Division of Labor

The cloud connected device paradigm consists of a Service Manager and Device Handlers. The purpose of this guide is to introduce you to the core concepts of cloud connected device development, and provide some examples to help you get started.

Service-Manager Responsibilities

The service manager is responsible for the discovery of the devices. It sends out a request to a third party cloud and parses through the response, finding just the devices you are looking for. Upon discovery, it allows you to add device(s) that it has found. From there, it saves your connection to be able to make future interactions with the device.

Device Handler Responsibilities

The device handler is responsible for creating and receiving device specific messages, and allowing them to work within the SmartThings infrastructure. It takes in a SmartApp specific command and outputs device specific commands to be passed to the cloud. It also allows you to subscribe to responses from the device and trigger other commands as needed.

How It All Works

The following depiction gives a general overview of how a cloud connected device works. Take note of the Service Manager and Device Handler. We will dive into how to build these next.