Virtual Buttons NS

Trigger Alexa Routines with your Polisy or eisy

Welcome to the Virtual Buttons Node Server (Virtual Buttons NS). If you've never heard of Universal Devices, their wonderful home automation systems, or the powerful Polyglot 3 (PG3) node server framework, then you are in the wrong place. Feel free to close this page.

Now that that's settled, you're probably wondering what the heck does the Virtual Buttons node server (Virtual Buttons NS) do and why might you want it. First, however, let's discuss why you probably don't want it...

Why you don't want Virtual Buttons NS

You don't own an Alexa device or a Polisy / eisy
You have a Portal account and are happy with how well it triggers Alexa Routines
You have more than one Alexa Routine you want to trigger with your Polisy / eisy but despise subscription fees

Why you might want Virtual Buttons NS

You are an existing Virtual Buttons user
You like how surprisingly responsive Virtual Buttons are at triggering Alexa Routines
You don't mind creating a Patreon account and contributing a bit of money if you need more than one Virtual Button

Want to Learn More?

To learn more about the underlying Virtual Buttons Alexa skill, please visit www.VirtualButtons.com

One very useful feature of the Virtual Buttons NS is that it lets you name buttons using the ISY Admin Console where you can then push those names to Alexa. Non node-server users can't do that yet; they are restricted to the generic names Virtual Button 01, Virtual Button 02, and so on.

Installation

Follow the instructions found here to enable the Virtual Buttons Alexa skill
- IMPORTANT NOTE: You do not have to join a membership level to use Virtual Buttons.
  You only need to subscribe if you want more than one button.
Copy the access code from the email you receive from the Virtual Buttons skill
Backup Your ISY in case of problems!
- Really, do the backup, please
Go to the Polyglot Store and install the VirtualButtons node server
Wait for Polyglot to tell you VirtualButtons has been installed and is connected
Go to the Polyglot Dashboard, click on VirtualButtons' Details button, then click Configuration
If you want to be able to rename your buttons, check the Allow ISY Access by Plugin box under the Advanced Configuration section
Scroll down to the Custom Configurations Parameters section and paste your Virtual Buttons access code into the accessCode "Value" field; then click Save Changes.
Restart the ISY Admin Console

If everything goes as planned, you should see something like this, with one Virtual Button XX node for every button you own:

And here is what you see when you click on a Virtual Button node:

Just click Push Button to trigger the associated Alexa Routine. You can also trigger this button from a program, of course.

Controller Options

When you open the Virtual Buttons Controller in your Admin Console, you'll notice there are two buttons you can select -- Discover Buttons and Push Button Names to Alexa.

Here's what each button does...

Discover Buttons

Select this anytime you change your Virtual Buttons membership level in Patreon. Clicking Discover Buttons tells the ISY to discover any newly added or removed buttons.

Push Button Names to Alexa

If you rename any of your Virtual Buttons to something other than the default Virtual Button XX, you'll want Alexa to know about it so she'll use the same names when listing Virtual Buttons in her Smart Home Devices list. To do this, select Push Button Names to Alexa once you are done renaming things. A minute or so after you've pressed this button, it's best to encourage Alexa to discover the new names by telling her, "Alexa, discover my devices." If you skip this last step, it could take up to a day for Alexa to figure things out.

This ISY-exclusive feature requires that you check the Allow ISY Access by Plugin box under the Advanced Configuration section:

Requirements

Polyglot V3.0.54 or later
ISY firmware 5.3.x or later
Virtual Buttons skill (www.VirtualButtons.com)

Release Notes

1.0.0 01/27/2022
- Released upon the world
1.6.1 03/30/2022
- Fixed a problem with Custom Parameters not working under new PG3 release
- Fixed a button naming issue

MIT License for Virtual Buttons NS

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.