Centralized custom Service/Characteristic repository

An idea, not sure how best it fits.

When I wrote the homebridge-yamaha platform, I created a custom AudioDeviceService and two custom Characteristics AudioVolume and Muting. Obviously these have application outside of only the Yamaha AVR integration. I thought it would be valuable to consider somehow collecting generally applicable custom Characteristics and making them available on a similar footing as the Apple-standard ones included in HAP-NodeJS. Also in this category are the Eve power usage characteristics, which are apparently being used in the FHEM Homebridge plugin and I want to add them to the Z-Way plugin as well. It seems sensible to attempt to apply DRY and find somewhere to define these reusable characteristics in one place.

By collecting and promoting the use of shared, commonly used Characteristics, we could possibly even set de facto standards that app developers could incorporate–or I suppose even Apple (even if they wouldn’t adopt the UUIDs, the taxonomies of custom Services and Characteristics could provide inspiration–I’d settle for being “Sherlocked”).

Unsure how best to implement this, especially since I’m not sure what HomeKitTypes.js is generated from. A separate GitHub project/repo for this might well make sense, but some hooks would be needed at Hap-NodeJS or Homebridge. It seemed like HAP-NodeJS might be the better place to connect, but whichever is fine with me.

[SphtKr]

Of note, here’s some more use cases: https://github.com/SphtKr/homebridge-itunes/blob/master/HomeKitMediaTypes.js . I’ll be building out the taxonomy for media device controls more and would welcome feedback/suggestions.

[inator]

Hello all -

I think this issue warrants reopening, as there’s a ton of merit in setting up a way to share and use custom homekit types across apps. The simplest approach to me is via separate node module with various type categories as individual methods that can be loaded as required.

I’ll work something up as a proof of concept and share here for comment/participation.