Introducing the Sandbox Simulate Feature

Introducing the Sandbox Simulate Feature

This week, we’re releasing a new set of simulate endpoints to enable you to simulate interactions and events with sandbox devices. The Seam sandbox is a special type of workspace where you can interact with virtual devices. These devices mimic very closely their real-world counterparts, which means that you can create device integration features without ever needing to own real devices. In fact, we’re often told that our sandbox is one of the best features in the Seam platform.

One limitation of virtual sandbox devices though is that you can’t physically interact with them to recreate real-world operating conditions, such as the Wi-Fi going out or someone unlocking a door. Furthermore, some conditions can be difficult to simulate even on real devices, like triggering a low-battery event.

Today, we’re making our sandbox even more powerful by introducing the first three endpoints to simulate specific conditions.

• devices/simulate/disconnect
• devices/simulate/connect
• devices/simulate/remove

For now, these endpoints are only available on Yale and August sandbox devices. However, our plan is to add them to more device types over time, as well as to introduce new endpoints, like door unlocking, low battery, and so on.

The following JavaScript example shows how to simulate disconnecting a device:

JavaScriptCopy
1// Get the device.
2const device = await seam.devices.get({
3  device_id: "11111111-1111-1111-1111-444444444444"
4});
5
6// Confirm that Seam supports simulated disconnection for the device.
7if (device.can_simulate_disconnection) {
8  // Perform the simulated disconnection.
9  await seam.devices.simulate.disconnect({
10    device_id: device.device_id
11  })
12};

For details, see our docs.

2024.10.04 Changelog

New

• New thermostat.manually_adjusted and thermostat.climate_preset_activated events: We added new events to report when a thermostat climate setting changes, either due to a scheduled climate preset becoming active or because something has changed on the device itself. We're introducing these events as a preview so that you can test while we continue to fine-tune them.

• Simulation capability flags: To accompany our new simulate feature, we’ve added the following capability flags to show you which sandbox devices support these simulate endpoints:

  • device.can_simulate_disconnection
  • device.can_simulate_connection
  • device.can_simulate_removal

  For more information about capability flags, see our docs.

• Climate preset management in Seam Console: You can now create and manage climate presets in the Seam Console.

• Climate preset scheduling in Seam Console: You can now create and manage climate schedules in the Seam Console.

Fixes

• August/Yale access code sync: We fixed an issue that prevented access codes from being synced with August and Yale devices.