de5033933a..9cfc8355c5 100644 --- a/blog/2016/05/06/open-iot-summit-talk/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/05/06/open-iot-summit-talk/index.html @@ -185,6 +185,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/05/07/empowering-scripts-and-alexa/index.html b/blog/2016/05/07/empowering-scripts-and-alexa/index.html index 597215f527..9c14b9c399 100644 --- a/blog/2016/05/07/empowering-scripts-and-alexa/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/05/07/empowering-scripts-and-alexa/index.html @@ -275,6 +275,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/05/12/video-configuring-home-assistant/index.html b/blog/2016/05/12/video-configuring-home-assistant/index.html index 8e85ad9696..bb2bdf7296 100644 --- a/blog/2016/05/12/video-configuring-home-assistant/index.html +++ b/blog/2016/05/12/video-configuring-home-assistant/index.html @@ -185,6 +185,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/2016/05/18/why-we-use-polymer/index.html b/blog/2016/05/18/why-we-use-polymer/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..cc59c1f2c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/2016/05/18/why-we-use-polymer/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,277 @@ + + + + + + + + + + Why we use web components and Polymer - Home Assistant + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
    +
    +
    + +
    + + + Home Assistant + +
    + +
    + +
    + +
    +
    +
    + + + +
    +
    + +
    + + +
    + +
    + +

    Why we use web components and Polymer

    + + + +
    + + Paulus Schoutsen + three minutes reading time + + + + + + Comments + +
    + +
    + + +

    I’ve been planning to write this post for a while now as we get questions like this a lot: “Why does Home Assistant use Polymer? Why not React, Redux and what not?”

    + +

    It’s understandable, Polymer is quite the underdog in the world of web frameworks. A corporate backer does not guarantee popularity or an active community and this shows in the number of projects using Polymer.

    + +

    Still, we use Polymer and it’s awesome. To explain why, I’ll be referencing the React workflow quite a bit, as they do a lot of things right, and show how it is done in Polymer.

    + +

    Polymer gives us components for the web, just like React, but based on web standards: web components, CSS variables. These standards don’t have wide browser support yet but it’s being implemented by every major browser: It’s the future. For now they are being polyfilled and that works just fine but in the future the Home Assistant web app will be able to run native in the browsers == fast.

    + + + +

    Polymer does not have the nice developer experience that one can have with React and the React Dev Tools but that’s a matter of time. The developer tools in every browser have seen a lot of improvements recently and each improvement helps support for web components.

    + +

    Another major benefit of Polymer for Home Assistant is that we get material design for free. The material design components that come with Polymer have a very high quality. Google is using these components themselves and make sure that performance and accessibility using screen readers/keyboards are great. As an open source project, the more we can outsource, the better - so our contributors can focus on the core product: home automation.

    + +

    What about Flux, data management and interaction between components? It’s actually pretty similar to React or any other component based framework. Flux-like architectures work with Polymer just like with React: whenever data changes it will update the attributes of a component which will propagate to the children. For Home Assistant we use NuclearJS with our own Polymer bindings. For data moving from child to parent the Polymer pattern is using DOM events instead of callbacks but the end result is the same. It is so similar in fact, that it took me only two hours to make a React Native frontend for on top of our core.

    + +

    So what about Babel and ES2015? Also this is covered. Each web component exists of a HTML template and a JavaScript class to back it. Think of the HTML template as the render method in React. In Home Assistant we have the HTML templates import one another and have a separate chain for the JavaScript classes backing each component. This allows us to use Babel and NPM modules for the JavaScript part (more info here). This does however come with the downside of other JS based frameworks: the browser blocks any painting while the JavaScript is being parsed instead of upgrading the website incrementally. This, however, is something we take for granted right now and hope that module bundlers will be able to solve this for us eventually. Tree shaking is a very promising improvement in this space.

    + +

    Most of this blog post has been comparing Polymer to React. In many ways Polymer is similar to React but it is not as far evolved yet. I like React but I do not see it as a technology that will be around forever. Given the trend of previous popular JS frameworks, React will probably get replaced by another framework that works even better. Web components however will be here forever as they are part of the HTML standard. And this gives us peace of mind at the virtual Home Assistant headquarters: we do not have to be afraid of having to rewrite our frontend just to stay relevant or because people don’t want to include another dependency just to run this legacy piece.

