Convert "old" flow to advanced

I tried searching for this, but couldn’t find anything - either I’m the first wise man, or nobody else has seen the need for it. Must be the first option :thinking::rofl:

Anyway - is there an [relatively] easy to convert a flow to advanced? Several of my flows can be optimized, but I don’t really want to to it manually, if I can do it automatically :slight_smile:

Unfortunately the only way is manually.

Thanks. I was afraid of that. Kind of strange, really, as it should be pretty easy to just create a sequential advanced flow with the same name.

Ok, guess I’ll have something to do over the weekend :wink:

Yeah, but that would give you no benefit for AF. You have to rebuild and optimize the flow for AF to benefit from the advantages.

Manual only but don’t be afraid of it. It’s a chance to reexamine your flows and maybe rethink them considering the new abilities with Advanced flow. Bear in mind that while you can have many flows on one canvas if the flows start with a Start button then just have one per canvas

@ronnyw and @Philip_Montgomery

It’s just easier to get all the devices over. One of them has a LOT of devices in it, so…reorganizing is a given as I want to add functionality, but I’m just afraid of forgetting something :slight_smile:

Ah well, that is a bit more of a chore. Easiest thing to do is to not delete your old flows but copy the elements as you migrate, delete them when copied and that way you end up working through all your devices. The advanced flows are far superior for visualising and you will find yourself changing how you structure your flows, you will also likely end up with far fewer flows.
Out of curiosity what “lots of devices” do you use one one flow?

The largest one is probably the “night mode”, which turns off all lights, adjusts thermostats, locks doors, sets the cameras in night mode etc etc. It more or less interact with all devices, including some not in Homey’s network (via API calls). The API calls will be even more work, as I will need to copy addresses and json data etc…

True, but NOT when one uses the “Start flow X with a text/bool/num value”, with different values.
That way one can start any “subflow” on the canvas :wink: and “unlimited”

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I have a Goodnight flow a bit like that, turns off lights, checks that outside roller doors are closed, turns off various other devices. I don’t have need to json etc though, depends on your device manufacturer of choice of course. Copy and paste will take a bit longer, still worth it though

I know and use these a lot in advanced flows. Pre AF days I had a lot of flows that started with “when this flow starts”, they were favourited and then used via google assistant. When converting to AF I had to create some extra very simple canvases to maintain this. All works though, and I honestly think it works faster as well.

Ah okay. It sounded a bit like ‘that it was a big disadvantage’ :wink:

:joy: Friendly fire incident. All good. I LOVE advanced flows, I don’t have any old flows anymore.
The start arrow is not a disadvantage, just something to be aware of

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I have made something for myself, it uses a PHP file that runs on a web server of mine. It can convert a single flow, or a complete folder (I chose not to include sub folders).

What it does, it requires the bearer token from Homey, and it will get the JSON file of the selected flow(s). I wrote a script that converts the trigger, conditions and actions cards, and adds the ‘any’’ and ‘all’ cards, wherever necessary, to match the logic of the standard flow. After the conversion is done, I use CURL to POST the flow(s) to Homey.

In case a whole folder is converted, they are put directly into 1 advanced flow, and from there I can shuffle all the cards, and maybe delete some if there are duplicate triggers for example.

It’s maybe a little too difficult for someone without PHP experience, but it might be helpful. Let me know if I should share it or not.

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Hi Dyan,

I’m very interested, and probably @Arie_J_Godschalk as well.

Well, to be honest: no not really (for apps at least).
I already created a (partial) script a while ago, that combine’s default flows into a advanced flow (well, it creates a script to run in the WebApi).

But i found so many reasons to not do that.
F.i. deprecated cards will be copied, so you keep the deprecated cards.
Old (now hidden) values will be keept, keeping my head spinning with old bugs etc.
Personally, for me it’s about coping my large flows: but there all HOOP, so there is just no point to copy it to AF unless i remove the HOOP cards (still not done :wink: ).

So, i personally think that, for me at least, it’s a waist of time to develop and maintain a conversion script.
The benefit would be so little and not what i really want: It save’s me a little thinking of which cards to use but keeps the old logic.

I just keep the default flows as default flows. Only the complex-multi-flows i converted, but those are always a rewrite imho.
And when i convert simple-single-flows, i think recreating the few cards takes me less time then going into multiple app settings (or something similair).

Ofc. if someone creates a convertiontool which works good and i don’t need to maintain, i might ofc use it for a few flows :wink:

But for myself i have decided a while ago to, not create and maintain a conversion script; i’ve got enough other scripts/apps to focus my attention on.

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