Anyone feel like devices IDs are popping up more often in automation posts recently? My highly unscientific feeling is that I’m seeing more questions about automations that include device IDs. Just seems like that will lead to trouble down the road for users.
I was a bit surprised to see the updated Automations UI put “Device” prominently right at the top:
Could that be related? I guess Device has always been prominently displayed. But, is it really a great way to start instead of directing users to entities?
The device_id stuff is for the auto programmed stuff and is not human readable friendly.
Here’s how I feel. So just ignore the UI crap and use the state Entity_id tools.
Though the layout has changed a couple times, it’s been like that for nearly 2 years… IIRC, the explanation has been that each of those grouped lists are just in alphabetical order.
A bit unfortunate. Personally, I don’t have a single device ID in any automation or script. Is there a common use case, or is there an argument for removing it from the menu?
Considering the fact that “Device” is still at the top of the list (despite that no longer following alphabetical order) in the new trigger selector being used with the “purpose-specific triggers”…
the use case is that the developers heard new users complaining about needing to use entity_id’s and services (now called actions) so they came up with the device id paradigm to solve that issue - which then caused new users to default to using devices in their automations which ended up requiring twice the lines of code in the background for every action which makes it pretty much impossible to troubleshoot an automation that is acting up and if a device dies it’s impossible to easily replace the device.
IOW, they tried to make it easier for new people but it had the very real effect of making it harder for those same users if something goes wrong or if the user needs help from the forum with troubleshooting.
it was a perfect example of the laws of unintended consequences