    + +

    So there it is, the reason why we use Polymer.

    +
    + + +
    +

    Comments

    +
    +
    + + +
    + + + + +
    +
    + + + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/blog/archives/index.html b/blog/archives/index.html index 464158bc57..4f1511ac22 100644 --- a/blog/archives/index.html +++ b/blog/archives/index.html @@ -98,6 +98,38 @@

    2016

    + + + +
    @@ -2073,6 +2105,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/community/atom.xml b/blog/categories/community/atom.xml index 8ef676e184..0199b31af6 100644 --- a/blog/categories/community/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/community/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: Community | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/community/index.html b/blog/categories/community/index.html index 7c1bfed2dd..4ef02e1579 100644 --- a/blog/categories/community/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/community/index.html @@ -230,6 +230,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/esp8266/atom.xml b/blog/categories/esp8266/atom.xml index 687201de34..ec5c81dcfc 100644 --- a/blog/categories/esp8266/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/esp8266/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: ESP8266 | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/esp8266/index.html b/blog/categories/esp8266/index.html index 4fe3417046..ba5540a15e 100644 --- a/blog/categories/esp8266/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/esp8266/index.html @@ -199,6 +199,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/how-to/atom.xml b/blog/categories/how-to/atom.xml index a24e393d33..048c3e6eb7 100644 --- a/blog/categories/how-to/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/how-to/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: How-To | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/how-to/index.html b/blog/categories/how-to/index.html index c007234c24..249032f305 100644 --- a/blog/categories/how-to/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/how-to/index.html @@ -496,6 +496,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/ibeacons/atom.xml b/blog/categories/ibeacons/atom.xml index d3a17ed57b..6cbf366f06 100644 --- a/blog/categories/ibeacons/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/ibeacons/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: iBeacons | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/ibeacons/index.html b/blog/categories/ibeacons/index.html index 261ba4f253..1b77ec905f 100644 --- a/blog/categories/ibeacons/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/ibeacons/index.html @@ -199,6 +199,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/internet-of-things/atom.xml b/blog/categories/internet-of-things/atom.xml index 99db3c8b5b..a63a19a96e 100644 --- a/blog/categories/internet-of-things/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/internet-of-things/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: Internet-of-Things | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/internet-of-things/index.html b/blog/categories/internet-of-things/index.html index 923d006699..4d4d9df8e2 100644 --- a/blog/categories/internet-of-things/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/internet-of-things/index.html @@ -294,6 +294,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/mqtt/atom.xml b/blog/categories/mqtt/atom.xml index 49ccf2a48e..f591d4c2fc 100644 --- a/blog/categories/mqtt/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/mqtt/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: MQTT | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/mqtt/index.html b/blog/categories/mqtt/index.html index 156db7919b..1e78150d19 100644 --- a/blog/categories/mqtt/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/mqtt/index.html @@ -270,6 +270,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/organisation/atom.xml b/blog/categories/organisation/atom.xml index 0d1332fe0c..1ed697cc5b 100644 --- a/blog/categories/organisation/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/organisation/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: Organisation | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/organisation/index.html b/blog/categories/organisation/index.html index 09aab17c02..ea789ce18d 100644 --- a/blog/categories/organisation/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/organisation/index.html @@ -230,6 +230,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/owntracks/atom.xml b/blog/categories/owntracks/atom.xml index bfdb1c9cb7..b241f5fa2a 100644 --- a/blog/categories/owntracks/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/owntracks/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: OwnTracks | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/owntracks/index.html b/blog/categories/owntracks/index.html index 9700d366b9..026fb0dd1c 100644 --- a/blog/categories/owntracks/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/owntracks/index.html @@ -199,6 +199,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/presence-detection/atom.xml b/blog/categories/presence-detection/atom.xml index a757465b1d..4946298677 100644 --- a/blog/categories/presence-detection/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/presence-detection/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: Presence-Detection | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/presence-detection/index.html b/blog/categories/presence-detection/index.html index ed0ebed061..19bd294661 100644 --- a/blog/categories/presence-detection/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/presence-detection/index.html @@ -199,6 +199,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/public-service-announcement/atom.xml b/blog/categories/public-service-announcement/atom.xml index 6a6272be50..e3ef503a25 100644 --- a/blog/categories/public-service-announcement/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/public-service-announcement/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: Public-Service-Announcement | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/public-service-announcement/index.html b/blog/categories/public-service-announcement/index.html index dace148dc1..e50c83a713 100644 --- a/blog/categories/public-service-announcement/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/public-service-announcement/index.html @@ -195,6 +195,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/release-notes/atom.xml b/blog/categories/release-notes/atom.xml index ade50da1e8..3a90b316df 100644 --- a/blog/categories/release-notes/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/release-notes/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: Release-Notes | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/release-notes/index.html b/blog/categories/release-notes/index.html index c7e2dfd46d..7f40c2dd67 100644 --- a/blog/categories/release-notes/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/release-notes/index.html @@ -1256,6 +1256,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/survey/atom.xml b/blog/categories/survey/atom.xml index e7ea09fcc6..c4778d5878 100644 --- a/blog/categories/survey/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/survey/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: Survey | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/survey/index.html b/blog/categories/survey/index.html index ddd2e1f4cc..f4dfbd8cfa 100644 --- a/blog/categories/survey/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/survey/index.html @@ -195,6 +195,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/talks/atom.xml b/blog/categories/talks/atom.xml index d3877daefe..572ad51a63 100644 --- a/blog/categories/talks/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/talks/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: Talks | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/talks/index.html b/blog/categories/talks/index.html index 6699ed3721..4427f72de6 100644 --- a/blog/categories/talks/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/talks/index.html @@ -197,6 +197,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/technology/atom.xml b/blog/categories/technology/atom.xml new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..449e047413 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/categories/technology/atom.xml @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ + + + + <![CDATA[Category: Technology | Home Assistant]]> + + + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 + https://home-assistant.io/ + + + + + Octopress + + + + <![CDATA[Why we use web components and Polymer]]> + + 2016-05-18T00:09:00+00:00 + https://home-assistant.io/blog/2016/05/18/why-we-use-polymer + I’ve been planning to write this post for a while now as we get questions like this a lot: “Why does Home Assistant use Polymer? Why not React, Redux and what not?”

