Add Zigbee things/items in config files

Add-ons Bindings
1

Hi,

I am able to add my Zigbee devices using Paper UI, so far so good.
But is there a way to add the things and items manually through config files?

Thanks

2

I would guess they would be Thing files. For most bindings, manually creating Things can be error prone. Another option may be to create them through the REST API.

3

Yes, I am planning to do that throught things/item files as I did for every other device.
But what is the syntax?

4

Has someone added Zigbee things via things/items file?

5

Apparently, since there are some examples in the official documentation.for setting up a coordinator through a .things file. Things are not defined in .items files.

6

Not sure that I got you right.
Did you mean that things are not defined in items files, because they are defined in things files?
Or did you mean that Zigbee things cannot be defined in thing files, just through discovery?

7

.things files are used for Things
.items files are used for Items
.rules files are used for rules
.sitemaps files are used for sitemaps

You cannot define a Thing in a .items file and get it recognized by openHAB.

8

Okay, that I know :slight_smile:
I configured everything in these files and I want to configure Zigbee devices through files as well.

9

Hi All,
any news on this topic?
Would like to do the same as i want to add tags etc for Google Home.

Regards

P

10

@chris would be the expert but I believe he strongly discourages it.

I thought the tags were added on Items, not Things.

1 Like
11

In theory you should be able to configure the things in the same way as other bindings. The binding doesn’t know anything about how a thing is configured - files or UI. I’ve personally never tested this with text files as I don’t use them.

1 Like
12

Hi @chris,

thanks for the fast reply. I was actually referring to items, yes. Do you know the syntax to create an item accordingly? Looks like the community has the same questions when it comes to zigbee and items etc.

Regards

Patrick

13

The item syntax should be the same for ZigBee as for other bindings. The configuration should be described in the documentation - it’s always possible that we miss something in the docs, so if you have specific questions or problems, please ask.

14

Hi @chris,

so what i, or we, miss is basically how to create an zigbee item and a channel. I would need that in order to add a tag for Google Home.

The below example is an enocean item with the “Lighting” tag used by google:

Dimmer enocean_centralCommand_3e906c8a_dimmer "Dummy" <light> ["Lighting"] {channel="enocean:centralCommand:FT1SEVMK:FFEB2403:dimmer"}

I hope that clarifies a little bite the problem statement.

15

An Item is an Item is an Item. They’re all alike, and do not care what binding you might link them to, if any at all.

A link between Item and channel is always defined the same way, channel=“your:channel:uid”

So to create a zigbee Item …

someItemType yourItemName "your label" {channel="your:zigbee:chan:uid"}

which is probably not what you meant, but might move us on to what you are having trouble with?

16

Sorry, but not really.

What information are you actually missing? A thing definition is standard across all devices/bindings etc. What information do you need that you are missing?

1 Like
17

Hi Both,

thank you for your replies. I was actually looking for @rossko57 advice.
I will try this and let you know.

Patrick

18

Have you had a look over the documentation as I suggested earlier? All of this is included, along with the sort of examples that @rossko57 provided, but for ZigBee (at least for the coordinators). My guess is you’ve not looked at this, but I could be wrong? As I said earlier, the documentation may be missing stuff, and if you have specific questions I’m happy to answer them, but please check the docs in the first instance as it does describe the configuration options and we can add to this if there is stuff missing.

2 Likes
19

Hi @chris81,
Did you succeed in creating a zigbee thing (other than a coordinator) via .things file?

Hi @chris,
I went through the Zigbee binding documentation (v 2.1, 2.2, 3.1). I didn’t find any example to create a Zigbee device using the .things file. The only example there is to create a Zigbee coordinator. Is there anything I’m missing?
I know how to define things. My concern is device parameters. For example, I want to add innr smart plug 224, There are no description of device configuration parameters. Is there any kind of device parameter description?

20

It’s not possible to configure devices if you use text files to define the things. The binding will not send this information to the device since there is no UI to trigger this, and it can’t really reconfigure the device each time the binding starts. Unfortunately OH blocks configuration if you use text files for configuring devices.

Really this is down to the device - right? The binding will present some configuration parameters as channel configuration if it detects them in the device - it uses zigbee standards, but you should read the device manual to understand what the device can do as most configuration parameters in devices is optional in the standards.