Copying Things Files, using new yaml format, be future ready

Hello Forum,

i’m kind of a “beginner” - using OH since years. Three (4?) years ago i converted my KNX configuration into to the thing file structure. Since then i added many new devices with other protocols and bindings. Now i’m in the process of converting my configuration to OH3 (moved to docker, get used to all the new different approaches and systems). Some single devices are working now - but how to elegant add all the other devices?

Example: Created one Generic MQTT Device (Window Contact with special payload for availability, two channels for contactstate and battery). Works perfect. I can see the configuration in yaml format in the Code Section. Now i would like to duplicate or copy this thing ten times for all the other devices i have and just altering the mqtt topics. Question 1: Is there a way to do this? (Perhaps just copy and paste them within the code section, but then i have to rename the Thing to “all Windowcontacts” and every single device gets a channel?)

I have the same question for all the KNX Things. I could just copy the old Things files to OH3 - but i would like to use the new yaml format. (These format changes take a lot of time i would like to be future ready for OH4 … read somewhere here about OH 4 …) So i would create one KNX Thing with the UI and use this as a template for other devices. But if i could not copy this thing - i’m stuck, i cannot create safely all KNX Things within the OH Website. What is the way? (Surely NOT editing the JSONDB file or using the Rest API …)

Best regards, Richard

See OH 3 Tips and Tricks, particularly the “Buying in Bulk” sections.

OH 4 is probably at least a couple of years away and there is no reason to think that .things files will be dropped even when we go to OH 4. For certain bindings, KNX being one of them, text based .things files make a lot of sense. So the most elegant solution is to leave them as they are.