[ANSWERED]validatePrefsConfigUi() Question

It seems like changes to config prefs are being written out after validatePrefsConfigUi is called, which leaves me with some behavior that I'm struggling with.

In validatePrefsConfigUi(), I test for

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len(THING) == 0

and get THING through

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self.pluginPrefs.get('THING', None)

for the test.

If a user opens the plugin config dialog and deletes THING, they can save out no problem (doesn't fail the len() test.) But next time the go in and repopulate THING, it fails the len() test even though THING is no longer empty.

Is this behavior because I'm getting the value of THING from pluginPrefs.get()? Can I pull the value from the dialog field itself?

Thanks,
Dave

Try something like:

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        if "THING" in valuesDict:
           self.thing = valuesDict["THING"]
        else:
            self.thing = "<YOUR DEFAULT>"  # Normally equal to value you set in the pluginConf.xml

      # self.thing now contains preference value for THING


I think your code

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self.pluginPrefs.get('THING', None)

would normally be executed outside of the validatePrefsConfigUi when something wants the value.

Hopefully I am correct in this

Looks like that did the trick.

I already pass valuesDict to validatePrefsConfigUi(), so this works a treat:

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THING = valuesDict['THING']

Thank you!

Good to hear it is working for you

As I understand it, the advantage / benefit of checking if the value exists in valuesDict and setting a default if it doesn't is that it allows you to add to the config in the future without having to insist that an existing user of the plugin has to go into the plugin config to ensure the value is created in order to avoid getting a plugin run-time error

That's my understanding too--which is why I think I was trying to use it whenever possible...

[jay (support)]

Correct - the validate*ConfigUi() methods are called before the values passed in valuesDict from the actual dialog get stored into the self.pluginPrefs dictionary. This gives you the opportunity to validate user input and, as was pointed out, insert prefs into pluginPrefs that you don't necessarily need to collect from the user (though there are other ways to do that as well).

Thanks Jay!

Hey,

hopefully it is ok to extend the thread. I still dont get it, is it possible to save any new value to the pluginProps in any of the validate*Ui methods? I tried several ways without luck, like

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def validateDeviceConfigUi(self, valuesDict, typeId, devId):
        errorDict = indigo.Dict()
   ....
        valuesDict["myNewValue"] = "whatever"
   ----
        if len(errorDict):
            return False, valuesDict, errorDict

        return True, valuesDict

Also the replacePluginPropsOnServer do not work...

It would be a pity to go through the way to store it via self.myNewValue as then I have to store it later in deviceStartComm() to the pluginProps..

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Ben

[matt (support)]

Hi Ben,

No, the valuesDict passed into the validate method (and returned by the validate method) isn't quite the same as pluginProps in that (adding new elems) regard. A future version of Indigo will probably improve that though.

In the mean time you'll need to store the data in your plugin and call repalcePluginPropsOnServer later (outside the scope of a validate method).

Ok thanks for clarification...

Ben