# User's choice of status indicator doesn't work **URL:** \ **Category:** Developers\ **Tags:** app, supportrequest\ **Created:** [July 7, 2024, 9:07pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548 "2024-07-07T21:07:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![johnnyDrama](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/johnnydrama/32/80488_2.png) [@johnnyDrama](https://community.homey.app/u/johnnyDrama)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 9:07pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/1 "2024-07-07T21:07:43Z")
Hi, I’m trying to build my first Homey app. I’ve successfully added capabilities that show up on the list of “Status indicator” in the Settings for the device. However, even though I change the setting, the icon still just shows a black circle with a dash, and not the value for the capability that I chose. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/e/c/ece3fe447b68238e0bf0a1d5451ab4470f834a03.png) Any tips what I might be doing wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Kawa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/peter_kawa/32/173848_2.png) [@Peter\_Kawa](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Kawa)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 11:01pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/2 "2024-07-07T23:01:45Z")
1: thermostat devices show the target temperature by default as special status indicator, not user settable You seem to have built half a thermostat, you probably have to add the target temperature to the device, then it’ll show the value in the black circle: > ![Screenshot_20240708-005719_Chrome](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/3/0/30fd5de303f88a34217da4ccbb4e2c0cb471fd68.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![johnnyDrama](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/johnnydrama/32/80488_2.png) [@johnnyDrama](https://community.homey.app/u/johnnyDrama)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2024, 4:59am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/3 "2024-07-08T04:59:35Z")
Thanks Peter for your quick reply! That’s sad that (1) Athom has limited this possibility for Thermostats, (2) they do not inform the developer about this limitation, and (3) they haven’t then also disabled the setting of choosing status indicator for thermostats. This breaks the user experience as well as the developer experience in my opinion ☹ . Maybe I’ll have to not make it a thermostat then, even though it is (we’ll, it’s a heat pump…) Either way, I actually have implemented the target temperature also. The values show together in the thermostat UI component, but the number doesn’t show up in the status indicator. So even this expected behavior doesn’t seem to work for some reason. However, writing my reply to your reply made me go back and look at the [device class reference](https://apps-sdk-v3.developer.homey.app/tutorial-device-classes.html) and it seems like they have actually added a device class for heat pumps now! That’s great, I’m going to try this and see if it solves my problem! Thank you so much @Peter_Kawa! Still…if anyone from Athom reads this…I would love for the documentation to be a bit more thorough so that these kinds of limitations/consequences were transparent. ---
**Author:** ![johnnyDrama](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/johnnydrama/32/80488_2.png) [@johnnyDrama](https://community.homey.app/u/johnnyDrama)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2024, 5:05am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/6 "2024-07-08T05:05:15Z")
Hmm…except of course…that my Homey Pro cannot update to 12.0.0, and thus does not support the `heatpump` class ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Dijker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Dijker](https://community.homey.app/u/Dijker)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2024, 5:15am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/7 "2024-07-08T05:15:36Z")
It does support `thermostat` ! Not the `heatpump >=12.0.0` That would be an improvement for the next gen firmware for Homey… ---
**Author:** ![johnnyDrama](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/johnnydrama/32/80488_2.png) [@johnnyDrama](https://community.homey.app/u/johnnyDrama)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2024, 5:19am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/8 "2024-07-08T05:19:30Z")
Exactly! Sorry, I had made a typo… I am currently using `thermostat`, but then the status indicator doesn’t work correctly. So my thought was to try to use `heatpump` (since the app I’m building is for a heat pump 🙂), but then I noticed that 12.0.0 hasn’t been released yet. So now I just have to wait for it I guess…which is frustrating since I can’t find any info on when it will be released. Will it take days or months? Or years? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Kawa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/peter_kawa/32/173848_2.png) [@Peter\_Kawa](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Kawa)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2024, 4:33pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/9 "2024-07-08T16:33:46Z")