    + +

    It’s understandable, Polymer is quite the underdog in the world of web frameworks. A corporate backer does not guarantee popularity or an active community and this shows in the number of projects using Polymer.

    + +

    Still, we use Polymer and it’s awesome. To explain why, I’ll be referencing the React workflow quite a bit, as they do a lot of things right, and show how it is done in Polymer.

    + +

    Polymer gives us components for the web, just like React, but based on web standards: web components, CSS variables. These standards don’t have wide browser support yet but it’s being implemented by every major browser: It’s the future. For now they are being polyfilled and that works just fine but in the future the Home Assistant web app will be able to run native in the browsers == fast.

    + + + +

    Polymer does not have the nice developer experience that one can have with React and the React Dev Tools but that’s a matter of time. The developer tools in every browser have seen a lot of improvements recently and each improvement helps support for web components.

    + +

    Another major benefit of Polymer for Home Assistant is that we get material design for free. The material design components that come with Polymer have a very high quality. Google is using these components themselves and make sure that performance and accessibility using screen readers/keyboards are great. As an open source project, the more we can outsource, the better - so our contributors can focus on the core product: home automation.

    + +

    What about Flux, data management and interaction between components? It’s actually pretty similar to React or any other component based framework. Flux-like architectures work with Polymer just like with React: whenever data changes it will update the attributes of a component which will propagate to the children. For Home Assistant we use NuclearJS with our own Polymer bindings. For data moving from child to parent the Polymer pattern is using DOM events instead of callbacks but the end result is the same. It is so similar in fact, that it took me only two hours to make a React Native frontend for on top of our core.

