Support & Suggestions

PLEASE READ THE ENTIRETY OF THIS PAGE BEFORE REQUESTING SUPPORT

There are two "official" ways to get support:

  1. Start a new topic in the Reactor category on the Vera forums;
  2. Open an issue on Github.

Please search before starting a new forum topic or creating a new Github issue!

When requesting support, please include the following:

  • A clear, sufficiently-detailed explanation of what you are trying to do, how you went about it, and what didn't meet your expectations (also see X-Y Problems below);
  • The output of the "Logic Summary" report — there's a link in the "Troubleshooting" section of the "Tools" tab of your ReactorSensor. Ideally, this report should be generated when the unexpected condition is happening. The summary header includes clear, explicit instructions for how the report should be posted, or how you can send it to me privately if you have a concern about posting it publicly on the forums.

In most cases, please do not post screen shots, unless I ask for them. Screen shots are less useful in troubleshooting than the Logic Summary (Tools tab).

Please do not include Vera or openLuup log files unless I request them from you. They're often very large, and can be inconvenient to move around. There's a lot of information I can use in the Logic Summary, and that is usually sufficient for me to answer your question or resolve your problem.

And for goodness sake, please do not explain your issue with something like this (only): "I was trying to use feature but it didn't work." There's almost nothing there to work with. Please bear in mind that (a) I am not a mind-reader; (b) I am not sitting in front of your screen; and (c) I usually have no idea what you are trying to do, why you are trying to do it, or how you are going about it. When you open a problem report, please include enough information to adequately frame the discussion, to be respectful of both my time and yours. I'm a bit of a curmudgeon, and if you actually open a report/question with something along the lines of the foregoing bad example, I will likely just ignore it for at least 48 hours, just on principle. Remote debugging is difficult, and a team effort. Your most important duty in that effort is to be my hands and eyes, so starting or replying with vague or incomplete information isn't a path to success.

X-Y Problems

An "X-Y Problem" occurs in support communications when a user, in the attempt to solve a problem X, decides that Y is a step toward X, but the user doesn't know how to do Y (or it doesn't work as expected), and so the user asks about how to do Y, never mentioning X. Thus, the real problem X is hidden from the discussion, and Y may not even be a possible or efficient path to X, potentially resulting in an unproductive discussion and time wasted.

When asking for help solving a problem using Reactor, tell me generally what you are trying to accomplish, in addition to asking about any specific steps toward that goal you think you need. That will help me and others make sure you get the best solution possible. There is often more than one way to do things, and knowing as much detail as possible also helps choose the most applicable.

Put another way: always state the problem you need to solve, not just the problem with the solution you are trying to create.

Suggestions

Have a great idea for a feature? Let me know about in the Reactor category on the Vera forums.