Creating and removing groups from hue setup with iOS hue SDK

Question

I am looking for a way to create and remove groups (PHGroup class) from the hue bridge. Reading existing groups isn't difficult, just reading out the cache for all the data. But how can I remove or add new groups to this group collection?

I am using the Philips hue iOS SDK.

Answer 1

Groups can be managed by using the PHBridgeSendAPI class, which contains all the methods to manage bridge resources like groups, scenes, lights, etc. See below for some examples.

Creating a group

PHBridgeSendAPI reference:

/**
 Creates a new Group of lights
 @param name the name of the group
 @param lightIds the array of light ids to group
 @param completionHandler completionHandler for details of created group or error handling
 */
- (void)createGroupWithName:(NSString *)name lightIds:(NSArray *)lightIds completionHandler:(PHBridgeSendGroupCompletionHandler)completionHandler

Code example:

id<PHBridgeSendAPI> bridgeSendAPI = [[[PHOverallFactory alloc] init] bridgeSendAPI];

NSArray *lightIdentifiers = @[@"1", @"2", @"3"];

[bridgeSendAPI createGroupWithName:@"group name" lightIds:lightIdentifiers completionHandler:^(NSString *groupIdentifier, NSArray *errors){
    if (errors.count > 0) {
        // Error handling
    }
    else {
        // Get group object from the cache
        PHBridgeResourcesCache *cache = [PHBridgeResourcesReader readBridgeResourcesCache];

        PHGroup *group = [cache.groups objectForKey:groupIdentifier];

        // Other logic
        // ...
    }
}];

Removing a group

PHBridgeSendAPI reference:

/**  
 Remote the group with the given identifier  
 @param groupIdentifier the identifier of the group to remove  
 @param completionHandler completionHandler for error handling  
*/
- (void)removeGroupWithId:(NSString *)groupIdentifier completionHandler:(PHBridgeSendErrorArrayCompletionHandler)completionHandler;

Code example:

id<PHBridgeSendAPI> bridgeSendAPI = [[[PHOverallFactory alloc] init] bridgeSendAPI];

// Remove the group
[bridgeSendAPI removeGroupWithId:@"Put here the group identifier you want to delete" completionHandler:^(NSArray *errors) {
    if (errors.count > 0) {
        // Error handling
    }

    // Other logic
    // ...
}];