I am confused about the options: should I use Habmin or Paper UI to configure new bindings and items? Does one solution offer more up to date device information or is one more flexible than the other?
I have not looked at the other features Habmin2 provides which is why I am primarily concerned about adding new (ZWAVE) based devices.
One issue that I am facing is trying to add the latest generation motion sensors from Fibaro which does not seem to be fully supported at this point:
Whenever I am facing compatibility issues like the one described above, what is my best bet to get the most up to date configuration?
First: Both are unfortunately far from being considered as a ready-to-use GUI. For zwave HABmin seems to be better, because the author of zwave binding is the author of HABmin.
Your mentioned problem relates to the binding, not the GUI. Therefore, it does not matter which GUI you want to use.
I am surprised to hear that both UIs are far from ready-to-use considering
that v2.0.0 just landed. If I understand you correctly, both UIs will work
identically when it comes to Zwave bindings meaning they both have
identical sources about the bindings? I thought that habmin2 uses its own
database and is therefore more up to date. Or is this outdated information
and not valid for OH2 anymore?
If you feel that both UIs are not ready for primetime yet, how would you go
about maintaining bindings and items? I know that there is a way to use
configuration files instead, but I felt that manually maintaining this
information is more difficult and error prone even when using syntax
checking with Eclipse SmartHome Designer.
It’s important to differ between official parts that are coming from Eclipse (ESH) and openHAB and all other parts like HABmin and HABpanel. ESH and openHAB are following their schedules, all other parts can follow them, but they don’t need.
Yes.
All GUIs in openHAB2 are using the same bindings. And the zwave binding is using the zwave database from Chris. So all GUIs are using Chris’ database.
The problem with openHAB2.0.0 is, that you need both ways. The zwave binding for example can not be maintained via text files at the moment, so you need a UI. Unfortunately maintaining the whole system via UI provides you only a little part of the full functionality. I’m using at the moment:
Text files for SystemInfo, Weather, Network and the sitemap
Basic UI to use with the sitemap
PaperUI und HABmin for configuring zwave (both have advantages and disadvantages)
Things are clearing up with each one of your replies, thanks for the insight, @semperor
You mentioned text file based configurations for SystemInfo and Network bindings. I just learned that they have moved into 2.1.0-SNAPSHOT builds. Since they are not 1.x bindings anymore, is a text file based configuration still required (I do not mind, just trying to understand whether all 2.x bindings can be configured using PaperUI and optionally through text files or whether it is binding specific)?
The README for the network binding does not mention any PaperUI based configuration, so it is text files only?