    + +

    So what about Babel and ES2015? Also this is covered. Each web component exists of a HTML template and a JavaScript class to back it. Think of the HTML template as the render method in React. In Home Assistant we have the HTML templates import one another and have a separate chain for the JavaScript classes backing each component. This allows us to use Babel and NPM modules for the JavaScript part (more info here). This does however come with the downside of other JS based frameworks: the browser blocks any painting while the JavaScript is being parsed instead of upgrading the website incrementally. This, however, is something we take for granted right now and hope that module bundlers will be able to solve this for us eventually. Tree shaking is a very promising improvement in this space.

    + +

    Most of this blog post has been comparing Polymer to React. In many ways Polymer is similar to React but it is not as far evolved yet. I like React but I do not see it as a technology that will be around forever. Given the trend of previous popular JS frameworks, React will probably get replaced by another framework that works even better. Web components however will be here forever as they are part of the HTML standard. And this gives us peace of mind at the virtual Home Assistant headquarters: we do not have to be afraid of having to rewrite our frontend just to stay relevant or because people don’t want to include another dependency just to run this legacy piece.

    + +

    So there it is, the reason why we use Polymer.

    + +]]>     +     + +     diff --git a/blog/categories/technology/index.html b/blog/categories/technology/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..ab8aae303d --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/categories/technology/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,274 @@ + + + + + + + + + + Category: Technology - Home Assistant + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
    +
    +
    + +
    + + + Home Assistant + +
    + +
    + +
    + +
    +
    +
    + + + +
    +
    + +
    + + + + + +
    + + + + +
    +
    + + + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/blog/categories/user-stories/atom.xml b/blog/categories/user-stories/atom.xml index cfbce1c717..9802b2c5fa 100644 --- a/blog/categories/user-stories/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/user-stories/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: User-Stories | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/user-stories/index.html b/blog/categories/user-stories/index.html index 46a9e23663..188b0992ac 100644 --- a/blog/categories/user-stories/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/user-stories/index.html @@ -195,6 +195,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/video/atom.xml b/blog/categories/video/atom.xml index 216e842381..3254c2e38d 100644 --- a/blog/categories/video/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/video/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: Video | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/video/index.html b/blog/categories/video/index.html index ab89e4ad42..d509f0e23e 100644 --- a/blog/categories/video/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/video/index.html @@ -229,6 +229,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/categories/website/atom.xml b/blog/categories/website/atom.xml index 91629b8c96..68dc67e587 100644 --- a/blog/categories/website/atom.xml +++ b/blog/categories/website/atom.xml @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ <![CDATA[Category: Website | Home Assistant]]> - 2016-05-17T19:56:22+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:56+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/ diff --git a/blog/categories/website/index.html b/blog/categories/website/index.html index c9d05c4ab7..cbad2ae5eb 100644 --- a/blog/categories/website/index.html +++ b/blog/categories/website/index.html @@ -230,6 +230,12 @@ diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 4dd9754207..297034b151 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -78,6 +78,56 @@ +
    +
    + +

    + Why we use web components and Polymer +

    + + + +
    + + Paulus Schoutsen + three minutes reading time + + + + + + Comments + +
    + +
    + + +
    +

    I’ve been planning to write this post for a while now as we get questions like this a lot: “Why does Home Assistant use Polymer? Why not React, Redux and what not?”

    + +

    It’s understandable, Polymer is quite the underdog in the world of web frameworks. A corporate backer does not guarantee popularity or an active community and this shows in the number of projects using Polymer.

    + +

    Still, we use Polymer and it’s awesome. To explain why, I’ll be referencing the React workflow quite a bit, as they do a lot of things right, and show how it is done in Polymer.

    + +

    Polymer gives us components for the web, just like React, but based on web standards: web components, CSS variables. These standards don’t have wide browser support yet but it’s being implemented by every major browser: It’s the future. For now they are being polyfilled and that works just fine but in the future the Home Assistant web app will be able to run native in the browsers == fast.

    + + + + Read on → + +
    +
    +
    +
    -
    -
    - -
    -
    - -

    - Your hub should be local and open -

    - - - -
    - - Paulus Schoutsen - 1 minute reading time - - - - - - Comments - -
    - -
    - - -
    -

    Today the news spread that Google will be shutting down the Revolv hubs. And shutting down here doesn’t mean they stop selling or supporting them - no, they are sending an update to each hub to turn your perfectly fine home automation hub into a useless piece of plastic. The fact that this seemed like a good idea by Google astonishes me. If anything, they should have gone the same route as ninjasphere: open it all up and let people decide on the fate of their own hub.

