Best method? Using AND-criteria VS disabling flows

Hello

Is disabling the flows a way to go when you don’t want a flow to run, or should you stick to using the criteria in AND to decide whether the flow should continue?

I am trying to decide upon a method to use in my flows where the trigger is often being activated.


Illustrative example

Alt. 1
1 Motion sensor active → AND the lock is locked → THEN Unlock

Alt 2.
1-1. Motion sensor active → AND … → THEN Unlock + Disable the flow

1-2. The lock is locked → THEN Enable the flow 1-1


Is something to be gained from using alt. 2? Especially if the particular trigger is often activated, or even used as a trigger in many other flows (i.e. motion or door sensors).
Does it make other (enabled) flows run faster?
For me it looks like you could

  • spare Homey for some computing time if unnecessary flows are OFF?
  • have a fewer flows in total (in some cases).

But does it make a difference, though?

Thanks.

DzT

I would choose option 1 it’s much easier to read and manage. Personally, I never use enable or disabling a flow other than for testing/development purposes.

If flows are more complex you can also use setting and validating variables

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Option 2 will save a bit of processing time but is harder to maintain in the future when you have forgotten what can disable and enable flows.
So it’s just down to personal preferences.

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So, good to know that there is no concrete advice against the use of one or the other. I wanted to check if the latter maybe was considered a no-no in the programing circles. :slight_smile:
I agree with the use of validating variables as @Matrean suggested, but I do disable some flows with triggers that are used to start more than a few flows (mostly sensors or time activated/every X minutes).
I’m using flow comments app and log to keep track of so called switch flows toggling flows on and off.

Thanks guys!

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