Changing device type?

I've been searching a bit, but can't find anything specific about this...

Is it possible to change the base type of a device? Say that my Devices.xml file defines a specific device as type "relay", but during configuration I figure out that it really needs to be type "dimmer". Can I change it somehow? Or go the other way instead?

My understanding is that you cannot - I posted a similar question a year or two ago and the response was to create a new device type and migrate from the old to the new that once it's set it cannot be changed if the user has saved devices. I think it was Matt that had said that, theoretically, you could change it but that it wouldn't really do anything without redefining the device.

[jay (support)]

Have you considered using a DeviceFactory?

Have you considered using a DeviceFactory?

I think that would work. Thanks.

Sorry, I thought it was for something that was already there not for a new yet-to-be published plugin device.

Actually, now I'm not sure it'll work.

It appears that the <DeviceFactory> supersedes all the <Device> entries in the XML. That is, if you have a <DeviceFactory>, then all device creation has to be through the factory methods. I'm adding one new <Device> to my plugin, and there are already a bunch of existing devices. This one new device has the type that's discovered during configuration.

[jay (support)]

Ah, yes, if you have existing devices which you don't want to move the creation process into the DeviceFactory dialog then that's a problem. Currently you can't mix and match DeviceFactory and non-factory devices.