Hello everyone,
As I already wrote in my thread Hello from Germany, I only discovered Gladys two days ago and have already tried everything. From openhab, ioBroker, and for many years Home Assistant (with a brief detour to Homey in between), I thought I had found something with Gladys that works well for my needs. I was also always willing to forgo some functions if everything works well.
General:
- I need something that simply works reliably and I am always willing to invest my expertise and free time to improve existing products. Therefore, in addition to my 2 integrations, I have already created my first PR https://github.com/GladysAssistant/Gladys/pull/3221 in the core.
- With over 250 devices and 2500 entities, as mentioned above, I need something that works. I appreciate the work here by everyone, but I still have the feeling that it is still a bit of a « tinkering solution » in some places. At least for what I want to use it for (more on that below)
- The UI of Gladys is beautiful and I wish I could use it.
- Developing integrations is fun. I have already released my first integration External Integration - FF-Agent and am currently working on the free@home integration by Busch & Jäger
- So far, I have not tested MQTT/Zigbee and Z-Wave yet, as I do not want to simply move my devices blindly, but I think that should not be a problem.
Now the « negative » or what makes it very difficult for me to seriously use Gladys in my home.
- I use several tablets in the house that are mounted on the wall. These are permanently connected to flush-mounted boxes that I can switch smartly. So far, it has been the case that I can keep the battery level between 30 and 70% using automation in HA (because a real Home Assistant app runs there and I can access the device’s sensor data), so that the battery is preserved. If the battery level changes, I check whether it needs to be charged and if so, I simply switch the flush-mounted box on and off again at 70%. With Gladys, this is practically impossible because I do not have access to the device data, such as battery level. Unless I have overlooked something, then please correct me.
- There is already a PR that allows the sidebar to be collapsed. This is essential for such tablets that are mounted in the house, as otherwise they take up unnecessary space
- Since there is no native app, I can also not set a screensaver, for example, and wake the tablet up again when motion is detected (via the built-in tablet camera). An external motion detector also does not help, as I do not have access to the tablet.
- I exclusively use iPads. I have tested other devices, but everything except Apple is too slow, unstable, and simply impractical for me.
- Since there is also no native app, the native status bar of iOS (time, battery level, etc.) cannot be hidden, especially on Apple. This would be possible in native apps.
- The development of widgets or the rules and preferences of what is possible in them is too limited for me. See also External Integration - Worldwide Departure, where you could do really great things, but are technically limited. In my opinion, this has a lot of potential.
- Generally, as a developer, I am unsure whether the Docker approach with integrations (Homey does something similar) is the right one. With individual Docker containers, the required resources increase significantly and quickly with a corresponding number of integrations. Simple solutions like Raspberry Pis or Synologys, if you do not have a bit more power behind them, quickly reach their limits here. My current system has 16GB RAM, and even with 9 integrations, the loading times of the installed integrations and just the listing are already slow, and the execution consumes resources. It’s not that bad yet, just a note.
- The integration into Gladys Plus is solid but not yet fully thought out in terms of UX. Especially when switching systems to test your integrations, I often get stuck in a « stale » status. That is, I am connected, but my Gladys Plus login has not been linked to any user and the system does not notice that either. So I have a status of my Gladys (with external Plus URL) that should not occur because I am authenticated, but I do not have a valid user. In general, I do not find it ideal that you practically need 2 user accounts. Once on the Gladys Plus page and once on my system page, which you then have to link. It would be nice if Gladys Plus only provided the « tunnel, » for example, with a custom domain, and the local user worked out of the box.
- As I also wrote and asked in my post Hello from Germany, I, as a developer, do not really get along with everything being in French. Even now, as a German, I find it very strange to write in German
I am simply used to communicating in English in developer life, especially in international open-source projects. From my point of view, an AI translation also does not help here, because as I said: screenshots remain in French, links as well, discussions in GitHub often too, which then simply feels more like an island solution to me. I understand and appreciate your honesty that the « French are just like that, » but at the same time, it also feels like you want to stay among yourselves and remain that way. Within France, within your own four walls, and scaling and growth beyond national borders is rather undesirable.
These are the things that have come to my attention so far. There is certainly much more when I delve deeper, especially into all the automations I have at home
All in all, I still have to say that it is really great what you have accomplished here. I also see a lot of potential here, even if some « rules » are unclear to me here and there and « processes, » for example, when PRs are merged into the core, under what conditions, etc., are unclear.
It has been fun to play around with it so far and create the one or other integration. I will also complete the other integration, but I believe that at this point in time, Gladys is not yet in a position (unfortunately!!!) to replace my Home Assistant. I will continue to follow the development with hope and, as soon as it is possible, also migrate
Until then, I wish you and especially @pierre-gilles all the best. And if you have any questions, want feedback, or need help with anything, feel free to contact me at any time
). I had looked at HA but, even though I like tinkering, I prefer to focus on applications and not the piece of code to add every time something doesn’t work correctly and which is never fixed.