YW, Johnny! > [@johnnyDrama](#): > > (1) Athom has limited this possibility for Thermostats, (2) they do not inform the developer about this limitation, (1) Yes, probably it’s because of the vision. A thermostat is recognizable, the circle colors red/black/blue for heating/off/cooling. They did not want “everything” to be adjustable for the users apparently. Imho they should for instance release the status indicator lock, when “Power User” is enabled, to give one the freedom of owning a Homey. (2) I’m no developer and I knew somehow. But after 4 years of ‘Homeying’ I’m under the impression there’s many loose ends in the documentation. You can report improvements @ github, but I see [you’ve found it](https://github.com/athombv/homey-apps-sdk-issues/issues/351) already > [@johnnyDrama](#): > > Still…if anyone from Athom reads this…I would love for the documentation to be a bit more thorough so that these kinds of limitations/consequences were transparent. I’d report this to the issue tracker as well, and to support: homey.app/support (Don’t expect too much) > [@johnnyDrama](#): > > (3) they haven’t then also disabled the setting of choosing status indicator for thermostats. From a user’s POV it’s disabled: > ![Screenshot_20240708-180252_Homey](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/3/c/3c700a45a69ac39aea5f43c3588aadfa61fc73d4.jpeg) > [@johnnyDrama](#): > > when it will be released. Will it take days or months? Or years? Usually Athom says: soon™ ---
**Author:** ![johnnyDrama](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/johnnydrama/32/80488_2.png) [@johnnyDrama](https://community.homey.app/u/johnnyDrama)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 5:28am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/10 "2024-07-09T05:28:12Z")
Thanks a gain @Peter_Kawa for giving me a quick intro into the Homey culture and how to (perhaps) get progress on things 🙂 . Do you know if GitHub is the place to also suggest new/improved features? > [@Peter\_Kawa](#): > > From a user’s POV it’s disabled Only that it’s not in the Web App…which led to my countless number of hours trying to understand what I’m doing wrong…but I’ve reached the conclusion that it’s a bug in the Web App unfortunately…hopefully if/when they fix that bug the status indicator will at least show what it’s intended to show - the target temperature… ---
**Author:** ![RonnyW](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/ronnyw/32/10879_2.png) [@RonnyW](https://community.homey.app/u/RonnyW)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 5:41am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/11 "2024-07-09T05:41:24Z")
The Status indicator only allows numeric or alarm capabilities. Some built in indicators like Thermostate (based on capabilities measure\_temperature and target\_temperature, not based on device class!) or Lights (dim capability) are used automatically. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Kawa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/peter_kawa/32/173848_2.png) [@Peter\_Kawa](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Kawa)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 5:45am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/12 "2024-07-09T05:45:14Z")
YW again. > [@johnnyDrama](#): > > Only that it’s not in the Web App Ah, now I see! I didn’t know about this new web app functionality, thought is was something from your app you wrote 🤣 As far as I knew, the status indicator (and icon) never could be edited through the web app, only mobile app. That’s why I didn’t get it. Now I see it’s indeed possible to edit these item per web app as well. Yeah for thermostats we can change anything for status indicator, but indeed it doesn’t change, and no warning whatsoever. A bit typical for Athom: we’re ought to find the errors & bugs, and so you did 🥴😬 As I noticed @ github issues, this behaviour is indeed marked as “bug” already. ---
**Author:** ![johnnyDrama](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/johnnydrama/32/80488_2.png) [@johnnyDrama](https://community.homey.app/u/johnnyDrama)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 6:08am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/13 "2024-07-09T06:08:33Z")
> [@RonnyW](#): > > Some built in indicators like Thermostate (based on capabilities measure\_temperature and target\_temperature, not based on device class!) or Lights (dim capability) are used automatically. Yeah, it’s only that 1. I can’t seem to find any documentation around these automatic behaviors, so how am I supposed to know about them? 2. In the app I’m trying to build, the automatic number isn’t shown, I just get a dash, as can be seen in my original post. And since the automatic behavior isn’t described anywhere (at least that I’ve been able to find), I have no idea what is wrong, and thus how to fix it ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Kawa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/peter_kawa/32/173848_2.png) [@Peter\_Kawa](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Kawa)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 1:03pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/14 "2024-07-09T13:03:59Z")