    - -

    I’ve said it before but I’ll repeat it again:

    - -
    -

    The cloud should be treated as an extension to your smart home instead of running it.

    -
    - -

    Your hub should not be affected when your internet breaks down or the company that sold you your hub goes out of business. It should work locally so that it can continue to work even long after the vendor goes out of business or decides to kill it. Preferably, your hub should also be open so that the community can take over development after the vendor stops caring.

    - -

    Unless you can afford losing a product here and there, be cautious when buying IoT products that depend on the cloud from companies that are not well established. The chances are high that they go bankrupt or get acquired and closed. This however is easier said than done as Gartner predicts that by 2017, 50 percent of IoT solutions will originate in startups that are less than three years old.

    - - -
    @@ -795,6 +793,8 @@
  • Talks
    • +
  • Technology
    • +
  • User Stories
  • Video
    • diff --git a/blog/posts/2/index.html b/blog/posts/2/index.html index 5bc68b9d96..0b646ca7d9 100644 --- a/blog/posts/2/index.html +++ b/blog/posts/2/index.html @@ -78,6 +78,58 @@ +
    +
    + +

    + Your hub should be local and open +

    + + + +
    + + Paulus Schoutsen + 1 minute reading time + + + + + + Comments + +
    + +
    + + +
    +

    Today the news spread that Google will be shutting down the Revolv hubs. And shutting down here doesn’t mean they stop selling or supporting them - no, they are sending an update to each hub to turn your perfectly fine home automation hub into a useless piece of plastic. The fact that this seemed like a good idea by Google astonishes me. If anything, they should have gone the same route as ninjasphere: open it all up and let people decide on the fate of their own hub.

    + +

    I’ve said it before but I’ll repeat it again:

    + +
    +

    The cloud should be treated as an extension to your smart home instead of running it.

    +
    + +

    Your hub should not be affected when your internet breaks down or the company that sold you your hub goes out of business. It should work locally so that it can continue to work even long after the vendor goes out of business or decides to kill it. Preferably, your hub should also be open so that the community can take over development after the vendor stops caring.

    + +

    Unless you can afford losing a product here and there, be cautious when buying IoT products that depend on the cloud from companies that are not well established. The chances are high that they go bankrupt or get acquired and closed. This however is easier said than done as Gartner predicts that by 2017, 50 percent of IoT solutions will originate in startups that are less than three years old.

    + + + +
    +
    +
    +
    @@ -819,58 +871,6 @@ Example of the new views in the frontend. Learn mor
    -
    -
    - -

    - Perfect Home Automation -

    - - - -
    - - Paulus Schoutsen - five minutes reading time - - - - - - Comments - -
    - -
    - - -
    -

    People often ask me about my vision for Home Assistant. Before I can describe where I want to go with Home Assistant, I should first talk about how home automation would look in my ideal world. This will be the aim of this post. I’m not going to focus on protocols, networks or specific hubs. That’s all implementation details. Instead, this post will focus on what is most important: the interaction between the users and their home.

    - -

    You should not have to adapt to technology.

    - -

    When people start using home automation, they always experience home control first: being able to control devices in new ways using a phone or computer. They believe the future is now and their app will be their remote for their lives. They only focus on what they are getting, not on what they are losing. You install some light bulbs and all of a sudden you are no longer able to use the light switches. You’ll arrive at home at night and have to pull out your phone, open the app, let it connect and finally you’ll be able to turn on the light. All while turning the light on could have been a switch away.

    - -

    Yes, you can solve this with presence detection. What if your phone runs out of battery? You’ll have to resort to the switch again.

    - -

    If you find that using your new home devices is cumbersome, the promise of home automation technology has failed you. Your lights should work with both a switch (or button) at the entrance of your room and via presence detection. Honestly, there are hardly any valid use cases for being able to control lights from your phone except for showing off.

