Making Automations are hard now. For anyone that has been making automations for years, the things we need are buried behind 10 clicks now. Is anyone happy about this?
I prefer writing/typing code. But since you asked: I liked the old, simple automation editor and used it quite often. I don’t use the current version.
What’s been done is to help new people understand the things that we already know.
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The only thing that makes it usable is the search bar… that will save you 3-4 clicks and a bunch of scrolling around.
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I like the changes. They aren’t perfect but for the most part the changes have been for the better IMO.
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I dislike the new ui, but have started using the search bar and it actually reduced the amount of clicks.
So it really is 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. While the new UI for us legacy users is somewhat obtrusive the search functionality has made it even faster.
I also dislike the UI.
Here’s how I don’t use it:
The UI puts UI-generated automations into config/automations. But all of my automations are manually created. My solution was to create a new folder, config/manual_automations, and move all of my yaml files there.
In configuration.yaml, I added the lines:
automation: !include gui/automations.yaml # this is only for GUI-Automations, do not touch this file!
automation manual: !include_dir_merge_list manual_automations/
If I ever use the UI to make any managed automation, it will now go into the folder config/gui.
IMO this is being done to prioritize the new ways ans to hide the old ways. (not eliminate the old ways, but make them harder so that they eventually are not as popular)
I have come to this conclusion due to the anecdotal evidence of the last couple of years of all the state triggers being buried several menus down while the device_id stuff on the top with a side note suggesting this is the way. It continues with this arrangement of the menu. I tried to use it yesterday and about gave up. However if you are a noob, have no idea what you want or how to do it and you click your random thoughts, it will do things.
IMO (that of an HA noob with some HA experience) that the GUI also needs documentation. It is not self documented. Each term in the GUI needs to have an entry in a glossary/dictionary which describes the function of that term. Better yet, a tiny-“i”-in-a-circle icon that pops up the definition. Or even a mouse hover.
This GUI, because it is in its infancy, can’t do many things that are better done in template. Thus templating and its tools (eg. template editor … settings–>developer tools–>template) need links/popups/hover to appropriate documentation.
Not that it is, but the GUI should not be constrained by any [computer] language (eg. indentation)’
Yes, doing that is a lot of work. The community is here to help. My experience is that code writers are notoriously lazy and/or are unable to express how their code works. There could be a whole forum like thing where the code writer presents the code and articulate community members write the documentation. Of course, there would have to be documentation on how to write documentation.
The reason I like what they’ve done is because when I add a device, I just copy the device id then go to create an automation, paste the name of the device in the search and it shows me all the different triggers that I can use with it. Again, this isn’t perfect, there is a bit of config that needs to be done to make sure its in the area I want, or that its a garage door or regular door or whatever. But once all that is done it’s really easy to make automations. For me it skips the step of searching for call service, then searching for the device.
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