Hi all,
I am rather new to OH and started with OH3 already.
Now I want to build a wall mounted tablet interface and wonder if I still should use HABPanel or go with MainUI?
I see the benefit of a larger selection of already existing widgets with HABPanel, but wonder how future proof it is.
what’s your opinion on this?
thanks
Either will work.
Personally I would go with MainUI but I can customise widgets to suit. It really depends on how much effort you want to put in now and into the future. I see maybe at some stage you will want to use MainUI so I would suggest putting the effort in there. Ask as many questions as you like.
Hey @wzbfyb
I’d also think, that going with the MainUI is the more future-proof way - which will offer you a modern UI with, at least, a equivalent degree of customization (which will develop even further).
The variety of already available widgets for the MainUI, that came up in it’s short existence, makes me feel confident that we’ll reach the same or an even larger widget-database as HABPanel offers right now. (especially with things like the widget-marketplace, which is already in discussion).
And it feels to me, that the MainUI is a more integrated soloution than HABPanel is.
Especially for tablets (where the current flex-layout of the MainUI might have some weaknesses) there are also discussions right now, which would enhance the “flexibility” for these devices even more → Add a HABPanel like layouting page (WIP) by hubsif · Pull Request #835 · openhab/openhab-webui · GitHub
I use the floorplans as my default view and I really like it.
I’m too deep in HabPanel right now to switch. I will wait to see how MainUI unfolds before I spend the time to change. As it stands right now I like habpanel visually. Tho I’m curious to see how it develops and widgets get made.
Since a few months I have switched from openhab 2.5x to 3.xx.
the flexibility and the way in which it (Main-UI) is integrated in openhab suits very well. I still have a lot to learn and experiment with openhab 3, but if you are new to openhab you will have the same learning curve with habpanel.
Personally, I find it a disadvantage that Habpanel stores its panels (dashboards) in the browser cache. I know you can also store one copy on the openhab server.
Maybe it as become a bit more user-friendly since I last used habpanel.
And I have already seen some fantastic widgets made in main-ui, that I wonder if this can ever be made with habpanel
Don’t get me wrong Habpanel is a great tool but at the moment I prefer Main-ui
I agree here, unless you have a specific reason to use HabPanel, I’m not sure the investment learning and configuring it is worth it at this point. And, while I think that there is more power and ability to customize the widgets for HabPanel, most of the user-side work and development going forward is going to be on the MainUI.
That said, the MainUI floorplan just doesn’t do it for me. The markers don’t scale, and I miss the ability to interact with SVG files like HabPanel allows.
Floor plans for wall mounted dedicated tablets are also an essential feature to me.
I’ve started a branch of MainUI where floorplan can host all kind of cards or user defined widgets like regular page but with a set position and size above a background picture. In edit mode you move and resize them graphically. Still very early work in progress but I hope to be able to make a clean pull request in a few weeks.
My layout contribution has just been merged. It will be named ‘canvas’. It does not provide the same SVG capability as HABPanel, but provides the same functionality, while being easier to adapt for people already familiar with MainUI.
https://github.com/openhab/openhab-webui/pull/1100
You can place at a free location any type of widget (system or user-defined) on a picture background, and interact directly with it.
I can provide a jar for those running stable but who would like to these layouts before 3.2 turns stable.