    - - - - Read on → - -
    -
    -
    - - -
    - -
    -
    - -

    - 0.8: Honeywell Thermostats, Orvibo switches and Z-Wave switches and lights -

    - - - -
    - - Paulus Schoutsen - 1 minute reading time - - - - - - Comments - -
    - -
    - - -
    -

    We have all been hard at work to get this latest release ready. One of the big highlights in this release is the introduction of an extended iconset to be used in the frontend (credits to @happyleavesaoc for idea and prototype). To get started with customizing, pick any icon from MaterialDesignIcons.com, prefix the name with mdi: and stick it into your customize section in configuration.yaml:

    - -
    - 
    homeassistant:
-  customize:
-    switch.ac:
-      icon: 'mdi:air-conditioner'
-
    -
    -
    - -

    Breaking changes

    - -
      -
    • Any existing zone icon will have to be replaced with one from MaterialDesignIcons.com.
      • -
    • LimitlessLED light services require colors to be specified in RGB instead of XY.
      • -
    - -

    Changes

    - -

    - - - - -
    @@ -712,6 +685,8 @@ The InfluxDB database is a so-called time se
  • Talks
    • +
  • Technology
    • +
  • User Stories
  • Video
    • diff --git a/blog/posts/4/index.html b/blog/posts/4/index.html index c4ed3eedd2..9816e8f686 100644 --- a/blog/posts/4/index.html +++ b/blog/posts/4/index.html @@ -78,6 +78,85 @@ +
    +
    + +

    + 0.8: Honeywell Thermostats, Orvibo switches and Z-Wave switches and lights +

    + + + +
    + + Paulus Schoutsen + 1 minute reading time + + + + + + Comments + +
    + +
    + + +
    +

    We have all been hard at work to get this latest release ready. One of the big highlights in this release is the introduction of an extended iconset to be used in the frontend (credits to @happyleavesaoc for idea and prototype). To get started with customizing, pick any icon from MaterialDesignIcons.com, prefix the name with mdi: and stick it into your customize section in configuration.yaml:

    + +
    + 
    homeassistant:
+  customize:
+    switch.ac:
+      icon: 'mdi:air-conditioner'
+
    +
    +
    + +

    Breaking changes

    + +
      +
    • Any existing zone icon will have to be replaced with one from MaterialDesignIcons.com.
      • +
    • LimitlessLED light services require colors to be specified in RGB instead of XY.
      • +
    + +

    Changes

    + +

    + + + + + +
    +
    +
    +
    @@ -615,63 +694,6 @@ Inspried by a -
    - -

    - Laundry Automation: insight and notifications -

    - - - -
    - - Nolan Gilley - four minutes reading time - - - - - - Comments - -
    - -
    - - -
    -

    This is a guest post by Home Assistant user and contributor Nolan Gilley.

    - -

    In our house, laundry has been a struggle for quite some time. Our washer and dryer both lack a buzzer which leads to forgotten laundry, and stinky mess that needs to be rewashed. I decided to create a solution by monitoring the washer and dryer myself with some cheap electronics.

    - -

    As an avid user of Home Assistant, I decided it would be the perfect application to manage the UI and notification system. Now all I needed was a way to monitor the washer and dryer. I tried using sound sensors but found them unreliable. I ended up opting for an accelerometer attached to the back of each appliance. I also added magnetic reed switches on the doors of the washer and dryer to detect if the doors are open or closed. I connected the accelerometers and reed switches to a Moteino, an arduino clone with an RF transceiver. The Moteino can perform the logic to figure out which state the appliances are in and wirelessly communicate that data with another Moteino that is connected via serial to my Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi reads the serial data and repeats it over MQTT for Home Assistant to use. This is great because I don’t have to run Home Assistant on the Raspberry Pi. I can run it on a faster machine and point the MQTT component to my Raspberry Pi.

    - -

    After taking some sample data from the accelerometers while each appliance was in operation, I decided to plot the data to help determine the proper thresholds of when the devices were running or off. I had to do this in order to get precise ranges so the dryer sensor wouldn’t get tripped by the washer or vice versa. In the plot below you can see the acceleration in the x direction for the accelerometer connected to the washing machine. It’s easy to see when the washing machine is in operation here. I used the same technique for the dryer’s accelerometer.

