I apologize.  I have read the Wiki and I have watched the tutorials.  I still have some questions so I thought I would give a specific example and if anyone feels like responding, seeing what I am told might help me with much down the road.

Wink hub got bricked by Quirky.  I have the ability now to fix it myself, but I was already frustrated with the hub so I went out and got a Hue bridge.  All I have are Ge Link lights and Wemo switches so I just needed a hub that would work with the GE Lights and the Hue does.

I got it all setup.  Everything works.  I add the Hue plugin to VC.  I pair with my bridge.  I genXML.  I look at the xml.  Everything looks right.

Now, I got to make my (technically) first commands in VC.  First up is turning lights on and off.  I have 10 bulbs, and 9 of the are in 3 member groups.  Game Room group (3 bulbs), Front Porch group (3 bulbs), Bedroom group (3) bulbs, and then a stand alone torch lamp. 

I do the reading see that I need to do this (for the groups): Hue.Group {1} (id integer of group) "on": true or false

So first confusion (and long story which I won't tell).  First time around I had groups.   After setting up VC som reason my bridge stopped communication with all of my bulbs except the two lux bulbs.  So next night reset bridge and start over.  Everything working again.  I setup 3 scenes (based on the groups I described).  But how do I setup groups?  I don't see a way in the Hue app.  But I know I did it the night before.  When I run genXML I comes back with x number lights, x number scenes, 0 groups.  So I try to make my own groups in groups.xml.  I use same ID number as corresponding scene, and friendly name 'Bedroom'.  Now I make my commands:
The first night I did this it worked.  Last night it didn't.  When I said a group name, it did all the lights.  No matter what group.  So I believe I don't actually have real groups.
I'm going to be linking to the xml but essentially my goal was speak a friendly name for the group which would pass in the id value for {1} and then On Off would translate to true/false and go in as {2}.  First night worked fine.  Last night like I said, it did all lights.  In the xml you will also see where I did a dimming command.  Night before it worked, last night didn't try.

One of my questions is, when you have something like a list of lights like lht_br_1, lht_br_2, is it pretty much best to do a Map?  Is it common to make lots of maps?

I want to do things the smartest, most simple way, and I am concerned ignorance is going to lead me down a path of accomplishing things, but overly complicated.

BTW - the groups.xml - that came from me and VoxCommando.  Whereas, the night before when I set this all up, groups were there, I didn't create them.  But then I googled and what I read said Hue doesn't have groups functionality yet, just lights and scenes so I am not sure how I did it in the first place.

When you have a Map table and you choose the option use both phrases and values, is the logic there the phrase will be the speech, and the value will be what is passed in if the speech matches?

Next, are the values getting passed in always chronological depending on their order in the construction of the command?  So if I use a payloadXML for Value/Phrase for group names like Value 1 / Phrase Bedroom as long as that occurs on my command construction, will that always be {1}?  And then the next thing I pass in, Value = True, Phrase = On, will that be {2} as it occurs after the first payload?

Last night I didn't have a lot of time, it was late, and I may have made mistake or something.  But I want to include the xml so you can see exactly.

Sorry I know this is a very basic stuff, I guess I just need a 'yes you are doing it right' or 'no, you are not taking advantage of what we have setup here'.

I have more noobie questions but this is enough for now.  BTW - you will see my commands for the two Wemo switches.  They work fine.  And for now I am not using Kinect.  I am using VoxWav Pro.  I'll have to work on the Kinect.  It picks up too much noise.

I'm even rushing this question so I doubt I am getting out what my brain needs but it is worth the shot.

Thanks,
tobias.

Here's the basic strategy

1 - Name your lights.  Easiest way is probably to use the Hue website

2 - Group your lights.  This doesn't seem to be possible using the Hue app or Hue website.  Odd.  You can use VC to do this.

3 - Install a new version of VoxCommando (just use a new blank folder) and select the Hue configuration.  Generate XML will populate your stuff for you, and then you can take a look at how the commands are set up.

Here's some help with steps 1 and 2.

Great.  Thanks.  That is what I will do.  Going to work on it now.

tobias.

Thank you jitterjames.  Everything is in order and working.  I don't know if it was lack of attention or what but in the groups GUI I didn't realize I could create the groups there.  Instead I did it by opening the groups.xml in the payload editor and did it that way.  Oops.

I appreciate your time and effort.  On my plugin, all lights say 'error reading light status' and that is ok.  I assume it is because all but two are GE Link lights.  Additionally, two of my named lights do not show up (spots 5 and 6 just do not show the name of the light).  Yet those lights do show up in the group editor.  And even though it says error reading light status (in edit lights), if I turn the light on, the checkbox will reflect that.  That message is not concerning to me.

Thank you again,
tobias.

It is probably trying to read the hue of the light which does not exist and choking on that. Until I get some nonstandard bulbs to play with I can't be sure. But if you have some real hue lights it should be reading them assuming that your bridge is working correctly.  Anyway, as you saying, reading the status of the lights is not critical.

WARNING: You may not want to update your Hue software if you use non-Philips bulbs with it. http://www.cnet.com/news/philips-hue-cuts-support-for-third-party-bulbs/