chore: write feature spec

2026-08-05 07:28:01 +00:00 · 2024-11-24 14:33:42 +01:00
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+# Automations
+
+The automation feature's purpose is to integrate ontime into users' workflows.
+Ontime has a large amount of production information, which users need considerable effort to maintain. We want to allow tools so that:
+
+- allow distribution of Ontime's and other production data
+- allow surfacing Ontime events
+- allow synchronizing with other tools
+
+## Previous
+
+Previous iterations imposed limitations on the number of integrations and target devices to evaluate performance concerns.
+
+The feature was not as used as we had hoped, and users often escalated the integration to tools like Companion.
+I believe this to be in part from a lack of clarity on the feature and the limitations imposed
+
+- Lack of explicit filtering logic made the process hard to reason
+- Users met limitations on target devices earlier than expected. We would want users to meet these limitations only when the project grew over a size where a show controller would be needed
+- Building the template strings was complex and poorly documented
+
+## Overview
+
+- The user should be able to create as many automations as they want
+- Automations are triggered by lifecycle events
+- Each automation should go through a user-defined filtering process
+- Each automation should be able to target multiple devices and multiple protocols
+- We leverage HTTP / OSC as the main protocols ~~and add support for triggering Companion button presses~~
+- To allow easier debugging and "learn" workflows, users should be able to test a message before saving the automation
+- We should have inline documentation for the template strings
+
+> ⚠️ **Companion module** \
+> We have opted for removing the requirement for companion module integration. \
+> We did not see as much friction that could be solved with a custom integration as initially thought. Triggering a button press in companion is done trivially over either OSC or HTTP and companion users are familiar with the process.
+
+## Implementation details
+
+- To simplify the usage of template strings, we will generate a list of template strings at runtime from the user project file
+- To allow easier implementation and extensions, we want to keep the automations separate from triggers
+
+```ts
+type Automation = {
+  id: AutomationId;
+  name: string;
+  filter: Filter[];
+  output: Output[];
+};
+
+type Trigger = {
+  id: string;
+  event: TimerLifecycle;
+  automations: AutomationId[];
+};
+```
+
+### Extension
+
+- Users have expressed a desire to have automation triggered by the lifecycle of a specific event. By keeping the trigger separate from the automation, we will allow this to be implemented in the future.