    - -

    - - - - Graph showing the accelerometer data -

    - - - - Read on → - -
    -
    -
    - - - -
    - -
    -
    - -

    - New logo for Home Assistant -

    - - - -
    - - Paulus Schoutsen - less than one minute reading time - - - - - - Comments - -
    - -
    - - -
    -

    It is well known that you are either a good programmer or a good designer. It’s rare you’ll meet someone that is both. That’s why it wasn’t surprising to anyone that the logo that I made was mediocre — at best. Luckily, Jeremy Geltman has come to the rescue and contributed a brand new logo for Home Assistant.

    - -

    The new logo follows Googles material design spec. It uses the blue color that Home Assistant uses in the interface and it comes in two versions: a high detailed version (for homescreen icon etc) and a simple version (for favicon etc).

    - -

    - -The old logo, the new detailed logo and the new simple logo. -

    - -
    @@ -790,6 +799,8 @@ The old logo, the new detailed logo and the new simple logo.
  • Talks
    • +
  • Technology
    • +
  • User Stories
  • Video
    • diff --git a/blog/posts/6/index.html b/blog/posts/6/index.html index 9e7b80c375..d9e2142186 100644 --- a/blog/posts/6/index.html +++ b/blog/posts/6/index.html @@ -78,6 +78,54 @@ +
    +
    + +

    + New logo for Home Assistant +

    + + + +
    + + Paulus Schoutsen + less than one minute reading time + + + + + + Comments + +
    + +
    + + +
    +

    It is well known that you are either a good programmer or a good designer. It’s rare you’ll meet someone that is both. That’s why it wasn’t surprising to anyone that the logo that I made was mediocre — at best. Luckily, Jeremy Geltman has come to the rescue and contributed a brand new logo for Home Assistant.

    + +

    The new logo follows Googles material design spec. It uses the blue color that Home Assistant uses in the interface and it comes in two versions: a high detailed version (for homescreen icon etc) and a simple version (for favicon etc).

    + +

    + +The old logo, the new detailed logo and the new simple logo. +

    + + +
    +
    +
    +
    @@ -627,6 +675,8 @@ This article will try to explain how they all relate.

  • Talks
    • +
  • Technology
    • +
  • User Stories
  • Video
    • diff --git a/sitemap.xml b/sitemap.xml index e35275c62e..1d21b96adc 100644 --- a/sitemap.xml +++ b/sitemap.xml @@ -1,5 +1,9 @@ + + https://home-assistant.io/blog/2016/05/18/why-we-use-polymer/ + 2016-05-18T00:09:00+00:00 + https://home-assistant.io/blog/2016/05/12/video-configuring-home-assistant/ 2016-05-12T00:09:00+00:00 @@ -464,6 +468,9 @@ https://home-assistant.io/blog/categories/video/ + + https://home-assistant.io/blog/categories/technology/ + https://home-assistant.io/blog/posts/2/ @@ -1601,28 +1608,31 @@ https://home-assistant.io/blog/2016/05/12/video-configuring-home-assistant/ + + https://home-assistant.io/blog/2016/05/18/why-we-use-polymer/ + https://home-assistant.io/demo/frontend.html - 2016-05-17T19:55:40+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:13+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/demo/index.html - 2016-05-17T19:55:40+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:13+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/googlef4f3693c209fe788.html - 2016-05-17T19:55:40+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:13+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/static/fonts/roboto/DESCRIPTION.en_us.html - 2016-05-17T19:55:40+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:13+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/static/fonts/robotomono/DESCRIPTION.en_us.html - 2016-05-17T19:55:40+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:13+00:00 https://home-assistant.io/static/mdi-demo.html - 2016-05-17T19:55:40+00:00 + 2016-05-18T05:12:13+00:00 diff --git a/topics/platform_options/index.html b/topics/platform_options/index.html index b217f37c21..71e254bb7a 100644 --- a/topics/platform_options/index.html +++ b/topics/platform_options/index.html @@ -184,6 +184,12 @@