Device Definition

Overview

The driver definition provides the Hubitat Elevation hub with information about a Driver you wish to install. The format is slightly different from an App as the definition must appear inside of a metadata block. Additionally it allows you to define the capabilities, commands, and attributes associated with the driver.

Structure

metadata {
    definition(
        ...
    ) {
        ...
    }
}

Entries

author - The author of this driver

description - A text description of the app that is displayed in the popup when the 'Add User App button is clicked

importUrl - The URL where the Groovy code for this app can be found

name - The name of the app

namespace - The namespace within which the Groovy class for the application will be stored

Capabilities

A device driver can provide one or more capabilities. Capabilities are defined by the Hubitat environment. When you specify that a driver supports a specific capability, you must also implement any commands it requires. The list of supported capabilities can be found on the Driver Capability List

Syntax

capability "Capability Name"

Fingerprints

Fingerprints provide a way for you to tell Hubitat how to identify a Zigbee or ZWave device based on certain properties and characteristics of the device.

Zigbee

Syntax

fingerprint profileId: "profileId", inClusters: "clusters", outClusters: "clusters", manufacturer: "manufacturerId", model: "modelId", deviceJoinName: "name"

Zwave

Syntax

fingerprint deviceId: "id", inClusters: "clusters", outClusters: "clusters", mfr: "manufacturerId", prod: "productTypeId", deviceJoinName: "name"

Commands

Sometimes you will work with a device that has a command that does not exist in one of the existing capabilities. Hubitat gives you the ability to define custom commands to support these scenarios. Commands can also have parameters allowing you to define how data is passed to the command.

Parameters

parameters - a list of the parameters to pass to the command. Each parameter is, itself, a map that defines details about the parameter. See below for information on defining parameters.

Defining Parameters

The simplest way of defining parameters is to just specify a list of types. The parameters can be of type string, number, date, enum, and json_object. When specified as a list of types, no validation is performed.

An example of this simple format is:

command "myCommand", ["string", "number"]

An expanded format also exists that allows you to provide more details about the parameter such as its name, whether or not it is required, and in the case of an enum, the available values. In this mode each parameter is specified as a map with the following entries:

name - The name of the parameter. If the name ends with an asterisk (*) the parameter is considered required.

type - The type of the parameter which can be any of STRING, NUMBER, DATE, ENUM, JSON_OBJECT, or COLOR_MAP. Note that a driver can only have a single command that accepts a COLOR_MAP.

description - The description of the parameter that is shown in the tooltip when you hover over the parameter.

constraints - A list of the valid options for an ENUM

Syntax

command "commandName"

command "commandName", parameters

Attributes

Sometimes you will work with a device that has an attribute that does not exist in one of the existing capabilities. Hubitat gives you the ability to define custom attributes to support these scenarios.

Syntax

attribute "AttributeName", "type"

attribute "EnumAttribute", "enum", values

Parameters

type - The type of the attribute. This can be string, number, or enum.

values - If the type is enum, you must also provide a Groovy list of values that the enum accepts.

Example

definition(
    name: "My First Driver",
    namespace: "myfirstdriver",
    author: "John Smith"
) {
    capability "Actuator"
    capability "Switch"

    command "myCommand"

    attribute "myAttribute", "string"
    attribute "enumAttribute", "enum", ["value 1, "value 2"]
}