Shion: Snapshots

This document contains information about using snapshots in Shion.

Snapshots

In Shion, a snapshot is an "image" of your environment captured at a specific time. For example, if you have a desk lamp on and another lamp off, a snapshot would capture the devices' states at the time the snapshot is taken.

Snapshots are useful because they provide a simple alternative to programming Shion to set your environment as you wish.

Creating snapshots

Once your devices are set up and controllable using Shion, you can begin to capture snapshots using the following steps:

1. Configure your local environment using Shion as you wish to capture it. Verify that the devices states are accurately reflected in the main Shion window.

2. Open the snapshot window by selecting Snapshots from the main Window menu:

   

3. Click the New Snapshot button. A snapshot will be created with the devices' current settings:

   

4. Click the snapshot's name in the left table to rename it.

Activating snapshots

Activating a snapshot simply sends the appropriate commands to the devices to set their states to match the snapshot. This is done by selecting the desired snapshot in the left table and clicking the Activate button.

Editing snapshots

Snapshots may be deleted by right-clicking their names in the left table and selecting Remove Snapshot. Likewise, devices may be removed from a snapshot by right-clicking the device in a snapsot and selecting Remove Device:

Removing devices from snapshots is useful in cases where you do not want the snapshot affecting all devices in the local network. You can use this to create snapshots for different rooms that may be activated without affecting the other rooms.

Next steps

Once you are comfortable creating and manipulating snapshots, please see the next section on AppleScript.