Beta Tester for Item Checker Tool wanted

Yes :slight_smile: but … there are limitations between OH1 and OH2 bindings. Bindings for OH 2.x are displayed as Services in REST API. Bindings for OH 1.x are not displayed in REST API. I have to deal deeper with OH REST API to clarify this.

For something like this I’d actually suggest to work on a plugin for an existing editor. You don’t want to develop the whole text editor frontend. It would make way more sense to extend an editor millions of people already use. My suggestion would be eclipse. Eclipse has this neat little feature where it allows special UI interfaces for certain file types, see here as an example.

Actually, Atom from github ( https://atom.io/ ) might be an interesting choice too, if you want just a text editor and not the heavy Eclipse environment.

I’m a daily user of Atom myself. Eclipse offers more help to non-developers through it’s powerful autocompletion/syntax suggestion features… I love Atom but it’s a bit like my beloved vim, if you don’t know the right keys to press you are forked.

@ThomDietrich You are right. An Editor would be a wrong approach. Let me descripe it like an extended Debugger :grin:

I’m not against that. I actually believe that a powerful openHAB editor would be amazing. That’s exactly why I mentioned that I think you should choose the right base :wink:

Haha, @ThomDietrich is right, if this would be an argument, I would still keep openHAB as close source today :joy:

If you have an “independent” editor, why would you still NEED these item files? The beauty of such an editor (going through REST) is that it actually operates on the json database and thus also covers the items that are created through the Paper UI or other means.
Instead of handling *.items files, this could be a path to actually get rid of them.

My suggestion would be eclipse

Hm, don’t we already have an Eclipse-based file editor called Designer?
From my experiences from just last week, I feel even more the urge to get away from it asap.
One big issue with the Designer (and any other Eclipse-based UI) is that it requires Java on the Desktop, which a non-tech user does not have. Additionally, you require a remote folder access (e.g. through Samba), which is also tricky to get right.

I actually believe that a powerful openHAB editor would be amazing.

I think @Kay_Pohl approach through the REST API is just the right thing. But as this means that openHAB is running, it also means, we already have a webserver in place. So the most logical editor would be a web UI, wouldn’t it? No user would even have to install it at all!
Not sure if you know that HABmin actually already does similar stuff - it e.g. comes with a pretty nice (text) editor for openHAB rules. It also has configuration pages for items and sitemaps (although I do not find them very usable right now for handling bigger numbers of items).
Wouldn’t the most straight forward approach to simply enhance HABmin?

Just my 2 cents.
Kai

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Maybe :slight_smile: My “Problem” at this point is that i´m only a .NET coder. So for me PHP programming is quite difficult.

That’s no problem at all, because HABmin is Javascript :smiley:

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That is even worse :smiling_imp: No dispute about programming languages ​​please :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Thanks for the long reply Kai, good points!

Agreed. If I had an editor that gave me full and direct control over my items (which doesn’t seems such a complicated task) I’d be okay abandoning unwieldy items files. Exporting to items files would be a good reassurance during the transition time, until the “new tool” provides all features needed.

I feel the same way. However I don’t think that’s the fault of Eclipse but of the Designer. Eclipse provides a wide landscape of features, plugins and tools supporting developers and non-developers reaching their goal. While many features and terms like “Mylyn” or “Debug” might confuse the inexperienced end user, others will help in critical moments. I’d argue a modern eclipse with plugins for REST-API integration, an interactive activity view, events injection and graphical editors would be the perfect user interface for rule development.

Nonetheless I like the idea of the openHAB side independent web frontend. Some parts are already going this direction. My concerns are related to ease of use and complex features, especially related to rules. Managing items in an asynchronous webapp sounds like a solution to me but I did not yet see a fully fledged online code editor with syntax auto completion and syntax checking that didn’t have serious restrictions in other areas. Even with “scriptable automation” these features would be important to openHAB users of all experience levels.

I am not qualified to certify that you are right, but I have the same idea for a strategy of development.
Thank you!

BR,
George

Hello together,

i´ve uploaded Version 0_4. Link as always in the first post. Changes i made:

  • Port 8080 is predefined if no Port is set at setup

  • “Add Item” Form redesigned. Now you can select more than one Item and type of item is shown in list

  • Items in “Add Item” Form are sorted by Name

  • Items are updated automatically in the main form after “SendCommand”, even if “Start” is not active.

Please test it. I would be glad about any feedback as always.

Greetings
Kay

Works here. When the window is draged to a side or top of the the desktop, it does not resizie according to Windows standard (which think would be very handy). Can you enabe that behavior?

Do you mean the “Aero Snap” Feature which is part of Windows since Win7 ?

Kay

Yes, that’s the name.

Hey @Windrad,

sorry for the delay. Look at the first post. I´ve uploaded Version 0.4a with enabled Aero Snap Feature.

Greetings Kay

Thanks,
Ingo

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Hey there,
i really would like to test this tool, but i´m afraid, that all links are down. Is there any way you could reupload your last version?

Greetings and thanks for your work,
Fabian

Hi Fabian,

mail me on kay-pohl@gmx.de

I will send you the tool.

Kind Regards
Kay