Configuring Openhab2 without UI

[Spaceman_Spiff (Sebastian)]

Hi,

I am currently configuring three Openhab1 installations through my private nextcloud.
These installations are not running in my own home and are only used from the respective people.
All configuration is done locally and then synced via cloud to the corresponding instances.
Because I can reuse almost everthing this is not very much effort for me.
Since I am looking into Openhab2 I am wondering how I can achieve the same thing?
How do I define things and link the corresponding channels through thing-files?
Some bindings (e.g. ZWave) require a special ID in the channel string. (e.g. http://docs.openhab.org/configuration/things.html#linking-items)
How do I define this using the .thing files?

[sihui]

@Spaceman_Spiff

How do I define this using the .thing files?

You need the zwave test binding for that, it is not possible with the stable or snapshot zwave binding:

OH2 Z-Wave refactoring and testing... and SECURITY

The latest version of the development binding dated 8th Sep 2018 is here. Toward the end of last year I spent some time doing some initial refactoring of the ZWave binding in OH2. This focussed on rewriting the way transactions work as this is an enabler for other areas of the code. At the same time I also restructured the different layers of the binding to make things cleaner, and done some changes to support a system of autocoding the command classes directly from the Z-Wave standard which s…

[sipvoip (Nathan Stratton)]

Anyone have info on how to do it without UI using the test binding? Have not been able to find anything on that.

[Spaceman_Spiff (Sebastian)]

I recommended OH2 to a colleague of mine and the thing and channel generation through the UI is one of the things he really is struggling with.
For me the OH1 concept - once understood - was more elegant and easier to user. Hoping for some things to change so the textual configuration is soon usable again.