Does anyone think they could convert this HASS app to OpenHAB?

Not sure where to put this so Moderators feel free to relocate.

Browsing Reddit this morning, I saw a much more user friendly HASS app that could be nice for OpenHAB

Does anyone think they might be able to do something similar? I for one would gladly pay for something like this on my wall tablets

Reddit link to HASS App

Except for look and feel, it doesn’t look significantly different in functionality from HABPanel.

To answer your question though, openHAB UIs operate through the REST API so it’s possible for anyone to build any UI they want.

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But the look and feel is probably what people are after:) I too wanted something better looking on iOS so bootstrapped homebridge alongside openHAB and used openHAB to “orchestrate” everything so that I could use a nice looking Eve app.

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The video does not really show the setup and configuration of the UI, I have no idea what kind of UI it is and where it sits VS Openhabs UI options.

I am after true automation where I don’t have to find my phone, unlock it, navigate and then start X event. Sensors should trigger the event to happen without me needing to do anything and if that is done then I don’t care too much what a testing interface looks like. Just my opinion and yes I would love to see Openhabs UI’s move forward which I believe is what Openhab 3 is going to make a reality.

Openhab has a very consistant look and feel that is the same across iOS, Android and generic web browsers. Don’t under estimate the need to keep any UI’s consistent across all platforms and from one update of Openhab to the next. Yes my UI has not changed in 10 years but that helps with the WAF as there are no breaking changes each time I do an update.

I posted about an idea I had here a while back.

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Anybody having the same “desire” should remember that openHAB is an open source project created/maintained by volunteers. In other words anybody could step forward contributing in the way of his desire!

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That’s my goal too, but unfortunately not everything can be automated with sensors and timers, like my 18 month olds bedtime routine… Dim lights to night light, adjust heating or cooling to suit, start bedtime Spotify playlist… I either have the choice of tapping the scene button on the tablet in the hallway or using Google Home who will boom back “ok” or “Sorry, I can’t reach OpenHAB right now”, which isn’t ideal when trying to get him to sleep and timers fail because nothing with him is set to a time!

The tablets are also handy for glancing at what the weather is going to be like today when dressing previously mentioned child. Here in Australia at certain times of the year it can be cold and windy or like being inside an oven, sometimes it’s a mix of everything, just depends on the day!

We also have many other use cases during our normal day for manually triggered scenes; cooking, working, cleaning, gaming etc that the tablets become the override to the normal day to day automations that make use of the sensors around the house.

Which is where the UI for the tablets comes in to play… with the tablets an always on, highly visible wall mounted device dotted around the house, the WAF needs to be high! It can’t look clunky, or like something out of the 90’s in our new home and I’m a tradesman not a graphic designer so making a pretty, easy to use, wife approved dashboard isn’t my strong suit!

Or

  • set up a physical switch or button to press
  • figure out if there is some sort of other event that OH can detect to determine when the bedtime routine needs to be triggered.
  • NFC tag you wave your phone in front of (Android only I think, could be wrong)
  • Screen widget (coming soon to Android).

There are always many ways to generate an event that do not require the built in UIs directly.

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