Can you show the devices’ capabilities, when you search for it here: [https://tools.developer.homey.app/tools/devices](https://tools.developer.homey.app/tools/devices) I’m looking for an overview like: > ![Screenshot_20240709-145046_Chrome](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/d/f/df94989e29e4458f2e67026f5578692e7d7a9b46.jpeg) Was Support able to point to the information you’d like to find? You can also ask in the developer channel at Slack. Join the Homey channel, > ![Screenshot_20240709-151403_Slack](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/f/f/ffb97769bc26cdb72763a3c79abedffff474e507.jpeg) and look for `#developers` (And you’re not the only one:) > ![Screenshot_20240709-150145_Slack](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/c/4/c4031366ac051acb273851d2613e8769322b7bdd.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![RonnyW](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/ronnyw/32/10879_2.png) [@RonnyW](https://community.homey.app/u/RonnyW)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 8:21pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/15 "2024-07-09T20:21:05Z")
If you added both capabilities, do they have a numeric value? If one of measure\_temperature or target\_temperature has no value, the Thermostate state keeps Black because Homey can’t compare to show Orange or blue. And the dash seems to be an empty capability. ---
**Author:** ![johnnyDrama](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/johnnydrama/32/80488_2.png) [@johnnyDrama](https://community.homey.app/u/johnnyDrama)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 9:45pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/16 "2024-07-09T21:45:41Z")
> [@Peter\_Kawa](#): > > Can you show the devices’ capabilities, when you search for it here: > [Homey Developer Tools](https://tools.developer.homey.app/tools/devices) Cool! Thanks for pointing me to this! I hadn’t found this page yet 🙂 Here you go! ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/d/1/d1a0617a2cd04c93d7fa3be188f7e466bafdd48e.png) I guess my issue with the dash could be that I’m only using sub-capabilities and the number might only use the main capability? [3 min later] Yep, that was it! The status indicator will only show the main capability `target_temperature`. So Athom is basically forcing me to write code that is difficult to understand, since I have a bunch of temperatures to measure and set in my heat pump. Let’s see how this new `heatpump` class turns out… Thanks (again) @Peter_Kawa for pointing me in the right direction to figure this out! You’re a star, and you should be paid by Athom because in my opinion you’re doing their job 😉 > [@Peter\_Kawa](#): > > Was Support able to point to the information you’d like to find? Nope! Support only replies that it seems to be a dev question and support doesn’t give support on dev questions. They referred to GitHub, and also mentioned the Slack channel. > [@Peter\_Kawa](#): > > (And you’re not the only one:) Oh no! So not even the class `other` will work? ☹ I’ll see how this plays out…maybe I’ll go back to Hubitat where the devs are engaged in the community forums and would totally fix these kind of things . ---
**Author:** ![johnnyDrama](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/johnnydrama/32/80488_2.png) [@johnnyDrama](https://community.homey.app/u/johnnyDrama)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 9:48pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/17 "2024-07-09T21:48:50Z")
Thanks for the ideas @RonnyW ! It could definitely have been the case, but actually I figured it out. The dash was due to the fact that I only had sub capabilities. I didn’t use the actual `target_temperature` main capability. Your comment, in combination with Peter’s comment below helped me figure this out! So thanks a lot!! The colors actually worked, I just didn’t know what they meant (since again, I believer they are not documented anywhere…) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Kawa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/peter_kawa/32/173848_2.png) [@Peter\_Kawa](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Kawa)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 10:15pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/users-choice-of-status-indicator-doesnt-work/112548/18 "2024-07-09T22:15:20Z")
No problem, Johnny, and you’re too kind. > [@johnnyDrama](#): > > could be that I’m only using sub-capabilities and the number might only use the main capability? [3 min later] Yep, that was it! Sounds logical, for class `thermostat`. But, hold tight: I took a peek at [OTGW MQTT app](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-opentherm-gateway-mqtt/77190) by Robin, it’s just possible to use multiple thermostats using only sub-capabilities. But, you’d use the class `other`, and now you can use the status indicator as you wish (now it’s not trying to ‘be’ a thermostat class) > ![Screenshot from 2024-07-10 00-20-20](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/9/5/959022372fe93abe9d8c321ea1c13b03adaa5aed.png) > ![Screenshot from 2024-07-10 00-20-57](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/5/5/55b825c6ba294a8b1efe4fcc5cd084d395ed5dd6.png) > ![Screenshot from 2024-07-10 00-07-55](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/a/9/a992c18804ec6fcad9444cccfd66bb53baa6fa03.png) > ![Screenshot from 2024-07-10 00-09-15](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/2/0/207f015d41c443d44c7bc078f17863b3011d1cd0.png)