Create a custom Item

Setup, Configuration and Use Scripts & Rules
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1

Hi All,
I’m fairly new to openHAB and I’m still testing out some of the basic features.
I would like to know if there is a way to create a new item which is composed of other items.
Ex: I want to create a Timer Item that uses a Number Item and a Text item and have a certain rule on these items.
Right now, in case i want to create another timer on my sitemap i have to create another Number item and Text Item and add a rule to these new items.
so is it possible to just create something like a timer item which already contains the above items and triggers a certain rule based on the item name.
Can anyone point me in the right direction if it’s possible.
Thank you

2

Wait what?
What are you trying to accomplish?

  1. Number Item
  2. Text item

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Item Timer?

And the Number Item and Text Item are controlled by a rule?

normally you trigger on item states or updated etc. but not on item names because the item names are static. How you even Trigger a rule right now based on an item name ??
This is confusing :dizzy_face:

3

sorry for the confusion, I’m trying to create a sitemap with some switch items. but i also want to have a timer option for that switch. ex: trigger the switch after a certain amount of minutes.
The Timer Item

OpenHAB timer
OpenHAB timer.png1566×668 16.6 KB
is just made up of a SetPoint (named S1) to set the number of minutes needed and a Text(T1) to display that and a switch(SW1) to activate the timer.

so my question is that do I have to always repeat the same process of adding a new SetPoint(S2) and Text (T2) and switch (SW2) or can i group those 3 items into something which i then use an instance of (like a class in OOP languages)

4

You can Group Items together. In Rules you can access Items from a Group by name, see Design Pattern: Associated Items

It is still very unclear what this Text Item is all about.

Regardless, you will have to create all the Items you want to use. There is no way around that. However, you can probably make it so you only need one generic Rule. See Design Pattern: Working with Groups in Rules

5

Thank you Rich, I took a look at the groups and I think it would solve most of my problem.
The Text is just there to display the set time.
The Timer in the Main screen (first screenshot) would display how many minutes it was set to that’s all.
I’m currently facing another issue :confused:
My Pi just disappeared from the Network after leaving it on for about 15 hours and I’m unable to connect to it using Ethernet either(although I can see it online from my router but it gives error connection refused when using PuTTY).
Not sure what may have happened.