Beginner's Guide for Topic Creation

Before posting

  • Please review the Beginner’s Tutorial and User’s Guide for a solution before posting.
  • Have you looked in the forum for similar problems?
  • You should check the logs for errors. The information on how to get logs is found here
  • You should prepare for upload the relevant parts of the conf files (items, rules, sitemap, services) when dealing with textual configuration files. Use screenshots or description when using UI based configurations.
  • You are using Smarthome Designer, or the Visual Studio Code openHAB extension if textual configuration is involved in the issue. - if Smarthome Designer is not installed, you should follow these steps, or download the VS code extension from here. Load your configuration files into SmartHome Designer, to check the syntax of your configurations before posting
  • When posting, please use code fencing for the various configurations you want to post. (At the top of the editor there are the necessary tools).

Post template

  • Platform information:
    • Hardware: CPUArchitecture/RAM/storage
    • OS: what OS is used and which version
    • Java Runtime Environment: which java platform is used and what version
    • openHAB version:
  • Issue of the topic: please be detailed explaining your issue
  • Please post configurations (if applicable):
    • Items configuration related to the issue
    • Sitemap configuration related to the issue
    • Rules code related to the issue
    • Services configuration related to the issue
  • If logs where generated please post these here using code fences:
3 Likes

This looks good, especially if the pop-up is possible. I think that will all depend on whether Discourse supports that.

I’ve mainly some word choice comments that can be accepted or ignored as the main concept and over all structure looks good to me.

Many of the problems you have can probably have a solution here.

Please review the Beginner’s Tutorial and User’s Guide for a solution before posting

Have you looked in the forum for similar problems?

Move this to be the second bullet point.

You should prepare for upload the relevant parts of the conf files (items, rules, sitemap, services) when dealing with textual configuration files.

Identify and gather relevant parts of configuration files for posting. Use screenshots or description when using UI based configurations.

You are using Smarthome Designer if textual configuration is involved in the issue. - if Smarthome Designer is not installed, you should follow these steps.

If you are seeing parsing errors or “not found” errors in your logs load your configuration files into SmartHome Designer to check the syntax of your configurations before posting

If possible it would be great to include a screenshot of the buttons. Also, it is worth noting that these buttons do not appear when posting from the mobile version of the forum.

Hardware: CPU/RAM/storage

I would strike the CPU/RAMP/storage part. It is really sufficient if they just say "Raspberry Pi 3, VM on ESXi, old laptop, etc.). I can’t think of the last time knowing what the GHz of the CPU help me solve a user’s problem.

Java platform used: which java platform is used and what version

I think we should use the proper term here: Jave Runtime Environment

One other problem we may run into is for new users they have a character limit for new posts. If we start to run into problems where what we are asking for causes new users to break that limit regularly we may have to cut back on the amount of information requested.

Agreed!

Agreed!

I will add this to the existing text.

I think only this should be added, not because you are wrong, but it might become too lengthy.

I agree, but let’s first find out from @ThomDietrich if the popup thing is in any way possible (if it accepts images, I would go for it). The mobile version shows only some of the buttons. I wonder if a new user would use the mobile version when dealing with items files, screenshots, etc.

I meant CPU architecture, not clock speed! Is the term architecture acceptable for our goal?

Agreed!

This is indeed a problem, let’s wait for Thom’s answer!
LATER EDIT: I edited according to our discussion! Thank you for you observations!

Yes, that’s perfect. When I see CPU I think speed, not arch.

Great work. I hope we can get this set up soon.

1 Like

Hey guys!
Thanks @george.erhan and @rlkoshak for the lists, they both look quite good!
I checked with discourse but I couldn’t find any indication that showing something in the preview area is possible. I wonder if that should be feature-requested.
Anyhow, we can only copy this list into the “About category” article or we have to combine both of the lists into a single template, which is as we discussed not a good idea… I would vote for the first solution. Wdyt?

I agree, the first solution would be better.

Hi,

I also looked in to Discourse and I think for now it’s hard (not impossible) and time consuming to setup the preview to display the information we want. So yes, the first solution should be a go for now.
Thanks for the support!

@ThomDietrich
Reviving this topic after seeing this:
Starting openHAB as a Service
I am sure we will not avoid ALL the cases, but at least may be a start!

1 Like

Sorry for the delay. The last thing that’s needed is: We need to turn the first part of Beginner’s Guide for Topic Creation into a single posting, with a few headlines or such. Would you please do so? See as an example: About the Tutorials & Examples category

@george.erhan ping :slight_smile:

The rest of the task needs to be done by @Kai: Please add the post template from here as the template for the Setup, Configuration and Use category.

Alternatively the VS plugin…

Alternatively ip:9091 frontend

Agreed!
@ThomDietrich, I will do it this evening! Thanks!

Screenshot_7

image
Indent preformatted text by 4 spaces

No syntax highlighting

Hover over the icon and it will tell you what the icon represents. Below is the icon, what the hover text says, and what it drops into your posting. If you just type in the “what it drops into posting” you do not need to use the icons.

image
openHAB *.items code fences

```csv
your items code goes here
```

image
openHAB *.rules code fences

```php
your rules code goes here
```

image
openHAB *.sitemap code fences

```php
your sitemap code goes here
```

image
JavaScript code fences

```javascript
your javascript code goes here
```

image
generic code fences

```   
your generic code goes here
```
1 Like

Done. I added ONLY what is beneath the header “Topic Template” on that post - I hope this is what you expected?

1 Like

Yep sounds good. It doesn’t work though. Could you please check? Maybe it is not inherited from the main category…

I checked and it does not work!

It works for me in the “Setup, Configuration and Use” category (as requested).
Note that this does NOT apply to any of its sub-categories - if it should be present on all of them, I have to add it there one by one as well.

The problem is that maybe you are the only one that is able to create a topic there.
For everyone else this is not possible and they have to use a sub category.
So templates for sub categories would be useful.

Ah, that’s a valid remark then :wink:

Ok, I have added the template to all sub-categories with the exception of “News & Important Changes”.

4 Likes