🎥 Flows 1: Anatomy of a Flow
Flows are how AVA OS does automation.
This video arms you with the knowledge you need for tapping into their full potential.
Transcript
Introduction
Behind this Flow icon for Roku is a package of logic that is more than just a mere macro.
By opening Settings and going to Flows…
You can see that the Guest Room has 3 Flows.
Two are hidden, one is showing…the Roku flow.
A tap on the Roku Flow…
…reveals its menu.
These are the main parts of a Flow.
Rename / Change Icon
Every Flow has a name and Icon.
Since I really like Roku, I will swap the current Video icon for the Roku icon
(That’s not necessary for customers who don’t know what a Roku is.)
Customize Slides
Slides are the user interfaces that show on the remote’s touch screen when a Flow is active, giving you secondary controls to supplement the primary controls on the Dynamic Keypad.
Slides are a whole subtopic of their own, so watch for videos on Slides to get the complete picture.
For right now, just know that Slides one are part of a Flow.
Edit Launch & Edit Power Off
The Launch and Power Off are the parts of a Flow that work like macros.
Looking at the Launch, you can see each of the steps AVA OS takes to activate this Flow.
- Power on the TV, Roku, and AVR
- Then wait for the devices to power up so they can accept other commands.
- Then switch inputs as needed.
- Then set which device controls volume.
- And finally, show the user interface Slides for Roku on the touch screen.
These steps were all generated automatically during setup.
They don’t require changes, but let’s consider one that could make sense.
The length of the “Wait” step here comes in a little longer for certain devices.
Once you know that your devices reliably turn on faster, you can tune to a shorter interval.
But 5 seconds on my system is pretty quick.
So I’ll leave it there.
The Power Off was also automatically generated.
It has the steps you would expect for turning off my Roku flow.
Again, both of the Launch and Power Off can be modified, but you rarely need to.
AVA OS does a lot of work for you.
Duplicate
But, Duplicate lends us a ready example for where we might want to modify a Flow…especially for a Roku.
Roku allows direct commands for starting a streaming app, like Netflix.
So, as an example, if I duplicate the Roku flow…
You can see the duplicate added to the Room’s Flows.
I’ll rename it to Netflix…
…and pick the Netflix icon.
It looks better now, but the Launch still needs a step for going beyond Roku and opening Netflix.
So I Add a step…
For sending a command…
…to the Roku…
and the command is to open Netflix.
and just to keep the logic in good order…I’ll sort …
to move the Netflix step to happen before showing the slide for Roku on the touch screen.
Now I have a Flow icon that gets me straight to Netflix.
Duplicating a Flow is also really handy when you want to test changes to a working Flow without breaking the original.
Summary
There is more to learn about Flows but now you have the basics.
A name and icon…
Slides that provide the touch screen interface…
Sequences for Launch and Power Off…
And the ability to Duplicate a Flow.