Normally, when you set up a Notification for a motion sensor, handheld remote, door lock, or other device, with…:
Devices > [Device] > ► > Notifications > Add notification for: [Whenever... ]
…you then name that Notification, which momentarily appears listed below along with a Trashcan icon in case you change your mind and want to delete it.
Unbeknownst to many Vera users, that “Notification” is used by Vera to create an invisible “Scene” which does not appear in any Room or any other part of the UI.
Until now! With the latest revisions of the beta VeraMobile™ app, those hidden Scenes suddenly became visible in the app, giving users the ability to (a) become aware (at least be reminded) of its existence, (b) rename it, (c) edit the Scene, and (d) assign it to a Room.
While this sounds like an academic distinction – after all, these Notifications were never intended to view/edit/move, just to run when needed – the fact is, users like to have control over such things. I know I do. And I don’t really care to wonder why a certain Notification got triggered a decade later (not an exaggeration!) when, say, a certain device’s “Battery Goes Low” triggered it.
So I’ve capitalized on this “bug” in the app to move all those old Notifications into a new Room (which I call “_Notifications”) and carefully edit them as needed, deleting unneeded or obsolete ones, and (in most cases) create a Reactor routine that accomplishes the same purpose (often using its ‘Notify’ > SMTP feature).
BOBUS Along the way, I unearthed yet another interesting glitch; namely, that Vera doesn’t consider these valid Scenes insofar as (a) they do not possess an actual Trigger (“Manual” is not offered as an option during editing!); and, (b) they don’t have any Actions assigned (i.e. no Lua code nor any Devices checked!), so you’re forced to accommodate these omissions somehow before being allowed to Save edits.
I dare say, without the beta app and these undocumented “glitches” I would have a hard time (re)discovering old Notifications that I created years ago and completely forgotten about!
- Libra