Premise Premise for newbies.

"How to build a Premise Home" is a video that demonstrates how Premise Builder is used to quickly define the structure and content of a Home. In less than 8 minutes it demonstrates the following important concepts:

• Premise Builder
  Premise Builder is used to compose a Premise Home.
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• Premise Browser
  Premise Browser automatically displays all objects in the Home.
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• Structure
  A Premise Home is composed of Buildings, Floors, and various "Home" objects such as Lights, Appliances, Security devices, A/V gear, etc.
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• Predefined User-Interface
  Each Home object has a pre-defined user-interface that instantly appears in Premise Browser.
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• Object Properties
  Each Home object has properties that provide status and control. For example, a Light has PowerState (On/Off) and Brightness (0-100%).
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• Binding
  A Home object is virtual and cannot control anything in the physical world until one "binds" it to a device driver. The video demonstrates the simple process of binding several Home objects, such as lights, sensors, and relays, to the CM11A X10 and ELK M1 drivers.
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• OnChange Scripts
  Each property can have an associated command script. When the property's value changes, it will execute the script. For example, a Light can have an "OnChangePowerState" script.
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• Scripting Language
  Premise has a powerful object-oriented scripting language to provide complete programmatic control over all objects. An example demonstrates how to turn off all lights on the First Floor whenever the SecuritySystem is armed in Exit mode.
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• Watch Window
  The Watch window lets you observe the operation of a select group of objects. The lights are dragged into the Watch window so we can conveniently observe their status.
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• Tightly Integrated
  Any property changes in Premise Browser are instantly updated in Builder and vice versa (i.e. no polling).

123, you have become a Premise one man army. And I for one, appreciate it. I just wish I had more time

Thanks, Sam.

Ostensibly, these videos are targeted for new users but my true goal is to raise awareness among the general population of HA users. I have no illusions that these videos will spur a Premise revival. What I hope is that they'll make existing users, and HA software developers, sit up and take notice of its advanced features.

Premise was designed almost ten years ago yet it employs sophisticated techniques that are not commonly found in today's crop of HA software. These advances simplify the process of creating and maintaining an HA system but have not been copied by today's software developers. With the exception of patented features, like mSense, most of its architectural sophistication should've trickled down into current products.

Think about how you use Word to create a document. The document is 'virtual' and exists without an associated printer driver. Whatever printer driver you select, the rendered output will accurately reflect the document. This is the same model used by Premise.

A Light is a virtual object that exists without an associated lighting driver. One can associate ("bind") it to any lighting driver (UPB, X10, Insteon, C-Bus, Lutron, future technologies). Whatever programming logic we've created works correctly regardless of the selected driver.

Each Light object has properties that define its characteristics and behavior. A Light has Name, Description, Brightness, PresetDim, PowerState, etc plus you can add more properties to any object. All of this 'meta-data' can be accessed by the programing logic.

All objects reside in a well-defined hierarchical structure. There are containers like buildings, floors, and rooms that house objects like lights, sensors, appliances, etc. You can access all objects in any container (i.e. all lights in the living room) plus you can 'walk the tree'. The programming logic for a light can inquire and learn in which room it resides (i.e. its parent container), which floor contains the room, and which building contains the floor.

There are many more advances that have slipped into history's dustbin and I hope that these videos will inspire today's developers to consider implementing them in their products.

123,

I have been tempted to try out premise. You may have just pushed me over the edge I have alot on my plate right now but will be keeping this information on the high priority list to check things out...

Thanks very informative and not too long. I watched a couple of others re custom drivers at the site also, they filled in some of the blanks I must have missed in the other Damon vids.